Container Service for Kubernetes:Cloud-native AI suite O&M guide

Background Information

After you deploy a cluster that has the cloud-native AI suite installed, you can allocate cluster resources and view resource usage in multiple dimensions. This helps you optimize the utilization of cluster resources.

If a cluster is used by multiple users, you must allocate a fixed amount of resources to each user in case the users compete for resources. The traditional method is to use Kubernetes resource quotas to allocate a fixed amount of resources to each user. However, the resource utilization varies by user groups. To improve the overall utilization of cluster resources, you can allow the users to share resources after you allocate cluster resources to them.

The following figure shows the organizational structure of an enterprise. You can set elastic quotas at different levels based on your business requirements. Each leaf node in the figure corresponds to a user group. To manage permissions and quotas separately, you can add users in a user group to one or more namespaces, and assign different roles to the users. This way, resources can be shared across user groups and users in the same user group can be isolated.

Prerequisites

• A Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) Pro cluster is created. Make sure that Monitoring Agents and Simple Log Service are enabled on the Component Configurations wizard page when you create the cluster. For more information, see Create an ACK Pro cluster.

• The Kubernetes version of the cluster is 1.18 or later.

Tasks

Step 1: Install the cloud-native AI suite

The cloud-native AI suite consists of components for task elasticity, data acceleration, AI task scheduling, AI task lifecycle management, AI Dashboard, and AI Developer Console. You can install the components based on your business requirements.

Deploy the cloud-native AI suite

1. Log on to the ACK console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Clusters.

2. On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click its name. In the left-side pane, choose Applications > Cloud-native AI Suite.

3. On the Cloud-native AI Suite page, click Deploy. On the page that appears, select the components that you want to install.

4. Click Deploy Cloud-native AI Suite in the lower part of the page. The system checks the environment and the dependencies of the selected components. After the environment and the dependencies pass the check, the system deploys the selected components.

   After the components are installed, you can view the following information in the Components list:

   • You can view the names and versions of the components that are installed in the cluster. You can deploy or uninstall components.

   • If a component is updatable, you can update the component.

   • After you install ack-ai-dashboard and ack-ai-dev-console, you can find the hyperlinks to AI Dashboard and AI Developer Console in the upper-left corner of the Cloud-native AI Suite page. You can click a hyperlink to access the corresponding component.

5. After the installation is complete, you can find the hyperlinks to AI Dashboard and AI Developer Console in the upper-left corner of the Cloud-native AI Suite page. You can click a hyperlink to access the corresponding component.

Install and configure AI Dashboard

1. In the Interaction Mode section of the Cloud-native AI Suite page, select Console. The Note dialog box appears, as shown in the following figure.

   • If Authorized is displayed, perform Step 3.

   • If Unauthorized is displayed in red and the OK button is dimmed, perform Step 2.

     

2. Create a custom policy to grant permissions to the RAM worker role.

   1. Create a custom policy.

      1. Log on to the RAM console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Permissions > Policies.

      2. On the Policies page, click Create Policy.

      3. Click the JSON tab. Add the following content to the Action field and click Next to edit policy information.

          "log:GetProject",
          "log:GetLogStore",
          "log:GetConfig",
          "log:GetMachineGroup",
          "log:GetAppliedMachineGroups",
          "log:GetAppliedConfigs",
          "log:GetIndex",
          "log:GetSavedSearch",
          "log:GetDashboard",
          "log:GetJob",
          "ecs:DescribeInstances",
          "ecs:DescribeSpotPriceHistory",
          "ecs:DescribePrice",
          "eci:DescribeContainerGroups",
          "eci:DescribeContainerGroupPrice",
          "log:GetLogStoreLogs",
          "ims:CreateApplication",
          "ims:UpdateApplication",
          "ims:GetApplication",
          "ims:ListApplications",
          "ims:DeleteApplication",
          "ims:CreateAppSecret",
          "ims:GetAppSecret",
          "ims:ListAppSecretIds",
          "ims:ListUsers"

      4. Specify the Name parameter in the k8sWorkerRolePolicy-{ClusterID} format and click OK.

   2. Grant permissions to the RAM worker role of the cluster.

      1. Log on to the RAM console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Identities > Roles.

      2. Enter the RAM worker role in the KubernetesWorkerRole-{ClusterID} format into the search box. Find the role that you want to manage and click Grant Permission in the Actions column.

      3. In the Select Policy section, click Custom Policy.

      4. Enter the name of the custom policy that you created in the k8sWorkerRolePolicy-{ClusterID} format into the search box and select the policy.

      5. Click OK.

   3. Return to the Note dialog box and click Authorization Check. If the authorization is successful, Authorized is displayed and the OK button becomes available. Then, perform Step 3.

      

3. Set the Console Data Storage parameter.

   In this example, Pre-installed MySQL is selected. You can select ApsaraDB RDS in production environments. For more information, see Install and configure AI Dashboard and AI Developer Console.

4. Click Deploy Cloud-native AI Suite.

   After the status of AI Dashboard changes to Ready, AI Dashboard is ready for use.

(Optional) Create a dataset

You can create and accelerate datasets based on the requirements of algorithm developers. The following section describes how to create a dataset in AI Dashboard or by using the CLI.

fashion-mnist dataset

Use kubectl to create a persistent volume (PV) and a persistent volume claim (PVC) of the Object Storage Service (OSS) type on a cluster node.

1. Create namespace demo-ns based on the following sample YAML template:

kubectl create ns demo-ns

2. Create a YAML file named fashion-mnist.yaml.

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: fashion-demo-pv         
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  capacity:
    storage: 10Gi                
  csi:
    driver: ossplugin.csi.alibabacloud.com
    volumeAttributes:
      bucket: fashion-mnist      
      otherOpts: "-o max_stat_cache_size=0 -o allow_other"
      url: oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com   
      akId: "AKID"               
      akSecret: "AKSECRET"
    volumeHandle: fashion-demo-pv
  persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
  storageClassName: oss
  volumeMode: Filesystem
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: fashion-demo-pvc
  namespace: demo-ns
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      alicloud-pvname: fashion-demo-pv
  storageClassName: oss
  volumeMode: Filesystem
  volumeName: fashion-demo-pv

3. Create a PV and a PVC:

kubectl create -f fashion-mnist.yaml

4. Check the status of the PV and PVC:

1. Run the following command to query the status of the PV:

   kubectl get pv fashion-demo-pv -ndemo-ns

   Expected output:

   NAME                   CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS   CLAIM                          STORAGECLASS   REASON   AGE
   fashion-demo-pv        10Gi       RWX            Retain           Bound    demo-ns/fashion-demo-pvc       oss                     8h

2. Run the following command to query the status of the PVC:

   kubectl get pvc fashion-demo-pvc -ndemo-ns

   Expected output:

   NAME                       STATUS   VOLUME                 CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE
   fashion-demo-pvc           Bound    fashion-demo-pv        10Gi       RWX            oss            8h

Accelerate a dataset

You can accelerate datasets on AI Dashboard. The following example shows how to accelerate a dataset named fashion-demo-pvc in the demo-ns namespace.

1. Access AI Dashboard as an administrator.
2. In the left-side navigation pane of AI Dashboard, choose Dataset > Dataset List.

3. On the Dataset List page, find the dataset and click Accelerate in the Operator column.

   The following figure shows the accelerated dataset.

Step 2: View resource dashboards

You can view the usage of cluster resources in multiple dimensions on resource dashboards provided by AI Dashboard. This helps you optimize resource allocation and improve resource utilization.

Cluster dashboard

Node dashboard

Training job dashboard

Resource quota dashboard

Step 3: Manage users and quotas

• Quota trees allow you to configure hierarchical resource quotas. Quota trees are used by the capacity scheduling plug-in. To optimize the overall utilization of cluster resources, you can allow users to share resources after you use quota trees to allocate resources to the users.

• Each user in Kubernetes owns a service account. The service account can be used as a credential to submit jobs and log on to the console. Permissions are granted to users based on user roles. For example, the admin role can log on to AI Dashboard and perform maintenance operations on a cluster. The researcher role can submit jobs, use cluster resources, and log on to AI Developer Console. The admin role has all permissions that the researcher role has.

• User groups are the smallest unit in resource allocation. Each user group corresponds to a leaf node in quota trees. Users must be associated with user groups before the users can use resources that are associated with the user groups.

The following section describes how to use a quota tree to set hierarchical resource quotas and how to use a user group to allocate resources to users. The following section also describes how to share and reclaim CPU resources by submitting a simple job.

Add a quota node and set resource quotas

You can set resource quotas by specifying the Min and Max parameters of each resource. The Min parameter specifies the minimum amount of resources that can be used. The Max parameter specifies the maximum amount of resources that can be used. After you associate namespaces with a leaf node of a quota tree, limits that are set on nodes between the root node and the leaf node apply to the namespaces.

1. If no namespace is available, you must first create namespaces. If namespaces are available, you must make sure that the namespace that you select does not contain pods in the Running state.

   kubectl create ns namespace1
   kubectl create ns namespace2
   kubectl create ns namespace3
   kubectl create ns namespace4

2. Create a quota node and associate it with a namespace.

Create users and user groups

A user can belong to one or more user groups. A user group can contain one or more users. You can associate user groups by users or associate users by user groups. You can allocate resources and grant permissions based on projects by using quota trees and user groups.

1. Create a user. For more information, see Generate the kubeconfig file and logon token of the newly created user.

2. Create user groups. For more information, see Add a user group.

Capacity scheduling example

Perform the following operations:

1. Create namespaces and a quota tree.

   1. Run the following command to create four namespaces.

      Run the following command to create namespace1:

      kubectl create ns namespace1
      kubectl create ns namespace2
      kubectl create ns namespace3
      kubectl create ns namespace4

   2. Create a quota tree based on the following figure.

      

2. Create a Deployment in namespace1 by using the following YAML template. The Deployment provisions five pods and each pod requests five CPU cores.

   If you do not set elastic quotas, users can use only 10 CPU cores because the minimum amount of CPU resources is set to 10, which means that two pods are created. After you set elastic quotas:

   • When 40 CPU cores are available in the cluster, four pods are created (4 pods x 5 core/pod = 20 cores).

   • The last pod is in the Pending state because the maximum amount of resources (cpu.max=20) is reached.

   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     name: nginx1
     namespace: namespace1
     labels:
       app: nginx1
   spec:
     replicas: 5
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: nginx1
     template:
       metadata:
         name: nginx1
         labels:
           app: nginx1
       spec:
         containers:
         - name: nginx1
           image: nginx
           resources:
             limits:
               cpu: 5
             requests:
               cpu: 5

3. Create another Deployment in namespace2 by using the following YAML template. The Deployment provisions five pods and each pod requests five CPU cores.

   If you do not set elastic quotas, users can use only 10 CPU cores because the minimum amount of CPU resources is set to 10, which means that two pods are created. After you set elastic quotas:

   • When 20 CPU cores (40 cores - 20 cores in namespace1) are available in the cluster, four pods (4 pods x 5 core/pod = 20 cores) are created.

   • The last pod is in the Pending state because the maximum amount of resources (cpu.max=20) is reached.

   • After you create the preceding two Deployments, the pods in namespace1 and namespace2 have used 40 CPU cores, which is the maximum number of CPU cores for the root node.

   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     name: nginx2
     namespace: namespace2
     labels:
       app: nginx2
   spec:
     replicas: 5
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: nginx2
     template:
       metadata:
         name: nginx2
         labels:
           app: nginx2
       spec:
         containers:
         - name: nginx2
           image: nginx
           resources:
             limits:
               cpu: 5
             requests:
               cpu: 5

4. Create a third Deployment in namespace3 by using the following YAML template. This Deployment provisions five pods and each pod requests five CPU cores.

   • The cluster does not have idle resources. The scheduler reclaims 10 CPU cores from root.a to guarantee the minimum amount of CPU resources for root.b.1.

   • Before the scheduler reclaims the temporarily used 10 CPU cores, it also considers other factors, such as the priority, availability, and creation time of the workloads of root.a. Therefore, after the pods of nginx3 are scheduled based on the reclaimed 10 CPU cores, two pods are in the Running state and the other three are in the Pending state.

   • After 10 CPU cores are reclaimed from root.a, both namespace1 and namespace2 contain two pods that are in the Running state and three pods that are in the Pending state.

   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     name: nginx3
     namespace: namespace3
     labels:
       app: nginx3
   spec:
     replicas: 5
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: nginx3
     template:
       metadata:
         name: nginx3
         labels:
           app: nginx3
       spec:
         containers:
         - name: nginx3
           image: nginx
           resources:
             limits:
               cpu: 5
             requests:
               cpu: 5

5. Create a forth Deployment in namespace4 by using the following YAML template. This Deployment provisions five pods and each pod requests five CPU cores.

   • The scheduler considers the priority, availability, and creation time of each task and reclaims CPU resources from root.a.

   • The scheduler reclaims one CPU core from root.a.1 and one CPU core from root.a.2. In this scenario, two pods (2 pods x 5 CPU cores/pod = 10 CPU cores) are running in namespace1. Two pods (2 pods x 5 CPU cores/pod = 10 CPU cores) are running in namespace2.

   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     name: nginx4
     namespace: namespace4
     labels:
       app: nginx4
   spec:
     replicas: 5
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: nginx4
     template:
       metadata:
         name: nginx4
         labels:
           app: nginx4
       spec:
         containers:
         - name: nginx4
           image: nginx
           resources:
             limits:
               cpu: 5
             requests:
               cpu: 5