Is there a way to have easily scalable clients in Jitsi? - docker

I'm trying to measure the power consumption of Jitsi servers with varying numbers of clients.
current set-up:
several different devices
all connected locally with a switch to the server
Problem : it is inefficient and unfeasible for scaling up.
Is there a better way?
Is there a way to have docker clients running with a virtual camera/audio?
I've considered trying to have clients run in docker.
I'm also aware that you can connect with different instances on the same device, but I'm trying to avoid this as I don't know if this will affect the results (since the server may only receive one video stream to decode, changing the power consumption recorded).
Thanks

Maybe it could be a good idea to create :
a Dockerfile for each "type" of device.
a Dockerfile for your jitsi server
After that you can install minikube (a local standalone k8s cluster) to create :
a deployment for each device (using the created docker image just before) : you will be able to update the number of pods (instances of your devices) as you wish
a deployment for your jitsi server (using the created docker image just before)
i.e : you can set 100 pods of 'devices' if you want.

Related

Docker and Kubernetes setup

I am pretty new to containerization and after looking into k8s and docker documentation, I am not sure, if I can achieve my goal.
In real life I have 6 PCs connected in LAN, exchanging some data and showing it on monitors. I want to mimic the setup without the hardware, using Kubernetes. Note, the setup is running GUI applications, 6 monitors total with different apps on each of those. Red lines indicate connections through Ethernet cable. Added IP addresses for all PCs.
So expected result would be a k8s cluster with 6 docker containers configured to talk to each other and some of those containers to be able to make use of displays.
Is it possible to recreate this setup, providing the OS are the same as on hardware or I should make some changes?
As I want to run it all on 1 PC and have 6 monitors, to show GUIs, the PC should have multiple videocards as well?
The payload per machine is not that big, so I think one 8 core processor unit might be enough?
Thanks for any insights and help.

Does it make sense to cluster NodeJs (in order to take advantage of multiple CPUs) if will be deployed with orchestration tool like Kubernetes?

Right now I am struggling with debugging of NodeJs application which is clustered and is running on Docker. Found on this link and this information in it:
Remember, Node.js is still single-threaded in most cases, so even on a
single server you’ll likely want to spin up multiple container
replicas to take advantage of multiple CPU’s
So what does it mean, clustering of NodeJs app is pointless when it is meant to be deployed on Kubernetes ?
EDIT: I should also say that, by clustering I mean forking workers with cluster.fork() and goal of the application is to build simple REST API with high load traffic.
Short answer is yes..
Containers are just mini VM's and kubernetes is the orchestration tool that manages all the running 'containers', checking for health, resource allocation, load etc.
So, if you are running your node application in a container with an orchestration tool like kubernetes, then clustering is moot as each 'container' will be using 1 CPU or partial CPU depending on how you have it configured. Multiple containers essentially just place a new VM in rotation and kubernetes will direct traffic to each.
Now, when we talk about clustering node, that really comes into play when using tools like PM2, lets say you have a beefy server with 8 CPU's, node can only use 1 per instance so tools like PM2 setup a cluster and will route traffic along each of the running instances.
One thing to keep in mind though is that your application needs to be cluster OR container ready. Meaning nothing should be stored on the ephemeral disk as with each container restart that data is lost OR in a cluster situation there is no guarantee the folders will be available to each running instance and if you cluster with multiple servers etc you are asking for trouble :D ( this is where an object store would come into play like S3)

How to deploy a kubernetes cluster on multiple physical machines in the best manner?

I recently finished a project where I created an App consisting of several docker containers. The purpose of the app was to collect some data and safe it to an databank and also allow user interactions over an simple web gui. The app was hosted on four different Raspberry Pi's and it was possible to collect data from all physicial maschines through an api. Further you could do some simple machine learning tasks like calculating anomalies in the sensor data of the Pi's.
Now I'm trying to take the next step and using kubernetes for some load balancing and remote updates. My main goal is to remote update all raspberries from my master node. Which, in theory, would be a very handy feature. Also I want to share the ressources of the Pi's within the cluster for calculations.
I read a lot about Kubernets, Minikube, K3's, Kind and all the different approaches to set up an Kubernetes cluster, but feel like I am missing "a last puzzle piece".
So from what I understood I need an approach which allows me to set up an local (because all machines are laying on my desk/ no cloud needed) multi node cluster. My master node would be (idealy) my laptop, running Ubuntu in a virtual machine. My rasberry's would be my slave/worker nodes. If I would want to update my cluster I can use the kubernetes remote update functionality.
So my question out of this would be: Does it makes sense to use several rasberries as nodes in a kubernetes cluster and to manage them from one master node (laptop) and do you have any suggestions about the way to achieve this setup.
I usally dont like those question not containing any specific code or questions by myself, but feel like an simple hint could accelerate my project noteable. If it's the wrong place please feel free to delete this question.
Best regards
You didn't mention which rpi models you are using, but I assume you are not using rpi zeros.
My main goal is to remote update all raspberries from my master node.
Assuming that by that you mean updating your applications running in kubernetes that is installed on rpi then keep reading. Otherwise ignore all I wrote, and what you probably need is ansible or other simmilar provisioning/configuration-management/application-deployment tool.
Now answering to your question:
Does it makes sense to use several rasberries as nodes in a kubernetes cluster
yes, this is why people created k3s, so such setup is possible using less resources.
and to manage them from one master node (laptop)
assuming you will be using it for learning purpouses then why not. It is possible, but just be aware that when master node goes down (e.g. when you turn off your laptop), all cluster goes down (or at least api-server communication so you wont be able to change cluster's state). Also make sure you are using bridge networking interface for your VM so it is visible in your local network as a standalone instance.
and do you have any suggestions about the way to achieve this setup.
installing k3s on all nodes would be the easiest in your case. There are plenty of resources on the internet explaining how to achieve it.
One last thing I would like to explain is the thing with updates.
Speaking of kubernetes updates you need to know that kubernetes doesn't update itself automatically. You need to explicitly update it. New k8s version is beeing released every 3 months that sometimes "breaks" things and backward compatibility is not possible (so always read changelog before updating stuff because rollbacks may not be possible unless you backed up an etcd cluster earlier).
Speaking of updating applications - To run your app all you do is send yaml files describing your application to k8s and it handles the rest. So if you want to update your app just update the tag on container image to newer version and k8s will handle the updates. Read here more about update strategies in k8s.

Kubernetes scaling pods using custom algorithm

Our cloud application consists of 3 tightly coupled Docker containers, Nginx, Web and Mongo. Currently we run these containers on a single machine. However as our users are increasing we are looking for a solution to scale. Using Kubernetes we would form a multi container pod. If we are to replicate we need to replicate all 3 containers as a unit. Our cloud application is consumed by mobile app users. Our app can only handle approx 30000 users per Worker node and we intend to place a single pod on a single worker node. Once a mobile device is connected to worker node it must continue to only use that machine ( unique IP address )
We plan on using Kubernetes to manage the containers. Load balancing doesn't work for our use case as a mobile device needs to be tied to a single machine once assigned and each Pod works independently with its own persistent volume. However we need a way of spinning up new Pods on worker nodes if the number of users goes over 30000 and so on.
The idea is we have some sort of custom scheduler which assigns a mobile device a Worker Node ( domain/ IPaddress) depending on the number of users on that node.
Is Kubernetes a good fit for this design and how could we implement a custom pod scale algorithm.
Thanks
Piggy-Backing on the answer of Jonah Benton:
While this is technically possible - your problem is not with Kubernetes it's with your Application! Let me point you the problem:
Our cloud application consists of 3 tightly coupled Docker containers, Nginx, Web, and Mongo.
Here is your first problem: Is you can only deploy these three containers together and not independently - you cannot scale one or the other!
While MongoDB can be scaled to insane loads - if it's bundled with your web server and web application it won't be able to...
So the first step for you is to break up these three components so they can be managed independently of each other. Next:
Currently we run these containers on a single machine.
While not strictly a problem - I have serious doubt's what it would mean to scale your application and what the challenges that come with scalability!
Once a mobile device is connected to worker node it must continue to only use that machine ( unique IP address )
Now, this IS a problem. You're looking to run an application on Kubernetes but I do not think you understand the consequences of doing that: Kubernetes orchestrates your resources. This means it will move pods (by killing and recreating) between nodes (and if necessary to the same node). It does this fully autonomous (which is awesome and gives you a good night sleep) If you're relying on clients sticking to a single nodes IP, you're going to get up in the middle of the night because Kubernetes tried to correct for a node failure and moved your pod which is now gone and your users can't connect anymore. You need to leverage the load-balancing features (services) in Kubernetes. Only they are able to handle the dynamic changes that happen in Kubernetes clusters.
Using Kubernetes we would form a multi container pod.
And we have another winner - No! You're trying to treat Kubernetes as if it were your on-premise infrastructure! If you keep doing so you're going to fail and curse Kubernetes in the process!
Now that I told you some of the things you're thinking wrong - what a person would I be if I did not offer some advice on how to make this work:
In Kubernetes your three applications should not run in one pod! They should run in separate pods:
your webservers work should be done by Ingress and since you're already familiar with nginx, this is probably the ingress you are looking for!
Your web application should be a simple Deployment and be exposed to ingress through a Service
your database should be a separate deployment which you can either do manually through a statefullset or (more advanced) through an operator and also exposed to the web application trough a Service
Feel free to ask if you have any more questions!
Building a custom scheduler and running multiple schedulers at the same time is supported:
https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/configure-multiple-schedulers/
That said, to the question of whether kubernetes is a good fit for this design- my answer is: not really.
K8s can be difficult to operate, with the payoff being the level of automation and resiliency that it provides out of the box for whole classes of workloads.
This workload is not one of those. In order to gain any benefit you would have to write a scheduler to handle the edge failure and error cases this application has (what happens when you lose a node for a short period of time...) in a way that makes sense for k8s. And you would have to come up to speed with normal k8s operations.
With the information provided, hard pressed to see why one would use k8s for this workload over just running docker on some VMs and scripting some of the automation.

Docker Swarm - Deploying stack with shared code base across hosts

I have a question related with the best practices for deploying applications to the production based on the docker swarm.
In order to simplify discussion related with this question/issue lets consider following scenario:
Our swarm contains:
6 servers (different hosts)
on each of these servers, we will have one service
each service will have only one task/replica docker running
Memcached1 and Memcached2 uses public images from docker hub
"Recycle data 1" and "Recycle data 2" uses custom image from private repository
"Client 1" and "Client 2" uses custom image from private repository
So at the end, for our example application, we have 6 dockers running across 6 different servers. 2 dockers are memcached, and 4 of them are clients which are communicating with memcached.
"Client 1" and "Client 2" are going to insert data in the memcached based on the some kind of rules. "Recycle data 1" and "Recycle data 2" are going to update or delete data from memcached based on some kind of rules. Simple as that.
Our applications which are communicating with memcached are custom ones, and they are written by us. The code for these application reside on github (or any other repository). What is the best way to deploy this application to the production:
Build images which will contain copied code within the image which you can use to deploy things to the swarm
Build image which will use volume where code reside outside of the image.
Having in mind that I am deploying swarm to the production for the first time, I can see a lot of issues with way number 1. Having a code incorporate to the images seems non logical to me, having in mind that in 99% of the time, the updates which are going to happen are going to be code based. This will require building image every time when you want to update the code which runs on specific docker (no matter how small that change is).
Way number 2. seems much more logical to me. But at this specific moment I am not sure is this possible? So there are a number of questions here:
What is the best approach in case where we are going to host multiple dockers which will run the same code in the background?
Is it possible on docker swarm, to have one central host,server (manager, anywhere) where we can clone our repositories and share those repositores as volumes across the docker swarm? (in our example, all 4 customer services will mount volume where we have our code hosted)
If this is possible, what is the docker-compose.yml implementation for it?
After digging more deeper and working with docker and docker swarm mode for last 3 months, these are the answers on questions above:
Answer 1: In general, you should consider your docker image as "compiled" version of your program. Your image should contain either code base, or compiled version of the program (depends which programming language you are using), and that specific image represents your version of the app. Every single time when you want to deploy your next version, you will generate the new image.
This is probably best approach for 99% of the apps which are going to be hosted with the docker (exceptions are development environments and apps where you really want to bash and control things directly from the docker container by itself).
Answer 2: It is possible but it is extremely bad approach. As mentioned in answer one, the best one is to copy the app code directly into the image and "consider" your image (running container) as "app by itself".
I was not able to wrap my head around this concept at the begging, because this concept will not allow you to simply go to the server (or where ever you are hosting your docker) and change the app and restart docker (obviously because container will be at the same beginning again after restart using the same image, same base of code you deployed with that image). Any kind of change SHOULD and NEEDS to be deployed as different image with different version. That is what docker is all about.
Additionally, initial idea for sharing same code base across multiple swarm services is possible, but it totally ruins purpose of the versioning across docker swarm.
Consider having 3 services which are used as redundant services (failover), and you want to use new version on one of them as beta test. This will not be possible with the shared code base.

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