Configure Machine Health Checks for Tanzu Kubernetes Clusters

This topic describes how to use the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid CLI to create, update, retrieve, and delete MachineHealthCheck objects for Tanzu Kubernetes clusters.

About MachineHealthCheck

MachineHealthCheck is a controller that provides node health monitoring and node auto-repair for Tanzu Kubernetes clusters.

This controller is enabled in the global Tanzu Kubernetes Grid configuration by default, for all Tanzu Kubernetes clusters. You can override your global Tanzu Kubernetes Grid configuration for individual Tanzu Kubernetes clusters in two ways:

• When deploying the management cluster. You can enable or disable the default MachineHealthCheck in either the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid installer interface or the .tkg/config.yaml file. Each Tanzu Kubernetes cluster that you deploy with your management cluster inherits this configuration by default. For more information, see Deploying and Managing Management Clusters.
• After creating a Tanzu Kubernetes cluster. You can use the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid CLI to create, update, retrieve, and delete MachineHealthCheck objects for individual Tanzu Kubernetes clusters. See the sections below.

When MachineHealthCheck is enabled in a Tanzu Kubernetes cluster, it runs in the same namespace as the cluster.

Create or Update a MachineHealthCheck

To create a MachineHealthCheck with the default configuration, run the following command:

tkg set machinehealthcheck CLUSTER-NAME

Where CLUSTER-NAME is the name of the Tanzu Kubernetes cluster you want to monitor.

You can also use this command to create MachineHealthCheck objects with custom configuration options or update existing MachineHealthCheck objects. To set custom configuration options for a MachineHealthCheck, run the tkg set machinehealthcheck command with one or more of the following:

• --mhc-name: By default, when you run tkg set machinehealthcheck CLUSTER-NAME, the command sets the name of the MachineHealthCheck to CLUSTER-NAME. Specify the --mhc-name option if you want to set a different name. For example:

  tkg set machinehealthcheck my-cluster --mhc-name my-mhc
  

• --match-labels: This option filters machines by label keys and values. You can specify one or more label constraints. The MachineHealthCheck is applied to all machines that satisfy these constraints. Use the syntax below:

  tkg set machinehealthcheck my-cluster --match-labels "key1:value1,key2:value2"
  

  For example:

  tkg set machinehealthcheck my-cluster --match-labels "node-pool:my-cluster-worker-pool"
  

• --node-startup-timeout: This option controls the amount of time that the MachineHealthCheck waits for a machine to join the cluster before considering the machine unhealthy. For example, the command below sets the --node-startup-timeout option to 10m:

  tkg set machinehealthcheck my-cluster --node-startup-timeout 10m
  

  If a machine fails to join the cluster within this amount of time, the MachineHealthCheck recreates the machine.

• --unhealthy-conditions: This option can set the Ready, MemoryPressure, DiskPressure, PIDPressure, and NetworkUnavailable conditions. The MachineHealthCheck uses the conditions that you set to determine whether a node is unhealthy. To set the status of a condition, use True, False, or Unknown. For example:

  tkg set machinehealthcheck my-cluster --unhealthy-conditions "Ready:False:5m,Ready:Unknown:5m"
  

  In the example above, if the status of the Ready node condition remains Unknown or False for longer than 5m, the MachineHealthCheck considers the machine unhealthy and recreates it.

Retrieve a MachineHealthCheck

To retrieve a MachineHealthCheck object, run the following command:

tkg get machinehealthcheck CLUSTER-NAME

If you assigned a non-default name to the object, specify the --mhc-name flag.

Delete a MachineHealthCheck

To delete a MachineHealthCheck object, run the following command:

tkg delete machinehealthcheck CLUSTER-NAME

If you assigned a non-default name to the object, specify the --mhc-name flag.