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Administration with kubeadm

1 - Certificate Management with kubeadm

FEATURE STATE: Kubernetes v1.15 [stable]

Client certificates generated by kubeadm expire after 1 year. This page explains how to manage certificate renewals with kubeadm. It also covers other tasks related to kubeadm certificate management.

Before you begin

You should be familiar with PKI certificates and requirements in Kubernetes.

Using custom certificates

By default, kubeadm generates all the certificates needed for a cluster to run. You can override this behavior by providing your own certificates.

To do so, you must place them in whatever directory is specified by the --cert-dir flag or the certificatesDir field of kubeadm's ClusterConfiguration. By default this is /etc/kubernetes/pki.

If a given certificate and private key pair exists before running kubeadm init, kubeadm does not overwrite them. This means you can, for example, copy an existing CA into /etc/kubernetes/pki/ca.crt and /etc/kubernetes/pki/ca.key, and kubeadm will use this CA for signing the rest of the certificates.

External CA mode

It is also possible to provide only the ca.crt file and not the ca.key file (this is only available for the root CA file, not other cert pairs). If all other certificates and kubeconfig files are in place, kubeadm recognizes this condition and activates the "External CA" mode. kubeadm will proceed without the CA key on disk.

Instead, run the controller-manager standalone with --controllers=csrsigner and point to the CA certificate and key.

PKI certificates and requirements includes guidance on setting up a cluster to use an external CA.

Check certificate expiration

You can use the check-expiration subcommand to check when certificates expire:

kubeadm certs check-expiration

The output is similar to this:

CERTIFICATE                EXPIRES                  RESIDUAL TIME   CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY   EXTERNALLY MANAGED
admin.conf                 Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d                                    no
apiserver                  Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d            ca                      no
apiserver-etcd-client      Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d            etcd-ca                 no
apiserver-kubelet-client   Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d            ca                      no
controller-manager.conf    Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d                                    no
etcd-healthcheck-client    Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d            etcd-ca                 no
etcd-peer                  Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d            etcd-ca                 no
etcd-server                Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d            etcd-ca                 no
front-proxy-client         Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d            front-proxy-ca          no
scheduler.conf             Dec 30, 2020 23:36 UTC   364d                                    no

CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY   EXPIRES                  RESIDUAL TIME   EXTERNALLY MANAGED
ca                      Dec 28, 2029 23:36 UTC   9y              no
etcd-ca                 Dec 28, 2029 23:36 UTC   9y              no
front-proxy-ca          Dec 28, 2029 23:36 UTC   9y              no

The command shows expiration/residual time for the client certificates in the /etc/kubernetes/pki folder and for the client certificate embedded in the kubeconfig files used by kubeadm (admin.conf, controller-manager.conf and scheduler.conf).

Additionally, kubeadm informs the user if the certificate is externally managed; in this case, the user should take care of managing certificate renewal manually/using other tools.

Automatic certificate renewal

kubeadm renews all the certificates during control plane upgrade.

This feature is designed for addressing the simplest use cases; if you don't have specific requirements on certificate renewal and perform Kubernetes version upgrades regularly (less than 1 year in between each upgrade), kubeadm will take care of keeping your cluster up to date and reasonably secure.

If you have more complex requirements for certificate renewal, you can opt out from the default behavior by passing --certificate-renewal=false to kubeadm upgrade apply or to kubeadm upgrade node.

Manual certificate renewal

You can renew your certificates manually at any time with the kubeadm certs renew command, with the appropriate command line options.

This command performs the renewal using CA (or front-proxy-CA) certificate and key stored in /etc/kubernetes/pki.

After running the command you should restart the control plane Pods. This is required since dynamic certificate reload is currently not supported for all components and certificates. Static Pods are managed by the local kubelet and not by the API Server, thus kubectl cannot be used to delete and restart them. To restart a static Pod you can temporarily remove its manifest file from /etc/kubernetes/manifests/ and wait for 20 seconds (see the fileCheckFrequency value in KubeletConfiguration struct. The kubelet will terminate the Pod if it's no longer in the manifest directory. You can then move the file back and after another fileCheckFrequency period, the kubelet will recreate the Pod and the certificate renewal for the component can complete.

kubeadm certs renew can renew any specific certificate or, with the subcommand all, it can renew all of them, as shown below:

kubeadm certs renew all

Renew certificates with the Kubernetes certificates API

This section provides more details about how to execute manual certificate renewal using the Kubernetes certificates API.

Set up a signer

The Kubernetes Certificate Authority does not work out of the box. You can configure an external signer such as cert-manager, or you can use the built-in signer.

The built-in signer is part of kube-controller-manager.

To activate the built-in signer, you must pass the --cluster-signing-cert-file and --cluster-signing-key-file flags.

If you're creating a new cluster, you can use a kubeadm configuration file:

apiVersion: kubeadm.k8s.io/v1beta3
kind: ClusterConfiguration
controllerManager:
  extraArgs:
    cluster-signing-cert-file: /etc/kubernetes/pki/ca.crt
    cluster-signing-key-file: /etc/kubernetes/pki/ca.key

Create certificate signing requests (CSR)

See Create CertificateSigningRequest for creating CSRs with the Kubernetes API.

Renew certificates with external CA

This section provide more details about how to execute manual certificate renewal using an external CA.

To better integrate with external CAs, kubeadm can also produce certificate signing requests (CSRs). A CSR represents a request to a CA for a signed certificate for a client. In kubeadm terms, any certificate that would normally be signed by an on-disk CA can be produced as a CSR instead. A CA, however, cannot be produced as a CSR.

Create certificate signing requests (CSR)

You can create certificate signing requests with kubeadm certs renew --csr-only.

Both the CSR and the accompanying private key are given in the output. You can pass in a directory with --csr-dir to output the CSRs to the specified location. If --csr-dir is not specified, the default certificate directory (/etc/kubernetes/pki) is used.

Certificates can be renewed with kubeadm certs renew --csr-only. As with kubeadm init, an output directory can be specified with the --csr-dir flag.

A CSR contains a certificate's name, domains, and IPs, but it does not specify usages. It is the responsibility of the CA to specify the correct cert usages when issuing a certificate.

After a certificate is signed using your preferred method, the certificate and the private key must be copied to the PKI directory (by default /etc/kubernetes/pki).

Certificate authority (CA) rotation

Kubeadm does not support rotation or replacement of CA certificates out of the box.

For more information about manual rotation or replacement of CA, see manual rotation of CA certificates.

Enabling signed kubelet serving certificates

By default the kubelet serving certificate deployed by kubeadm is self-signed. This means a connection from external services like the metrics-server to a kubelet cannot be secured with TLS.

To configure the kubelets in a new kubeadm cluster to obtain properly signed serving certificates you must pass the following minimal configuration to kubeadm init:

apiVersion: kubeadm.k8s.io/v1beta3
kind: ClusterConfiguration
---
apiVersion: kubelet.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: KubeletConfiguration
serverTLSBootstrap: true

If you have already created the cluster you must adapt it by doing the following:

  • Find and edit the kubelet-config-1.28 ConfigMap in the kube-system namespace. In that ConfigMap, the kubelet key has a KubeletConfiguration document as its value. Edit the KubeletConfiguration document to set serverTLSBootstrap: true.
  • On each node, add the serverTLSBootstrap: true field in /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml and restart the kubelet with systemctl restart kubelet

The field serverTLSBootstrap: true will enable the bootstrap of kubelet serving certificates by requesting them from the certificates.k8s.io API. One known limitation is that the CSRs (Certificate Signing Requests) for these certificates cannot be automatically approved by the default signer in the kube-controller-manager - kubernetes.io/kubelet-serving. This will require action from the user or a third party controller.

These CSRs can be viewed using:

kubectl get csr

NAME        AGE     SIGNERNAME                        REQUESTOR                      CONDITION
csr-9wvgt   112s    kubernetes.io/kubelet-serving     system:node:worker-1           Pending
csr-lz97v   1m58s   kubernetes.io/kubelet-serving     system:node:control-plane-1    Pending

To approve them you can do the following:

kubectl certificate approve <CSR-name>

By default, these serving certificate will expire after one year. Kubeadm sets the KubeletConfiguration field rotateCertificates to true, which means that close to expiration a new set of CSRs for the serving certificates will be created and must be approved to complete the rotation. To understand more see Certificate Rotation.

If you are looking for a solution for automatic approval of these CSRs it is recommended that you contact your cloud provider and ask if they have a CSR signer that verifies the node identity with an out of band mechanism.

Third party custom controllers can be used:

Such a controller is not a secure mechanism unless it not only verifies the CommonName in the CSR but also verifies the requested IPs and domain names. This would prevent a malicious actor that has access to a kubelet client certificate to create CSRs requesting serving certificates for any IP or domain name.

Generating kubeconfig files for additional users

During cluster creation, kubeadm signs the certificate in the admin.conf to have Subject: O = system:masters, CN = kubernetes-admin. system:masters is a break-glass, super user group that bypasses the authorization layer (for example, RBAC). Sharing the admin.conf with additional users is not recommended!

Instead, you can use the kubeadm kubeconfig user command to generate kubeconfig files for additional users. The command accepts a mixture of command line flags and kubeadm configuration options. The generated kubeconfig will be written to stdout and can be piped to a file using kubeadm kubeconfig user ... > somefile.conf.

Example configuration file that can be used with --config:

# example.yaml
apiVersion: kubeadm.k8s.io/v1beta3
kind: ClusterConfiguration
# Will be used as the target "cluster" in the kubeconfig
clusterName: "kubernetes"
# Will be used as the "server" (IP or DNS name) of this cluster in the kubeconfig
controlPlaneEndpoint: "some-dns-address:6443"
# The cluster CA key and certificate will be loaded from this local directory
certificatesDir: "/etc/kubernetes/pki"

Make sure that these settings match the desired target cluster settings. To see the settings of an existing cluster use:

kubectl get cm kubeadm-config -n kube-system -o=jsonpath="{.data.ClusterConfiguration}"

The following example will generate a kubeconfig file with credentials valid for 24 hours for a new user johndoe that is part of the appdevs group:

kubeadm kubeconfig user --config example.yaml --org appdevs --client-name johndoe --validity-period 24h

The following example will generate a kubeconfig file with administrator credentials valid for 1 week:

kubeadm kubeconfig user --config example.yaml --client-name admin --validity-period 168h

2 - Configuring a cgroup driver

This page explains how to configure the kubelet's cgroup driver to match the container runtime cgroup driver for kubeadm clusters.

Before you begin

You should be familiar with the Kubernetes container runtime requirements.

Configuring the container runtime cgroup driver

The Container runtimes page explains that the systemd driver is recommended for kubeadm based setups instead of the kubelet's default cgroupfs driver, because kubeadm manages the kubelet as a systemd service.

The page also provides details on how to set up a number of different container runtimes with the systemd driver by default.

Configuring the kubelet cgroup driver

kubeadm allows you to pass a KubeletConfiguration structure during kubeadm init. This KubeletConfiguration can include the cgroupDriver field which controls the cgroup driver of the kubelet.

A minimal example of configuring the field explicitly:

# kubeadm-config.yaml
kind: ClusterConfiguration
apiVersion: kubeadm.k8s.io/v1beta3
kubernetesVersion: v1.21.0
---
kind: KubeletConfiguration
apiVersion: kubelet.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
cgroupDriver: systemd

Such a configuration file can then be passed to the kubeadm command:

kubeadm init --config kubeadm-config.yaml

Using the cgroupfs driver

To use cgroupfs and to prevent kubeadm upgrade from modifying the KubeletConfiguration cgroup driver on existing setups, you must be explicit about its value. This applies to a case where you do not wish future versions of kubeadm to apply the systemd driver by default.

See the below section on "Modify the kubelet ConfigMap" for details on how to be explicit about the value.

If you wish to configure a container runtime to use the cgroupfs driver, you must refer to the documentation of the container runtime of your choice.

Migrating to the systemd driver

To change the cgroup driver of an existing kubeadm cluster from cgroupfs to systemd in-place, a similar procedure to a kubelet upgrade is required. This must include both steps outlined below.

Modify the kubelet ConfigMap

  • Call kubectl edit cm kubelet-config -n kube-system.

  • Either modify the existing cgroupDriver value or add a new field that looks like this:

    cgroupDriver: systemd

    This field must be present under the kubelet: section of the ConfigMap.

Update the cgroup driver on all nodes

For each node in the cluster:

  • Drain the node using kubectl drain <node-name> --ignore-daemonsets
  • Stop the kubelet using systemctl stop kubelet
  • Stop the container runtime
  • Modify the container runtime cgroup driver to systemd
  • Set cgroupDriver: systemd in /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml
  • Start the container runtime
  • Start the kubelet using systemctl start kubelet
  • Uncordon the node using kubectl uncordon <node-name>

Execute these steps on nodes one at a time to ensure workloads have sufficient time to schedule on different nodes.

Once the process is complete ensure that all nodes and workloads are healthy.

3 - Reconfiguring a kubeadm cluster

kubeadm does not support automated ways of reconfiguring components that were deployed on managed nodes. One way of automating this would be by using a custom operator.

To modify the components configuration you must manually edit associated cluster objects and files on disk.

This guide shows the correct sequence of steps that need to be performed to achieve kubeadm cluster reconfiguration.

Before you begin

  • You need a cluster that was deployed using kubeadm
  • Have administrator credentials (/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf) and network connectivity to a running kube-apiserver in the cluster from a host that has kubectl installed
  • Have a text editor installed on all hosts

Reconfiguring the cluster

kubeadm writes a set of cluster wide component configuration options in ConfigMaps and other objects. These objects must be manually edited. The command kubectl edit can be used for that.

The kubectl edit command will open a text editor where you can edit and save the object directly.

You can use the environment variables KUBECONFIG and KUBE_EDITOR to specify the location of the kubectl consumed kubeconfig file and preferred text editor.

For example:

KUBECONFIG=/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf KUBE_EDITOR=nano kubectl edit <parameters>

Applying cluster configuration changes

Updating the ClusterConfiguration

During cluster creation and upgrade, kubeadm writes its ClusterConfiguration in a ConfigMap called kubeadm-config in the kube-system namespace.

To change a particular option in the ClusterConfiguration you can edit the ConfigMap with this command:

kubectl edit cm -n kube-system kubeadm-config

The configuration is located under the data.ClusterConfiguration key.

Reflecting ClusterConfiguration changes on control plane nodes

kubeadm manages the control plane components as static Pod manifests located in the directory /etc/kubernetes/manifests. Any changes to the ClusterConfiguration under the apiServer, controllerManager, scheduler or etcd keys must be reflected in the associated files in the manifests directory on a control plane node.

Such changes may include:

  • extraArgs - requires updating the list of flags passed to a component container
  • extraMounts - requires updated the volume mounts for a component container
  • *SANs - requires writing new certificates with updated Subject Alternative Names.

Before proceeding with these changes, make sure you have backed up the directory /etc/kubernetes/.

To write new certificates you can use:

kubeadm init phase certs <component-name> --config <config-file>

To write new manifest files in /etc/kubernetes/manifests you can use:

kubeadm init phase control-plane <component-name> --config <config-file>

The <config-file> contents must match the updated ClusterConfiguration. The <component-name> value must be the name of the component.

Applying kubelet configuration changes

Updating the KubeletConfiguration

During cluster creation and upgrade, kubeadm writes its KubeletConfiguration in a ConfigMap called kubelet-config in the kube-system namespace.

You can edit the ConfigMap with this command:

kubectl edit cm -n kube-system kubelet-config

The configuration is located under the data.kubelet key.

Reflecting the kubelet changes

To reflect the change on kubeadm nodes you must do the following:

  • Log in to a kubeadm node
  • Run kubeadm upgrade node phase kubelet-config to download the latest kubelet-config ConfigMap contents into the local file /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml
  • Edit the file /var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env to apply additional configuration with flags
  • Restart the kubelet service with systemctl restart kubelet

Applying kube-proxy configuration changes

Updating the KubeProxyConfiguration

During cluster creation and upgrade, kubeadm writes its KubeProxyConfiguration in a ConfigMap in the kube-system namespace called kube-proxy.

This ConfigMap is used by the kube-proxy DaemonSet in the kube-system namespace.

To change a particular option in the KubeProxyConfiguration, you can edit the ConfigMap with this command:

kubectl edit cm -n kube-system kube-proxy

The configuration is located under the data.config.conf key.

Reflecting the kube-proxy changes

Once the kube-proxy ConfigMap is updated, you can restart all kube-proxy Pods:

Obtain the Pod names:

kubectl get po -n kube-system | grep kube-proxy

Delete a Pod with:

kubectl delete po -n kube-system <pod-name>

New Pods that use the updated ConfigMap will be created.

Applying CoreDNS configuration changes

Updating the CoreDNS Deployment and Service

kubeadm deploys CoreDNS as a Deployment called coredns and with a Service kube-dns, both in the kube-system namespace.

To update any of the CoreDNS settings, you can edit the Deployment and Service objects:

kubectl edit deployment -n kube-system coredns
kubectl edit service -n kube-system kube-dns

Reflecting the CoreDNS changes

Once the CoreDNS changes are applied you can delete the CoreDNS Pods:

Obtain the Pod names:

kubectl get po -n kube-system | grep coredns

Delete a Pod with:

kubectl delete po -n kube-system <pod-name>

New Pods with the updated CoreDNS configuration will be created.

Persisting the reconfiguration

During the execution of kubeadm upgrade on a managed node, kubeadm might overwrite configuration that was applied after the cluster was created (reconfiguration).

Persisting Node object reconfiguration

kubeadm writes Labels, Taints, CRI socket and other information on the Node object for a particular Kubernetes node. To change any of the contents of this Node object you can use:

kubectl edit no <node-name>

During kubeadm upgrade the contents of such a Node might get overwritten. If you would like to persist your modifications to the Node object after upgrade, you can prepare a kubectl patch and apply it to the Node object:

kubectl patch no <node-name> --patch-file <patch-file>

Persisting control plane component reconfiguration

The main source of control plane configuration is the ClusterConfiguration object stored in the cluster. To extend the static Pod manifests configuration, patches can be used.

These patch files must remain as files on the control plane nodes to ensure that they can be used by the kubeadm upgrade ... --patches <directory>.

If reconfiguration is done to the ClusterConfiguration and static Pod manifests on disk, the set of node specific patches must be updated accordingly.

Persisting kubelet reconfiguration

Any changes to the KubeletConfiguration stored in /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml will be overwritten on kubeadm upgrade by downloading the contents of the cluster wide kubelet-config ConfigMap. To persist kubelet node specific configuration either the file /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml has to be updated manually post-upgrade or the file /var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env can include flags. The kubelet flags override the associated KubeletConfiguration options, but note that some of the flags are deprecated.

A kubelet restart will be required after changing /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml or /var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env.

What's next

4 - Upgrading kubeadm clusters

This page explains how to upgrade a Kubernetes cluster created with kubeadm from version 1.27.x to version 1.28.x, and from version 1.28.x to 1.28.y (where y > x). Skipping MINOR versions when upgrading is unsupported. For more details, please visit Version Skew Policy.

To see information about upgrading clusters created using older versions of kubeadm, please refer to following pages instead:

The upgrade workflow at high level is the following:

  1. Upgrade a primary control plane node.
  2. Upgrade additional control plane nodes.
  3. Upgrade worker nodes.

Before you begin

  • Make sure you read the release notes carefully.
  • The cluster should use a static control plane and etcd pods or external etcd.
  • Make sure to back up any important components, such as app-level state stored in a database. kubeadm upgrade does not touch your workloads, only components internal to Kubernetes, but backups are always a best practice.
  • Swap must be disabled.

Additional information

  • The instructions below outline when to drain each node during the upgrade process. If you are performing a minor version upgrade for any kubelet, you must first drain the node (or nodes) that you are upgrading. In the case of control plane nodes, they could be running CoreDNS Pods or other critical workloads. For more information see Draining nodes.
  • All containers are restarted after upgrade, because the container spec hash value is changed.
  • To verify that the kubelet service has successfully restarted after the kubelet has been upgraded, you can execute systemctl status kubelet or view the service logs with journalctl -xeu kubelet.
  • Usage of the --config flag of kubeadm upgrade with kubeadm configuration API types with the purpose of reconfiguring the cluster is not recommended and can have unexpected results. Follow the steps in Reconfiguring a kubeadm cluster instead.

Changing the package repository

If you're using the community-owned package repositories (pkgs.k8s.io), you need to enable the package repository for the desired Kubernetes minor release. This is explained in Changing the Kubernetes package repository document.

Determine which version to upgrade to

Find the latest patch release for Kubernetes 1.28 using the OS package manager:

# Find the latest 1.28 version in the list.
# It should look like 1.28.x-*, where x is the latest patch.
apt update
apt-cache madison kubeadm


# Find the latest 1.28 version in the list.
# It should look like 1.28.x-*, where x is the latest patch.
yum list --showduplicates kubeadm --disableexcludes=kubernetes

Upgrading control plane nodes

The upgrade procedure on control plane nodes should be executed one node at a time. Pick a control plane node that you wish to upgrade first. It must have the /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf file.

Call "kubeadm upgrade"

For the first control plane node

  1. Upgrade kubeadm:

    # replace x in 1.28.x-* with the latest patch version
apt-mark unhold kubeadm && \
apt-get update && apt-get install -y kubeadm='1.28.x-*' && \
apt-mark hold kubeadm


    # replace x in 1.28.x-* with the latest patch version
yum install -y kubeadm-'1.28.x-*' --disableexcludes=kubernetes

  2. Verify that the download works and has the expected version:

    kubeadm version

  3. Verify the upgrade plan:

    kubeadm upgrade plan

    This command checks that your cluster can be upgraded, and fetches the versions you can upgrade to. It also shows a table with the component config version states.

  4. Choose a version to upgrade to, and run the appropriate command. For example:

    # replace x with the patch version you picked for this upgrade
sudo kubeadm upgrade apply v1.28.x

    Once the command finishes you should see:

    [upgrade/successful] SUCCESS! Your cluster was upgraded to "v1.28.x". Enjoy!

[upgrade/kubelet] Now that your control plane is upgraded, please proceed with upgrading your kubelets if you haven't already done so.

  5. Manually upgrade your CNI provider plugin.

    Your Container Network Interface (CNI) provider may have its own upgrade instructions to follow. Check the addons page to find your CNI provider and see whether additional upgrade steps are required.

    This step is not required on additional control plane nodes if the CNI provider runs as a DaemonSet.

For the other control plane nodes

Same as the first control plane node but use:

sudo kubeadm upgrade node

instead of:

sudo kubeadm upgrade apply

Also calling kubeadm upgrade plan and upgrading the CNI provider plugin is no longer needed.

Drain the node

Prepare the node for maintenance by marking it unschedulable and evicting the workloads:

# replace <node-to-drain> with the name of your node you are draining
kubectl drain <node-to-drain> --ignore-daemonsets

Upgrade kubelet and kubectl

  1. Upgrade the kubelet and kubectl:

    # replace x in 1.28.x-* with the latest patch version
apt-mark unhold kubelet kubectl && \
apt-get update && apt-get install -y kubelet='1.28.x-*' kubectl='1.28.x-*' && \
apt-mark hold kubelet kubectl


    # replace x in 1.28.x-* with the latest patch version
yum install -y kubelet-'1.28.x-*' kubectl-'1.28.x-*' --disableexcludes=kubernetes

  2. Restart the kubelet:

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart kubelet

Uncordon the node

Bring the node back online by marking it schedulable:

# replace <node-to-uncordon> with the name of your node
kubectl uncordon <node-to-uncordon>

Upgrade worker nodes

The upgrade procedure on worker nodes should be executed one node at a time or few nodes at a time, without compromising the minimum required capacity for running your workloads.

The following pages show how to upgrade Linux and Windows worker nodes:

Verify the status of the cluster

After the kubelet is upgraded on all nodes verify that all nodes are available again by running the following command from anywhere kubectl can access the cluster:

kubectl get nodes

The STATUS column should show Ready for all your nodes, and the version number should be updated.

Recovering from a failure state

If kubeadm upgrade fails and does not roll back, for example because of an unexpected shutdown during execution, you can run kubeadm upgrade again. This command is idempotent and eventually makes sure that the actual state is the desired state you declare.

To recover from a bad state, you can also run kubeadm upgrade apply --force without changing the version that your cluster is running.

During upgrade kubeadm writes the following backup folders under /etc/kubernetes/tmp:

  • kubeadm-backup-etcd-<date>-<time>
  • kubeadm-backup-manifests-<date>-<time>

kubeadm-backup-etcd contains a backup of the local etcd member data for this control plane Node. In case of an etcd upgrade failure and if the automatic rollback does not work, the contents of this folder can be manually restored in /var/lib/etcd. In case external etcd is used this backup folder will be empty.

kubeadm-backup-manifests contains a backup of the static Pod manifest files for this control plane Node. In case of a upgrade failure and if the automatic rollback does not work, the contents of this folder can be manually restored in /etc/kubernetes/manifests. If for some reason there is no difference between a pre-upgrade and post-upgrade manifest file for a certain component, a backup file for it will not be written.

How it works

kubeadm upgrade apply does the following:

  • Checks that your cluster is in an upgradeable state:
    • The API server is reachable
    • All nodes are in the Ready state
    • The control plane is healthy
  • Enforces the version skew policies.
  • Makes sure the control plane images are available or available to pull to the machine.
  • Generates replacements and/or uses user supplied overwrites if component configs require version upgrades.
  • Upgrades the control plane components or rollbacks if any of them fails to come up.
  • Applies the new CoreDNS and kube-proxy manifests and makes sure that all necessary RBAC rules are created.
  • Creates new certificate and key files of the API server and backs up old files if they're about to expire in 180 days.

kubeadm upgrade node does the following on additional control plane nodes:

  • Fetches the kubeadm ClusterConfiguration from the cluster.
  • Optionally backups the kube-apiserver certificate.
  • Upgrades the static Pod manifests for the control plane components.
  • Upgrades the kubelet configuration for this node.

kubeadm upgrade node does the following on worker nodes:

  • Fetches the kubeadm ClusterConfiguration from the cluster.
  • Upgrades the kubelet configuration for this node.

5 - Upgrading Linux nodes

This page explains how to upgrade a Linux Worker Nodes created with kubeadm.

Before you begin

You need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. It is recommended to run this tutorial on a cluster with at least two nodes that are not acting as control plane hosts. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using minikube or you can use one of these Kubernetes playgrounds:

To check the version, enter kubectl version.

Changing the package repository

If you're using the community-owned package repositories (pkgs.k8s.io), you need to enable the package repository for the desired Kubernetes minor release. This is explained in Changing the Kubernetes package repository document.

Upgrading worker nodes

Upgrade kubeadm

Upgrade kubeadm:

# replace x in 1.28.x-* with the latest patch version
apt-mark unhold kubeadm && \
apt-get update && apt-get install -y kubeadm='1.28.x-*' && \
apt-mark hold kubeadm


# replace x in 1.28.x-* with the latest patch version
yum install -y kubeadm-'1.28.x-*' --disableexcludes=kubernetes

Call "kubeadm upgrade"

For worker nodes this upgrades the local kubelet configuration:

sudo kubeadm upgrade node

Drain the node

Prepare the node for maintenance by marking it unschedulable and evicting the workloads:

# replace <node-to-drain> with the name of your node you are draining
kubectl drain <node-to-drain> --ignore-daemonsets

Upgrade kubelet and kubectl

  1. Upgrade the kubelet and kubectl:

    # replace x in 1.28.x-* with the latest patch version
apt-mark unhold kubelet kubectl && \
apt-get update && apt-get install -y kubelet='1.28.x-*' kubectl='1.28.x-*' && \
apt-mark hold kubelet kubectl


    # replace x in 1.28.x-* with the latest patch version
yum install -y kubelet-'1.28.x-*' kubectl-'1.28.x-*' --disableexcludes=kubernetes

  2. Restart the kubelet:

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart kubelet

Uncordon the node

Bring the node back online by marking it schedulable:

# replace <node-to-uncordon> with the name of your node
kubectl uncordon <node-to-uncordon>

What's next

6 - Upgrading Windows nodes

FEATURE STATE: Kubernetes v1.18 [beta]

This page explains how to upgrade a Windows node created with kubeadm.

Before you begin

You need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. It is recommended to run this tutorial on a cluster with at least two nodes that are not acting as control plane hosts. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using minikube or you can use one of these Kubernetes playgrounds:

Your Kubernetes server must be at or later than version 1.17. To check the version, enter kubectl version.

Upgrading worker nodes

Upgrade kubeadm

  1. From the Windows node, upgrade kubeadm:

    # replace 1.28.4 with your desired version
curl.exe -Lo <path-to-kubeadm.exe>  "https://dl.k8s.io/v1.28.4/bin/windows/amd64/kubeadm.exe"

Drain the node

  1. From a machine with access to the Kubernetes API, prepare the node for maintenance by marking it unschedulable and evicting the workloads:

    # replace <node-to-drain> with the name of your node you are draining
kubectl drain <node-to-drain> --ignore-daemonsets

    You should see output similar to this:

    node/ip-172-31-85-18 cordoned
node/ip-172-31-85-18 drained

Upgrade the kubelet configuration

  1. From the Windows node, call the following command to sync new kubelet configuration:

    kubeadm upgrade node

Upgrade kubelet and kube-proxy

  1. From the Windows node, upgrade and restart the kubelet:

    stop-service kubelet
curl.exe -Lo <path-to-kubelet.exe> "https://dl.k8s.io/v1.28.4/bin/windows/amd64/kubelet.exe"
restart-service kubelet

  2. From the Windows node, upgrade and restart the kube-proxy.

    stop-service kube-proxy
curl.exe -Lo <path-to-kube-proxy.exe> "https://dl.k8s.io/v1.28.4/bin/windows/amd64/kube-proxy.exe"
restart-service kube-proxy

Uncordon the node

  1. From a machine with access to the Kubernetes API, bring the node back online by marking it schedulable:

    # replace <node-to-drain> with the name of your node
kubectl uncordon <node-to-drain>

What's next

7 - Changing The Kubernetes Package Repository

This page explains how to enable a package repository for the desired Kubernetes minor release upon upgrading a cluster. This is only needed for users of the community-owned package repositories hosted at pkgs.k8s.io. Unlike the legacy package repositories, the community-owned package repositories are structured in a way that there's a dedicated package repository for each Kubernetes minor version.

Before you begin

This document assumes that you're already using the community-owned package repositories (pkgs.k8s.io). If that's not the case, it's strongly recommended to migrate to the community-owned package repositories as described in the official announcement.

Verifying if the Kubernetes package repositories are used

If you're unsure whether you're using the community-owned package repositories or the legacy package repositories, take the following steps to verify:

Print the contents of the file that defines the Kubernetes apt repository:

# On your system, this configuration file could have a different name
pager /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list

If you see a line similar to:

deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.27/deb/ /

You're using the Kubernetes package repositories and this guide applies to you. Otherwise, it's strongly recommended to migrate to the Kubernetes package repositories as described in the official announcement.

Print the contents of the file that defines the Kubernetes yum repository:

# On your system, this configuration file could have a different name
cat /etc/yum.repos.d/kubernetes.repo

If you see a baseurl similar to the baseurl in the output below:

[kubernetes]
name=Kubernetes
baseurl=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.27/rpm/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.27/rpm/repodata/repomd.xml.key
exclude=kubelet kubeadm kubectl

You're using the Kubernetes package repositories and this guide applies to you. Otherwise, it's strongly recommended to migrate to the Kubernetes package repositories as described in the official announcement.

Print the contents of the file that defines the Kubernetes zypper repository:

# On your system, this configuration file could have a different name
cat /etc/zypp/repos.d/kubernetes.repo

If you see a baseurl similar to the baseurl in the output below:

[kubernetes]
name=Kubernetes
baseurl=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.27/rpm/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.27/rpm/repodata/repomd.xml.key
exclude=kubelet kubeadm kubectl

You're using the Kubernetes package repositories and this guide applies to you. Otherwise, it's strongly recommended to migrate to the Kubernetes package repositories as described in the official announcement.

Switching to another Kubernetes package repository

This step should be done upon upgrading from one to another Kubernetes minor release in order to get access to the packages of the desired Kubernetes minor version.

  1. Open the file that defines the Kubernetes apt repository using a text editor of your choice:

    nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list

    You should see a single line with the URL that contains your current Kubernetes minor version. For example, if you're using v1.27, you should see this:

    deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.27/deb/ /

  2. Change the version in the URL to the next available minor release, for example:

    deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.28/deb/ /

  3. Save the file and exit your text editor. Continue following the relevant upgrade instructions.

  1. Open the file that defines the Kubernetes yum repository using a text editor of your choice:

    nano /etc/yum.repos.d/kubernetes.repo

    You should see a file with two URLs that contain your current Kubernetes minor version. For example, if you're using v1.27, you should see this:

    [kubernetes]
name=Kubernetes
baseurl=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.27/rpm/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.27/rpm/repodata/repomd.xml.key
exclude=kubelet kubeadm kubectl cri-tools kubernetes-cni

  2. Change the version in these URLs to the next available minor release, for example:

    [kubernetes]
name=Kubernetes
baseurl=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/vv1.28/rpm/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/vv1.28/rpm/repodata/repomd.xml.key
exclude=kubelet kubeadm kubectl cri-tools kubernetes-cni

  3. Save the file and exit your text editor. Continue following the relevant upgrade instructions.

What's next