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DNS Operator in OpenShift Container Platform - Networking Operators | Networking | OKD 4
  1. Documentation
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DNS Operator in OKD

Checking the status of the DNS Operator

You can check the DNS Operator deployment and cluster operator status. The DNS Operator is deployed during installation with a Deployment object.

The DNS Operator implements the dns API from the operator.openshift.io API group. The Operator deploys CoreDNS using a daemon set, creates a service for the daemon set, and configures the kubelet to instruct pods to use the CoreDNS service IP address for name resolution.

Procedure

  1. Use the oc get command to view the deployment status:

    $ oc get -n openshift-dns-operator deployment/dns-operator
    Example output
    NAME           READY     UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
dns-operator   1/1       1            1           23h

  2. Use the oc get command to view the state of the DNS Operator:

    $ oc get clusteroperator/dns
    Example output
    NAME      VERSION     AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE   MESSAGE
dns       4.1.15-0.11  True        False         False      92m

    AVAILABLE, PROGRESSING, and DEGRADED provide information about the status of the Operator. AVAILABLE is True when at least 1 pod from the CoreDNS daemon set reports an Available status condition, and the DNS service has a cluster IP address.

View the default DNS

View the default DNS resource and cluster DNS settings to verify the DNS configuration or troubleshoot DNS issues.

Every new OKD installation has a dns.operator named default.

Procedure

  1. Use the oc describe command to view the default dns:

    $ oc describe dns.operator/default
    Example output
    Name:         default
Namespace:
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  operator.openshift.io/v1
Kind:         DNS
...
Status:
  Cluster Domain:  cluster.local
  Cluster IP:      172.30.0.10
...

    where:

    Status.Cluster Domain

    Specifiecs the base DNS domain used to construct fully qualified pod and service domain names.

    Status.Cluster IP

    Specifies the address that pods query for name resolution. The IP is defined as the 10th address in the service CIDR range.

  2. To find the service CIDR range, such as 172.30.0.0/16, of your cluster, use the oc get command:

    $ oc get networks.config/cluster -o jsonpath='{$.status.serviceNetwork}'

Using DNS forwarding

Configure DNS forwarding servers and upstream resolvers for the cluster.

You can use DNS forwarding to override the default forwarding configuration in the /etc/resolv.conf file in the following ways:

  • Specify name servers (spec.servers) for every zone. If the forwarded zone is the ingress domain managed by OKD, then the upstream name server must be authorized for the domain.

  • Provide a list of upstream DNS servers (spec.upstreamResolvers).

  • Change the default forwarding policy.

A DNS forwarding configuration for the default domain can have both the default servers specified in the /etc/resolv.conf file and the upstream DNS servers.

During pod creation, Kubernetes uses the /etc/resolv.conf file that exists on a node. If you modify the /etc/resolv.conf file on a host node, the changes do not propagate to the /etc/resolv.conf file that exists in a container. You must re-create the container for changes to take effect.
Procedure

  • Modify the DNS Operator object named default:

    $ oc edit dns.operator/default

    After you issue the previous command, the Operator creates and updates the config map named dns-default with additional server configuration blocks based on spec.servers. If none of the servers have a zone that matches the query, then name resolution falls back to the upstream DNS servers.

    Configuring DNS forwarding
    apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: DNS
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  cache:
    negativeTTL: 0s
    positiveTTL: 0s
  logLevel: Normal
  nodePlacement: {}
  operatorLogLevel: Normal
  servers:
  - name: example-server
    zones:
    - example.com
    forwardPlugin:
      policy: Random
      upstreams:
      - 1.1.1.1
      - 2.2.2.2:5353
  upstreamResolvers:
    policy: Random
    protocolStrategy: ""
    transportConfig: {}
    upstreams:
    - type: SystemResolvConf
    - type: Network
      address: 1.2.3.4
      port: 53
    status:
      clusterDomain: cluster.local
      clusterIP: x.y.z.10
      conditions:
...

    where:

    spec.servers.name

    Must comply with the rfc6335 service name syntax.

    spec.servers.zones

    Must conform to the rfc1123 subdomain syntax. The cluster domain cluster.local is invalid for zones.

    spec.servers.forwardPlugin.policy

    Specifies the upstream selection policy. Defaults to Random; allowed values are RoundRobin and Sequential.

    spec.servers.forwardPlugin.upstreams

    Must provide no more than 15 upstreams entries per forwardPlugin.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.upstreams

    Specifies an upstreamResolvers to override the default forwarding policy and forward DNS resolution to the specified DNS resolvers (upstream resolvers) for the default domain. You can use this field when you need custom upstream resolvers; otherwise queries use the servers declared in /etc/resolv.conf.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.policy

    Specifies the upstream selection order. Defaults to Sequential; allowed values are Random, RoundRobin, and Sequential.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.protocolStrategy

    Specify TCP to force the protocol to use for upstream DNS requests, even if the request uses UDP. Valid values are TCP and omitted. When omitted, the platform chooses a default, normally the protocol of the original client request.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.transportConfig

    Specifies the transport type, server name, and optional custom CA or CA bundle to use when forwarding DNS requests to an upstream resolver.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.upstreams.type

    Specifies two types of upstreams: SystemResolvConf or Network. SystemResolvConf configures the upstream to use /etc/resolv.conf and Network defines a Networkresolver. You can specify one or both.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.upstreams.address

    Specifies a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address when type is Network.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.upstreams.port

    Specifies an optional field to provide a port number. Valid values are between 1 and 65535; defaults to 853 when omitted.

Additional resources

Checking DNS Operator status

You can inspect the status and view the details of the DNS Operator by using the oc describe command.

Procedure

  • View the status of the DNS Operator:

    $ oc describe clusteroperators/dns

    Though the messages and spelling might vary in a specific release, the expected status output looks like:

    Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  <date>
    Message:               DNS "default" is available.
    Reason:                AsExpected
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Available
    Last Transition Time:  <date>
    Message:               Desired and current number of DNSes are equal
    Reason:                AsExpected
    Status:                False
    Type:                  Progressing
    Last Transition Time:  <date>
    Reason:                DNSNotDegraded
    Status:                False
    Type:                  Degraded
    Last Transition Time:  <date>
    Message:               DNS default is upgradeable: DNS Operator can be upgraded
    Reason:                DNSUpgradeable
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Upgradeable

Viewing DNS Operator logs

You can view DNS Operator logs to troubleshoot DNS issues, verify configuration changes, and monitor activity by using the by using the oc logs command.

Procedure

  • View the logs of the DNS Operator by running the following command:

    $ oc logs -n openshift-dns-operator deployment/dns-operator -c dns-operator

Setting the CoreDNS log level

Set CoreDNS log levels to control the detail of DNS error logging.

Log levels for CoreDNS and the CoreDNS Operator are set by using different methods. You can configure the CoreDNS log level to determine the amount of detail in logged error messages. The valid values for CoreDNS log level are Normal, Debug, and Trace. The default logLevel is Normal.

The CoreDNS error log level is always enabled. The following log level settings report different error responses:

  • logLevel: Normal enables the "errors" class: log . { class error }.

  • logLevel: Debug enables the "denial" class: log . { class denial error }.

  • logLevel: Trace enables the "all" class: log . { class all }.
Procedure

  • To set logLevel to Debug, enter the following command:

    $ oc patch dnses.operator.openshift.io/default -p '{"spec":{"logLevel":"Debug"}}' --type=merge

  • To set logLevel to Trace, enter the following command:

    $ oc patch dnses.operator.openshift.io/default -p '{"spec":{"logLevel":"Trace"}}' --type=merge
Verification

  • To ensure the desired log level was set, check the config map:

    $ oc get configmap/dns-default -n openshift-dns -o yaml

    For example, after setting the logLevel to Trace, you should see this stanza in each server block:

    errors
log . {
    class all
}

Viewing the CoreDNS logs

You can view CoreDNS pod logs to troubleshoot DNS issues by using the oc logs command.

Procedure

  • View the logs of a specific CoreDNS pod by entering the following command:

    $ oc -n openshift-dns logs -c dns <core_dns_pod_name>

  • Follow the logs of all CoreDNS pods by entering the following command:

    $ oc -n openshift-dns logs -c dns -l dns.operator.openshift.io/daemonset-dns=default -f --max-log-requests=<number> (1)

    • <number>: Specifies the number of DNS pods to stream logs from. The maximum is 6.

Setting the CoreDNS Operator log level

You can configure the Operator log level to quickly track down OpenShift DNS issues.

The valid values for operatorLogLevel are Normal, Debug, and Trace. Trace has the most detailed information. The default operatorlogLevel is Normal. There are seven logging levels for Operator issues: Trace, Debug, Info, Warning, Error, Unrecoverable, and Panic. After the logging level is set, log entries with that severity or anything above it will be logged.

  • operatorLogLevel: "Normal" sets logrus.SetLogLevel("Info").

  • operatorLogLevel: "Debug" sets logrus.SetLogLevel("Debug").

  • operatorLogLevel: "Trace" sets logrus.SetLogLevel("Trace").

Procedure

  • To set operatorLogLevel to Debug, enter the following command:

    $ oc patch dnses.operator.openshift.io/default -p '{"spec":{"operatorLogLevel":"Debug"}}' --type=merge

  • To set operatorLogLevel to Trace, enter the following command:

    $ oc patch dnses.operator.openshift.io/default -p '{"spec":{"operatorLogLevel":"Trace"}}' --type=merge
Verification

  1. To review the resulting change, enter the following command:

    $ oc get dnses.operator -A -oyaml

    You should see two log level entries. The operatorLogLevel applies to OpenShift DNS Operator issues, and the logLevel applies to the daemonset of CoreDNS pods:

     logLevel: Trace
 operatorLogLevel: Debug

  2. To review the logs for the daemonset, enter the following command:

    $ oc logs -n openshift-dns ds/dns-default

Tuning the CoreDNS cache

For CoreDNS, you can configure the maximum duration of both successful or unsuccessful caching, also known respectively as positive or negative caching. Tuning the cache duration of DNS query responses can reduce the load for any upstream DNS resolvers.

Setting TTL fields to low values could lead to an increased load on the cluster, any upstream resolvers, or both.
Procedure

  1. Edit the DNS Operator object named default by running the following command:

    $ oc edit dns.operator.openshift.io/default

  2. Modify the time-to-live (TTL) caching values:

    Configuring DNS caching
    apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: DNS
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  cache:
    positiveTTL: 1h
    negativeTTL: 0.5h10m

    where:

    spec.cache.positiveTTL

    Specifies a string value that is converted to its respective number of seconds by CoreDNS. If this field is omitted, the value is assumed to be 0s and the cluster uses the internal default value of 900s as a fallback.

    spec.cache.negativeTTL

    Specifies a string value that is converted to its respective number of seconds by CoreDNS. If this field is omitted, the value is assumed to be 0s and the cluster uses the internal default value of 30s as a fallback.

Verification

  1. To review the change, look at the config map again by running the following command:

    $ oc get configmap/dns-default -n openshift-dns -o yaml

  2. Verify that you see entries that look like the following example:

           cache 3600 {
            denial 9984 2400
        }
Additional resources

Changing the DNS Operator managementState

You can change from the default Managed state to Unmanaged to stop the DNS Operator from managing its resources in order to apply a workaround or test a configuration change.

The DNS Operator manages the CoreDNS component to provide a name resolution service for pods and services in the cluster. The managementState of the DNS Operator is set to Managed by default, which means that the DNS Operator is actively managing its resources. You can change it to Unmanaged, which means the DNS Operator is not managing its resources.

The following are use cases for changing the DNS Operator managementState:

  • You are a developer and want to test a configuration change to see if it fixes an issue in CoreDNS. You can stop the DNS Operator from overwriting the configuration change by setting the managementState to Unmanaged.

  • You are a cluster administrator and have reported an issue with CoreDNS, but need to apply a workaround until the issue is fixed. You can set the managementState field of the DNS Operator to Unmanaged to apply the workaround.

You cannot upgrade while the managementState is set to Unmanaged.
Procedure

  1. Change managementState to Unmanaged in the DNS Operator by running the following command:

    oc patch dns.operator.openshift.io default --type merge --patch '{"spec":{"managementState":"Unmanaged"}}'

  2. Review managementState of the DNS Operator by using the jsonpath command-line JSON parser:

    $ oc get dns.operator.openshift.io default -ojsonpath='{.spec.managementState}'

Controlling DNS pod placement

Control where CoreDNS and node-resolver pods run by using taints, tolerations, and selectors.

The DNS Operator has two daemon sets: one for CoreDNS called dns-default and one for managing the /etc/hosts file called node-resolver.

You can assign and run CoreDNS pods on specified nodes. For example, if the cluster administrator has configured security policies that prohibit communication between pairs of nodes, you can configure CoreDNS pods to run on a restricted set of nodes.

DNS service is available to all pods if the following circumstances are true:

  • DNS pods are running on some nodes in the cluster.

  • The nodes on which DNS pods are not running have network connectivity to nodes on which DNS pods are running,

The node-resolver daemon set must run on every node host because it adds an entry for the cluster image registry to support pulling images. The node-resolver pods have only one job: to look up the image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc service’s cluster IP address and add it to /etc/hosts on the node host so that the container runtime can resolve the service name.

As a cluster administrator, you can use a custom node selector to configure the daemon set for CoreDNS to run or not run on certain nodes.

Prerequisites

  • You installed the oc CLI.

  • You are logged in to the cluster as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

  • Your DNS Operator managementState is set to Managed.

Procedure

  • To allow the daemon set for CoreDNS to run on certain nodes, configure a taint and toleration:

    1. Set a taint on the nodes that you want to control DNS pod placement by entering the following command:

      $ oc adm taint nodes <node_name> dns-only=abc:NoExecute

      • Replace <node_name> with the actual name of the node.

    2. Modify the DNS Operator object named default to include the corresponding toleration by entering the following command:

      $ oc edit dns.operator/default

    3. Specify a taint key and a toleration for the taint. The following toleration matches the taint set on the nodes.

      apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: DNS
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  nodePlacement:
    tolerations:
    - effect: NoExecute
      key: "dns-only"
      operator: Equal
      value: abc
      tolerationSeconds: 3600

      • If the key field is set to dns-only, it can be tolerated indefinitely.

      • The tolerationSeconds field is optional.

    4. Optional: To specify node placement using a node selector, modify the default DNS Operator:

      1. Edit the DNS Operator object named default to include a node selector:

        apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: DNS
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  nodePlacement:
    nodeSelector:
      node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane: ""

        • The nodeselector field in the example ensures that the CoreDNS pods run only on control plane nodes.

Configuring DNS forwarding with TLS

Configure DNS forwarding with TLS to secure queries to upstream resolvers.

When working in a highly regulated environment, you might need the ability to secure DNS traffic when forwarding requests to upstream resolvers so that you can ensure additional DNS traffic and data privacy.

Be aware that CoreDNS caches forwarded connections for 10 seconds. CoreDNS will hold a TCP connection open for those 10 seconds if no request is issued.

With large clusters, ensure that your DNS server is aware that it might get many new connections to hold open because you can initiate a connection per node. Set up your DNS hierarchy accordingly to avoid performance issues.
Procedure

  1. Modify the DNS Operator object named default:

    $ oc edit dns.operator/default

    Cluster administrators can configure transport layer security (TLS) for forwarded DNS queries.

    Configuring DNS forwarding with TLS
    apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: DNS
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  servers:
  - name: example_server
    zones:
    - example.com
    forwardPlugin:
      transportConfig:
        transport: TLS
        tls:
          caBundle:
            name: mycacert
          serverName: dnstls.example.com
      policy: Random
      upstreams:
      - 1.1.1.1
      - 2.2.2.2:5353
  upstreamResolvers:
    transportConfig:
      transport: TLS
      tls:
        caBundle:
          name: mycacert
        serverName: dnstls.example.com
    upstreams:
    - type: Network
      address: 1.2.3.4
      port: 53

    where:

    spec.servers.name

    Must comply with the rfc6335 service name syntax.

    spec.servers.zones

    Must conform to the rfc1123 subdomain syntax. The cluster domain, cluster.local, is invalid for zones.

    spec.servers.forwardPlugin.transportConfig.transport

    Must be set to TLS when configuring TLS forwarding.

    spec.servers.forwardPlugin.transportConfig.tls.serverName

    Must be set to the server name indication (SNI) server name used to validate the upstream TLS certificate.

    spec.servers.forwardPlugin.policy

    Specifies the upstream selection policy. Defaults to Random; valid values are RoundRobin and Sequential.

    spec.servers.forwardPlugin.upstreams

    Must provide upstream resolvers; maximum 15 entries per forwardPlugin.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.upstreams

    Specifies an optional field to override the default policy for the default domain. Use the Network type only when TLS is enabled and provide an IP address. If omitted, queries use /etc/resolv.conf.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.upstreams.address

    Must be a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address.

    spec.upstreamResolvers.upstreams.port

    Specifies an optional field to provide a port number. Valid values are between 1 and 65535; defaults to 853 when omitted.

    If servers is undefined or invalid, the config map only contains the default server.
Verification

  1. View the config map:

    $ oc get configmap/dns-default -n openshift-dns -o yaml
    Sample DNS ConfigMap based on TLS forwarding example
    apiVersion: v1
data:
  Corefile: |
    example.com:5353 {
        forward . 1.1.1.1 2.2.2.2:5353
    }
    bar.com:5353 example.com:5353 {
      forward . 3.3.3.3 4.4.4.4:5454
    }
    .:5353 {
        errors
        health
        kubernetes cluster.local in-addr.arpa ip6.arpa {
            pods insecure
            upstream
            fallthrough in-addr.arpa ip6.arpa
        }
        prometheus :9153
        forward . /etc/resolv.conf 1.2.3.4:53 {
            policy Random
        }
        cache 30
        reload
    }
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  labels:
    dns.operator.openshift.io/owning-dns: default
  name: dns-default
  namespace: openshift-dns

    • The data.Corefile key contains the Corefile configuration for the DNS server. Changes to the forwardPlugin triggers a rolling update of the CoreDNS daemon set.

Additional resources