Scaling

WebLogic Server supports two types of clustering configurations, configured and dynamic. Configured clusters are created by defining each individual Managed Server instance. In dynamic clusters, the Managed Server configurations are generated from a single, shared template.  With dynamic clusters, when additional server capacity is needed, new server instances can be added to the cluster without having to configure them individually. Also, unlike configured clusters, scaling up of dynamic clusters is not restricted to the set of servers defined in the cluster but can be increased based on runtime demands. For more information on how to create, configure, and use dynamic clusters in WebLogic Server, see Dynamic Clusters.

For more in-depth information on support for scaling WebLogic clusters in Kubernetes, see WebLogic Dynamic Clusters on Kubernetes.

The operator provides several ways to initiate scaling of WebLogic clusters, including:

On-demand, updating the Domain directly

The easiest way to scale a WebLogic cluster in Kubernetes is to simply edit the replicas field of a Domain. This can be done by using kubectl. More specifically, you can modify the Domain directly by using the kubectl edit command. For example:

$ kubectl edit domain domain1 -n [namespace]

Here we are editing a Domain named domain1. The kubectl edit command will open the Domain definition in an editor and allow you to modify the replicas value directly. Once committed, the operator will be notified of the change and will immediately attempt to scale the corresponding cluster by reconciling the number of running pods/Managed Server instances with the replicas value specification.

spec:
  ...
  clusters:
    - clusterName: cluster-1
      replicas: 1
  ...

Alternatively, you can specify a default replicas value for all the clusters. If you do this, then you don’t need to list the cluster in the Domain (unless you want to customize another property of the cluster).

spec:
  ...
  replicas: 1
  ...

In addition, see the helper scripts in the Domain lifecycle sample scripts section.

Calling the operator’s REST scale API

Scaling up or scaling down a WebLogic cluster provides increased reliability of customer applications as well as optimization of resource usage. In Kubernetes environments, scaling WebLogic clusters involves scaling the number of corresponding Pods in which Managed Server instances are running. Because the operator manages the life cycle of a WebLogic domain, the operator exposes a REST API that allows an authorized actor to request scaling of a WebLogic cluster.

The following URL format is used for describing the resources for scaling (up and down) a WebLogic cluster:

http(s)://${OPERATOR_ENDPOINT}/operator/<version>/domains/<domainUID>/clusters/<clusterName>/scale

For example:

http(s)://${OPERATOR_ENDPOINT}/operator/v1/domains/domain1/clusters/cluster-1/scale

In this URL format:

  • OPERATOR_ENDPOINT is the host and port of the operator REST endpoint (internal or external).
  • <version> denotes the version of the REST resource.
  • <domainUID> is the unique identifier of the WebLogic domain.
  • <clusterName> is the name of the WebLogic cluster to be scaled.

The /scale REST endpoint accepts an HTTP POST request and the request body supports the JSON "application/json" media type. The request body will be a simple name-value item named managedServerCount; for example:

{
    "managedServerCount": 3
}

The managedServerCount value designates the number of Managed Server instances to scale to. On a successful scaling request, the REST interface will return an HTTP response code of 204 (“No Content”).

When you POST to the /scale REST endpoint, you must send the following headers:

  • X-Requested-By request value. The value is an arbitrary name such as MyClient.
  • Authorization: Bearer request value. The value of the Bearer token is the WebLogic domain service account token.

For example, when using curl:

$ curl -v -k -H X-Requested-By:MyClient -H Content-Type:application/json -H Accept:application/json -H "Authorization:Bearer ..." -d '{ "managedServerCount": 3 }' https://.../scaling

If you omit the header, you’ll get a 400 (bad request) response. If you omit the Bearer Authentication header, then you’ll get a 401 (Unauthorized) response. If the service account or user associated with the Bearer token does not have permission to patch the WebLogic domain resource, then you’ll get a 403 (Forbidden) response.

To resolve a 403 (Forbidden) response, when calling the operator’s REST scaling API, you may need to add the patch request verb to the cluster role associated with the WebLogic domains resource. The example ClusterRole definition below grants get, list, patch and update access to the WebLogic domains resource

kind: ClusterRole
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: weblogic-domain-cluster-role
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["services/status"]
  verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
- apiGroups: ["weblogic.oracle"]
  resources: ["domains"]
  verbs: ["get", "list", "patch", update"]
---
Operator REST endpoints

The WebLogic Kubernetes Operator can expose both an internal and external REST HTTPS endpoint. The internal REST endpoint is only accessible from within the Kubernetes cluster. The external REST endpoint is accessible from outside the Kubernetes cluster. The internal REST endpoint is enabled by default and thus always available, whereas the external REST endpoint is disabled by default and only exposed if explicitly configured. Detailed instructions for configuring the external REST endpoint are available here.

Regardless of which endpoint is being invoked, the URL format for scaling is the same.

What does the operator do in response to a scaling request?

When the operator receives a scaling request, it will:

  • Perform an authentication and authorization check to verify that the specified user is allowed to perform the specified operation on the specified resource.
  • Validate that the specified domain, identified by domainUID, exists.
  • Validate that the WebLogic cluster, identified by clusterName, exists.
  • Verify that the specified WebLogic cluster has a sufficient number of configured servers or sufficient dynamic cluster size to satisfy the scaling request.
  • Initiate scaling by setting the replicas field within the corresponding Domain, which can be done in either:
    • A cluster entry, if defined within its cluster list.
    • At the domain level, if not defined in a cluster entry.

In response to a change to either replicas field, in the Domain, the operator will increase or decrease the number of Managed Server instance Pods to match the desired replica count.

Using a WLDF policy rule and script action to call the operator’s REST scale API

The WebLogic Diagnostics Framework (WLDF) is a suite of services and APIs that collect and surface metrics that provide visibility into server and application performance. To support automatic scaling of WebLogic clusters in Kubernetes, WLDF provides the Policies and Actions component, which lets you write policy expressions for automatically executing scaling operations on a cluster. These policies monitor one or more types of WebLogic Server metrics, such as memory, idle threads, and CPU load. When the configured threshold in a policy is met, the policy is triggered, and the corresponding scaling action is executed. The WebLogic Kubernetes Operator project provides a shell script, scalingAction.sh, for use as a Script Action, which illustrates how to issue a request to the operator’s REST endpoint.

Configure automatic scaling of WebLogic clusters in Kubernetes with WLDF

The following steps are provided as a guideline on how to configure a WLDF Policy and Script Action component for issuing scaling requests to the operator’s REST endpoint:

  1. Copy the scalingAction.sh script to $DOMAIN_HOME/bin/scripts so that it’s accessible within the Administration Server pod. For more information, see Configuring Script Actions in Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server.

  2. Configure a WLDF policy and action as part of a diagnostic module targeted to the Administration Server. For information about configuring the WLDF Policies and Actions component, see Configuring Policies and Actions in Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server.

    a. Configure a WLDF policy with a rule expression for monitoring WebLogic Server metrics, such as memory, idle threads, and CPU load for example.

    b. Configure a WLDF script action and associate the scalingAction.sh script.

Important notes about the configuration properties for the Script Action:

The scalingAction.sh script requires access to the SSL certificate of the operator’s endpoint and this is provided through the environment variable INTERNAL_OPERATOR_CERT.
The operator’s SSL certificate can be found in the internalOperatorCert entry of the operator’s ConfigMap weblogic-operator-cm:

For example:

#> kubectl describe configmap weblogic-operator-cm -n weblogic-operator
...
Data
====
internalOperatorCert:
----
LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBDRVJUSUZJQ0FURS0tLS0tCk1JSUR3akNDQXFxZ0F3SUJBZ0lFRzhYT1N6QU...
...

The scalingAction.sh script accepts a number of customizable parameters:

  • action - scaleUp or scaleDown (Required)

  • domain_uid - WebLogic domain unique identifier (Required)

  • cluster_name - WebLogic cluster name (Required)

  • kubernetes_master - Kubernetes master URL, default=https://kubernetes

Set this to https://${KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST}:${KUBERNETES_SERVICE_PORT} when invoking scalingAction.sh from the Administration Server pod.

  • access_token - Service Account Bearer token for authentication and authorization for access to REST Resources

  • wls_domain_namespace - Kubernetes Namespace in which the WebLogic domain is defined, default=default

  • operator_service_name - WebLogic Kubernetes Operator Service name of the REST endpoint, default=internal-weblogic-operator-service

  • operator_service_account - Kubernetes Service Account name for the operator, default=weblogic-operator

  • operator_namespace – Namespace in which the operator is deployed, default=weblogic-operator

  • scaling_size – Incremental number of Managed Server instances by which to scale up or down, default=1

You can use any of the following tools to configure policies for diagnostic system modules:

  • WebLogic Server Administration Console
  • WLST
  • REST
  • JMX application

A more in-depth description and example on using WLDF’s Policies and Actions component for initiating scaling requests through the operator’s REST endpoint can be found in the blogs:

Create ClusterRoleBindings to allow a namespace user to query WLS Kubernetes cluster information

The script scalingAction.sh, specified in the WLDF script action above, needs the appropriate RBAC permissions granted for the service account user (in the namespace in which the WebLogic domain is deployed) to query the Kubernetes API server for both configuration and runtime information of the Domain. The following is an example YAML file for creating the appropriate Kubernetes ClusterRole bindings:

In the example ClusterRoleBinding definition below, the WebLogic domain is deployed to a namespace weblogic-domain. Replace the namespace value with the name of the namespace in which the WebLogic domain is deployed in your Kubernetes environment.

kind: ClusterRole
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: weblogic-domain-cluster-role
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["services/status"]
  verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
- apiGroups: ["weblogic.oracle"]
  resources: ["domains"]
  verbs: ["get", "list", "patch", update"]
---
#
# creating role-bindings for cluster role
#
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: domain-cluster-rolebinding
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: default
  namespace: weblogic-domain
  apiGroup: ""
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: weblogic-domain-cluster-role
  apiGroup: "rbac.authorization.k8s.io"
---
#
# creating role-bindings
#
kind: RoleBinding
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: weblogic-domain-operator-rolebinding
  namespace: weblogic-operator
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: default
  namespace: weblogic-domain
  apiGroup: ""
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: cluster-admin
  apiGroup: "rbac.authorization.k8s.io"
---

Using a Prometheus alert action to call the operator’s REST scale API

In addition to using the WebLogic Diagnostic Framework for automatic scaling of a dynamic cluster, you can use a third-party monitoring application like Prometheus. Please read the following blog for details about Using Prometheus to Automatically Scale WebLogic Clusters on Kubernetes.

Helpful tips

Debugging scalingAction.sh

The scalingAction.sh script was designed to be executed within a container of the Administration Server Pod because the associated diagnostic module is targeted to the Administration Server.

The easiest way to verify and debug the scalingAction.sh script is to open a shell on the running Administration Server pod and execute the script on the command line.

The following example illustrates how to open a bash shell on a running Administration Server pod named domain1-admin-server and execute the scriptAction.sh script. It assumes that:

  • The domain home is in /u01/oracle/user-projects/domains/domain1 (that is, the domain home is inside an image).
  • The Dockerfile copied scalingAction.sh to /u01/oracle/user-projects/domains/domain1/bin/scripts/scalingAction.sh.
$ kubectl exec -it domain1-admin-server /bin/bash

$ cd /u01/oracle/user-projects/domains/domain1/bin/scripts && \
  ./scalingAction.sh

A log, scalingAction.log, will be generated in the same directory in which the script was executed and can be examined for errors.

Example on accessing the external REST endpoint

The easiest way to test scaling using the external REST endpoint is to use a command-line tool like curl. Using curl to issue an HTTPS scale request requires these mandatory header properties:

  • Bearer Authorization token
  • SSL certificate for the operator’s external REST endpoint
  • X-Requested-By header value

The following shell script is an example of how to issue a scaling request, with the necessary HTTP request header values, using curl. This example assumes the operator and Domain YAML file are configured with the following fields in Kubernetes:

  • Operator properties:
    • externalRestEnabled: true
    • externalRestHttpsPort: 31001
    • operator’s namespace: weblogic-operator
    • operator’s hostname is the same as the host shell script is executed on.
  • Domain fields:
    • WebLogic cluster name: ApplicationCluster
    • Domain UID: domain1
#!/bin/sh
# Setup properties  
ophost=`uname -n`
opport=31001 #externalRestHttpsPort
cluster=cluster-1
size=3 #New cluster size
ns=weblogic-operator # Operator NameSpace
sa=weblogic-operator # Operator ServiceAccount
domainuid=domain1

# Retrieve service account name for given namespace   
sec=`kubectl get serviceaccount ${sa} -n ${ns} -o jsonpath='{.secrets[0].name}'`
#echo "Secret [${sec}]"

# Retrieve base64 encoded secret for the given service account   
enc_token=`kubectl get secret ${sec} -n ${ns} -o jsonpath='{.data.token}'`
#echo "enc_token [${enc_token}]"

# Decode the base64 encoded token  
token=`echo ${enc_token} | base64 --decode`
#echo "token [${token}]"

# clean up any temporary files
rm -rf operator.rest.response.body operator.rest.stderr operator.cert.pem

# Retrieve SSL certificate from the Operator's external REST endpoint
`openssl s_client -showcerts -connect ${ophost}:${opport} </dev/null 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -outform PEM > operator.cert.pem`

echo "Rest EndPoint url https://${ophost}:${opport}/operator/v1/domains/${domainuid}/clusters/${cluster}/scale"

# Issue 'curl' request to external REST endpoint  
curl --noproxy '*' -v --cacert operator.cert.pem \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${token}" \
-H Accept:application/json \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
-H "X-Requested-By:WLDF" \
-d "{\"managedServerCount\": $size}" \
-X POST  https://${ophost}:${opport}/operator/v1/domains/${domainuid}/clusters/${cluster}/scale \
-o operator.rest.response.body \
--stderr operator.rest.stderr