OpenShift 4.5: Node Improvements

In Red Hat OpenShift 4.5, we enhanced Node views to encompass at-a-glance views right from the Console. This included surfacing key Node data in the List view, offering a new Overview to provide insights into critical data, and adding direct access to your Node with a new Terminal view.

List View

Additional columns are now surfaced in the Node list view, including Pods, CPU, Memory, Filesystem, and Created date, surfacing more node-related critical data to the forefront. The Status column now surfaces degraded status conditions in addition to the other status conditions shown pre-4.5. Lastly, the toolbar within the list view has been updated to include filtering by various statuses and roles as well as filtering by name or label.

Overview

Similar to the Cluster and Project overviews that were introduced in previous OpenShift releases, the new Node Overview provides an at-a-glance view with critical data including Node Details, Inventory, Status, Utilization, and Activity.

Status updates

The Node’s status and Health Check statuses (if configured) are represented in the Node Overview’s Status card. If Machine Health Checks are configured, the “Health Checks” link will show a popover when clicked with a breakdown of the conditions and accompanying statuses. If there are any warnings, they will be shown in the popover as well as the ability to edit the Health Check. At the bottom of the Status card, alerts regarding CPU and Memory resource requests and limits will be tracked in addition to the rest of the list.

Utilization Updates

Within the Utilization card, resource utilizations are tracked including CPU, Memory, and Filesystem. Limits and requests per resource are both visualized in the graphs as dotted lines and show specific details if hovered over. Depending on the total resource limit and total requests, specific status messages will appear in the Status card depending on the percentage of Node capacity reached. Each message is accompanied by a “See breakdown” link that brings up a popover if clicked on with more information about the resource’s utilization.

Terminal

The new Terminal view provides direct access to the Node without having to leave the Console. It streamlines the node troubleshooting and debugging processes for admins. You can access the view by going to the Terminal tab alongside the rest of the Node tabs, such as, Details, YAML, and others. The Terminal view allows you to access Node logs through journalctl, enabling you to view system logs collected by systemd.

Bare Metal

Overview highlights

If a Bare Metal cluster is in use, there are key highlights added to the Overview page related to the cluster. One of them is the underlying BareMetalHost resource (the physical computer powering this “node”), which is displayed in the Details card. Another addition to the view is information on Disks, NICs, and CPUs, which are displayed in the Inventory card.

In summary, the Node Overview enhancements in 4.5 allow quick and easy access to critical data and Nodes themselves. Status and utilization insights are all provided within one view, making it easy to get an at-a-glance look at what is happening within your Node. And finally, debugging and troubleshooting Nodes is easier than ever with direct access to the Terminal.

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