Component Replication
Background
In KubeVela, we can dispatch resources across the clusters using deploy workflow step and override, topology
policy.
But projects like OpenYurt have finer-grained division like node pool. This requires to dispatch
some similar resources to the same cluster.
These resources are called replication. Back to the example of OpenYurt, it can integrate KubeVela and replicate the
resources then dispatch them to the different node pool.
Usage
To replicate component, replication policy is added as a built-in policy. It can be only used together with deploy
workflow step.
If using replication policy in deploy workflow step, a new field context.replicaKey will be added to when
rendering the component. You can use this field to dispatch the resources to the same cluster with
different replicaKey.
replication policy is only supported in KubeVela version 1.6.0+.
context.replicaKey is always used in metadata.name in ComponentDefinition or TraitDefinition when dispatching
resources to avoid name conflict. We'll see it later in the example.
Example
The following ComponentDefinition is an example which make use of replication policy. It uses context.replicaKey to
add suffixes to resource names.
import (
    "strconv"
)
"replica-webservice": {
    alias: ""
    annotations: {}
    attributes: {
        status: {}
        workload: {
            definition: {
                apiVersion: "apps/v1"
                kind:       "Deployment"
            }
            type: "deployments.apps"
        }
    }
    description: "Webservice, but can be replicated"
    labels: {}
    type: "component"
}
template: {
    output: {
        apiVersion: "apps/v1"
        kind:       "Deployment"
        metadata: {
            if context.replicaKey != _|_ {
                name: context.name + "-" + context.replicaKey
            }
            if context.replicaKey == _|_ {
                name: context.name
            }
        }
        spec: {
            selector: matchLabels: {
                "app.oam.dev/component": context.name
                if context.replicaKey != _|_ {
                    "app.oam.dev/replicaKey": context.replicaKey
                }
            }
            template: {
                metadata: {
                    labels: {
                        if parameter.labels != _|_ {
                            parameter.labels
                        }
                        "app.oam.dev/name":      context.appName
                        "app.oam.dev/component": context.name
                        if context.replicaKey != _|_ {
                            "app.oam.dev/replicaKey": context.replicaKey
                        }
                    }
                }
                spec: {
                    containers: [{
                        name:  context.name
                        image: parameter.image
                        if parameter["ports"] != _|_ {
                            ports: [ for v in parameter.ports {
                                {
                                    containerPort: v.port
                                    name:          "port-" + strconv.FormatInt(v.port, 10)
                                }}]
                        }
                    }]
                }
            }
        }
    }
    exposePorts: [
        for v in parameter.ports {
            port:       v.port
            targetPort: v.port
            name:       "port-" + strconv.FormatInt(v.port, 10)
        },
    ]
    outputs: {
        if len(exposePorts) != 0 {
            webserviceExpose: {
                apiVersion: "v1"
                kind:       "Service"
                metadata: {
                    if context.replicaKey != _|_ {
                        name: context.name + "-" + context.replicaKey
                    }
                    if context.replicaKey == _|_ {
                        name: context.name
                    }
                }
                spec: {
                    selector: {
                        "app.oam.dev/component": context.name
                        if context.replicaKey != _|_ {
                            "app.oam.dev/replicaKey": context.replicaKey
                        }
                    }
                    ports: exposePorts
                }
            }
        }
    }
    parameter: {
        // +usage=Which image would you like to use for your service
        // +short=i
        image: string
        // +usage=Which ports do you want customer traffic sent to, defaults to 80
        ports?: [...{
            // +usage=Number of port to expose on the pod's IP address
            port: int
        }]
    }
}
Copy the definition to file replica-webservice.cue and apply the definition:
vela def apply replica-webservice.cue
Then user can apply application below. Replication policy is declared in application.spec.policies. And it is used in
deploy step to influence its result.
apiVersion: core.oam.dev/v1beta1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: app-replication-policy
spec:
  components:
    - name: hello-rep
      type: replica-webservice
      properties:
        image: crccheck/hello-world
        ports:
          - port: 80
            expose: true
  policies:
    - name: replication-default
      type: replication
      properties:
        keys: [ "beijing","hangzhou" ]
        selector: [ "hello-rep" ]
  workflow:
    steps:
      - name: deploy-with-rep
        type: deploy
        properties:
          policies: [ "replication-default" ]
Then application will dispatch two deployments and two services:
vela status app-replication-policy --detail --tree
CLUSTER    NAMESPACE  RESOURCE                      STATUS    APPLY_TIME          DETAIL
local  ─── default─┬─ Service/hello-rep-beijing     updated   2022-11-03 11:26:03 Type: ClusterIP  Cluster-IP: 10.43.26.211  External-IP: <none>
                   │                                                              Port(s): 80/TCP  Age: 3h10m
                   ├─ Service/hello-rep-hangzhou    updated   2022-11-03 11:26:03 Type: ClusterIP  Cluster-IP: 10.43.36.44  External-IP: <none>
                   │                                                              Port(s): 80/TCP  Age: 3h10m
                   ├─ Deployment/hello-rep-beijing  updated   2022-11-03 11:26:03 Ready: 1/1  Up-to-date: 1  Available: 1  Age: 3h10m
                   └─ Deployment/hello-rep-hangzhou updated   2022-11-03 11:26:03 Ready: 1/1  Up-to-date: 1  Available: 1  Age: 3h10m
Notice
There are three policies that can use in deploy step: topology, override and replication. They can be used
together to both replicate component and dispatch them to different clusters. Here is the rules when they are use
together:
- The applying order of policies is 
topology->override->replication. More information can be found in Multi cluster Applicationtopologypick up which cluster to dispatch. If not used, application deploy resources to local cluster by default.overridemodifies the component properties. If not used, no properties will be changed.replicationwill turn one component into multiple ones.
 
By default, the hub cluster where KubeVela locates is registered as the local cluster. You can use it like a managed cluster in spite that you cannot detach it or modify it.
overrideandreplicationcan be used together. Butoverridewill affect all replication of the component. It is mainly used to modify component properties for different clusters.