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Version: 22.4

k8s

Overview​

Kubernetes is the leading technology for deployment and orchestration of containerized workloads in cloud-native environments.

Tower streamlines the deployment of Nextflow pipelines into Kubernetes both for cloud-based and on-prem clusters.

The following instructions are for a generic Kubernetes distribution. If you are using Amazon EKS or Google GKE, see the corresponding documentation pages.

Cluster Preparation​

This section describes the steps required to prepare your Kubernetes cluster for the deployment of Nextflow pipelines using Tower. It is assumed the cluster itself has already been created and you have administrative privileges.

  1. Verify the connection to your Kubernetes cluster:

    kubectl cluster-info

  2. Create the Tower launcher:

    kubectl apply -f https://help.tower.nf/22.1/_templates/k8s/tower-launcher.yml

    This command creates a service account called tower-launcher-sa, and associated role bindings. Everything is contained in a namespace called tower-nf. The service account is used by Tower to launch Nextflow pipelines. Use this service account name when setting up the compute environment for this Kubernetes cluster in Tower.

  3. Create persistent storage. Tower requires a ReadWriteMany persistent volume claim (PVC) that is mounted by all nodes where workflow pods will be dispatched.

    You can use any storage solution that supports the ReadWriteMany access mode. The setup of this storage is beyond the scope of these instructions, because the right solution for you will depend on what is available for your infrastructure or cloud vendor (NFS, GlusterFS, CephFS, Amazon FSx, etc). Ask your cluster administrator for more information.

Compute Environment​

  1. In a workspace, select Compute Environments and then New Environment.

  2. Enter a descriptive name for this environment, e.g. "K8s cluster".

  3. Select Kubernetes as the target platform.

  4. Select your Kubernetes credentials or add new credentials by selecting the + button.

  5. Enter a name, e.g. "K8s Credentials".

  6. Enter the Service account token.

    The token can be obtained with the following command:

    SECRET=$(kubectl get secrets | grep <SERVICE-ACCOUNT-NAME> | cut -f1 -d ' ')
    kubectl describe secret $SECRET | grep -E '^token' | cut -f2 -d':' | tr -d '\t'

    Replace <SERVICE-ACCOUNT-NAME> with the name of the service account created in the cluster preparation instructions, which is tower-launcher-sa by default.

  7. Enter the Master server URL.

    The master server URL can be obtained with the following command:

    kubectl cluster-info

    It can also be found in your ~/.kube/config file under the server field corresponding to your cluster.

  8. Specify the SSL Certificate to authenticate your connection.

    The certificate data can be found in your ~/.kube/config file. It is the certificate-authority-data field corresponding to your cluster.

  9. Specify the Namespace created in the cluster preparation instructions, which is tower-nf by default.

  10. Specify the Head service account created in the cluster preparation instructions, which is tower-launcher-sa by default.

  11. Specify the Storage claim created in the cluster preparation instructions, which serves as a scratch filesystem for Nextflow pipelines. In each of the provided examples, the storage claim is called tower-scratch.

  12. You can use the Environment variables option to specify custom environment variables for the Head job and/or Compute jobs.

  13. Configure any advanced options described below, as needed.

  14. Select Create to finalize the compute environment setup.

Jump to the documentation for Launching Pipelines.

Advanced options​

  • The Storage mount path is the file system path where the Storage claim is mounted (default: /scratch).

  • The Work directory is the file system path used as a working directory by Nextflow pipelines. It must be the storage mount path (default) or a subdirectory of it.

  • The Compute service account is the service account used by Nextflow to submit tasks (default: the default account in the given namespace).

  • The Pod cleanup policy determines when terminated pods should be deleted.

  • You can use Custom head pod specs to provide custom options for the Nextflow workflow pod (nodeSelector, affinity, etc). For example:

    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        disktype: ssd

  • You can use Custom service pod specs to provide custom options for the compute environment pod. See above for an example.

  • You can use Head Job CPUs and Head Job Memory to specify the hardware resources allocated for the Nextflow workflow pod.