Kubernetes at the Far Edge: Harnessing IoT with Lightweight Clusters and Akri

Watch talk on YouTube

The far edge

  • Resource constraint computing
  • Limited connectivity
  • More and smaller clusters

Why kubernetes

  • Automation, Scalability and resilience
  • Workload Portability through containers
  • Orchestration
  • Declarative state

Enter k0s

  • Minimal footprint as static binary
  • Simplified edge cluster management

Managing disconnected edge nodes

  • Needs: Remote managability
  • Idea: Centralized, remote Control Plane (that only does control plane)
  • Challenge: Network disconnections (kubernetes usually moves workload)

Akri

https://docs.akri.sh/

  • Discovery of iot devices
  • Exposes IoT devices as k8s resources
  • Handels workload scheduling for leaf devices

Demo

Can be found in the video

Q&A

  • What about image distribution: Depends on networking conditions, k0s supports interna. images delivered as tar.gz
  • What can the broker do: Anything that a pod can interact with
  • What about reboots: Well akri had some problems in the demo, kubelet seems to start the containers again

Random Notes

  • Akri Kinda reminded me of the gpu-operator with extra resouce capacity for attached devices