Efficient Cluster Management with Kubernetes’ Hierarchical Namespaces

By Rajesh Gheware

In the ever-evolving landscape of cloud computing, Kubernetes has emerged as a de facto standard for orchestrating containerized applications. However, as Kubernetes clusters grow in complexity and size, managing resources and enforcing access policies across multiple teams can become increasingly challenging. This is where Hierarchical Namespaces (HNC) come into play, offering a new paradigm for efficient cluster management.

The Genesis of Hierarchical Namespaces

Introduced in 2019, Hierarchical Namespaces are a Kubernetes feature developed under the SIG-Multi-tenancy working group. They allow for the creation of a hierarchy within a Kubernetes cluster, enabling a more granular and organized structure for managing resources, access controls, and configurations.

Why Hierarchical Namespaces?

In traditional Kubernetes environments, namespaces are used as a method to divide cluster resources between multiple users or teams. However, as the number of namespaces grows, managing permissions, quotas, and configurations for each namespace can become cumbersome and error-prone. Hierarchical Namespaces address these challenges by allowing namespaces to inherit policies and configurations from their parent namespaces, thereby reducing redundancy and simplifying management tasks.

Key Features of Hierarchical Namespaces

• Inheritance: Child namespaces inherit policies and configurations from their parent, ensuring consistent enforcement across the hierarchy.
• Isolation: Despite the inheritance, namespaces remain isolated where needed, ensuring that resources and sensitive information are not inadvertently shared.
• Simplicity: Hierarchical Namespaces reduce the complexity of managing large numbers of namespaces, making it easier to apply changes across related namespaces.

Setting Up Hierarchical Namespaces

To begin using Hierarchical Namespaces, you must first install the HNC controller on your Kubernetes cluster. This can be done using kubectl:

HNC_VERSION=v1.1.0
HNC_VARIANT=default
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/hierarchical-namespaces/releases/latest/download/hnc-manager.yaml

(
  set -x; cd "$(mktemp -d)" &&
  OS="$(uname | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" &&
  ARCH="$(uname -m | sed -e 's/x86_64/amd64/' -e 's/\(arm\)\(64\)\?.*/\1\2/' -e 's/aarch64$/arm64/')" &&
  KREW="krew-${OS}_${ARCH}" &&
  curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew/releases/latest/download/${KREW}.tar.gz" &&
  tar zxvf "${KREW}.tar.gz" &&
  ./"${KREW}" install krew
)
set -gx PATH $PATH $HOME/.krew/bin
kubectl krew update && kubectl krew install hns

Once the HNC controller is installed, you can start creating hierarchical namespaces. For example, to create a parent namespace called production and a child namespace called app1:

kubectl hns create app1 -n production

This command creates the app1 namespace and sets production as its parent, inheriting any policies or configurations applied to production.

Practical Use Cases

Multi-Team Environments

In a scenario where multiple teams share a Kubernetes cluster, Hierarchical Namespaces can be used to efficiently manage access and resource quotas. By creating a parent namespace for each team and child namespaces for each project, teams can inherit common policies while maintaining the flexibility to customize as needed.

Staging and Production Environments

Hierarchical Namespaces can simplify the management of staging and production environments. By setting a common parent for both environments, shared configurations such as network policies or role bindings can be inherited, ensuring consistency while allowing for environment-specific customizations.

Best Practices

• Plan Your Hierarchy: Carefully design your namespace hierarchy to reflect your organizational structure and operational requirements.
• Use RBAC Effectively: Utilize Kubernetes' Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) in conjunction with Hierarchical Namespaces to finely control access and permissions.
• Monitor and Audit: Regularly monitor and audit your namespace configurations and hierarchies to ensure they meet your security and operational standards.

Conclusion

Hierarchical Namespaces represent a significant advancement in Kubernetes cluster management, offering a structured and efficient way to manage resources, permissions, and configurations across multiple namespaces. By leveraging the inherent flexibility and power of Kubernetes in conjunction with Hierarchical Namespaces, organizations can achieve more streamlined and secure cluster management, paving the way for more scalable and maintainable cloud-native architectures.

As Kubernetes continues to evolve, it's crucial for cloud architects, DevOps engineers, and IT leaders to stay abreast of these developments. Hierarchical Namespaces are just one example of how Kubernetes is adapting to meet the complex needs of modern cloud environments. By embracing these innovations, we can ensure that our clusters remain manageable, secure, and aligned with our business objectives.

Remember, the journey to efficient cluster management is ongoing. As you explore Hierarchical Namespaces, keep experimenting, stay informed, and continuously refine your approach to harness the full potential of Kubernetes.

Engage with this article, share your thoughts and experiences with Hierarchical Namespaces, and let's continue to drive innovation in cloud computing together. For more insights into Kubernetes, cloud architecture, and the future of technology, follow me and join the conversation on LinkedIn.