[Kubernetes (K8S) Kubespray] Use Kubespray to add or remove work node into the exist kubernetes (K8S) cluster

Posted on 2021-09-04 Edited on 2025-06-10 In Cloud Native , Kubernetes (K8S) , Kubespray Views: Word count in article: 3.4k Reading time ≈ 3 mins.

Add or remove work node into the exist kubernetes (K8S) cluster

This should be the easiest with Kubespray.

Usages

First, check current all node status(2 nodes, 2 control-plane,master nodes, without work node):

# kubectl get nodes
NAME    STATUS   ROLES                  AGE     VERSION
node1   Ready    control-plane,master   3d16h   v1.21.4
node2   Ready    control-plane,master   3d16h   v1.21.4

Add a new work node

Add the new work node into kubernetes (K8S) cluster.

1) Add new node to the inventory

Edit inventory/mycluster/hosts.yaml file to add node3 host.

all:
  hosts:
    node1:
      ansible_host: 192.168.8.90
      ip: 192.168.8.90
      access_ip: 192.168.8.90
      ansible_user: root
    node2:
      ansible_host: 192.168.8.91
      ip: 192.168.8.91
      access_ip: 192.168.8.91
      ansible_user: root
    # add new node3
    node3:
      ansible_host: 192.168.8.92
      ip: 192.168.8.92
      access_ip: 192.168.8.92
      ansible_user: root
  children:
    kube_control_plane:
      hosts:
        node1:
        node2:
    kube_node:
      hosts:
        node1:
        node2:
        # add new node3
        node3:
    etcd:
      hosts:
        node1:
    k8s_cluster:
      children:
        kube_control_plane:
        kube_node:
    calico_rr:
      hosts: {}

2) Run scale.yml

Run ansible-playbook command with scale.yml and --limit=node3.

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory/mycluster/hosts.yaml scale.yml --limit=node3

# Similar to the above, but may affect all nodes without `--limit`
# $ ansible-playbook -i inventory/mycluster/hosts.yaml scale.yml

You can use --limit=NODE_NAME to limit Kubespray to avoid disturbing other nodes in the cluster.

Before using --limit run playbook facts.yml without the limit to refresh facts cache for all nodes.

3) Check current node status

Check current all node status(3 nodes, 2 control-plane,master nodes, 1 work node):

# kubectl get nodes
NAME    STATUS   ROLES                  AGE     VERSION
node1   Ready    control-plane,master   3d16h   v1.21.4
node2   Ready    control-plane,master   3d16h   v1.21.4
node3   Ready    none                   5m16s   v1.21.4

Remove the work node

Remove the work node from kubernetes (K8S) cluster.

1) Run remove-node.yml

Run ansible-playbook command with remove-node.yml and --e=node=node3.

1	$ ansible-playbook -i inventory/mycluster/hosts.yaml remove-node.yml -e node=node3

With the old node still in the inventory, run remove-node.yml. You need to pass -e node=NODE_NAME to the playbook to limit the execution to the node being removed.

If the node you want to remove is not online, you should add reset_nodes=false and allow_ungraceful_removal=true to your extra-vars: -e node=NODE_NAME -e reset_nodes=false -e allow_ungraceful_removal=true. Use this flag even when you remove other types of nodes like a control plane or etcd nodes.

2) Check current node status

check current all node status(2 nodes, 2 control-plane,master nodes, without work node):

# kubectl get nodes
NAME    STATUS   ROLES                  AGE     VERSION
node1   Ready    control-plane,master   3d16h   v1.21.4
node2   Ready    control-plane,master   3d16h   v1.21.4

3) Remove the node from the inventory

Edit inventory/mycluster/hosts.yaml file to remove node3 host.

all:
  hosts:
    node1:
      ansible_host: 192.168.8.90
      ip: 192.168.8.90
      access_ip: 192.168.8.90
      ansible_user: root
    node2:
      ansible_host: 192.168.8.91
      ip: 192.168.8.91
      access_ip: 192.168.8.91
      ansible_user: root
  children:
    kube_control_plane:
      hosts:
        node1:
        node2:
    kube_node:
      hosts:
        node1:
        node2:
    etcd:
      hosts:
        node1:
    k8s_cluster:
      children:
        kube_control_plane:
        kube_node:
    calico_rr:
      hosts: {}