Update to Version 3.1

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Self Managed Commerce availability and scalability will be impacted during the CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.x upgrade process.

Due to the included Kubernetes version upgrade, many components in the cluster will be updated to be compatible with the new Kubernetes version.

Due to a Kubernetes API change, the Horizontal Pod Autoscalers (HPAs) in your Kubernetes cluster will be removed during the CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.x upgrade process. After the update, Self Managed Commerce stacks that use HPAs will no longer scale in response to traffic and load, until the step to re-create the HPAs is completed.

Your Self Managed Commerce services will likely experience two separate service disruptions during the CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.x upgrade process: one during the EKS node group rebuild and one when the HPAs are recreated. In our testing, each of those disruptions lasted approximately 10 minutes, during which the cortex API was largely unavailable.

It is recommended to apply the CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.x upgrade during a low-traffic period to minimize the impact of the changes in this release.

Prerequisites

CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.x has the following pre-requisites.

CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.0.x

Complete the upgrade to CloudOps for Kubernetes release 3.0.x before upgrading to release 3.1.x. For instructions on upgrading to release 3.0.x, see Update to Version 3.0.

Preparation

1. Review all upgrade steps and requirements described in this document.

2. Review your custom Jenkins jobs to determine if any of them call the modified CloudOps for Kubernetes jobs listed below in Jenkins job parameter changes. If you find any such custom jobs, make plans to update them as part of the upgrade, to ensure they continue to work with release 3.1.x.

3. Determine which Self Managed Commerce stacks are using horizontal pod autoscalers and will require additional steps during the upgrade.

   • Run the command kubectl get hpa --all-namespaces to determine which Self Managed Commerce stacks, if any, are using Horizontal Pod Autoscalers (HPAs). Make note of the namespaces where HPAs were found; each namespace represents a Self Managed Commerce stack. If the command returns No resources found then no Self Managed Commerce stacks are using HPAs.

4. For each of the Self Managed Commerce stacks that use HPAs, collect the details necessary to update those Self Managed Commerce stacks using the deploy-or-delete-commerce-stack Jenkins job. Ensure that you have the correct values for each parameter in the job, to ensure that no unexpected configuration changes will be applied when you run the job later in the upgrade process.

   tip

   Save the latest deploy-or-delete-commerce-stack job for each Self Managed Commerce stack so you can re-run it when you need to apply configuration changes.

5. Identify a time when you can apply the CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.x upgrade, knowing that there will be an impact to Self Managed Commerce availability.

What Has Changed

For a list of the changes in the release, see Release Notes.

MySQL 8.0 Support

If you want to use MySQL 8.0 container images, upgrade your Elastic Path docker release to 4.5.x or higher after you complete your CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.x upgrade.

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You can upgrade to Elastic Path docker release 4.5.x only after upgrading CloudOps for Kubernetes to release 3.1.x. Elastic Path docker release 4.5.x introduces support for MySQL 8.0 container images and is only supported by CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.x or newer.

Changes that impact the upgrade process

CloudOps for Kubernetes release 3.1.x contains the following changes that impact the upgrade process.

1. The Kubernetes version is updated from 1.25 to 1.28, and various tools that are dependent on the Kubernetes version have also been updated. For more information on the changes, see End of Support for EKS 1.25.
2. The Horizontal Pod Autoscaler API is updated from v2beta2 to v2.
3. The MySQL container build and deployment jobs and tooling have been updated to match the latest release of the CloudOps docker Git project.

Jenkins job parameter changes

Several Jenkins jobs have parameter changes in CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.0. Review whether you have any custom jobs that call or invoke the affected jobs and update your custom jobs where appropriate.

The Jenkins jobs with parameter changes in CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.0 are listed below.

Jenkins Job	Parameters Added	Parameters Removed
build-selected-docker-images	mysqlVersion
build-core-images	mysqlVersion
multi-purpose-commerce-tool	mysqlVersion	deleteMySQL, deployMySQL, useMySQLServer
build-mysql	mysqlVersion
use-existing-database-server		useExistingDatabase
create-or-delete-activemq-container
deploy-or-delete-commerce-stack
run-data-pop-tool
commerce-test-and-deploy
commerce-branch-validation
build-jenkins-agents	epCommerceCredentialId
cloudops-for-kubernetes-ci	epCommerceCredentialId
build-data-pop	epCommerceCredentialId
build-base-image	epCommerceCredentialId
build-activemq	epCommerceCredentialId
build-cortex	epCommerceCredentialId
build-search	epCommerceCredentialId
build-batch	epCommerceCredentialId
build-integration	epCommerceCredentialId
build-cm	epCommerceCredentialId
build-data-sync	epCommerceCredentialId
build-mock	epCommerceCredentialId

Perform the Base Infrastructure Update

Follow the general instructions on updating the cluster in the Upgrading CloudOps for Kubernetes documentation.

Perform the Additional Steps

The following additional steps are required for upgrading to CloudOps for Kubernetes release 3.1.x.

1. After updating the base infrastructure to CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.1.x, run the deploy-or-delete-commerce-stack Jenkins job for each Self Managed Commerce stack that uses Horizontal Pod Autoscalers (HPAs). This step will reinstall the Horizontal Pod Autoscalers that were removed when the base infrastructure was upgraded.

   • Identify the Self Managed Commerce stacks that use Horizontal Pod Autoscalers (HPAs). Review the Preparations section above for instructions. The stack names are the same as the Kubernetes namespace name where that stack is deployed, and correspond with the kubernetesNickname parameter value.

   • For each Self Managed Commerce stack that is using Horizontal Pod Autoscalers:

     • Identify the correct deploy-or-delete-commerce-stack parameter values. These should be exactly the same values used when the job was last run for that stack. If any values differ, the configuration of the Self Managed Commerce stack will be changed.

     • Run the deploy-or-delete-commerce-stack job. Elastic Path strongly recommends that you use plan_mode when running the job to update existing Self Managed Commerce stacks. When running the job with plan_mode selected, carefully review the Terraform plan output, and each change that Terraform will make, before clicking yes to apply the changes.