Akri cncf-jobs-webinar-final

1. Discovering and
Managing IoT
Devices from
Kubernetes with
Akri
Kate Goldenring
docs.akri.sh

2. Who am I?
• Software Engineer II @ Microsoft
• Maintainer of Akri
• Open-source enthusiast, contributor to
Rust and Kubernetes projects (Krustlet,
kube-rs)
@kate-goldenring @KateGoldenring
docs.akri.sh

3. Agenda
1. Motivation
2. What is Akri?
3. Scenarios simplified with Akri
4. Akri Architecture
5. Demo
6. Roadmap
docs.akri.sh

4. Motivation
• Environment of nodes/servers in the cloud is homogenous
• Edge nodes are surrounded by a variety of IoT devices
• These IoT devices are often too small to run Kubernetes
• How can these devices be dynamically leveraged and managed by Kubernetes
workloads?
• Goal: The open source, standard way to connect devices to a cluster and
manage devices from a cluster
docs.akri.sh

5. Akri: A Kubernetes
Resource Interface
for the edge
Discovers IoT devices. Handles dynamic appearance
and disappearance of devices
Connects IoT devices to a Kubernetes cluster by
representing them as a native Kubernetes resources
Schedules workloads based on what devices are
connected to the cluster
Built with Rust to optimize for the edge and low
footprint clusters (K3s, MicroK8s, etc.)
Open-source CNCF Sandbox Project
docs.akri.sh

6. What IoT
devices?
• IoT devices do not need to be modified to
work with Akri
• Akri does not run anything on the IoT devices
rather communicates via common IoT
protocols
• udev (local devices such as USB cameras,
GPUs, microphones, etc),
• OPC UA (industrial machinery)
• ONVIF (IP cameras)
• Discovery interface is extensible*. Simple
gRPC interface for adding support for new
protocols.
* https://docs.akri.sh/development/handler-development

7. Akri for device use and management
Akri’s Controller automatically deploys “brokers” to discovered devices.
Brokers are either:
Long-running Kubernetes Pods – Ideal for device use Single-task Kubernetes Jobs to discovered devices –
Ideal for device management (introduced in Akri v0.8.4)
docs.akri.sh

8. IoT device use scenario with K8s
Without Akri
Node
Node
K8s Cluster
F = Frame Server Pod
I = Inferencing Pod
A = Alerting Pod
GPU GPU
F
F
F
F
F
F
I I
A
per camera
X FPS
GPU
I A
FFF
Steps 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

9. IoT device use scenario
Simplified with Akri
Node
Node
K8s Cluster
F = Frame Server Pod
I = Inferencing Pod
A = Alerting Pod
GPU GPU
F
F
F
F
F
F
I I
A
per camera
X FPS
AKRI
per camera
X FPS
Steps 1
2
3

10. IoT device management scenario
Simplified with Akri
Node
Node
v1 v1 v1 v1 v1 v1
K8s Cluster
F = Frame Server Pod
I = Inferencing Pod
A = Alerting Pod
U = Upgrade Job
GPU GPU
F
F
F
F
F
F
I I
A
AKRI
per camera
X FPS
U
U
U
U
U
U
v2 v2 v2 v2 v2 v2

11. Akri Architecture
Edge Cluster
Control Plane
Kubernetes
Scheduler
Akri
Controller
API Server
Node
Kubelet
Akri
Agent
<protocol>
kind: Configuration
metadata:
..name: akri-<protocol>
spec:
..discoveryHandler:
name: <protocol>
..brokerSpec:
containers:
- name: custom-broker
image: "ghcr.io/
etcd
Configuration
CRD
Instance
CRD
<protocol>
Configuration
<protocol>
Instance
Leaf
Device
Leaf
Device
Leaf Device
Broker
Broker
custom-
broker
<protocol>
Discovery
Handler

12. Installing with Helm
helm install akri akri-helm-charts/akri
--set kubernetesDistro=k3s
--set onvif.discovery.enabled=true
--set onvif.configuration.enabled=true
--set onvif.configuration.name='akri-onvif-fw-update'
--set onvif.configuration.brokerJob.image.repository='ghcr.io/../onvif-upgrade-broker'
--set onvif.configuration.capacity='2'
Akri Controller and Agent
Discovery Handler
Configuration

13. 2 Edge Nodes, 2 IP Cameras, Akri installed via Helm
Node
Node
IP Cam B
v1.0
Akri
Demo
Configuration CRD
Instance CRD
ONVIF Frame Server
Configuration
1 Install Akri with ONVIF
frame server Configuration
to use the cameras
2 Akri Agent discovers cameras
and creates Instance CRs
3 The Akri Controller
deploys the frame server
Pods and creates Services
IP Cam A
v1.0
Cam A Instance
Cam B Instance
Frame
Server
Pod
Frame
Server
Pod
Frame
Server
Pod
Frame
Server
Pod
K3s Cluster
Streaming
Application
4 Deploy streaming
application
5 Install ONVIF firmware
upgrade Configuration
to manage the cameras
ONVIF Firmware
Upgrade Configuration
Firmware
Upgrade
Job
Firmware
Upgrade
Job
6 The Akri Controller
deploys a firmware
upgrade Job to each
camera
v2.0 v2.0
Steps to reproduce this demo: https://hackmd.io/@akri/HJZORp5l9

14. Future of Device Management for Akri
• What Akri currently supports:
• Deployment of Kubernetes Jobs to each discovered device
• Deploying multiple Configurations to use the same devices in different ways
• What Akri does not currently support:
• Managed roll outs
• Displaying device management information in the Akri Instance
docs.akri.sh

15. Resources
Learn more
docs.akri.sh
Akri overview at KubeCon EU
May 2021
https://youtu.be/mcKNistZkrY
Join the community via
Slack and monthly Zooms
K8s #akri Slack
Try it out: End to end demo
discovering mock USB cameras
https://docs.akri.sh/demos
This IP camera demo: https://hackmd.io/@akri/HJZORp5l9