Changing CRI-O container settings

Important: IBM Cloud Pak® for Data Version 4.7 will reach end of support (EOS) on 31 July, 2025. For more information, see the Discontinuance of service announcement for IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 4.X.

Upgrade to IBM Software Hub Version 5.1 before IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 4.7 reaches end of support. For more information, see Upgrading IBM Software Hub in the IBM Software Hub Version 5.1 documentation.

To ensure that some services can run correctly, you might need to change the pids_limit setting for the CRI-O container runtime on the OpenShift® Container Platform.

Installation phase: Setting up a client workstation; Setting up a cluster; Collecting required information; Preparing to run installs from a private container registry; Preparing the cluster for Cloud Pak for Data; Preparing to install an instance of Cloud Pak for Data; Installing an instance of Cloud Pak for Data
Who needs to complete this task?: A cluster administrator must complete this task.
When do you need to complete this task?: When you plan to install certain services, you must change node settings to configure your cluster so those services run properly.

Before you begin

Best practice: You can run the commands in this task exactly as written if you set up environment variables. For instructions, see Setting up installation environment variables.

Ensure that you source the environment variables before you run the commands in this task.

About this task

Whether you need to change pids_limit value and how you change it depend on your environment. If you plan to install one or more of the following services, you might need to adjust the pids_limit:

Cognos® Analytics
Db2®
Db2 Big SQL
Db2 Warehouse
Watson Discovery
Watson Knowledge Catalog
Watson Query
Watson Studio
Watson Machine Learning Accelerator

Procedure

Complete the appropriate task for your environment, as specified in the following table:

Deployment environment	Managed	Self-managed
On-premises	If you install Cloud Pak for Data on IBM® Cloud Satellite™, the CRI-O container settings are automatically applied to your cluster as part of the installation. You do not need to change the CRI-O settings.	OpenShift Version 4.10 See Setting the pids_limit by using the cpd-cli manage apply-crio command. OpenShift Version 4.12 See Setting the process IDs limit by creating a KubeletConfig.
IBM Cloud	If you install Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Cloud, the CRI-O container settings are automatically applied to your cluster as part of the installation. You do not need to change the CRI-O settings.	If you install Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Cloud, the CRI-O container settings are automatically applied to your cluster as part of the installation. You do not need to change the CRI-O settings.
AWS	OpenShift Version 4.10 See Setting the pids_limit by using the cpd-cli manage apply-crio command. OpenShift Version 4.12 See Setting the process IDs limit by creating a KubeletConfig. Important: To change this setting on Red Hat® OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) you might need a Support Exception from Red Hat. For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/6986931 on the Red Hat Customer Portal.	OpenShift Version 4.10 See Setting the pids_limit by using the cpd-cli manage apply-crio command. OpenShift Version 4.12 See Setting the process IDs limit by creating a KubeletConfig.
Microsoft Azure	OpenShift Version 4.10 See Setting the process IDs limit by creating a ContainerRuntimeConfig OpenShift Version 4.12 See Setting the process IDs limit by creating a KubeletConfig. Important: To change this setting on Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) you must have a Support Exception from Red Hat. For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/6986931 on the Red Hat Customer Portal.	OpenShift Version 4.10 See Setting the process IDs limit by creating a ContainerRuntimeConfig OpenShift Version 4.12 See Setting the process IDs limit by creating a KubeletConfig.
Google Cloud	Not applicable	OpenShift Version 4.10 See Setting the pids_limit by using the cpd-cli manage apply-crio command. OpenShift Version 4.12 See Setting the process IDs limit by creating a KubeletConfig.

Setting the pids_limit by using the cpd-cli manage apply-crio command

Run the cpd-cli manage apply-crio command to apply the Container Runtime Interface (CRI-O) settings to your cluster nodes.

Restriction: This command applies only to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Version 4.10. If you are running Version 4.12, see Setting the process IDs limit by creating a KubeletConfig.

Important: This command performs a rolling restart of the worker nodes on the cluster.

When you run cpd-cli manage apply-crio command, the pids_limit is set to 16384.

To set the CRI-O pids_limit to 16384 by using the cpd-cli manage apply-crio command, complete the following steps:

Run the cpd-cli manage login-to-ocp command to log in to the cluster as a user with sufficient permissions to complete this task. For example:
```
cpd-cli manage login-to-ocp \
--username=${OCP_USERNAME} \
--password=${OCP_PASSWORD} \
--server=${OCP_URL}
```

Run the following command to apply the CRI-O settings:

cpd-cli manage apply-crio \
  --openshift_type=${OPENSHIFT_TYPE}

Setting the process IDs limit by creating a KubeletConfig

In Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Version 4.12, the process IDs limit is set in a kubeletConfig.

Log in to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform as a user with sufficient permissions to complete the task.
```
oc login ${OCP_URL}
```

Run the following command to create the KubeletConfig that defines the podPidsLimit:

oc apply -f - << EOF
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: KubeletConfig
metadata:
  name: cpd-pidslimit-kubeletconfig 
spec:
  kubeletConfig: 
    podPidsLimit: 16384
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    matchExpressions:
    - key: pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker
      operator: Exists 
EOF

Setting the process IDs limit by creating a ContainerRuntimeConfig

To set the pids_limit value to 16384 in Microsoft Azure managed and self-managed environments run OpenShift Version 4.10, complete the following steps:

Create a ContainerRuntimeConfig file with the following contents:

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: ContainerRuntimeConfig
metadata:
  name: new-large-pidlimit
spec:
  containerRuntimeConfig:
    pidsLimit: 16384
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    matchExpressions:
    - key: pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker
      operator: Exists
EOF

Run the following command to apply the config file:
```
oc create -f <ContainerRuntimeConfig file name>
```

Run one of the following commands to verify the settings:

oc debug <workernode>
chroot /host
crio-status config | grep pids_limit

oc get no -o name | grep compute | awk '{system("oc debug " $1 " -- bash -lc \"chroot /host sudo crio-status config | grep pids_limit\" ")}'