services	platforms	author
service-fabric	dotnet, windows	raunakpandya, vipulm-msft, prashantbhutani90

service-fabric-autoscale-helper

Service Fabric application that aids managing, autoscaling nodes in VMSS based Microsoft Azure Service Fabric cluster.

Guidelines for running a stateless only workloads on Service Fabric cluster

If you plan to run stateless only workload which is configured to auto scale in or out based on some pattern, it is recommended to follow these guidelines:

• Do not scale primary the node type
• Add another node type that is for running the stateless workload, set the durability tier for this node type to Bronze.
• Configure autoscaling rules for that new node type
• Deploy the Service Fabric auto scale helper application on the cluster, to remove the scaled-in down nodes from the cluster.

About this application

While running stateless workloads, it's advisable to set the durability tier of the node type as Bronze. This ensures faster scale outs and avoiding scenarios like scale in getting stuck. However, this also results in removed nodes/ VM instances displayed as unhealthy in the Service Fabric explorer. To remove them, one needs to explicitly invoke Remove-ServiceFabricNodeState on that node name. The Service Fabric auto scale helper application essentially takes care of removing nodes if they are down for a long period of time by triggering Remove-ServiceFabricNodeState.

Application Parameters

The application exposes set of application parameters which allows users to customize the application deployment as per their needs.

Parameter Description

Parameter	Description
NodeManagerActorService_ScanIntervalInSeconds	How often the application should scan for the nodes ready for removal. Default value is 60 seconds.
NodeManagerActorService_ClientOperationTimeoutInSeconds	How long does the client wait for the response from cluster. Default value is 30 seconds.
NodeManagerActorService_DownNodeGraceIntervalInSeconds	How long the node should be down for the service to consider it gone for good. Default value is 120 seconds.
NodeManagerActorService_SkipNodesUnderFabricUpgrade	The service should consider nodes under fabric upgrade for removal or not. Default value is true.
NodeManagerActorService_PlacementConstraints	Placement constraints with which the service must be deployed. Ideally one should put placement constraints to deploy the application on the primary node type. Default value is empty.
NodeManagerActorService_NodeTypesToManage	Which nodetypes to consider for AutoscaleHelper to manage the NodeState removal Default value is empty.

Usage

Build Application

To build the application you need to first setup the machine for Service Fabric application development.

Setup your development environment with Visual Studio 2017.

Once setup, open PowerShell command prompt and run build.ps1 script. It should produce an output like below.

PS E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper> .\build.ps1
Restore completed in 46.43 ms for E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\NodeManager\NodeManager.csproj
.
Restore completed in 46.43 ms for E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\NodeManager.Interfaces\NodeMan
ager.Interfaces.csproj.
Restore completed in 1.22 ms for E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\NodeManager.Interfaces\NodeMana
ger.Interfaces.csproj.
Restore completed in 1.26 ms for E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\NodeManager\NodeManager.csproj.
NodeManager.Interfaces -> E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\NodeManager.Interfaces\bin\Release\net
coreapp2.0\win7-x64\NodeManager.Interfaces.dll
NodeManager -> E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\NodeManager\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\win7-x64\No
deManager.dll
NodeManager.Interfaces -> E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\NodeManager.Interfaces\bin\Release\net
coreapp2.0\win7-x64\NodeManager.Interfaces.dll
NodeManager -> E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\NodeManager\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\win7-x64\No
deManager.dll
NodeManager -> E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\AutoscaleManager\pkg\Release\NodeManagerPkg\Code\
AutoscaleManager -> E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper\src\AutoscaleManager\AutoscaleManager\pkg\Release
PS E:\service-fabric-autoscale-helper>

By default, the script will create a release package of the application in src\AutoscaleManager\AutoscaleManager\pkg\Release folder.

Deploy Application

• Open PowerShell command prompt and go to the root of the repository.

• Connect to the Service Fabric Cluster where you want to deploy the application using Connect-ServiceFabricCluster PowerShell command.

• Deploy the application using the following PowerShell command.

  . src\AutoscaleManager\AutoscaleManager\Scripts\Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1 -ApplicationPackagePath 'src\AutoscaleManager\AutoscaleManager\pkg\Release' -PublishProfileFile 'src\AutoscaleManager\AutoscaleManager\PublishProfiles\Cloud.xml' -UseExistingClusterConnection -ApplicationParameter @{ 'NodeManagerActorService_PlacementConstraints'='(NodeTypeName==<primary_nodetype_name>)'; }
  

• Deploy the application using the following PowerShell command, in case you want to change the application parameters default values. You can choose any number of the aforementioned application parameters in any combination with this command.

  . src\AutoscaleManager\AutoscaleManager\Scripts\Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1 -ApplicationPackagePath 'src\AutoscaleManager\AutoscaleManager\pkg\Release' -PublishProfileFile 'src\AutoscaleManager\AutoscaleManager\PublishProfiles\Cloud.xml' -UseExistingClusterConnection -ApplicationParameter @{ 'NodeManagerActorService_PlacementConstraints'='(NodeTypeName==<primary_nodetype_name>)'; 'NodeManagerActorService_ScanIntervalInSeconds'='120'; 'NodeManagerActorService_ClientOperationTimeoutInSeconds'='120'; 'NodeManagerActorService_DownNodeGraceIntervalInSeconds' = '300'; }
  

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.