Compare commits
2
Commits
| Author | SHA1 | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
254985baa6 | ||
|
|
dce20b7be6 |
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
date: 2026-10-04
|
||||
branch: docs/pihole-ha-verified
|
||||
title: PiHole HA is VERIFIED on live prod — including a failover drill with zero dropped DNS queries
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## What changed
|
||||
|
||||
**No manifests changed. This entry exists to correct the log.** The three PiHole/Plex entries merged
|
||||
earlier today each say, correctly at the time, that nothing had been reconciled and that the outcome
|
||||
was unverified:
|
||||
|
||||
- `decisions/2026-10-04-pihole-declare-state.md` — "Nothing here has been reconciled."
|
||||
- `decisions/2026-10-04-pihole-multi-replica.md` — "Nothing has been reconciled. No StatefulSet
|
||||
exists, no second replica has ever run, the anti-affinity has never been evaluated..."
|
||||
|
||||
All three are now **merged, reconciled and measured**, so those sentences are stale in exactly the way
|
||||
§2b of CLAUDE.md warns about — a reader who found them would conclude the work is unproven. This entry
|
||||
is the current state; it does not edit the earlier files (separate files, nothing to merge).
|
||||
|
||||
Delivered and live as of 2026-10-04, from PRs #43 (plex tcp/32400), #44 (declare PiHole state) and
|
||||
#45 (PiHole 2 replicas + the mountPath bug):
|
||||
|
||||
- PiHole is a **2-replica StatefulSet**, one pod per node, with per-replica Longhorn volumes, a
|
||||
PodDisruptionBudget, and an `up` SLI that follows the rendered workload kind.
|
||||
- PiHole's admin password and adlists are **declared in git** and reproduce onto a fresh volume.
|
||||
- PiHole's config PVC is mounted where PiHole actually writes (`/etc/pihole`), which it was not before.
|
||||
|
||||
## What I verified
|
||||
|
||||
All measured against live prod on 2026-10-04, after the merge of #45 (`dce20b7`).
|
||||
|
||||
**Reconcile.** `GitRepository` artifact `main@sha1:dce20b7`; `apps-wave-0`
|
||||
`lastAppliedRevision=main@sha1:dce20b7`, `Ready=True/ReconciliationSucceeded`. It completed in roughly
|
||||
**90 seconds**, well inside the Kustomization's `timeout: 5m` — the risk flagged in the multi-replica
|
||||
entry ("whether `pihole -g` finishes inside the 5 m timeout") did **not** materialise. A transient
|
||||
`Ready=False/DependencyNotReady: platform-config` seen mid-flight was the dependency cascade, not a
|
||||
failure; `platform-config` was already `Ready=True` at the new revision moments later.
|
||||
|
||||
**Topology and objects.**
|
||||
|
||||
| Measured | Value |
|
||||
|---|---|
|
||||
| pods / nodes | `pihole-0` → **k3s-prod-3**, `pihole-1` → **k3s-prod-2** (2/2 Running each) — the required anti-affinity was satisfied |
|
||||
| per-replica claims | `config-pihole-0`, `config-pihole-1` — both `Bound`, 2Gi |
|
||||
| old `pihole-config` PVC | **pruned** (it held only `lost+found`, so nothing was lost) |
|
||||
| old `pihole` Deployment | **pruned** — `No resources found in pihole namespace` |
|
||||
| PodDisruptionBudget | `minAvailable 1`, `disruptionsAllowed 1`, `currentHealthy 2` |
|
||||
|
||||
**The mountPath bug is fixed.** `df` inside both pods reports `/etc/pihole` on
|
||||
`/dev/longhorn/pvc-...` with **6.9 M used** — previously it was on `overlay` while the Longhorn volume
|
||||
sat unused at `/data/config`. `backup.policy: daily-offcluster` now has real content to back up
|
||||
instead of reporting success over an empty volume.
|
||||
|
||||
**Phase 1's declarations reproduce onto a FRESH volume — the point of doing it first.** Both replicas
|
||||
booted with an empty `/etc/pihole`:
|
||||
|
||||
- **72,234 gravity domains** on each, rebuilt from the adlist declared in `catalog/pihole.yaml`.
|
||||
- **The declared SOPS secret authenticates on both pods.** `POST /api/auth` using the container's own
|
||||
`FTLCONF_webserver_api_password` returned `"valid":true` on `pihole-0` **and** `pihole-1` — so
|
||||
Secret → env → FTL's own hashing → working login, identically on both. (The secret's value was never
|
||||
printed; an earlier reading of `pwhash` as "unset" was a quoting bug in the check, disproven by an
|
||||
empty password being rejected with `password incorrect` and then by this positive test.)
|
||||
|
||||
**User-facing behaviour through the VIP (192.168.2.23), from a LAN host.**
|
||||
|
||||
plex.home.keithjackson.dev -> 192.168.2.20 split-horizon intact
|
||||
home.keithjackson.dev -> 192.168.2.20
|
||||
unifi.home.keithjackson.dev -> 192.168.2.21
|
||||
google.com -> 142.250.115.102 recursion to 8.8.8.8 works
|
||||
doubleclick.net -> 0.0.0.0 blocking LIVE in FTL, not just in the DB
|
||||
googleadservices.com -> 0.0.0.0
|
||||
12 consecutive queries -> 12/12 answered
|
||||
|
||||
**THE FAILOVER DRILL — observed by the operator, 2026-10-04.** A single StatefulSet replica was
|
||||
deleted. It was recreated in **~30 seconds**, and **DNS never dropped a request** throughout. This is
|
||||
the first direct evidence that the replica count delivers what it was added for, rather than merely
|
||||
rendering correctly.
|
||||
|
||||
**The SLI is not inert, and re-deriving it mattered.** Measured in Prometheus:
|
||||
`kube_statefulset_status_replicas_ready{namespace="pihole", statefulset="pihole"}` returns **1 series,
|
||||
value 2**; `kube_deployment_status_replicas_available{namespace="pihole"}` now returns **0 series**;
|
||||
and Prometheus has `pihole-down` loaded as `state=inactive health=ok` with the StatefulSet expression.
|
||||
Had the rule stayed Deployment-shaped, its `or absent(...)` branch would have matched the now-absent
|
||||
series and **fired permanently** — a standing false page rather than silence. That is the concrete
|
||||
payoff of defaulting `livenessWorkload.kind` from the rendered kind.
|
||||
|
||||
## What I did NOT verify
|
||||
|
||||
- **NODE failure, as opposed to pod failure.** The drill deleted a pod, which does not exercise the
|
||||
`tolerationSeconds: 300` path at all — that timer only applies when a node goes NotReady. The
|
||||
mechanism protecting DNS is the same one just proven (the surviving replica plus
|
||||
`externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster` on the DNS LoadBalancers), so user-visible impact should likewise be
|
||||
nil; what the 300 s still delays is the *replacement* replica, and during that window there is no
|
||||
redundancy left. Untested. Pulling power from a node is the only real test.
|
||||
- **DNS during the cutover itself.** I was not sampling resolution while #45 reconciled, so whether
|
||||
there was a brief gap between the Deployment being pruned and the StatefulSet becoming Ready is
|
||||
**unmeasured**. The drill above covers the steady-state failover case, not that one-off transition.
|
||||
- **Two-node loss.** The hard anti-affinity means `replicas: 2` needs two schedulable nodes; losing
|
||||
two would leave a replica `Pending` and, with `wait: true`, stall the app tier. Reasoned, not
|
||||
exercised — and it coincides with etcd quorum loss on a 3-node control plane.
|
||||
- **Longhorn capacity headroom.** Two 2Gi claims at 3 replicas each is ~12Gi where there was ~6Gi.
|
||||
Both claims are `Bound` and healthy; free space was not checked.
|
||||
- **Query history is now split per replica** and the admin UI shows only whichever pod answered.
|
||||
Adlists and password are identical, so blocking and auth are consistent; the *reporting* is not, and
|
||||
whether that is acceptable long-term is the operator's call.
|
||||
- **The residual risk is unchanged, and it is the larger one.** Replicas address node failure. LAN DNS
|
||||
still depends on the cluster — etcd quorum, Cilium, Longhorn, a bad reconcile — and only a resolver
|
||||
outside the cluster carrying the same `address=` lines removes that dependency. Considered and not
|
||||
chosen (operator decision, 2026-10-04).
|
||||
- **Plex remote access (#43) is NOT covered by this entry.** Its two manual steps (the WAN tcp/32400
|
||||
forward and Plex's "manually specify public port") and the outside-in path remain as
|
||||
`decisions/2026-10-03-plex-remote-access-l4.md` describes them. The operator reported it working;
|
||||
I have not measured it from off-LAN.
|
||||
- **`--emit-waves` drift is still open.** Re-running it still wants to onboard `vm-demo.yaml` and
|
||||
`keycloak.yaml`, both listed as intentionally not onboarded in `ci/render-golden.sh`. Unfixed; see
|
||||
`decisions/2026-10-03-plex-remote-access-l4.md`.
|
||||
Reference in new issue
Block a user