Find guidance below on how to find solutions for issues you encounter when deploying and using an Upbound Space. Use the tips below as a supplement to the observability metrics discussed in the Observability page.
General tips
Most issues fall into two general categories:
- issues with the Spaces management plane
- issues on a managed control plane
If your control plane doesn’t reach a Ready state, it’s indicative of the former. If your control plane is in a created and running state, but resources aren’t reconciling, it’s indicative of the latter.
Spaces component layout
Run kubectl get pods -A against the cluster hosting a Space. You should see a variety of pods across several namespaces. It should look something like this:
NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
cert-manager cert-manager-6d6769565c-mc5df 1/1 Running 0 25m
cert-manager cert-manager-cainjector-744bb89575-nw4fg 1/1 Running 0 25m
cert-manager cert-manager-webhook-759d6dcbf7-ps4mq 1/1 Running 0 25m
ingress-nginx ingress-nginx-controller-7f8ccfccc6-6szlp 1/1 Running 0 25m
kube-system coredns-5d78c9869d-4p477 1/1 Running 0 26m
kube-system coredns-5d78c9869d-pdxt6 1/1 Running 0 26m
kube-system etcd-kind-control-plane 1/1 Running 0 26m
kube-system kindnet-8s7pq 1/1 Running 0 26m
kube-system kube-apiserver-kind-control-plane 1/1 Running 0 26m
kube-system kube-controller-manager-kind-control-plane 1/1 Running 0 26m
kube-system kube-proxy-l68r8 1/1 Running 0 26m
kube-system kube-scheduler-kind-control-plane 1/1 Running 0 26m
local-path-storage local-path-provisioner-6bc4bddd6b-qsdjt 1/1 Running 0 26m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system coredns-5dc69d6447-f56rh-x-kube-system-x-vcluster 1/1 Running 0 21m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system crossplane-6b6d67bc66-6b8nx-x-upbound-system-x-vcluster 1/1 Running 0 20m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system crossplane-rbac-manager-78f6fc7cb4-pjkhc-x-upbound-s-12253c3c4e 1/1 Running 0 20m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system kube-state-metrics-7f8f4dcc5b-8p8c4 1/1 Running 0 22m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system mxp-gateway-68f546b9c8-xnz5j-x-upbound-system-x-vcluster 1/1 Running 0 20m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system mxp-ksm-config-54655667bb-hv9br 1/1 Running 0 22m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system mxp-readyz-5f7f97d967-b98bw 1/1 Running 0 22m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system otlp-collector-56d7d46c8d-g5sh5-x-upbound-system-x-vcluster 1/1 Running 0 20m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system vcluster-67c9fb8959-ppb2m 1/1 Running 0 22m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system vcluster-api-6bfbccc49d-ffgpj 1/1 Running 0 22m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system vcluster-controller-7cc6855656-8c46b 1/1 Running 0 22m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system vcluster-etcd-0 1/1 Running 0 22m
mxp-706c49fa-5bb8-4a7e-9f41-2fc38ef4b065-system vector-754b494b84-wljw4 1/1 Running 0 22m
mxp-system mxp-charts-chartmuseum-7587f77558-8tltb 1/1 Running 0 23m
upbound-system crossplane-b4dc7b4c9-6hjh5 1/1 Running 0 25m
upbound-system crossplane-contrib-provider-helm-ce18dd03e6e4-7945d8985-4gcwr 1/1 Running 0 24m
upbound-system crossplane-contrib-provider-kubernetes-1f1e32c1957d-577756gs2x4 1/1 Running 0 24m
upbound-system crossplane-rbac-manager-d8cb49cbc-gbvvf 1/1 Running 0 25m
upbound-system spaces-controller-6647677cf9-5zl5q 1/1 Running 0 24m
upbound-system spaces-router-bc78c96d7-kzts2 2/2 Running 0 24m
What you are seeing is:
- Pods in the
upbound-systemnamespace are components required to run the management plane of the Space. This includes thespaces-controller,spaces-router, and install of UXP. - Pods in the
mxp-{GUID}-systemnamespace are components that collectively power a managed control plane. Notable call outs include pod names that look likevcluster-api-{GUID}andvcluster-controller-{GUID}, which are integral components of a managed control plane. - Pods in other notable namespaces, including
cert-managerandingress-nginx, are prerequisite components that support a Space’s successful operation.
Troubleshooting tips for the Spaces management plane
Start by getting the status of all the pods in a Space:
- Make sure the current context of your kubeconfig points at the Kubernetes cluster hosting your Space
- Get the status of all the pods in the Space:
kubectl get pods -A
- Scan the
Statuscolumn to see if any of the pods report a status besidesRunning. - Scan the
Restartscolumn to see if any of the pods have restarted. - If you notice a Status other than
Runningor see pods that restarted, you should investigate their events by running
kubectl describe pod -n <namespace> <pod-name>
Next, inspect the status of objects and releases:
- Make sure the current context of your kubeconfig points at the Kubernetes cluster hosting your Space
- Inspect the objects in your Space. If any are unhealthy, describe those objects to get the events:
kubectl get objects
- Inspect the releases in your Space. If any are unhealthy, describe those releases to get the events:
kubectl get releases
Troubleshooting tips for managed control planes in a Space
General troubleshooting in a managed control plane starts by fetching the events of the control plane:
- Make sure the current context of your kubeconfig points at the Kubernetes cluster hosting your Space
- Run the following to fetch your control planes.
kubectl get ctp
- Describe the control plane by providing its name, found in the preceding instruction.
kubectl describe ctp <control-plane-name>
Issues
Your managed control plane is stuck in a ‘creating’ state
Error: unknown field “ports” in io.k8s.api.networking.v1.NetworkPolicySpec
This error is emitted by a Helm release named control-plane-host-policies attempting to be installed by the Spaces software. The full error is:
CannotCreateExternalResource failed to install release: unable to build kubernetes objects from release manifest: error validating “”: error validating data: ValidationError(NetworkPolicy.spec): unknown field “ports” in io.k8s.api.networking.v1.NetworkPolicySpec
This error may be caused by running a Space on an earlier version of Kubernetes than is supported (v1.26 or later). To resolve this issue, upgrade the host Kubernetes cluster version to 1.25 or later.
Your Spaces install fails
Error: You tried to install a Space on a previous Crossplane installation
If you try to install a Space on an existing cluster that previously had Crossplane or UXP on it, you may encounter errors. Due to how the Spaces installer tests for the presence of UXP, it may detect orphaned CRDs that weren’t cleaned up by the previous uninstall of Crossplane. You may need to manually remove old Crossplane CRDs for the installer to properly detect the UXP prerequisite.
