When a Nomad client that is running an allocation with
`max_client_disconnect` set misses a heartbeat the Nomad server will
update its status to `disconnected`.
Upon reconnecting, the client will make three main RPC calls:
- `Node.UpdateStatus` is used to set the client status to `ready`.
- `Node.UpdateAlloc` is used to update the client-side information about
allocations, such as their `ClientStatus`, task states etc.
- `Node.Register` is used to upsert the entire node information,
including its status.
These calls are made concurrently and are also running in parallel with
the scheduler. Depending on the order they run the scheduler may end up
with incomplete data when reconciling allocations.
For example, a client disconnects and its replacement allocation cannot
be placed anywhere else, so there's a pending eval waiting for
resources.
When this client comes back the order of events may be:
1. Client calls `Node.UpdateStatus` and is now `ready`.
2. Scheduler reconciles allocations and places the replacement alloc to
the client. The client is now assigned two allocations: the original
alloc that is still `unknown` and the replacement that is `pending`.
3. Client calls `Node.UpdateAlloc` and updates the original alloc to
`running`.
4. Scheduler notices too many allocs and stops the replacement.
This creates unnecessary placements or, in a different order of events,
may leave the job without any allocations running until the whole state
is updated and reconciled.
To avoid problems like this clients must update _all_ of its relevant
information before they can be considered `ready` and available for
scheduling.
To achieve this goal the RPC endpoints mentioned above have been
modified to enforce strict steps for nodes reconnecting:
- `Node.Register` does not set the client status anymore.
- `Node.UpdateStatus` sets the reconnecting client to the `initializing`
status until it successfully calls `Node.UpdateAlloc`.
These changes are done server-side to avoid the need of additional
coordination between clients and servers. Clients are kept oblivious of
these changes and will keep making these calls as they normally would.
The verification of whether allocations have been updates is done by
storing and comparing the Raft index of the last time the client missed
a heartbeat and the last time it updated its allocations.
Luiz Aoqui