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Purpose for Limit Ranges

A limit range, defined by a LimitRange object, enumerates compute resource constraints in a project at the pod, container, image, image stream, and persistent volume claim level, and specifies the amount of resources that a pod, container, image, image stream, or persistent volume claim can consume.

All requests to create and modify resources are evaluated against each LimitRange object in the project. If the resource violates any of the enumerated constraints, the resource is rejected. If the resource does not set an explicit value, and if the constraint supports a default value, the default value is applied to the resource.

For CPU and memory limits, if you specify a maximum value but do not specify a minimum limit, the resource can consume more CPU and memory resources than the maximum value.

You can specify limits and requests for ephemeral storage by using the ephemeral storage technology preview. This feature is disabled by default. To enable this feature, see configuring for ephemeral storage.

Core Limit Range Object Definition
apiVersion: "v1"
kind: "LimitRange"
metadata:
  name: "core-resource-limits" (1)
spec:
  limits:
    - type: "Pod"
      max:
        cpu: "2" (2)
        memory: "1Gi" (3)
      min:
        cpu: "200m" (4)
        memory: "6Mi" (5)
    - type: "Container"
      max:
        cpu: "2" (6)
        memory: "1Gi" (7)
      min:
        cpu: "100m" (8)
        memory: "4Mi" (9)
      default:
        cpu: "300m" (10)
        memory: "200Mi" (11)
      defaultRequest:
        cpu: "200m" (12)
        memory: "100Mi" (13)
      maxLimitRequestRatio:
        cpu: "10" (14)
1 The name of the limit range object.
2 The maximum amount of CPU that a pod can request on a node across all containers.
3 The maximum amount of memory that a pod can request on a node across all containers.
4 The minimum amount of CPU that a pod can request on a node across all containers. If you do not set a min value or you set min to 0, the result is no limit and the pod can consume more than the max CPU value.
5 The minimum amount of memory that a pod can request on a node across all containers. If you do not set a min value or you set min to 0, the result is no limit and the pod can consume more than the max memory value.
6 The maximum amount of CPU that a single container in a pod can request.
7 The maximum amount of memory that a single container in a pod can request.
8 The minimum amount of CPU that a single container in a pod can request. If you do not set a min value or you set min to 0, the result is no limit and the pod can consume more than the max CPU value.
9 The minimum amount of memory that a single container in a pod can request. If you do not set a min value or you set min to 0, the result is no limit and the pod can consume more than the max memory value.
10 The default CPU limit for a container if you do not specify a limit in the pod specification.
11 The default memory limit for a container if you do not specify a limit in the pod specification.
12 The default CPU request for a container if you do not specify a request in the pod specification.
13 The default memory request for a container if you do not specify a request in the pod specification.
14 The maximum limit-to-request ratio for a container.

For more information on how CPU and memory are measured, see Compute Resources.

OpenShift Container Platform Limit Range Object Definition
apiVersion: "v1"
kind: "LimitRange"
metadata:
  name: "openshift-resource-limits"
spec:
  limits:
    - type: openshift.io/Image
      max:
        storage: 1Gi (1)
    - type: openshift.io/ImageStream
      max:
        openshift.io/image-tags: 20 (2)
        openshift.io/images: 30 (3)
    - type: "Pod"
      max:
        cpu: "2" (4)
        memory: "1Gi" (5)
        ephemeral-storage: "1Gi" (6)
     max:
        cpu: "1" (7)
        memory: "1Gi" (8)
1 The maximum size of an image that can be pushed to an internal registry.
2 The maximum number of unique image tags as defined in the specification for the image stream.
3 The maximum number of unique image references as defined in the specification for the image stream status.
4 The maximum amount of CPU that a pod can request on a node across all containers.
5 The maximum amount of memory that a pod can request on a node across all containers.
6 The maximum amount of ephemeral storage that a pod can request on a node across all containers, if the ephemeral storage technology preview is enabled.
7 The minimum amount of CPU that a pod can request on a node across all containers. If you do set a min value or you set min to 0, the result is no limit and the pod can consume more than the max CPU value.
8 The minimum amount of memory that a pod can request on a node across all containers. If you do not set a min value or you set min to 0, the result` is no limit and the pod can consume more than the max memory value.

You can specify both core and OpenShift Container Platform resources in one limit range object. They are shown separately in two examples for clarity.

Container Limits

Supported Resources:

  • CPU

  • Memory

Supported Constraints:

Per container, the following must hold true if specified:

Table 1. Container
Constraint Behavior

Min

Min[resource] less than or equal to container.resources.requests[resource] (required) less than or equal to container/resources.limits[resource] (optional)

If the configuration defines a min CPU, the request value must be greater than the CPU value. If you do not set a min value or you set min to 0, the result is no limit and the pod can consume more of the resource than the max value.

Max

container.resources.limits[resource] (required) less than or equal to Max[resource]

If the configuration defines a max CPU, you do not need to define a CPU request value. However, you must set a limit that satisfies the maximum CPU constraint that is specified in the limit range.

MaxLimitRequestRatio

MaxLimitRequestRatio[resource] less than or equal to (container.resources.limits[resource] / container.resources.requests[resource])

If the limit range defines a maxLimitRequestRatio constraint, any new containers must have both a request and a limit value. Additionally, OpenShift Container Platform calculates a limit-to-request ratio by dividing the limit by the request. The result should be an integer greater than 1.

For example, if a container has cpu: 500 in the limit value, and cpu: 100 in the request value, the limit-to-request ratio for cpu is 5. This ratio must be less than or equal to the maxLimitRequestRatio.

Supported Defaults:

Default[resource]

Defaults container.resources.limit[resource] to specified value if none.

Default Requests[resource]

Defaults container.resources.requests[resource] to specified value if none.

Pod Limits

Supported Resources:

  • CPU

  • Memory

Supported Constraints:

Across all containers in a pod, the following must hold true:

Table 2. Pod
Constraint Enforced Behavior

Min

Min[resource] less than or equal to container.resources.requests[resource] (required) less than or equal to container.resources.limits[resource]. If you do not set a min value or you set min to 0, the result is no limit and the pod can consume more of the resource than the max value.

Max

container.resources.limits[resource] (required) less than or equal to Max[resource].

MaxLimitRequestRatio

MaxLimitRequestRatio[resource] less than or equal to (container.resources.limits[resource] / container.resources.requests[resource]).

Image Limits

Supported Resources:

  • Storage

Resource type name:

  • openshift.io/Image

Per image, the following must hold true if specified:

Table 3. Image
Constraint Behavior

Max

image.dockerimagemetadata.size less than or equal to Max[resource]

To prevent blobs that exceed the limit from being uploaded to the registry, the registry must be configured to enforce quota. The REGISTRY_MIDDLEWARE_REPOSITORY_OPENSHIFT_ENFORCEQUOTA environment variable must be set to true. By default, the environment variable is set to true for new deployments.

The image size is not always available in the manifest of an uploaded image. This is especially the case for images built with Docker 1.10 or higher and pushed to a v2 registry. If such an image is pulled with an older Docker daemon, the image manifest is converted by the registry to schema v1 and does not include all the size information. No storage limit set on images will prevent it from being uploaded.

The issue is being addressed.

Image Stream Limits

Supported Resources:

  • openshift.io/image-tags

  • openshift.io/images

Resource type name:

  • openshift.io/ImageStream

Per image stream, the following must hold true if specified:

Table 4. ImageStream
Constraint Behavior

Max[openshift.io/image-tags]

length( uniqueimagetags( imagestream.spec.tags ) ) less than or equal to Max[openshift.io/image-tags]

uniqueimagetags returns unique references to images of given spec tags.

Max[openshift.io/images]

length( uniqueimages( imagestream.status.tags ) ) less than or equal to Max[openshift.io/images]

uniqueimages returns unique image names found in status tags. The name is equal to the digest for the image.

Counting of Image References

The openshift.io/image-tags resource represents unique image references. Possible references are an ImageStreamTag, an ImageStreamImage, or a DockerImage. Tags can be created by using the oc tag and oc import-image commands or by using tag tracking. No distinction is made between internal and external references. However, each unique reference that is tagged in an image stream specification is counted just once. It does not restrict pushes to an internal container image registry in any way, but is useful for tag restriction.

The openshift.io/images resource represents unique image names that are recorded in image stream status. It allows for restriction of a number of images that can be pushed to the internal registry. Internal and external references are not distinguished.

PersistentVolumeClaim Limits

Supported Resources:

  • Storage

Supported Constraints:

Across all persistent volume claims in a project, the following must hold true:

Table 5. Pod
Constraint Enforced Behavior

Min

Min[resource] <= claim.spec.resources.requests[resource] (required)

Max

claim.spec.resources.requests[resource] (required) <= Max[resource]

Limit Range Object Definition
{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "kind": "LimitRange",
  "metadata": {
    "name": "pvcs" (1)
  },
  "spec": {
    "limits": [{
        "type": "PersistentVolumeClaim",
        "min": {
          "storage": "2Gi" (2)
        },
        "max": {
          "storage": "50Gi" (3)
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}
1 The name of the limit range object.
2 The minimum amount of storage that can be requested in a persistent volume claim.
3 The maximum amount of storage that can be requested in a persistent volume claim.

Creating a Limit Range

To apply a limit range to a project:

  1. Create a limit range object definition with your required specifications.

  2. Create the object:

    $ oc create -f <limit_range_file> -n <project>

Viewing a Limit

You can view any limit ranges that are defined in a project by navigating in the web console to the Quota page for the project.

You can also use the CLI to view limit range details by performing the following steps:

  1. Get the list of limit range objects that are defined in the project. For example, for a project called demoproject:

    $ oc get limits -n demoproject
    Example Output
    NAME              AGE
    resource-limits   6d
  2. Describe the limit range. For example, for a limit range called resource-limits:

    $ oc describe limits resource-limits -n demoproject
    Example Output
    Name:                           resource-limits
    Namespace:                      demoproject
    Type                            Resource                Min     Max     Default Request Default Limit   Max Limit/Request Ratio
    ----                            --------                ---     ---     --------------- -------------   -----------------------
    Pod                             cpu                     200m    2       -               -               -
    Pod                             memory                  6Mi     1Gi     -               -               -
    Container                       cpu                     100m    2       200m            300m            10
    Container                       memory                  4Mi     1Gi     100Mi           200Mi           -
    openshift.io/Image              storage                 -       1Gi     -               -               -
    openshift.io/ImageStream        openshift.io/image      -       12      -               -               -
    openshift.io/ImageStream        openshift.io/image-tags -       10      -               -               -

Deleting a Limit Range

To remove a limit range and no longer enforce the limits of a project:

  • Run the following command:

    $ oc delete limits <limit_name>