docs/content/knowledge-base/guides/composition-revisions-example.md

title	state
Composition Revision Example	beta

This tutorial discusses how CompositionRevisions work and how they manage Composite Resource (XR) updates. This starts with a Composition and CompositeResourceDefinition (XRD) that defines a MyVPC resource and continues with creating multiple XRs to observe different upgrade paths. Crossplane will assign different CompositionRevisions to the created composite resources each time the composition is updated.

Preparation

Install Crossplane

Install Crossplane v1.11.0 or later and wait until the Crossplane pods are running.

kubectl create namespace crossplane-system
helm repo add crossplane-master https://charts.crossplane.io/master/
helm repo update
helm install crossplane --namespace crossplane-system crossplane-master/crossplane --devel --version 1.11.0-rc.0.108.g0521c32e
kubectl get pods -n crossplane-system

Expected Output:

NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
crossplane-7f75ddcc46-f4d2z                1/1     Running   0          9s
crossplane-rbac-manager-78bd597746-sdv6w   1/1     Running   0          9s

Deploy Composition and XRD Examples

Apply the example Composition.

apiVersion: apiextensions.crossplane.io/v1
kind: Composition
metadata:
  labels:
    channel: dev
  name: myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io
spec:
  writeConnectionSecretsToNamespace: crossplane-system
  compositeTypeRef:
    apiVersion: aws.example.upbound.io/v1alpha1
    kind: MyVPC
  resources:
  - base:
      apiVersion: ec2.aws.upbound.io/v1beta1
      kind: VPC
      spec:
        forProvider:
          region: us-west-1
          cidrBlock: 192.168.0.0/16
          enableDnsSupport: true
          enableDnsHostnames: true
    name: my-vcp

Apply the example XRD.

apiVersion: apiextensions.crossplane.io/v1
kind: CompositeResourceDefinition
metadata:
  name: myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io
spec:
  group: aws.example.upbound.io
  names:
    kind: MyVPC
    plural: myvpcs
  versions:
  - name: v1alpha1
    served: true 
    referenceable: true 
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        type: object 
        properties:
          spec:
            type: object 
            properties:
              id:
                type: string 
                description: ID of this VPC that other objects will use to refer to it. 
            required:
            - id

Verify that Crossplane created the Composition revision

kubectl get compositionrevisions -o="custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,REVISION:.spec.revision,CHANNEL:.metadata.labels.channel"

Expected Output:

NAME                                    REVISION   CHANNEL
myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc   1          dev

{{< hint "note" >}} The label dev is automatically created from the Composition. {{< /hint >}}

Create Composite Resources

This tutorial has four composite resources to cover different update policies and composition selection options. The default behavior is updating XRs to the latest revision of the Composition. However, this can be changed by setting compositionUpdatePolicy: Manual in the XR. It is also possible to select the latest revision with a specific label with compositionRevisionSelector.matchLabels together with compositionUpdatePolicy: Automatic.

Default update policy

Create an XR without a compositionUpdatePolicy defined. The update policy is Automatic by default:

apiVersion: aws.example.upbound.io/v1alpha1
kind: MyVPC
metadata:
  name: vpc-auto
spec:
  id: vpc-auto

Expected Output:

myvpc.aws.example.upbound.io/vpc-auto created

Manual update policy

Create a Composite Resource with compositionUpdatePolicy: Manual and compositionRevisionRef.

apiVersion: aws.example.upbound.io/v1alpha1
kind: MyVPC
metadata:
  name: vpc-man
spec:
  id: vpc-man
  compositionUpdatePolicy: Manual
  compositionRevisionRef:
    name: myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc

Expected Output:

myvpc.aws.example.upbound.io/vpc-man created

Using a selector

Create an XR with a compositionRevisionSelector of channel: dev:

apiVersion: aws.example.upbound.io/v1alpha1
kind:  MyVPC
metadata:
  name: vpc-dev
spec:
  id: vpc-dev
  compositionRevisionSelector:
    matchLabels:
      channel: dev

Expected Output:

myvpc.aws.example.upbound.io/vpc-dev created

Create an XR with a compositionRevisionSelector of channel: staging:

apiVersion: aws.example.upbound.io/v1alpha1
kind: MyVPC
metadata:
  name: vpc-staging
spec:
  id: vpc-staging
  compositionRevisionSelector:
    matchLabels:
      channel: staging

Expected Output:

myvpc.aws.example.upbound.io/vpc-staging created

Verify the Composite Resource with the label channel: staging doesn't have a REVISION.
All other XRs have a REVISION matching the created Composition Revision.

kubectl get composite -o="custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,SYNCED:.status.conditions[0].status,REVISION:.spec.compositionRevisionRef.name,POLICY:.spec.compositionUpdatePolicy,MATCHLABEL:.spec.compositionRevisionSelector.matchLabels"

Expected Output:

NAME          SYNCED   REVISION                                POLICY      MATCHLABEL
vpc-auto      True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc   Automatic   <none>
vpc-dev       True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc   Automatic   map[channel:dev]
vpc-man       True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc   Manual      <none>
vpc-staging   False    <none>                                  Automatic   map[channel:staging]

{{< hint "note" >}} The vpc-staging XR label doesn't match any existing Composition Revisions. {{< /hint >}}

Create new Composition revisions

Crossplane creates a new CompositionRevision when a Composition is created or updated. Label and annotation changes will also trigger a new CompositionRevision.

Update the Composition label

Update the Composition label to channel: staging:

kubectl label composition myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io channel=staging --overwrite

Expected Output:

composition.apiextensions.crossplane.io/myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io labeled

Verify that Crossplane creates a new Composition revision:

kubectl get compositionrevisions -o="custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,REVISION:.spec.revision,CHANNEL:.metadata.labels.channel"

Expected Output:

NAME                                    REVISION   CHANNEL
myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-727b3c8   2          staging
myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc   1          dev

Verify that Crossplane assigns the Composite Resources vpc-auto and vpc-staging to Composite revision:2.
XRs vpc-man and vpc-dev are still assigned to the original revision:1:

kubectl get composite -o="custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,SYNCED:.status.conditions[0].status,REVISION:.spec.compositionRevisionRef.name,POLICY:.spec.compositionUpdatePolicy,MATCHLABEL:.spec.compositionRevisionSelector.matchLabels"

Expected Output:

NAME          SYNCED   REVISION                                POLICY      MATCHLABEL
vpc-auto      True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-727b3c8   Automatic   <none>
vpc-dev       True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc   Automatic   map[channel:dev]
vpc-man       True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc   Manual      <none>
vpc-staging   True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-727b3c8   Automatic   map[channel:staging]

{{< hint "note" >}} vpc-auto always use the latest Revision.
vpc-staging now matches the label applied to Revision revision:2. {{< /hint >}}

Update Composition Spec and Label

Update the Composition to disable DNS support in the VPC and change the label from staging back to dev.

Apply the following changes to update the Composition spec and label:

apiVersion: apiextensions.crossplane.io/v1
kind: Composition
metadata:
  labels:
    channel: dev
  name: myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io
spec:
  writeConnectionSecretsToNamespace: crossplane-system
  compositeTypeRef:
    apiVersion: aws.example.upbound.io/v1alpha1
    kind: MyVPC
  resources:
  - base:
      apiVersion: ec2.aws.upbound.io/v1beta1
      kind: VPC
      spec:
        forProvider:
          region: us-west-1
          cidrBlock: 192.168.0.0/16
          enableDnsSupport: false
          enableDnsHostnames: true
    name: my-vcp

Expected Output:

composition.apiextensions.crossplane.io/myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io configured

Verify that Crossplane creates a new Composition revision:

kubectl get compositionrevisions -o="custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,REVISION:.spec.revision,CHANNEL:.metadata.labels.channel"

Expected Output:

NAME                                    REVISION   CHANNEL
myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-727b3c8   2          staging
myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc   1          dev
myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-f81c553   3          dev

{{< hint "note" >}} Changing the label and the spec values simultaneously is critical for deploying new changes to the dev channel. {{< /hint >}}

Verify Crossplane assigns the Composite Resources vpc-auto and vpc-dev to Composite revision:3.
vpc-staging is assigned to revision:2, and vpc-man is still assigned to the original revision:1:

kubectl get composite -o="custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,SYNCED:.status.conditions[0].status,REVISION:.spec.compositionRevisionRef.name,POLICY:.spec.compositionUpdatePolicy,MATCHLABEL:.spec.compositionRevisionSelector.matchLabels"

Expected Output:

NAME          SYNCED   REVISION                                POLICY      MATCHLABEL
vpc-auto      True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-f81c553   Automatic   <none>
vpc-dev       True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-f81c553   Automatic   map[channel:dev]
vpc-man       True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-ad265bc   Manual      <none>
vpc-staging   True     myvpcs.aws.example.upbound.io-727b3c8   Automatic   map[channel:staging]

{{< hint "note" >}} vpc-dev matches the updated label applied to Revision revision:3. vpc-staging matches the label applied to Revision revision:2. {{< /hint >}}