services	platforms	author
service-fabric	dotnet, windows	vipulm-msft

Service Fabric Windows Patch Installer Application

Service Fabric Windows Patch Installer is a sample application for installing custom patches or software on Microsoft Azure Service Fabric clusters.

Use Service Fabric Patch Orchestration Service (POA) as a supported mechanism for patching machines in a Service Fabric cluster.

This application should be used for:

• Installing a patch not available through Service Fabric Patch Orchestration Service
• Getting out of a stuck situation or a live site issue
• Installing or verifying the installation of custom software on the machine

About this application

The application verifies and installs the patch described in the data package of the PatchInstallerService.

Patch installer service provides a common framework installing, verifying, and reporting on the patches.

A patch is described as a data package for the patch installer service. The package consists of an installation script install.cmd and an optional verification script verify.cmd along with patch binaries.

The result of the verification and installation are reported as the health events on the node. If the patch is not found a Warning health event is reported on the node. If the patch is found then an Ok health event is reported on the node.

Patches

Patch Description

Patch	Description
EXAMPLE_PATCH	An example patch that shows how to build patches.
MTU_PATCH	Resets the MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit) to 1500 bytes to avoid network performance issues with containers running in NAT mode. In certain conditions, due to issues in Windows networking stack, interfaces on the machine with IPv4 addressing can end up with MTU settings less than 1500 bytes. This would result in increased network latency for the Windows container running on that machine with NAT networking mode. This patch reset the MTU value to 1500 for IPv4 interfaces on that have MTU size less thank 1500. The scan for the value is performed based on the ScanSettings configuration of the PatchInstallerService.
DNS_LOCALHOST_PATCH	Adds a secondary entry for Fabric DNS Service with local host IP (127.0.0.1) to workaround intermittent DNS resolution failures.

Patch Install and Verification Information

Patch	Verification Control Parameter	Installation Control Parameter	Reboots after installation?	Other Considerations
EXAMPLE_PATCH	Verify_EXAMPLE_PATCH	Install_EXAMPLE_PATCH	No	None
MTU_PATCH	Verify_MTU_PATCH	Install_MTU_PATCH	No	None
DNS_LOCALHOST_PATCH	Verify_DNS_LOCALHOST_PATCH	Install_DNS_LOCALHOST_PATCH	No	None

Usage

Build Application

If you do not have the patch application already deployed in the cluster, build the application and then deploy it in your cluster. Once deployed, you can selectively enable the verification and installation of particular patches by upgrading application with specific application parameters.

Setup your development environment with Visual Studio 2017.

Open PowerShell command prompt and run build.ps1 script. It should produce an output like below.

PS E:\patch-installer-app> .\build.ps1
Using msbuild from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe
  Restore completed in 59.06 ms for E:\patch-installer-app\src\PatchInstallerService\PatchInstallerService.cspro
  j.
  PatchInstallerService -> E:\patch-installer-app\src\PatchInstallerService\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\win7-x64\P
  atchInstallerService.dll
  PatchInstallerService -> E:\patch-installer-app\src\PatchInstallerService\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\win7-x64\P
  atchInstallerService.dll
  PatchInstallerService -> E:\patch-installer-app\src\PatchInstallerApp\pkg\Release\PatchInstallerServicePkg\Cod
  e\
  PatchInstallerApp -> E:\patch-installer-app\src\PatchInstallerApp\pkg\Release
PS E:\patch-installer-app>

By default the script will create a release package of the application in src\PatchInstallerApp\pkg\Release folder.

Quick Install

If you do not have the patch application already deployed in the cluster, certain patches offer a quick way to deploy them in the cluster. These patches are the ones where installation does not reboot the node or affect the application running on the node. Please note that quick install instructions are provided for installation of single patch. If you need to quick install multiple patches from the table below, combine the application parameters that enable the verification and installation of those patch when deploying the application.

• Open PowerShell command prompt and go to the root of the repository.

• Connect to the Service Fabric Cluster where you want to deploy the application using Connect-ServiceFabricCluster PowerShell command.

• Run the installation instruction listed below for enabling verification and installation of a particular patch.

Quick Install Patch	Install Instructions
MTU_PATCH	. src\PatchInstallerApp\Scripts\Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1 -ApplicationPackagePath 'src\PatchInstallerApp\pkg\Release' -PublishProfileFile 'src\PatchInstallerApp\PublishProfiles\Cloud.xml' -UseExistingClusterConnection -ApplicationParameter @{ 'Verify_MTU_PATCH'='true'; 'Install_MTU_PATCH'='true' }

Deploy Application

• Open PowerShell command prompt and go to the root of the repository.

• Connect to the Service Fabric Cluster where you want to deploy the application using Connect-ServiceFabricCluster PowerShell command.

• Deploy the application using the following PowerShell command.

  . src\PatchInstallerApp\Scripts\Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1 -ApplicationPackagePath 'src\PatchInstallerApp\pkg\Release' -PublishProfileFile 'src\PatchInstallerApp\PublishProfiles\Cloud.xml' -UseExistingClusterConnection

Install Patches

Patches that do not reboot the machine

Patches that do not reboot the machine can be enabled for verification and installation via application parameters at the time of the application deployment.

• Open PowerShell command prompt and go to the root of the repository.

• Connect to the Service Fabric Cluster where you want to deploy the application using Connect-ServiceFabricCluster PowerShell command.

• Get the current set of application paarameter values and then redeploy the application by adding the application parameters that enables the verification and installation of the desired patch. See the table in above section for the names of the parameters for each patch. For example, the commands below enable installation and verificaation of EXAMPLE_PATCH.

  # Get current application parameters
  $app = Get-ServiceFabricApplication fabric:/PatchInstallerApp 
  
  # Create the new parameters application.
  $newAppParams = @{} 
  
  foreach($p in $app.ApplicationParameters) { $newAppParams.add($p.Name,$p.Value) }
  
  $newAppParams['Verify_EXAMPLE_PATCH']='true'
  $newAppParams['Install_EXAMPLE_PATCH']='true'
  
  . src\PatchInstallerApp\Scripts\Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1 -ApplicationPackagePath 'src\PatchInstallerApp\pkg\Release' -PublishProfileFile 'src\PatchInstallerApp\PublishProfiles\Cloud.xml' -UseExistingClusterConnection -ApplicationParameter $newAppParams -OverwriteBehavior Always
  

Once the application is installed, the status of the patch will reported as a health event on the node in few minutes.

Patches that reboot the machine

Patches whose installation reboot the machine should not be enabled during the application deployment, but should be controlled via monitored upgrade.

• Open PowerShell command prompt and go to the root of the repository.

• Connect to the Service Fabric Cluster where you want to deploy the application using Connect-ServiceFabricCluster PowerShell command.

• Get the current set of application paarameter values and then redeploy the application by adding the application parameters that enables ONLY the verification of the desired patch. See the table in above section for the names of the application parameters. For example, the commands below enables verification of EXAMPLE_PATCH.

  # Get current application parameters
  $app = Get-ServiceFabricApplication fabric:/PatchInstallerApp 
  
  # Create the new parameters application.
  $newAppParams = @{} 
  
  foreach($p in $app.ApplicationParameters) { $newAppParams.add($p.Name,$p.Value) }
  
  $newAppParams['Verify_EXAMPLE_PATCH']='true'
  
  . src\PatchInstallerApp\Scripts\Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1 -ApplicationPackagePath 'src\PatchInstallerApp\pkg\Release' -PublishProfileFile 'src\PatchInstallerApp\PublishProfiles\Cloud.xml' -UseExistingClusterConnection -ApplicationParameter $newAppParams -OverwriteBehavior Always
  

Once the upgrade is completed, the nodes that do not have the patch installed will be in the Warning state in few minutes.

• Enable the installation of the patch through monitored upgrade of the application with FailureAction set to Manual (or manual upgrade). The HealthCheckWaitDurationSec must be greater than the sum of ScanIntervalSeconds and ScanIntervalRandomizationSeconds settings in the Settings.xml of the service. If the patch installation is supposed to more take time, adjust the HealthCheckWaitDurationSec and UpgradeDomainTimeoutSec timeouts appropriately (see, Start-ServiceFabricUpgrade command for details). As an example, the command below enables installation of the EXAMPLE_PATCH.

   # Get current application parameters
  $app = Get-ServiceFabricApplication fabric:/PatchInstallerApp 
  
  # Create the new parameters application.
  $newAppParams = @{} 
  
  foreach($p in $app.ApplicationParameters) { $newAppParams.add($p.Name,$p.Value) }
  
  $newAppParams['Install_EXAMPLE_PATCH']='true'
  
  # Upgrade the application with new parameters. 
  Start-ServiceFabricApplicationUpgrade -ApplicationName fabric:/PatchInstallerApp -ApplicationTypeVersion $app.ApplicationTypeVersion -ApplicationParameter $newAppParams -Monitored -FailureAction Manual  -HealthCheckWaitDurationSec 600

The patch is going to be installed upgrade domain by upgrade domain. Once the upgrade is completed, nodes that did not have the patch installed and were in the Warning state should become Ok again.

Guidelines for contributing patch packages

• Do not remove existing patch packages

• Ensure that you have added application parameters with default value as false to control the installation and verification of the patch. See below for details.

• Ensure that you have changed the versions in ServiceManifest.xml and ApplicationManifest.xml appropriately.

• Provide description of the patch and instructions on how to enable the verification and installation of the patch. Indicate if the patch reboots the machine and requires safe installation procedure.

Creating new patch package

To create a patch package, follow the instructions below.

1. Create patch data package

Create a data package that describes the patch.

• Open Visual Studio solution and go to PackageRoot folder of PatchInstallerService.

• Create a folder with the name of the patch (for example, see folder EXAMPLE_PATCH)

• Add a new data package in the ServiceManifest.xml. For example,

  <DataPackage Name="EXAMPLE_PATCH" Version="1.0.0" />
  

2. Add installation and verification scripts

The patch package consists of an installation script install.cmd and an optional verification script verify.cmd along with patch binaries.

• Add install.cmd file under the data package folder created above. The installation file must have all necessary steps for installing the patch including rebooting the machine if necessary. Add all binaries used by the installation script to the data package as well.

• Add verify.cmd file under the data package folder created above. This file is required for patches that can not be verified using Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_QuickFixEngineering | SELECT HotFixID,InstalledOn PowerShell command. The verify.cmd file verifies if the patch is installed on the machine or not. If the patch is installed, the verification is successful and the script must return 0 exit code. The script must return a non-zero exit code if the verification fails or if the patch is not found. If the patch can be found using Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_QuickFixEngineering | SELECT HotFixID,InstalledOn PowerShell command, then its name must match the HotFixID name returned by this command.

3. Enable verification and installation of the patch

The PatchVerificationSettings and PatchInstallationSettings controls the verification and installation of the specific patches. Add the name of the patch and using a boolean value of true or false, enable or disable the installation and verification in Settings.xml file of the service. For example,

  <Section Name="PatchVerificationSettings">
    <Parameter Name="EXAMPLE_PATCH" Value="false" />
  </Section>

  <Section Name="PatchInstallationSettings">
    <Parameter Name="EXAMPLE_PATCH" Value="false" />
  </Section>

Change the version of the Config package in ServiceManifest.xml file by increasing the last digit. For example, the change below increased the last digit from 0 to 1.

<ConfigPackage Name="Config" Version="1.0.1" />

Change the version of the ServiceManifest in the ServiceManifest.xml file by increasing the last digit. For example, the change below increased the last digit from 0 to 1.

<ServiceManifest Name="PatchInstallerServicePkg"
                 Version="1.0.1"

Change the version of ServiceManifestRef in the ApplicationManifest.xml file by increasing the last digit. For example, the change below increased the last digit from 0 to 1.

  <ServiceManifestImport>
    <ServiceManifestRef ServiceManifestName="PatchInstallerServicePkg" ServiceManifestVersion="1.0.1" />

Add parameters to override and control the behavior of the patch verification and installation in the application manifest (ApplicationManifest.xml) with default value of false. For example,

For example,

  <Parameters>

    ...  
    <Parameter Name="Verify_EXAMPLE_PATCH" DefaultValue="false" />
    <Parameter Name="Install_EXAMPLE_PATCH" DefaultValue="false" />
    
  </Parameters>

...
      <ConfigOverride Name="Config">
        <Settings>
          <Section Name="PatchVerificationSettings">
            <Parameter Name="EXAMPLE_PATCH" Value="[Verify_EXAMPLE_PATCH]" />
          </Section>
          <Section Name="PatchInstallationSettings">
            <Parameter Name="EXAMPLE_PATCH" Value="[Install_EXAMPLE_PATCH]" />
          </Section>
        </Settings>
      </ConfigOverride>

Change the version of ApplicationManifest in the ApplicationManifest.xml file by increasing the last digit. For example, the change below increased the last digit from 0 to 1.

<ApplicationManifest 
  xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  ApplicationTypeName="PatchInstallerAppType" 
  ApplicationTypeVersion="1.0.1" 
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2011/01/fabric">

This way user can control the verification and installation of specific patch at the time of deployment. They also allow controlled installation of the patches that reboot the machine via application upgrade.