This document provides concise definitions for the status, state, stage, and condition concepts used throughout the Skyhook operator to track package operations and node lifecycle management.
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Status reflects the overall health and progress of nodes and the Skyhook resource
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State tracks the execution status of individual package operations
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Stage defines the specific lifecycle phase a package is currently in
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A node's Status is derived from the collective States of its packages
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Stages progress sequentially, with State indicating success/failure at each stage
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All stages except for interrupts include validation checks that must succeed for progression
- Monitoring: Use Status for high-level health checks and dashboards
- Debugging: Examine State and Stage for detailed package-level troubleshooting
- Automation: State transitions trigger the next appropriate Stage in the lifecycle
- Scheduling: Status values like
blockedandpausedcontrol operation scheduling and dependencies
Scope: Applied to the overall Skyhook resource and individual nodes
Purpose: High-level operational status indicating the current condition
| Status | Definition |
|---|---|
complete |
All operations have finished successfully |
blocked |
Operations are prevented from proceeding due to taint toleration issues |
waiting |
Queued for execution but not yet started |
disabled |
Execution is disabled but will continue for other Skyhooks |
paused |
Execution is paused for this and all other Skyhooks supposed to be executed after this one |
in_progress |
Currently executing operations |
erroring |
Experiencing failures or errors |
unknown |
Status cannot be determined or is uninitialized |
Skyhook publishes Kubernetes conditions on .status.conditions. The Ready condition is the standard user-facing summary for kubectl wait --for=condition=Ready, while other condition types report specific operator states that can coexist with Ready.
Ready is a boolean projection of the Skyhook's multivalued .status.status field:
.status.status |
Ready.status |
Ready.reason |
Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
complete |
True |
NodesConverged |
All targeted nodes have completed successfully |
in_progress |
False |
Progressing |
Work is actively running on at least one node |
blocked |
False |
Blocked |
Progress is blocked, such as by taint toleration or ignored nodes |
erroring |
False |
Erroring |
One or more nodes are failing |
paused |
False |
Paused |
Processing is paused by annotation |
waiting |
False |
Waiting |
Nodes are waiting for ordering or batch admission |
disabled |
False |
Disabled |
Processing is disabled by annotation |
unknown |
False |
Unknown |
The operator cannot yet determine a stable state |
.status.status remains the canonical rollout summary used by the operator's scheduling and state machine. Ready exists to expose that state in Kubernetes condition form for standard tooling, while .status.nodeStatus remains the authoritative per-node source of truth.
The Ready.message field summarizes node progress by status:
- It always starts with
<complete>/<total> nodes complete. - It appends one segment for each non-empty node-status bucket, such as
<count> in progress,<count> blocked, or<count> erroring. - When a bucket has a short node list, the node names are included in sorted order:
2 blocked (node-a, node-b). - When a bucket exceeds the message cap, the node names are dropped and the segment becomes
(list truncated; see controller logs).
Example for a small rollout:
1/3 nodes complete (node-a), 1 in progress (node-b), 1 blocked (node-c)
Example for a large rollout:
0/800 nodes complete, 800 in progress (list truncated; see controller logs)
The truncation cap exists to keep condition payloads bounded for etcd object size and watch bandwidth. When truncation happens, the controller logs the full per-status node lists at Info, and .status.nodeStatus still contains the complete per-node view.
The operator also sets additional condition types that may be useful for troubleshooting:
TaintNotTolerable: selected nodes are skipped because their taints are not tolerated by the SkyhookNodesIgnored: selected nodes are skipped because they have the ignore label setApplyPackage: the controller is applying a package to a nodeDeploymentPolicyNotFound: the referencedDeploymentPolicyis missing at reconcile time
These conditions complement, rather than replace, .status.status and Ready.
Canonical condition types are now the bare names above, such as Ready and TaintNotTolerable. During the one-release deprecation window, the operator also mirrors them to the legacy prefixed condition types for backward compatibility:
Readycontinues to be emitted asskyhook.nvidia.com/Ready- the rollout-transition summary also remains available as
skyhook.nvidia.com/Transition - other bare condition types continue to be mirrored as
skyhook.nvidia.com/<Type>
New consumers should read the canonical bare condition types now. Existing consumers of the prefixed condition types should migrate during the deprecation window.
Scope: Applied to individual packages within a node
Purpose: Current execution state of a specific package operation
| State | Definition |
|---|---|
complete |
Package operation has finished successfully |
in_progress |
Package is actively running (pod has started) |
skipped |
Package/stage was intentionally bypassed in the lifecycle |
erroring |
Package operation is experiencing failures |
unknown |
Package state cannot be determined or is uninitialized |
Scope: Applied to individual packages
Purpose: Indicates which phase of the package installation/management process is currently executing
| Stage | Definition |
|---|---|
uninstall & uninstall-check |
Removal of the package |
upgrade & upgrade-check |
Package version update operations |
apply & apply-check |
Initial installation/deployment of the package |
config & config-check |
Configuration and setup operations |
interrupt |
Execution of interrupt operations (e.g., reboots, service restarts) |
post-interrupt & post-interrupt-check |
Operations that run after interrupt completion |
NOTE: All stages except for interrupts include validation checks that must succeed for progression
The typical stage progression depends on whether the package has interrupts:
uninstall → apply → config
upgrade → config
When a package requires an interrupt, the node is first cordoned and drained before package operations begin:
uninstall (if downgrading) → cordon → wait → drain → apply → config → interrupt → post-interrupt
cordon → wait → drain → upgrade (if upgrading) → config → interrupt → post-interrupt
Note: The cordon, wait, and drain phases ensure that workloads are safely removed from the node before any package operations that require interrupts (such as reboots or kernel module changes) are executed.
The Skyhook resource's .status object includes fields that track batch rollout state. Two fields are particularly relevant for batch stickiness and node ordering:
| Field | Definition |
|---|---|
NodePriority |
Tracks which nodes are in the current active batch. A node stays in NodePriority from the time it is selected for a batch until it completes all packages. Prevents the controller from selecting new nodes while current batch nodes are between packages. |
NodeOrderOffset |
Cumulative count of nodes removed from NodePriority. Combined with a node's position in the sorted NodePriority map, this produces the monotonic SKYHOOK_NODE_ORDER value injected into package pods. |
Both fields are persisted in the CRD and survive controller restarts. They are cleared by kubectl skyhook reset and kubectl skyhook deployment-policy reset.