+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1315995 +++

Description of problem:

When creating Openshift pods with AWS EBS plugin it is possible only to attach /dev/xvdb - /dev/xvdp to openshift node and thus only to start number of pods which is equal to number of allocated EBS devices ( /dev/xvdb - /dev/xvdp ) 
Openshift pods uses AWS EBS as persistent storage 


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

# Openshift packages installed 

# rpm -qa | grep atomic-opensh
tuned-profiles-atomic-openshift-node-3.1.1.911-1.git.0.14f4c71.el7.x86_64
atomic-openshift-sdn-ovs-3.1.1.911-1.git.0.14f4c71.el7.x86_64
atomic-openshift-clients-3.1.1.911-1.git.0.14f4c71.el7.x86_64
atomic-openshift-node-3.1.1.911-1.git.0.14f4c71.el7.x86_64
atomic-openshift-master-3.1.1.911-1.git.0.14f4c71.el7.x86_64
atomic-openshift-3.1.1.911-1.git.0.14f4c71.el7.x86_64
root@ip-172-31-7-106: ~ # uname -a 
Linux ip-172-31-7-106.us-west-2.compute.internal 3.10.0-327.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Thu Oct 29 17:29:29 EDT 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

How reproducible:

On functional Openshift environment ( I tested with two Openshift nodes ) with above packages, run 

# python create_ebs_pod.py --volumesize=1 --image=r7perffio --tagprefix=openshift_test --minpod=1 --maxpod=44 --pvfile=pv.json --pvcfile=pvc.json --podfile=pod.json

This will create 43 pods with one 1 GB  EBS device attached to each of them, and approximatelly 20 pods an ose node should get.  
However, not all 20 pods will start, but only up to exhaustion of devices ( /dev/xvda - /dev/xvdb ). 

where, 

create_ebs_pod.py
pv.json
pvc.json 
podfile.json

can be found at : https://github.com/ekuric/openshift/tree/master/_aws 

Steps to Reproduce:
Please see step above 

Actual results:

Last device attached to amazon instance ( acting as openshift node ) in tests when awsElasticBlockStore plugin was used was /dev/xvdp
what means that devices from /dev/xvdb - /dev/xvdp were available for pods to use as persistent storage. After this, no more pods were possible to start.


Expected results:

to be albe to attach more EBS devices to amazon instance when using awsElasticBlockStore plugin  - and be able to start more Openshift pods 


Additional info:

In logs is stated below [1] 

Amazon : 

WS cloud provider says:

// See:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/block-device-mapping-concepts.html
devices := []mountDevice{}
for c := 'f'; c <= 'p'; c++ {
	devices = append(devices, mountDevice(fmt.Sprintf("%c", c)))
}


pod file used : https://github.com/ekuric/openshift/blob/master/_aws/pod.json
pv file used: https://github.com/ekuric/openshift/blob/master/_aws/pv.json
pvcfile used : https://github.com/ekuric/openshift/blob/master/_aws/pvc.json 

[1]
Mar  8 08:24:23 ip-172-31-7-105 atomic-openshift-node: E0308 08:24:23.508726   12979 pod_workers.go:138] Error syncing pod 8f3bf98c-e529-11e5-b35d-028bb7d6e433, skipping: Could not attach EBS Disk "vol-9652ec60". Timeout waiting for mount paths to be created.
Mar  8 08:24:23 ip-172-31-7-105 atomic-openshift-node: W0308 08:24:23.656873   12979 aws_util.go:167] Retrying attach for EBS Disk "vol-9b53ed6d" (retry count=7).
Mar  8 08:24:23 ip-172-31-7-105 atomic-openshift-node: W0308 08:24:23.770064   12979 aws.go:950] Unexpected EBS DeviceName: "/dev/sda1"
Mar  8 08:24:23 ip-172-31-7-105 atomic-openshift-node: W0308 08:24:23.770114   12979 aws.go:983] Could not assign a mount device (all in use?).  mappings=map[b:vol-6936fc9f f:vol-b954ea4f j:vol-4154eab7 l:vol-1b54eaed m:vol-9855eb6e p:vol-4155ebb7 a1:vol-a236fc54 g:vol-c654ea30 h:vol-2754ead1 i:vol-6e54ea98 k:vol-7a54ea8c n:vol-2c55ebda o:vol-ad55eb5b], valid=[f g h i j k l m n

--- Additional comment from Jan Safranek on 2016-03-09 23:05:50 CST ---

This is the root cause:
https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/aws.go#L903

Kubernetes uses only devices /dev/xvd[f-p] or /dev/sd[f-p], as suggested by
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/device_naming.html#available-ec2-device-names:

    "Recommended for EBS Volumes: ... /dev/sd[f-p]"

This leaves us with 11 EBS volumes, which is quite few. IMO we could use more, up to 40 volumes supported by Amazon.


As related bug, when Kubernetes runs out of device names, 'kubectl describe pod' shows cryptic error:
'Value (/dev/xvd) for parameter device is invalid. /dev/xvd is not a valid EBS device name.'
IMO we should print something like 'Too many devices attached, only 11 devices are supported by AWS.'
Note to self: look at https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/aws.go#L1054 and try to return an error here.

--- Additional comment from Jan Safranek on 2016-03-14 23:43:08 CST ---

Created PR https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/22942 and waiting for upstream feedback.

--- Additional comment from Jan Safranek on 2016-03-16 20:43:36 CST ---

The first part, raising the limit to 39 has been merged to Kubernetes 1.2. Admins can adjust the limit by setting env. variable "KUBE_MAX_PD_VOLS" in scheduler process (openshift-master), however kubelet will refuse to attach more that 39 volumes anyway. 'oc describe pod' will show clear message that too many volumes are attached and a pod can't be started.

https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/22942


The second part, allowing kubelet to attach more than 39 volumes, is still open and I'm working on it. Tracked here: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/22994