kb for ttl-workaround

update instructions for patching cloud credentials

updated title

kb/2024-05-17/modify_cloud_credential_ttl.md

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+---
+title: Renew Harvester cloud credentials
+description: How to renew expired Harvester cloud credentials when using Rancher 2.8.x.
+slug: renew_harvester_cloud_credentials
+authors:
+  - name: Gaurav Mehta
+    title: Staff Software Engineer
+    url: https://github.com/ibrokethecloud
+    image_url: https://github.com/ibrokethecloud.png
+  - name: Moritz Röhrich 
+    title: Senior Quality Assurance Engineer
+    url: https://github.com/m-ildefons
+    image_url: https://github.com/m-ildefons.png
+tags: [harvester, cloud credentials, rancher]
+hide_table_of_contents: false
+---
+
+## Kubeconfig token expiry in Rancher 2.8.x
+
+Rancher 2.8.x has introduced a new [kubeconfig-default-token-ttl-minutes](https://ranchermanager.docs.rancher.com/api/api-tokens#kubeconfig-default-token-ttl-minutes) setting. As highlighted in the document the default value for this setting is 30 days.
+
+A side effect of this issue, has been the expiry of kubeconfig tokens used by rancher in provisioning downstream clusters on Harvester.
+
+When the cloud credential token expires, the end users cannot perform any further cluster management operations on downstream clusters on Harvester. An issue tracking the same is available [here.](https://github.com/rancher/rancher/issues/44912)
+
+**NOTE:** This only impacts Harvester cloud credentials created after installing or upgrading to Rancher 2.8.x
+
+## Workaround
+
+Users can patch the expired harvester cloud credential to the use a new api token as follows:
+
+1. Identify the expired cloud credential for the cluster
+![identify-credentials](./imgs/identify-cloud-credential.png)
+
+2. Generate a new rancher api token with "No Scope". Users can custom the ttl for their token, a custom value of 0 results in tokens that do not expire.
+![api-token](./imgs/api-token.png)
+
+3. Generate a kubeconfig to access the rancher server using the [instructions.](https://ranchermanager.docs.rancher.com/api/quickstart)
+
+4. the cloud credential is stored as a secret in `cattle-global-data` namespace, and can be patched with new API token as follows. Please ensure that environment variable KUBECONFIG points to the generated kubeconfig
+
+```shell
+#!/bin/sh
+CLOUD_CREDENTIAL_NAME=$1
+API_TOKEN=$2
+
+kubeconfig=$(kubectl get secret $CLOUD_CREDENTIAL_NAME -n cattle-global-data -o yaml |   yq '.data.harvestercredentialConfig-kubeconfigContent' | base64 -d | token=${API_TOKEN} yq -e '.users[0].user.token = env(token)' | base64 )
+
+patch_file=$(mktemp)
+
+cat > ${patch_file} <<EOF
+data:
+  harvestercredentialConfig-kubeconfigContent: $kubeconfig
+EOF
+
+kubectl patch secret ${CLOUD_CREDENTIAL_NAME} -n cattle-global-data --patch-file ${patch_file} --type merge
+rm ${patch_file}
+```