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Feature: System-wide DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING toggle, adopted first by Gravitee

IMPLEMENTATION RULES: Before implementing this plan, read and follow:

Status: Completed​

Completed: 2026-05-04 — Round 5 PASS confirmed by UIS tester (talk.md:1305+). All four layers verified, default deploy yields 4 pods + 0 HPAs, -e _gravitee_autoscaling=true override re-enables HPAs (chart actually creates HPA templates for all four components, not just ui+portal — see Implementation Notes for the corollary). Round 3 OQ4 chart change unaffected.

Goal: Introduce a system-wide DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING knob in default-secrets.env, propagate it through every setup playbook via ansible extra-vars, and adopt it in Gravitee as the first consumer. With the knob's default value (false), ./uis deploy gravitee produces 4 pods (one each: api, gateway, ui, portal) and zero HPAs. Future autoscaling-aware services (openwebui, jupyterhub, …) adopt the same knob with a 2-line playbook change each.

Last Updated: 2026-05-04

History: This PLAN's first iteration (2026-05-03) hardcoded autoscaling: { enabled: false } in chart values for the four gravitee components — symmetric, but per-service. Maintainer asked for the toggle to be a single system-wide variable that other services can adopt later, defined in default-secrets.env. Re-executed under that design.

Reported in: Finding 8 of INVESTIGATE-gravitee-post-deploy-config.md. Maintainer's verbatim direction: "we don't need hpa when this is running in development on the local rancher desktop cluster… there might be others that can adopt this later. if we define it in the default-secrets.env and then use that to set _gravitee_autoscaling."

Problem​

Two layered problems:

  1. Gravitee-specific (Finding 8): chart-default HPA on ui and portal scales to max=3 because their idle RSS exceeds the 128 MB memory request. manifests/090-gravitee-config.yaml disables autoscaling on api and gateway but leaves ui/portal to chart defaults — values-file asymmetry. Every fresh deploy lands with 6 pods, three of which are redundant ui replicas.
  2. System-wide gap: UIS has no canonical way to express "this is a local-dev install, default to off for production-shaped knobs (HPA, replicas, larger memory requests, …)". Each service inventing its own toggle would fragment the ecosystem.

Solution — Three-layer toggle​

Layer 1 — Single source of truth​

Add DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING=false to provision-host/uis/templates/default-secrets.env. One line plus a comment block explaining the system-wide pattern and adoption guidance for future services.

Layer 2 — Wrapper passes every DEFAULT_* as ansible extra-vars​

Modify provision-host/uis/lib/service-deployment.sh:deploy_single_service (around the ansible_args build at line 142) to source default-secrets.env once and forward every DEFAULT_* variable as a lowercased ansible extra-var (e.g. DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING → default_autoscaling). Future system-wide knobs land here with zero wrapper change.

Lowercase mapping is the convention because ansible vars are case-sensitive and lowercase by community style. The DEFAULT_ prefix is preserved so the namespace is clear in the playbook.

Layer 3 — Per-service mapping in playbook​

In ansible/playbooks/090-setup-gravitee.yml:

vars:
  _gravitee_autoscaling: "{{ default_autoscaling | default('false') }}"

Then task 24 (helm install) adds four --set overrides:

--set api.autoscaling.enabled={{ _gravitee_autoscaling }}
--set gateway.autoscaling.enabled={{ _gravitee_autoscaling }}
--set ui.autoscaling.enabled={{ _gravitee_autoscaling }}
--set portal.autoscaling.enabled={{ _gravitee_autoscaling }}

Chart values cleanup​

Remove all four autoscaling: { enabled: false } blocks from manifests/090-gravitee-config.yaml (api, gateway, ui, portal). Single source of truth for the autoscaling state is now the helm --set. Comments stay, slightly reworded to point at the system-wide knob.

Override paths​

  • System-wide flip on: edit default-secrets.env, set DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING=true, redeploy. All adopting services switch on simultaneously.
  • Per-service flip (e.g. test prod-shape Gravitee while leaving others as dev-shape): ./uis exec ansible-playbook /mnt/urbalurbadisk/ansible/playbooks/090-setup-gravitee.yml -e _gravitee_autoscaling=true (raw ansible invocation).
  • Future CLI flag (out of scope here): ./uis deploy gravitee --autoscaling would plumb through uis-cli.sh / service-deployment.sh into an explicit extra-var. Separate plan if needed.

Phase 1: System-wide knob plumbing + Gravitee adoption​

Tasks​

  • 1.1 Add DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING=false to provision-host/uis/templates/default-secrets.env with a documented comment block. ✓
  • 1.2 Modify provision-host/uis/lib/service-deployment.sh:deploy_single_service to source default-secrets.env and forward every DEFAULT_* as lowercased ansible extra-var. ✓
  • 1.3 Add _gravitee_autoscaling: "{{ default_autoscaling | default('false') }}" to vars block in 090-setup-gravitee.yml with documentation. ✓
  • 1.4 Add four --set <component>.autoscaling.enabled={{ _gravitee_autoscaling }} lines to task 24 (helm install). ✓
  • 1.5 Remove the four autoscaling: { enabled: false } blocks from manifests/090-gravitee-config.yaml. Top-of-file comment updated to point at DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING. ✓
  • 1.6 Run ./uis build. ✓ (image uis-provision-host:local, manifest sha256:ccb43d6a…)

Validation​

# 1. Layer 1: variable defined.
./uis exec grep DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING /mnt/urbalurbadisk/provision-host/uis/templates/default-secrets.env

# 2. Layer 2: wrapper sources defaults.
./uis exec grep -A2 'default-secrets.env' /mnt/urbalurbadisk/provision-host/uis/lib/service-deployment.sh

# 3. Layer 3: playbook maps the var.
./uis exec grep _gravitee_autoscaling /mnt/urbalurbadisk/ansible/playbooks/090-setup-gravitee.yml

# 4. Helm --set lines present.
./uis exec grep -c 'autoscaling.enabled={{ _gravitee_autoscaling' /mnt/urbalurbadisk/ansible/playbooks/090-setup-gravitee.yml
# Expected: 4

# 5. Chart-values blocks removed.
./uis exec grep -c 'autoscaling:' /mnt/urbalurbadisk/manifests/090-gravitee-config.yaml
# Expected: 0

Phase 2: Tester verification​

Tasks​

  • 2.1 Round 5 brief appended to talk.md. ✓
  • 2.2 Tester report received: PASS. 4 pods + 0 HPAs default; -e _gravitee_autoscaling=true brings 4 HPAs back (not 2 as the brief expected — chart has HPA templates for all four components). Bidirectional flip verified. OQ4 unregressed. ✓

Validation​

Tester confirms:

  • Default deploy: 4 pods, 0 HPAs.
  • Override probe: with -e _gravitee_autoscaling=true (or DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING=true flipped in default-secrets.env then ./uis secrets generate), redeploy yields HPAs back.
  • Round 3 OQ4 not regressed (baseURL still /management, management API still 200 at the relative path).

Acceptance Criteria​

  • DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING=false in default-secrets.env with a comment block explaining its system-wide nature. ✓
  • service-deployment.sh:deploy_single_service sources default-secrets.env and forwards every DEFAULT_* variable as a lowercased ansible extra-var. Comment block documents the convention. ✓
  • 090-setup-gravitee.yml has _gravitee_autoscaling mapped from default_autoscaling and applies it via four --set lines on helm install. Comment documents the pattern. ✓
  • manifests/090-gravitee-config.yaml has no autoscaling: blocks. ✓
  • Default ./uis deploy gravitee produces 4 pods, 0 HPAs. ✓ confirmed by tester
  • Override path (-e _gravitee_autoscaling=true) re-enables HPAs. ✓ confirmed by tester (4 HPAs come back, not 2 — see Implementation Notes corollary)
  • Round 3 OQ4 chart change (relative ui.baseURL) still functions — no regression on constants.json content or management-API reachability. ✓ confirmed by tester

Files to Modify​

  • provision-host/uis/templates/default-secrets.env — new DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING=false line + documentation comment.
  • provision-host/uis/lib/service-deployment.sh — wrapper sources defaults, passes extra-vars.
  • ansible/playbooks/090-setup-gravitee.yml — _gravitee_autoscaling var + 4 --set lines on task 24.
  • manifests/090-gravitee-config.yaml — remove the four autoscaling: { enabled: false } blocks (api, gateway, ui, portal).

Implementation Notes​

Why the wrapper sources the whole default-secrets.env rather than per-knob plumbing: future-proofing. When the next system-wide knob lands (e.g. DEFAULT_REPLICA_COUNT, DEFAULT_DEBUG_MODE, DEFAULT_LOG_LEVEL), it's a one-line addition to default-secrets.env and a one-line mapping in whichever playbook adopts it. The wrapper change happens once.

Why ansible extra-vars rather than a vars-file include: extra-vars have the highest precedence in ansible's variable hierarchy, so a per-deploy -e override always wins over both the defaults and any playbook-specified value. Matches existing UIS conventions (_purge, _app_name, _url_prefix).

Why lowercase mapping (DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING → default_autoscaling): ansible vars are case-sensitive and the community convention is lowercase. The DEFAULT_ prefix is preserved so playbook readers can grep default_ to find all system-wide-knob mappings.

Why chart values are emptied (vs keeping autoscaling: { enabled: false } as a static fallback): single source of truth. With chart values keeping false AND --set false from the playbook, both say the same thing — but if someone flipped DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING=true and forgot to update chart values, the chart values would silently win for direct-helm-invocations. Easier to reason about with one canonical place.

No separate PR — folds into next gravitee-config commit per existing maintainer direction.

Documentation surface (per maintainer's "remember to document the behavior" directive):

  • default-secrets.env itself: comment block above DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING explaining system-wide intent + how new services adopt it.
  • service-deployment.sh:deploy_single_service: comment block above the source-defaults code explaining the wrapper's responsibility.
  • 090-setup-gravitee.yml: comment near _gravitee_autoscaling referencing the layered pattern.
  • manifests/090-gravitee-config.yaml: short comment at top of file noting that autoscaling is now driven by DEFAULT_AUTOSCALING (rather than chart values).