architecture-eval-states.md

Architecture: Evaluation Status

The Scheduling in Nomad internals documentation covers the path that an evaluation takes through the leader, worker, and plan applier. But it doesn't cover in any detail the various Evaluation.Status values, or where the PreviousEval, NextEval, or BlockedEval ID pointers are set.

The state diagram below describes the transitions between Status values as solid arrows. The dashed arrows represent when a new evaluation is created. The parenthetical labels on those arrows are the TriggeredBy field for the new evaluation.

The status values are:

• pending evaluations either are queued to be scheduled, are still being processed in the scheduler, or are being applied by the plan applier and not yet acknowledged.
• failed evaluations have failed to be applied by the plan applier (or are somehow invalid in the scheduler; this is always a bug)
• blocked evaluations are created when an eval has failed too many attempts to have its plan applied by the leader, or when a plan can only be partially applied and there are still more allocations to create.
• complete means the plan was applied successfully (at least partially).
• canceled means the evaluation was superseded by state changes like a new version of the job.

flowchart LR

    event((Cluster\nEvent))

    pending([pending])
    blocked([blocked])
    complete([complete])
    failed([failed])
    canceled([canceled])

    %% style classes
    classDef status fill:#d5f6ea,stroke-width:4px,stroke:#1d9467
    classDef other fill:#d5f6ea,stroke:#1d9467
    class event other;
    class pending,blocked,complete,failed,canceled status;

    event -. "job-register
      job-deregister
      periodic-job
      node-update
      node-drain
      alloc-stop
      scheduled
      alloc-failure
      job-scaling" .-> pending

    pending -. "new eval\n(rolling-update)" .-> pending
    pending -. "new eval\n(preemption)" .-> pending

    pending -. "new eval\n(max-plan-attempts)" .-> blocked
    pending -- if plan submitted --> complete
    pending -- if invalid --> failed
    pending -- if no-op --> canceled

    failed -- if retried --> blocked
    failed -- if retried --> complete

    blocked -- if no-op --> canceled
    blocked -- if plan submitted --> complete

    complete -. "new eval\n(deployment-watcher)" .-> pending
    complete -. "new eval\n(queued-allocs)" .-> blocked

    failed -. "new eval\n(failed-follow-up)" .-> pending

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But it's hard to get a full picture of the evaluation lifecycle purely from the Status fields, because evaluations have several "quasi-statuses" which aren't represented as explicit statuses in the state store:

• scheduling is the status where an eval is being processed by the scheduler worker.
• applying is the status where the resulting plan for the eval is being applied in the plan applier on the leader.
• delayed is an enqueued eval that will be dequeued some time in the future.
• deleted is when an eval is removed from the state store entirely.

By adding these statuses to the diagram (the dashed nodes), you can see where the same Status transition might result in different PreviousEval, NextEval, or BlockedEval set. You can also see where the "chain" of evaluations is broken when new evals are created for preemptions or by the deployment watcher.

flowchart LR

    event((Cluster\nEvent))

    %% statuss
    pending([pending])
    blocked([blocked])
    complete([complete])
    failed([failed])
    canceled([canceled])

    %% quasi-statuss
    deleted([deleted])
    delayed([delayed])
    scheduling([scheduling])
    applying([applying])

    %% style classes
    classDef status fill:#d5f6ea,stroke-width:4px,stroke:#1d9467
    classDef quasistatus fill:#d5f6ea,stroke-dasharray: 5 5,stroke:#1d9467
    classDef other fill:#d5f6ea,stroke:#1d9467

    class event other;
    class pending,blocked,complete,failed,canceled status;
    class deleted,delayed,scheduling,applying quasistatus;

    event -- "job-register
      job-deregister
      periodic-job
      node-update
      node-drain
      alloc-stop
      scheduled
      alloc-failure
      job-scaling" --> pending

    pending -- dequeued --> scheduling
    pending -- if delayed --> delayed
    delayed -- dequeued --> scheduling

    scheduling -. "not all allocs placed
      new eval created by scheduler
      trigger queued-allocs
      new has .PreviousEval = old.ID
      old has .BlockedEval = new.ID" .-> blocked

    scheduling -. "failed to plan
      new eval created by scheduler
      trigger: max-plan-attempts
      new has .PreviousEval = old.ID
      old has .BlockedEval = new.ID" .-> blocked

    scheduling -- "not all allocs placed
      reuse already-blocked eval" --> blocked

    blocked -- "unblocked by
      external state changes" --> scheduling

    scheduling -- allocs placed --> complete

    scheduling -- "wrong eval type or
      max retries exceeded
      on plan submit" --> failed

    scheduling -- "canceled by
      job update/stop" --> canceled

    failed -- retry --> scheduling

    scheduling -. "new eval from rolling update (system jobs)
      created by scheduler
      trigger: rolling-update
      new has .PreviousEval = old.ID
      old has .NextEval = new.ID" .-> pending

    scheduling -- submit --> applying
    applying -- failed --> scheduling

    applying -. "new eval for preempted allocs
      created by plan applier
      trigger: preemption
      new has .PreviousEval = unset!
      old has .BlockedEval = unset!" .-> pending

    complete -. "new eval from deployments (service jobs)
      created by deploymentwatcher
      trigger: deployment-watcher
      new has .PreviousEval = unset!
      old has .NextEval = unset!" .-> pending

    failed -- "new eval
      trigger: failed-follow-up
      new has .PreviousEval = old.ID
      old has .NextEval = new.ID" --> pending

    pending -- "undeliverable evals
      reaped by leader" --> failed

    blocked -- "duplicate blocked evals
      reaped by leader" --> canceled

    canceled -- garbage\ncollection --> deleted
    failed -- garbage\ncollection --> deleted
    complete -- garbage\ncollection --> deleted

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