⬡ SHC — Self-Healing Cluster

A Kubernetes-native system that automatically detects and heals unhealthy nodes using a Machine Learning anomaly detection model, with a real-time live dashboard.

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📋 Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Architecture
3. Features
4. Project Structure
5. Prerequisites
6. Quick Start (Local — No Kubernetes)
7. Running on Kubernetes
8. Dashboard Guide
9. API Reference
10. ML Model Details
11. Troubleshooting
12. Tech Stack

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Overview

SHC (Self-Healing Cluster) monitors cloud node metrics, feeds them to an Isolation Forest ML model, and automatically restarts unhealthy pods when a persistent anomaly is confirmed using a double-verification strategy (detects → waits 20 s → re-checks → heals). Everything is visualised on a live dark-mode dashboard.

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Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   Browser Dashboard                     │
│        (WebSocket · Chart.js · Real-time UI)            │
└───────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┘
                        │ WebSocket ws://
                        ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│               Demo-Service  (Node.js)                   │
│  • 5-second metric broadcast loop                       │
│  • 30-second anomaly check loop                         │
│  • Double-verification before healing                   │
│  • Kubernetes API for pod restarts                      │
└───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┘
                │ POST /predict (HTTP)
                ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│               ML-Service  (Python FastAPI)              │
│  • Isolation Forest (200 estimators, 8 features)        │
│  • Trained on 5 failure scenario types                  │
│  • Returns { anomaly: true/false, score: float }        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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Features

• 🤖 ML Anomaly Detection — Isolation Forest trained on 5 failure types
• 🔁 Double-Verification — confirms anomaly before any healing action (no false positives)
• 🩺 Automatic Pod Restart — via Kubernetes API with RBAC scoped to minimum permissions
• 📊 Live Dashboard — WebSocket-powered real-time metrics, node health map, rolling charts, healing event log
• ⚡ Demo Controls — "Simulate Stress" and "Reset" buttons to show the full healing cycle
• 🛡️ Fallback Threshold — works even if ML service is temporarily unreachable
• 🐳 Fully Dockerised — both services have production-ready Dockerfiles

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Project Structure

SHC/
├── .gitignore
├── README.md
│
├── Demo-Service/               ← Node.js monitor + dashboard server
│   ├── index.js                   Main application
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── deployment.yaml            Kubernetes Deployment
│   ├── service.yaml               Kubernetes Service (NodePort)
│   ├── rbac.yaml                  ServiceAccount + Role + RoleBinding
│   └── dashboard/
│       ├── index.html             Dashboard UI
│       ├── style.css              Dark glassmorphism styles
│       └── app.js                 WebSocket client + Chart.js logic
│
└── ML-Model/                   ← Python ML anomaly detection service
    ├── train_model.py             Dataset generator + model trainer
    ├── ml_service.py              FastAPI prediction service
    ├── test_model.py              Quick model validation script
    ├── requirements.txt           Python dependencies
    ├── Dockerfile
    ├── ml-deployment.yaml         Kubernetes Deployment
    ├── ml-service.yaml            Kubernetes Service (ClusterIP)
    ├── anomaly_model.pkl          Trained model (generated)
    └── scaler.pkl                 Feature scaler (generated)

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Prerequisites

Make sure the following are installed on your system:

Tool	Version	Purpose
Node.js	≥ 18.x	Demo-Service runtime
npm	≥ 9.x	Node package manager
Python	≥ 3.10	ML model and service
pip	≥ 23.x	Python package manager

For Kubernetes deployment only:

Tool	Purpose
Docker Desktop / Docker Engine	Build container images
kubectl	Manage Kubernetes cluster
Minikube / Kind / any K8s cluster	The cluster itself

Installing Prerequisites

Node.js — https://nodejs.org/en/download
Python — https://www.python.org/downloads
Docker Desktop — https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop
kubectl — https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools
Minikube — https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/start

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Quick Start (Local — No Kubernetes)

This runs everything on your laptop with no Kubernetes needed. Ideal for demos and development.

Step 1 — Clone / Navigate to the project

cd SHC

Step 2 — Train the ML Model

cd ML-Model
pip install -r requirements.txt
python train_model.py

Expected output:

Generating synthetic node metrics dataset...
Dataset: 5000 total samples  (4500 normal + 500 anomalous)
Model trained. Flagged 500/5000 samples as anomalous (10.0%)
Saved: anomaly_model.pkl  scaler.pkl

Step 3 — Start the ML Service

Keep this terminal open:

# Still inside ML-Model/
uvicorn ml_service:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Verify it's up: http://localhost:8000/health → {"status":"ok"}

Step 4 — Start the Demo Service + Dashboard

Open a new terminal:

cd SHC/Demo-Service
npm install

Windows (PowerShell):

$env:ML_SERVICE_URL = "http://localhost:8000"
node index.js

macOS / Linux (bash/zsh):

ML_SERVICE_URL=http://localhost:8000 node index.js

Step 5 — Open the Dashboard

Open your browser and go to:

http://localhost:3000

You should see the live dark-mode dashboard with metrics updating every 5 seconds.

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Running on Kubernetes

Step 1 — Start Minikube

minikube start
eval $(minikube docker-env)    # macOS/Linux
# Windows PowerShell:
# & minikube -p minikube docker-env --shell powershell | Invoke-Expression

Step 2 — Build Docker Images

# Build ML service image
cd SHC/ML-Model
docker build -t ml-anomaly-service .

# Build Demo-Service image
cd ../Demo-Service
docker build -t selfheal-app .

Step 3 — Deploy to Kubernetes

cd SHC

# RBAC (service account, role, rolebinding)
kubectl apply -f Demo-Service/rbac.yaml

# ML Service
kubectl apply -f ML-Model/ml-deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f ML-Model/ml-service.yaml

# Demo Service + Dashboard
kubectl apply -f Demo-Service/deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f Demo-Service/service.yaml

Step 4 — Access the Dashboard

minikube service selfheal-service

This opens the dashboard automatically in your browser.

Step 5 — Verify All Pods are Running

kubectl get pods
kubectl get services

Expected:

NAME                            READY   STATUS    RESTARTS
ml-service-xxxx                 1/1     Running   0
selfheal-app-xxxx               1/1     Running   0

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Dashboard Guide

Section	Description
Header	System name, live status badge (NORMAL / DETECTING / CONFIRMED), live clock, WebSocket connection indicator
Cluster Nodes	3 animated node cards (Master + 2 Workers) — change colour based on anomaly state
Live Metrics	8 metric cards with progress bars — turn amber/red when thresholds exceeded
Rolling Chart	Chart.js multi-line chart showing last 60 data points for CPU, Memory, Latency, Error Rate
Anomaly Detection	Pulsing indicator with state description + counters (Heals, Anomalies, Uptime)
Healing Log	Table of all healing events — timestamp, issue, key metrics, action taken
Demo Controls	"⚡ Simulate Node Stress" — triggers anomalous metrics immediately
	"↺ Reset to Normal" — resets simulation back to normal metrics
	Links to raw /api/metrics and /api/events JSON

Demo Scenario for Presentation

1. Open dashboard → show NORMAL state, point out all 8 live metrics
2. Click "⚡ Simulate Node Stress"
3. Within ~30 seconds:
   • Status badge changes: NORMAL → DETECTING → CONFIRMED
   • Node cards change colour: Healthy → Degraded → Critical
   • Metric cards turn red
   • Anomaly count increments
4. After healing is confirmed: new row appears in Healing Event Log
5. Click "↺ Reset" — system recovers automatically to NORMAL
6. Mention the automatic 5 failure scenario rotation: CPU Spike → OOM → Disk I/O → Network → Crash Loop

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API Reference

All endpoints are on the Demo-Service (http://localhost:3000):

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/	Serves the dashboard UI
GET	/health	Health check → {"status":"ok","state":"NORMAL"}
GET	/api/metrics	Latest metrics snapshot (JSON)
GET	/api/events	Full healing event log (JSON array)
GET	/api/state	Current state + uptime stats
GET	/stress	Trigger anomalous metrics simulation
GET	/reset	Reset metrics to normal
GET	/crash?token=shc-secret	Intentional crash (token-protected)

ML Service (http://localhost:8000):

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/health	{"status":"ok"}
GET	/info	Model metadata (algorithm, features, contamination)
POST	/predict	Predict anomaly from 8 metrics → {"anomaly":bool,"score":float}
GET	/docs	Interactive Swagger UI

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ML Model Details

Parameter	Value
Algorithm	Isolation Forest
Library	scikit-learn
Estimators	200 trees
Contamination	10%
Training samples	5000 (4500 normal + 500 anomalous)
Features	8
Random seed	42

Features

Feature	Description	Normal Range	Alert Threshold
cpu_usage	CPU utilisation %	10–60%	> 85%
memory_usage	RAM utilisation %	30–65%	> 90%
request_rate	Requests per second	180–380	< 50
latency	Request latency (ms)	60–280	> 1500
pod_restarts	Restart count	0–1	≥ 4
disk_io	Disk I/O utilisation %	10–55%	> 87%
network_errors	Errors per minute	0–6	> 45
error_rate	Error fraction 0–1	0–0.04	> 0.30

Failure Scenarios Trained

Scenario	Characteristics
CPU Spike	cpu_usage > 87%, high latency, elevated error rate
Memory Exhaustion (OOM)	memory_usage > 90%, many pod restarts, high error rate
Disk I/O Saturation	disk_io > 88%, extreme latency > 1800ms
Network Degradation	network_errors > 48/min, very high latency, high error rate
Crash Loop	pod_restarts > 5, high CPU + memory, low request rate

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Troubleshooting

Port 3000 already in use

# Windows
netstat -ano | findstr ":3000"
taskkill /PID <PID> /F

# Or run on a different port:
$env:PORT = "3001"
node index.js

ML service not reachable

The Demo-Service has a built-in fallback using fixed thresholds — it will still detect anomalies even without the ML service. Check that ML_SERVICE_URL is set correctly.

anomaly_model.pkl not found

Re-run the training script from inside the ML-Model/ directory:

cd ML-Model
python train_model.py

Python pip install fails

Try using a virtual environment:

cd ML-Model
python -m venv venv
# Windows:
venv\Scripts\activate
# macOS/Linux:
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Minikube image not found

Make sure you built the Docker images after running eval $(minikube docker-env) so the images exist inside Minikube's registry:

eval $(minikube docker-env)   # must run this first!
docker build -t ml-anomaly-service ./ML-Model
docker build -t selfheal-app ./Demo-Service

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
ML Model	Python · scikit-learn (IsolationForest) · pandas · numpy · joblib
ML Service	FastAPI · uvicorn · Pydantic
Monitor Service	Node.js · Express · ws (WebSocket) · axios
Kubernetes Client	@kubernetes/client-node
Dashboard	HTML5 · CSS3 · JavaScript (ES2022) · Chart.js
Containerisation	Docker
Orchestration	Kubernetes · kubectl
RBAC	Kubernetes ServiceAccount + Role + RoleBinding

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Author

Swaroop Vyawahare

Final Year Academic Project — Self-Healing Cluster (SHC)

Built to demonstrate how ML-driven observability can automate Kubernetes node recovery without human intervention.