Create and Manage VMware Clusters

You can deploy Kubernetes clusters on VMware vSphere using Palette. Use the following steps to create and manage VMware clusters in Palette.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:

• A VMware vSphere user account with the necessary permissions to create and manage clusters. Refer to the Required Permissions page for more information.

• A VMware account registered in Palette. VMware accounts are automatically registered when you deploy a Private Cloud Gateway (PCG) in Palette. Check out the Deploy a PCG guide to learn how to deploy a PCG.

  info

  If you have a self-hosted Palette or VerteX instance, you can use the System PCG instance that is deployed in a VMware environment. Refer to the System PCG to learn more about the system PCG.

• A cluster profile for the VMware vSphere environment. You can learn how to create a cluster profile by following the steps in the Create a Cluster Profile guide.

• Depending on the network type you select for the cluster, you may need to create an IP Address Management (IPAM) pool or define a search domain. Use the following guidelines to create an IPAM pool or define a search domain.

  • An IP Address Management (IPAM) pool is required to assign static IP addresses to the nodes in the cluster. You can learn how to create an IPAM pool by following the steps in the Create and Manage IPAM Node Pools guide.

  • A search domain, also called DNS mapping, can be used to assign cluster nodes to a specific network, cluster, and datacenter. Check out the Add DNS Mapping guide to learn how to add multiple DNS mappings to a PCG.

Create a VMware Cluster

1. Log in to Palette.

2. Navigate to the left Main Menu and select Clusters.

3. Click Deploy New Cluster on the Create a New Cluster page.

4. Select VMware and click the Start VMware Configuration button.

5. Fill out the input fields. Use the table below to learn more about each input fields. Click on the Next button when you are done.

   Field Name	Description	Required
   Cluster name	The name of the cluster.	Yes
   Description	A brief description of the cluster.	No
   Tags	Tags to help you identify the cluster.	No
   Cloud Account	The VMware vSphere account to use for the cluster. If no account is available, ensure you deployed a PCG into the VMware vSphere environment.	Yes

6. Select the cluster profile you want to use for the cluster. Click the Next to proceed.

7. Modify any cluster profile layers as needed. Click Next to continue.

8. Fill out the VMware vSphere configuration details for the cluster. Refer to the table below to learn more about each option. Click Next to proceed.

   Field Name	Description	Required
   Datacenter	The VMware vSphere datacenter where the cluster and its nodes will be deployed.	Yes
   Deployment Folder	The folder in the datacenter where the cluster and its nodes will be deployed. Check the box Append cluster name if you want the cluster name appended to the folder name.	Yes
   Image Template Folder	The folder in the datacenter where the image templates are stored. This is typically in the spectro-templates folder.	Yes
   Network Type	The network type to use for the cluster. Select Static IP if you want to use static IP addresses. Select DHCP if you want to use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).	Yes
   SSH Key	The SSH key to use for the cluster. Check out the Create and Upload an SSH Key guide to learn how to upload an SSH key to Palette.	No
   NTP Servers	The Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers to use for the cluster.	No

   warning

   We recommend specifying Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers to ensure that the cluster nodes have the correct time. If no NTP servers are specified, it could lead to time drift issues.

9. Configure the control plane and worker node pool configurations. Click Next to proceed.

   Control Plane Pool Configuration

   tip

   To apply the same configuration to the worker node pool as the control plane node pool, click the Copy from the Control Plane Pool button. This will copy the control plane pool configuration to the worker node pool.

   Field Name	Description
   Node Pool Name	The name of the control plane node pool.
   Number of nodes in the pool	The number of control plane nodes. Allowed values are 1, 3, and 5.
   Allow Worker Capability	Enable this option to workloads to be deployed on control plane nodes.
   Additional Labels	Additional labels to apply to the control plane nodes.
   Taints	Taints to apply to the control plane nodes. If enabled, an input field is displayed to specify the taint key, value and effect. Check out the Node Labels and Taints page to learn more.

   Cloud Configuration

   Field Name	Description
   CPU	The number of CPUs to allocate to the control plane nodes.
   Memory	The amount of memory to allocate to the control plane nodes.
   Disk	The amount of disk space to allocate to the control plane nodes.

   Fault Domain Configuration

   Field Name	Description
   Compute Cluster	The compute cluster to use for the control plane nodes.
   Resource Pool	The resource pool to use for the control plane nodes.
   Datastore	The datastore to use for the control plane nodes.
   Network	The network to use for the control plane nodes.

   Network Configuration

   Depending on what option you selected for the Network Type field, the following fields are displayed.

   Field Name	Description	Network Type
   IPAM Pool	The IPAM pool to use for the control plane nodes. An IPAM pool is required to assign IP addresses to the nodes in the cluster. You can learn how to create an IPAM pool by following the steps in the Create and Manage IPAM Node Pools guide.	Static IP
   Search Domain	The search domain to assign the cluster nodes in. If no search domain is defined, click on the Define DNS button and specify the search domain. Check out the Add DNS Mapping guide to learn how to add multiple DNS mappings to a PCG.	DHCP

   Worker Plane Pool Configuration

   Field Name	Description
   Node Pool Name	The name of the control plane node pool.
   Enable Autoscaler	Enable this option to automatically scale the worker nodes based on the workload.
   Node Repave Interval	The interval at which the worker nodes are repaved in seconds. Refer to the Repave Behavior and Configuration for additional information about repave behaviors.
   Number of Nodes in the Pool	The number of worker nodes.
   Rolling Update	Choose between Expand First and Contract First to determine the order in which nodes are added or removed from the worker node pool. Expand first adds new nodes before removing old nodes. Contract first removes old nodes before adding new nodes.
   Additional Labels	Additional labels to apply to the control plane nodes.
   Taints	Taints to apply to the control plane nodes. If enabled, an input field is displayed to specify the taint key, value and effect. Check out the Node Labels and Taints page to learn more.

   Click on the Next button when you are done.

10. You can configure the following cluster management features now if needed, or you can do it later:

    • OS Patching
    • Schedule scans
    • Schedule backups
    • Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
    • Location

    OS Patching

    Specify your preferred OS Patching Schedule for the cluster. Check out the OS Patching page to learn more about OS patching.

    Scan Options

    Enable any scan options you want Palette to perform, and select a scan schedule. Palette provides support for Kubernetes configuration security, penetration testing, and conformance testing.

    Backup Options

    Schedule any backups you want Palette to perform. Review Backup and Restore for more information.

    RBAC Configuration

    RBAC configuration is required when you configure custom OIDC. You must map a set of users or groups to a Kubernetes RBAC role. To learn how to map a Kubernetes role to users and groups, refer to Create Role Bindings. Refer to Use RBAC with OIDC for an example.

    Location

    Specify the location of the cluster. The cluster location is added to the project dashboard location map.

11. Click on the Validate button and review the cluster configuration and settings summary.

12. Click Finish Configuration to deploy the cluster.

The cluster deployment process is initiated. You can monitor the cluster deployment progress by navigating to the left Main Menu and selecting Clusters. Click on the cluster you just created to view the cluster details page. The Cluster Status field displays the current status of the cluster.

Validate

Use the following steps to validate that the cluster is available and healthy.

1. Log in to Palette.

2. Navigate to the left Main Menu and click Clusters.

3. The Clusters page lists all available clusters that Palette manages. Select the cluster you deployed to review its details page.

4. Ensure the Cluster Status field contains the value Running.

tip

You can download the cluster's kubeconfig file to access the cluster using the Kubernetes command-line tool, kubectl. Check out the Access a Cluster guide to learn how to download the kubeconfig file.

Next Steps

Now that you have a Kubernetes cluster deployed, you can start developing and deploying applications to your clusters. We recommend you review the Day-2 responsibilities and become familiar with the cluster management tasks. Check out the Manage Clusters documentation to learn more about Day-2 responsibilities.