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Kubernetes

First Steps with TKGm Guest Clusters in VMware Cloud Director 10.3

In the previous article, I've explained how to deploy Container Service Extension 3.1 with TKGm Support in VMware Cloud Director 10.3. In this article, I'm taking a look at how the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Cluster is integrated into the Organization VDC and how the Tenant can access and work with the Kubernetes Cluster.

 

Read More »First Steps with TKGm Guest Clusters in VMware Cloud Director 10.3

Deploy CSE 3.1 with TKGm Support in VMware Cloud Director 10.3

With the release of Cloud Director 10.3 and Container Service Extension 3.1 (CSE), you have an additional option to deploy Kubernetes Clusters: "Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Multi-Cloud" aka. TKGm. With TKGm you now have 4 options to offer Kubernetes as a Service for your customers.

  • TKGm (Multi-Cloud)
  • TKGs (vSphere with Tanzu)
  • Native
  • TKG-I (Enterprise PKS)

Yes, there is a reason why TKGm and TKGs are in bold letters. If you are starting today, forget about "Native" and "TKG-I". "TKGm" works similar to "Native" but is far superior. TKG-I (TKG Integrated Edition, formerly known as VMware Enterprise PKS) is deprecated as of CSE 3.1 and will be removed in future releases.

This article explains how to integrate CSE 3.1 in VMware Cloud Director 10.3.

Read More »Deploy CSE 3.1 with TKGm Support in VMware Cloud Director 10.3

Access Org Network Services from TKC Guest Cluster in VMware Cloud Director with Tanzu

Many applications running in container platforms still require external resources like databases. In the last article, I've explained how to access TKC resources from VMware Cloud Director Tenant Org Networks. In This article, I'm going to explain how to access a database running on a Virtual Machine in VMware Cloud Director from a Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster that was deployed using the latest Cloud Service Extension (CSE) in VMware Cloud Director 10.2.

If you are not familiar with the vSphere with Tanzu integration in VMware Cloud Director, the following diagram shows the communication. I have a single Org VCD that has a MySQL Server running in an Org network. When leaving the Org Network, the private IP address is translated (SNAT) to an public IP from the VCD external network (203.0.113.0/24). The Customer also has a Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster (TKC) deployed using VMware Cloud Director. This creates another Tier1 Gateway, which is connected to the same upstream Tier0 Router. When the TKC communicates, it is also translated on the Tier 1 using an address from the Egress Pool (10.99.200.0/24).

So, both Networks can not communicate with each other directly. As of VMware Cloud Director 10.2.2, communication is only implemented to work in one direction - Org Network -> TKC. This is done using automatically configuring a SNAT on the Org T1 to its primary public address. With this address, the Org Network can reach all Kubernetes services that are exposed using an address from the Ingress Pool, which is the default when exposing services in TKC.

Read More »Access Org Network Services from TKC Guest Cluster in VMware Cloud Director with Tanzu

VMware Cloud Director 10.2.2 and vSphere with Tanzu Enhancements

VMware Cloud Director 10.2.2 brings a couple of enhancements to the vSphere with Tanzu integration. While we are still waiting for VRF support in vSphere with Tanzu to fully separate Supervisor Namespaces, the implementation introduced in VCD 10.2.2 should be valid for production workloads.

This article explains new features and issues I had during the implementation:

  • VCD with Supervisor Control Plane communication
  • Tanzu Certificate Issues
  • Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster Tenant Network Isolation
  • Publish Kubernetes Services using VCD Org Networks

Read More »VMware Cloud Director 10.2.2 and vSphere with Tanzu Enhancements

How to Migrate SupervisorControlPlaneVM in vSphere with Tanzu

When you try to migrate the Control Plane of a Workload Management enabled vSphere 7 cluster using vMotion or Storage vMotion, the following warning is displayed:

"This option is not available because you do not have the required permissions."

This article explains why manual migrations of the SupervisorControlPlaneVM shouldn't be necessary in general and how to work around the limitation if you still want to migrate it manually.

Read More »How to Migrate SupervisorControlPlaneVM in vSphere with Tanzu

How to Create VM Service Templates in vSphere with Tanzu

When you try to deploy custom images using the VM Service in vSphere with Tanzu, the following error is displayed:

Error from server (GuestOS not supported for osType other3xLinux64Guest on image photon-hw11-4.0-1526e30ba0 or VMImage is not compatible with v1alpha1 or is not a TKG Image): error when creating "vmsvc-photon.yaml": admission webhook "default.validating.virtualmachine.vmoperator.vmware.com" denied the request: GuestOS not supported for osType other3xLinux64Guest on image photon-hw11-4.0-1526e30ba0 or VMImage is not compatible with v1alpha1 or is not a TKG Image

Only images provided by VMware in their Marketplace are supported to be deployed with the VM Operator. The reason for this limitation is that the template needs to be prepared to be used with OVF options and cloud-init. As of today, the only available Image is CentOS 8.

If you want to use your own images, the only hard requirement is that the Virtual Machine has to boot with DHCP and to access the machine, SSH needs to be enabled. In this article, I'm explaining how to change the official PhotonOS Image to be used with VM Service.

Read More »How to Create VM Service Templates in vSphere with Tanzu

Getting Started with vSphere with Tanzu - VM Service

With the release of vCenter 7.0 U2a, VMware has introduced VM Service. VM Service runs on top of vSphere with Tanzu and allows developers to deploy Virtual Machines using kubectl declarative object configuration. The underlying Kubernetes VM Operator was already available in previous versions, but the direct deployments of Virtual Machines was not supported. If you've deployed a TKC using the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service, it was already using the VM Operator.

In a previous article, I've explained how to deploy Virtual Machines using kubectl prior to the availability of VM Service. If you are aware of the method explained there, you are going to find a lot of similarities.

Read More »Getting Started with vSphere with Tanzu - VM Service

Quick Tip: kubectl vsphere login without entering a Password

With the release of vSphere 7.0 Update 2, a new version of the vSphere authentication plugin for kubectl has been released. The new plugin, which can be downloaded from the Supervisor Control Plane after enabling Workload Management, has a neat new feature that allows you to save the password in an environment variable.

Read More »Quick Tip: kubectl vsphere login without entering a Password

Create Virtual Machines in vSphere with Tanzu using kubectl

This article explains how you can create Virtual Machines in Kubernetes Namespaces in vSphere with Tanzu. The deployment of Virtual Machines in Kubernetes namespaces using kubectl was shown in demonstrations but is currently (as of vSphere 7.0 U2) not supported. Only with third-party integrations like TKG, it is possible to create Virtual Machines by leveraging the vmoperator.

With the kubernetes-admin, accessible from the SupervisorControlPlane VM, you can create Virtual Machines today.

Please keep in mind that this is not officially supported by VMware.

Read More »Create Virtual Machines in vSphere with Tanzu using kubectl

vSphere with Tanzu - SupervisorControlPlaneVM Excessive Disk WRITE IO

After deploying the latest version of VMware vSphere with Tanzu (vCenter Server 7.0 U1d / v1.18.2-vsc0.0.7-17449972), I noticed that the Virtual Machines running the Control Plane (SupervisorControlPlaneVM) had a constant disk write IO of 15 MB/s with over 3000 IOPS. This was something I didn't see in previous versions and as this is a completely new setup with no namespaces created yet, there must be an issue.

After troubleshooting the Supervisor Control Plane, it turned out that the problem was caused by fluent-bit, which is the Log processor used by Kubernetes. The log was constantly spammed with debugging messages. Reducing the log level solved the problem for me.

[Update: 2021-03-14 - The problem is not resolved in vSphere 7.0 Update 2]

Read More »vSphere with Tanzu - SupervisorControlPlaneVM Excessive Disk WRITE IO