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vSphere with Kubernetes

Direct Org Network to TKC Network Communication in Cloud Director 10.2

Since VMware has introduced vSphere with Tanzu support in VMware Cloud Director 10.2, I'm struggling to find a proper way to implement a solution that allows customers bidirectional communication between Virtual Machines and Pods. In earlier Kubernetes implementations using Container Service Extension (CSE) "Native Cluster", workers and the control plane were directly placed in Organization networks. Communication between Pods and Virtual Machines was quite easy, even if they were placed in different subnets because they could be routed through the Tier1 Gateway.

With Tanzu meeting VMware Cloud Director, Kubernetes Clusters have their own Tier1 Gateway. While it would be technically possible to implement routing between Tanzu and VCD Tier1s through Tier0, the typical Cloud Director Org Network is hidden behind a NAT. There is just no way to prevent overlapping networks when advertising Tier1 Routers to the upstream Tier0. The following diagram shows the VCD networking with Tanzu enabled.

With Cloud Director 10.2.2, VMware further optimized the implementation by automatically setting up Firewall Rules on the TKC Tier1 to only allow the tenants Org Networks to access Kubernetes services. They also published a guide on how customers could NAT their public IP addresses to TKC Ingress addressed to make them accessible from the Internet. The method is described here (see Publish Kubernetes Services using VCD Org Networks). Unfortunately, the need to communicate from Pods to Virtual Machines in VCD seems still not to be in VMware's scope.

While developing a decent solution by using Kubernetes Endpoints, I came up with a questionable workaround. While I highly doubt that these methods are supported and useful in production, I still want to share them, to show what actually could be possible.

Read More »Direct Org Network to TKC Network Communication in Cloud Director 10.2

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

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

Tanzu Kubernetes Licensing in vSphere 7.0 Update 1

With the release of vSphere 7.0 Update 1, VMware introduced a new licensing model for its Tanzu Kubernetes integration. Basically, the licensing has been changed from an ESXi-Host license to a Cluster license that looks familiar to the vSAN license which is in place for a couple of years. The change does only affect how you have to apply the license. The entity to pay for is still a physical CPU.

In vSphere 7.0 GA, the license required to enable Kubernetes (aka. "Workload Management") was an add-on license for ESXi Hosts named "vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus with Kubernetes". With the introduction of vSphere 7.0 Update 1, which is also referred to as 7.0.1, "vSphere add-on for Kubernetes" has been rebranded and split into 4 licenses Tanzu Basic, Tanzu Standard, Tanzu

Read More »Tanzu Kubernetes Licensing in vSphere 7.0 Update 1

Quick Tip: Reset Tanzu SupervisorControlPlaneVM Alarms

When you are working with the Kubernetes Integration in vSphere 7.0, you might come into the situation where the SupervisorControlPlaneVM has an active alarm. Those Virtual Machines are deployed and controlled by the WCP Agent and even as an Administrator, you are not allowed to touch those objects.
You can't power then off, reboot, or migrate them using vMotion. The problem is that you can't even clear alarms. One alarm I recently had was the "vSphere HA virtual machine failover failed" alarm, which you usually see when the ESXi hostd crashed, but the Virtual Machines are still running.Read More »Quick Tip: Reset Tanzu SupervisorControlPlaneVM Alarms

Change TKG Cluster Service and Pod CIDR in Cloud Director 10.2

A major problem when deploying "vSphere with Tanzu" Clusters in VMware Cloud Director 10.2 is that the defaults for TKG Clusters are overlapping with the defaults for the Supervisor Cluster configured in vCenter Server during the Workload Management enablement.

When you deploy a Kubernetes Cluster using the new Container Extension in VCD 10.2, it deploys the cluster in a namespace on top of the Supervisor Cluster in the vCenter Server. The Supervisor Clusters IP address ranges for the Ingress CIDRs and Services CIDR must not overlap with IP addresses 10.96.0.0/12 and 192.168.0.0/16, which is the default for TKG Clusters. Unfortunately, 10.96.0.0 is also the default when enabling workload management so the deployment will fail when you stick to the defaults. The following error message is displayed when you have overlapping networks:

spec.settings.network.pods.cidrBlocks intersects with the network range of the external ip pools in network provider's configuration
spec.settings.network.pods.cidrBlocks intersects with the network range of the external ip pools LB in network provider's configuration

This article explains a workaround that you can apply when deleting and reconfiguring the Namespace Management with non-overlapping addresses is not an option.

Read More »Change TKG Cluster Service and Pod CIDR in Cloud Director 10.2

Troubleshooting "vSphere with Tanzu" Integration in VCD 10.2

During my first attempts to integrate "vSphere with Tanzu" into VMware Cloud Director 10.2, I had a couple of issues. The integration just wasn't as smooth as I expected and many configuration errors are not mitigated in the GUI. Also, there are a lot of prerequisites to strictly follow.

In this article, I'm going through the issues I had during the deployment and how to solve them.Read More »Troubleshooting "vSphere with Tanzu" Integration in VCD 10.2

Configure "vSphere with Tanzu" in VMware Cloud Director 10.2

With the release of Cloud Director 10.2, you can now integrate "vSphere with Tanzu" Kubernetes Clusters into VMware Cloud Director. That enabled you to create a self-service platform for Kubernetes Clusters that are backed by the Kubernetes integration in vSphere 7.0.

This article explains how to integrate vSphere with Tanzu in VMware Cloud Director 10.2

Read More »Configure "vSphere with Tanzu" in VMware Cloud Director 10.2

vSphere with Kubernetes - Which Supervisor Cluster Settings can be edited?

When you want to deploy Kubernetes on vSphere 7 it is crucial to plan the configuration thoroughly prior to enabling Workload Management. Many of the configuration parameters entered during the Workload Management wizard can not be changed after the deployment.

The following table show which settings can be changed after the initial deployment:

Read More »vSphere with Kubernetes - Which Supervisor Cluster Settings can be edited?