Use this procedure to create a vSphere Management cluster with DKP.

Name your cluster

  1. Give your cluster a unique name suitable for your environment.

  2. Set the CLUSTER_NAME environment variable with the command:

    export CLUSTER_NAME=<my-vsphere-cluster>
    CODE

Create a New vSphere Kubernetes Cluster

DKP uses local static provisioner as the default storage provider. However, localvolumeprovisioner is not suitable for production use. You should use a Kubernetes CSI compatible storage that is suitable for production.

  • You can choose from any of the storage options available for Kubernetes. To disable the default that Konvoy deploys, set the default StorageClasslocalvolumeprovisioner as non-default. Then set your newly created StorageClass to be the default by following the commands in the Kubernetes documentation called Changing the Default Storage Class.

Follow these steps to create the cluster:

  1. Use the following command to set the environment variables for vSphere:

    export VSPHERE_SERVER=example.vsphere.url
export VSPHERE_USERNAME=user@example.vsphere.url
export VSPHERE_PASSWORD=example_password
    CODE

  2. Ensure your vSphere credentials are up-to-date by refreshing the credentials with the command:

    dkp update bootstrap credentials vsphere
    CODE

3. Generate the Kubernetes cluster objects by copying and editing this command to include the correct values, including the VM template name you assigned in the previous procedure:

  • To increase Dockerhub's rate limit use your Dockerhub credentials when creating the cluster, by setting the following flag --registry-mirror-url=https://registry-1.docker.io --registry-mirror-username= --registry-mirror-password= on the dkp create cluster command.

  • The following example shows a common configuration. See dkp create cluster reference for the full list of cluster creation options:

dkp create cluster vsphere \
  --cluster-name ${CLUSTER_NAME} \
  --network <NETWORK_NAME> \
  --control-plane-endpoint-host <xxx.yyy.zzz.000> \
  --data-center <DATACENTER_NAME> \
  --data-store <DATASTORE_NAME> \
  --folder <FOLDER_NAME> \
  --server <VCENTER_API_SERVER_UTR \
  --ssh-public-key-file <SSH_PUBLIC_KEY_FILE> \
  --resource-pool <RESOURCE_POOL_NAME> \
  --vm-template <TEMPLATE_NAME> \
  --virtual-ip-interface <ip_interface_name> \
  --self-managed
CODE

A self-managed cluster refers to one in which the CAPI resources and controllers that describe and manage it are running on the same cluster they are managing.

Cluster Verification

If you want to monitor or verify the installation of your clusters, refer to:

Verify your Cluster and DKP Installation.

Known Limitations

Be aware of these limitations in the current release of DKP Konvoy.

  • The DKP Konvoy version used to create a bootstrap cluster must match the DKP Konvoy version used to create a workload cluster.

  • DKP Konvoy supports deploying one workload cluster.

  • DKP Konvoy generates a set of objects for one Node Pool.

  • DKP Konvoy does not validate edits to cluster objects.

Next Step:

vSphere: Configure MetalLB