vSphere: Create the Management Cluster

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

Name your Cluster

Give your cluster a unique name suitable for your environment.
Set the CLUSTER_NAME environment variable with the command:

CODE

export CLUSTER_NAME=<my-vsphere-cluster>

Create a New vSphere Kubernetes Cluster

DKP uses the vsphere CSI driver as the default storage provider. Use a Kubernetes CSI compatible storage that is suitable for production.

The below instructions tell you how to create a cluster and have it automatically attach to the workspace you set above.
If you do not set a workspace, it will be created in the default workspace, and you need to take additional steps to attach to a workspace later. For instructions on how to do this, see Attach a Kubernetes Cluster.

Follow these steps to create the cluster:

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

CODE

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

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:

CODE

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_URL> \
  --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

If your environment uses HTTP/HTTPS proxies, you must include the flags --http-proxy, --https-proxy, and --no-proxy and their related values in this command for it to be successful. More information is available in Configuring an HTTP/HTTPS Proxy.

For bootstrap and custom YAML cluster creation, refer to the Custom Installation and Additional Infrastructure Tools section of the documentation for vSphere: vSphere Infrastructure

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 Metal LB