vSphere Create an Air-gapped CAPI VM Template

You must have at least one image before creating a new cluster. As long as you have an image, this step in your configuration is not required each time since that image can be used to spin up a new cluster. However, if you need different images for different environments or providers, you will need to create a new custom image.

The Konvoy Image Builder (KIB) uses the values in image.yaml and the input base OS image to create a vSphere template directly on the vCenter server. Using KIB, you can build an image without requiring access to the internet by providing an additional offline --override flag. You can use these overrides files to customize some of the components installed on your machine image. For example, you could tell KIB to install the FIPS versions of the Kubernetes components.

Create a vSphere template for your cluster from a base OS image

Using KIB, you can build an image without requiring access to the internet by providing an additional --override flag.

1. Assuming you have downloaded dkp-air-gapped-bundle_v2.8.1_linux_amd64.tar.gz, extract the tarball to a local directory:

   CODE

   tar -xzvf dkp-air-gapped-bundle_v2.8.1_linux_amd64.tar.gz && cd dkp-v2.8.1/kib

2. You will need to fetch the distro packages as well as other artifacts. By fetching the distro packages from distro repositories, you get the latest security fixes available at machine image build time.

3. In your download location, In your download location with internet access, you need to create an OS package bundle for the Target OS you use for the nodes in your DKP cluster. To create it, run the new DKP command create-package-bundle. This builds an OS bundle using the Kubernetes version defined in ansible/group_vars/all/defaults.yaml. Example command:

   CODE

   ./konvoy-image create-package-bundle --os redhat-8.4 --output-directory=artifacts

   NOTE: For FIPS, pass the flag: --fips
   NOTE: For RHEL OS, pass your RedHat subscription/licensing manager credentials: Example command:

   CODE

   export RHSM_ACTIVATION_KEY="-ci"
   export RHSM_ORG_ID="1232131"

   OR

   CODE

   export RHSM_USER=""
   export RHSM_PASS=""

4. Follow the instructions to build a vSphere template below and if applicable, set the override --overrides overrides/offline.yaml flag described in Step 4 below.
   

Create a vSphere Template for Your Cluster from a Base OS Image

Using the base OS image created in a previous procedure, DKP creates the new vSphere template directly on the vCenter server.

1. Set the following vSphere environment variables on the bastion VM host:

   CODE

   export VSPHERE_SERVER=your_vCenter_APIserver_URL
   export VSPHERE_USERNAME=your_vCenter_user_name
   export VSPHERE_PASSWORD=your_vCenter_password

    

2. Copy the base OS image file created in the vSphere Client to your desired location on the bastion VM host and make a note of the path and file name.
   

3. Create an image.yaml file and add the following variables for vSphere. DKP uses this file and these variables as inputs in the next step. To customize your image.yaml file, refer to this section: Customize your Image.
   ⚠️ NOTE: This example is Ubuntu 20.04. You will need to replace OS name below based on your OS. See other default YAML examples for copy and paste below last step.

   CODE

   ---
   download_images: true
   build_name: "ubuntu-2004"
   packer_builder_type: "vsphere" 
   guestinfo_datasource_slug: "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vmware/cloud-init-vmware-guestinfo"
   guestinfo_datasource_ref: "v1.4.0"
   guestinfo_datasource_script: "{{guestinfo_datasource_slug}}/{{guestinfo_datasource_ref}}/install.sh"
   packer:
     cluster: "<VSPHERE_CLUSTER_NAME>"
     datacenter: "<VSPHERE_DATACENTER_NAME>"
     datastore: "<VSPHERE_DATASTORE_NAME>"
     folder: "<VSPHERE_FOLDER>"
     insecure_connection: "false"
     network: "<VSPHERE_NETWORK>"
     resource_pool: "<VSPHERE_RESOURCE_POOL>"
     template: "os-qualification-templates/d2iq-base-Ubuntu-20.04" # change default value with your base template name
     vsphere_guest_os_type: "other4xLinux64Guest"
     guest_os_type: "ubuntu2004-64"
     # goss params
     distribution: "ubuntu"
     distribution_version: "20.04"
   # Use following overrides to select the authentication method that can be used with base template
   # ssh_username: ""  # can be exported as environment variable 'SSH_USERNAME'
   # ssh_password: "" # can be exported as environment variable 'SSH_PASSWORD'
   # ssh_private_key_file = "" # can be exported as environment variable 'SSH_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE'
   # ssh_agent_auth: false  # is set to true, ssh_password and ssh_private_key will be ignored

4. Create a vSphere VM template with your variation of the following command:

   CODE

   konvoy-image build images/ova/<image.yaml>

   Any additional configurations can be added to this command using --overrides flags as shown below:

   1. Any credential overrides: --overrides overrides.yaml

   2. for FIPS, add this flag: --overrides overrides/fips.yaml

   3. for air-gapped, add this flag: --overrides overrides/offline-fips.yaml
      

5. The Konvoy Image Builder (KIB) uses the values in image.yaml and the input base OS image to create a vSphere template directly on the vCenter server. This template contains the required artifacts needed to create a Kubernetes cluster.
   When KIB provisions the OS image successfully, it creates a manifest file. The artifact_id field of this file contains the name of the AMI ID (AWS), template name (vSphere), or image name (GCP/Azure), for example:

   CODE

   {
         "name": "vsphere-clone",
         "builder_type": "vsphere-clone",
         "build_time": 1644985039,
         "files": null,
         "artifact_id": "konvoy-ova-vsphere-rhel-84-1.21.6-1644983717",
         "packer_run_uuid": "260e8110-77f8-ca94-e29e-ac7a2ae779c8",
         "custom_data": {
           "build_date": "2022-02-16T03:55:17Z",
           "build_name": "vsphere-rhel-84",
           "build_timestamp": "1644983717",
           [...]
         }
       }

   Recommendation: Now we can now see the template created in our vCenter, it is best to rename it to dkp-<DKP_VERSION>-k8s-<K8S_VERSION>-<DISTRO>, like dkp-2.4.0-k8s-1.24.6-ubuntu to keep templates organized.

6. Next steps are to deploy a DKP cluster using your vSphere template.

Specific to VMware Cloud Director

For storage, the VCD Provider must follow Create an Air-gapped Base OS VM Image when they create the KIB base image. In VCD, the base image determines the minimum storage available for the VM.

Next Step

vSphere Air-gapped Seed the Registry