vSphere Make your Air-gapped Cluster Self-Managed

Konvoy deploys all cluster lifecycle services to a bootstrap cluster, which then deploys a workload cluster. When the workload cluster is ready, move the cluster lifecycle services to the workload cluster, which makes the workload cluster self-managed. This section describes how to make a workload cluster self-managed.

Before starting, ensure you create a workload cluster as described in Create a New vSphere Cluster or Create a New Air-gapped vSphere Cluster.

This page contains instructions on how to make your cluster self-managed. This is necessary if there is only one cluster in your environment, or if this cluster should become the Management cluster in a multi-cluster environment.

If you already have a self-managed or Management cluster in your environment, skip this page.

Make the New Kubernetes Cluster Manage Itself

To create a Management Cluster or stand alone Essential Cluster, the cluster must manage itself. Follow these steps to achieve:

Deploy cluster lifecycle services on the workload cluster:

CODE

dkp create capi-components --kubeconfig ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf

Output:

CODE

✓ Initializing new CAPI components

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.

Move the Cluster API objects from the bootstrap to the workload cluster:
The cluster lifecycle services on the workload cluster are ready, but the workload cluster configuration is on the bootstrap cluster. The move command moves the configuration, which takes the form of Cluster API Custom Resource objects, from the bootstrap to the workload cluster. This process is also called a Pivot.
CODE
```
dkp move capi-resources --to-kubeconfig ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf
```

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.

Output:

CODE

 ✓ Moving cluster resources
You can now view resources in the moved cluster by using the --kubeconfig flag with kubectl. For example: kubectl --kubeconfig=vsphere-example.conf get nodes

To ensure only one set of cluster lifecycle services manages the workload cluster, Konvoy first pauses reconciliation of the objects on the bootstrap cluster, then creates the objects on the workload cluster. As Konvoy copies the objects, the cluster lifecycle services on the workload cluster reconcile the objects. The workload cluster becomes self-managed after Konvoy creates all the objects. If it fails, the move command can be safely retried.

Wait for the cluster control-plane to be ready:

CODE

kubectl --kubeconfig ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf wait --for=condition=ControlPlaneReady "clusters/${CLUSTER_NAME}" --timeout=20m

Output:

CODE

cluster.cluster.x-k8s.io/vsphere-example condition met

After moving the cluster lifecycle services to the workload cluster, remember to use Konvoy with the workload cluster kubeconfig.

Use the cluster lifecycle services on the workload cluster to check the workload cluster status:

CODE

dkp describe cluster --kubeconfig ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf -c ${CLUSTER_NAME}

Output:

CODE

NAME                                                                READY  SEVERITY  REASON  SINCE  MESSAGE
Cluster/vsphere-example-1                                           True                     13h
├─ClusterInfrastructure - VSphereCluster/vsphere-example-1          True                     13h
├─ControlPlane - KubeadmControlPlane/vsphere-example-control-plane  True                     13h
│ ├─Machine/vsphere-example-control-plane-7llgd                     True                     13h
│ ├─Machine/vsphere-example-control-plane-vncbl                     True                     13h
│ └─Machine/vsphere-example-control-plane-wbgrm                     True                     13h
└─Workers
    └─MachineDeployment/vsphere-example-md-0                        True                     13h
    ├─Machine/vsphere-example-md-0-74c849dc8c-67rv4                 True                     13h
    ├─Machine/vsphere-example-md-0-74c849dc8c-n2skc                 True                     13h
    ├─Machine/vsphere-example-md-0-74c849dc8c-nkftv                 True                     13h
    └─Machine/vsphere-example-md-0-74c849dc8c-sqklv                 True                     13h

Remove the bootstrap cluster, if desired, as the workload cluster is now self-managed:
CODE
```
dkp delete bootstrap
```
Output:
CODE
```
 ✓ Deleting bootstrap cluster
```

Known Limitations

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

Before making a workload cluster self-managed, be sure that its control plane nodes have sufficient permissions for running Cluster API controllers.
DKP Konvoy supports moving only one set of cluster objects from the bootstrap cluster to the workload cluster, or vice-versa.
DKP Konvoy only supports moving all namespaces in the cluster; DKP does not support migration of individual namespaces.

Next Step

vSphere Explore your Air-gapped Cluster