Manage ClusterStacks with your Tanzu Build Service

This topic tells you how to manage ClusterStacks with your Tanzu Build Service (commonly known as TBS).

A ClusterStack is a cluster scoped resource that provides the build and run images for the Cloud Native Buildpack stack that will be used in a Builder.

Tanzu Build Service includes stacks for Ubuntu Bionic and Ubuntu Jammy distributions.

Note: Ubuntu Bionic will no longer receive support starting in April 2023. Migrate to Jammy stacks as soon as possible before this date.

Stacks are installed automatically during installation by automatic dependency updates or installed manually using the kp CLI. These ClusterStacks are referenced in corresponding ClusterBuilder resources.

For more information about security and patching cadence for these stacks and their ideal use cases, see Stacks. You can access more detailed release notes for the stacks by following these links:

Name	ID
tiny	io.paketo.stacks.tiny
base	io.buildpacks.stacks.bionic
full	io.buildpacks.stacks.bionic
tiny-jammy	io.buildpacks.stacks.jammy.tiny
base-jammy	io.buildpacks.stacks.jammy
full-jammy	io.buildpacks.stacks.jammy

The kp CLI can be used to manage clusterstack. See the kpack-cli help text.

$ kp clusterstack
Cluster Stack Commands

Usage:
  kp clusterstack [command]

Aliases:
  clusterstack, csk

Available Commands:
  create      Create a cluster stack
  delete      Delete a cluster stack
  list        List cluster stacks
  save        Create or update a cluster stack
  status      Display cluster stack status
  update      Update a cluster stack

Flags:
  -h, --help   help for clusterstack

Use "kp clusterstack [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Note: These docs assume you are using kp CLI v0.10.x with Tanzu Build Service v1.10.x. If a feature is not working, you might need to upgrade your CLI.

Note: Only Build Service Admins (that is, users with the pb-admin-role kubernetes ClusterRole) can perform clusterstack commands.

Create a ClusterStack

Users can create a clusterstack by using build and run images from a Docker registry or the local machine. The run and build images provided during clusterstack creation are uploaded to the kp_default_repository, which is the docker-repository specified during Tanzu Build Service install.

• If you use a Docker registry for the stack images:

  kp clusterstack create <clusterstack-name> \
   --build-image <location of build-image> \
   --run-image <location of run-image>
  

  Note: The user must have read access to the source Docker registry and write access to the kp default registry on the local machine.

  For example:

  kp csk create my-clusterstack \
   -b gcr.io/test/stack/run:latest
   -r gcr.io/test/stack/build:latest
  

• If you use local stack images created with docker save:

  kp clusterstack create <clusterstack-name> \
   --build-image <path to build-image>.tar \
   --run-image <path to run-image>.tar
  

  Note: The user must have write access to the kp default registry on the local machine.

  For example:

  kp csk create my-clusterstack \
    -b ./local-build-image.tar \
    -r ./local-run-image.tar
  

Update a ClusterStack

Users can update a stack by using build and run images from a Docker registry or the local machine. The run and build images provided during clusterstack update are uploaded to the kp-default-repository, which is the kp_default_repository specified during Tanzu Build Service install.

• If using a Docker registry:

  kp clusterstack update <stack-name> \
   --build-image <location of build-image> \
   --run-image <location of run-image>
  

  Note: The user must have read access to the source Docker registry and write access to the kp default registry on the local machine.

  For example:

  kp csk update my-clusterstack \
   -b gcr.io/test/stack/run:latest
   -r gcr.io/test/stack/build:latest
  

• If using local stack images created with docker save:

  kp clusterstack update <stack-name> \
   --build-image <path to build-image>.tar \
   --run-image <path to run-image>.tar
  

  Note: The user must have write access to the kp default registry on the local machine.

  For example:

  kp csk update my-clusterstack \
    -b ./local-build-image.tar \
    -r ./local-run-image.tar
  

Save a ClusterStack

Users can create or update a ClusterStack by using the save command. The kp clusterstack save command is used exactly the same as kp clusterstack create and kp clusterstack update, but it determines whether a clusterstack needs to be created or updated.

Get ClusterStack status

Users can get the current status of a clusterstack by running:

kp clusterstack status <stack-name>

The following is an example of the output for this command:

Status:          Ready
ID:             org.cloudfoundry.stacks.cflinuxfs3
Run Image:      paketo/run:full-cnb
Build Image:    paketo/build:full-cnb

Delete a ClusterStack

Users can delete an existing clusterstack by running:

kp clusterstack delete <stack-name>

Note: The user is not asked for a confirmation before deletion.

List all ClusterStacks

Users can view the list of all ClusterStacks created:

The following is an example of the output for this command:

NAME             READY    ID
base             True     io.buildpacks.stacks.bionic
full             True     io.buildpacks.stacks.bionic
tiny             True     io.paketo.stacks.tiny
default          True     io.buildpacks.stacks.jammy
base-jammy       True     io.buildpacks.stacks.bionic
full-jammy       True     io.buildpacks.stacks.bionic
tiny-jammy       True     io.buildpacks.stacks.jammy.tiny

How to update an image for Stack updates only?

To achieve Stack only updates for an Image, you can pin the Buildpack versions in the Builder used for creating the image.