To prepare an environment that allows VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension server to function, it is necessary to ensure you have all the prerequisite steps in place.

VMware Cloud Director Setup Prerequisites

It is necessary to configure required components before you can install the VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension server successfully on VMware Cloud Director. You can use existing resources from your VMware Cloud Director or create new parameters.

Table 1.

Required component

Description

An organization

Before you can configure VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension server, it is necessary to create an organization in VMware Cloud Director. The organization is considered a Cloud Provider managed organization that hosts VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension server.

For more information, see Create an Organization.

A virtual data center (VDC) within the organization

 Ability to host VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension server vApp. For more information, see Create an Organization Virtual Data Center.

Network connectivity

Network connectivity between the machine where VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension is installed, and the VMware Cloud Director server. VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension communicates with VMware Cloud Director using VMware Cloud Director public API endpoint.

Download OVA Files

Before you begin to configure VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension server and deploy Kubernetes clusters to tenant organizations, you must download the VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension OVA file and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid template OVA files.

OVA File Download location
VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension server OVA file VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension
Kubernetes template OVA files Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Templates
Note: Ubuntu 2004 Kubernetes Non-FIPS Templates only

Create Catalogs and Upload OVA Files

Learn how to create a catalog in VMware Cloud Director, and upload VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension OVA files that you downloaded into catalogs. You can use VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension server file for VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension instantiation, and the Kubernetes Template OVA file to share with tenant organizations for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster creation.

Prerequisites

Ensure you download the following two OVA files:
  • VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension Server OVA file
  • Kubernetes Template OVA file

    For more information, see Download OVA Files.

Procedure

  1. Log in to VMware Cloud Director and from the top navigation bar, select More > Kubernetes Container Clusters.
  2. Click CSE Management > Create Catalogs and Upload OVAs > Go to Catalogs.
  3. In VMware Cloud Director UI, select an organization, and click Go to Catalogs.
  4. Select New, enter the name and, optionally, a description of the catalog.
    Note: It is recommended to have separate catalogs for each type of OVA file.
  5. Click OK.
  6. To upload OVA files, select a catalog, and from the left column, select vApp Templates > New.
  7. Click the Upload icon to browse to a location accessible from your computer, and select the OVA file.
  8. Review the details of the OVA file and click Next.
  9. Enter a name and, optionally, a description, and click Next.
  10. Click Finish.

Results

The OVA files appear in a new catalog in VMware Cloud Director.

What to do next

Sharing Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Templates.

Add Tanzu Kubernetes Grid VM Sizing Policies to Organization Virtual Data Centers

To avoid resource limit errors in clusters, it is necessary to add Tanzu Kubernetes Grid VM sizing policies to organization virtual data centers. The Tanzu Kubernetes Grid VM sizing policies are automatically created in the VMware Cloud Director Container Service Extension server configuration process and appear as a selectable option when you add Tanzu Kubernetes Grid VM sizing policies to an organization virtual data center.

A VM sizing policy defines the compute resource allocation for virtual machines within an organization VDC. The compute resource allocation includes CPU and memory allocation, reservations, limits, and shares. By using VM sizing policies, you can restrict the compute resources consumption for all virtual machines within an organization VDC to predefined sizes. Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters have the following sizing policies:
Table 2. Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Cluster Sizing Policies
Sizing Policy Description Values
TKG small Small VM sizing policy for a Kubernetes cluster node 2 CPU, 4 GB memory
TKG medium Medium VM sizing policy for a Kubernetes cluster node 2 CPU, 8 GB memory
TKG large Large VM sizing policy for a Kubernetes cluster node 4 CPU, 16 GB memory
TKG extra-large Extra-large VM sizing policy for a Kubernetes cluster node 8 CPU, 32 GB memory

Procedure

  1. Log in to VMware Cloud Director and from the top navigation bar, select More > Kubernetes Container Clusters.
  2. Click CSE Management > Add VM Sizing Policies to Organization VDCs > Go to Organization VDCs.
  3. In VMware Cloud Director UI, select an organization VDC, and from the left panel, under Policies, select VM Sizing.
  4. Click Add.
  5. From the data grid, select the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid sizing policy you want to add to the organization, and click OK.
  6. Click Set as Default.
    Note:
    • To unpublish a VM sizing policy, select the sizing policy, and click Remove.
    • To change the default Tanzu Kubernetes Grid VM sizing policy to another, repeat Step 5 and 6.