Deploy Management Clusters

This topic summarizes how to deploy a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid management cluster or designate one from vSphere with Tanzu. Deploying or designating a management cluster completes the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid installation process and makes Tanzu Kubernetes Grid operational.

Overview

After you have performed the steps described in Install the Tanzu CLI and Other Tools, you can deploy management clusters to the platforms of your choice.

Important
On vSphere with Tanzu in vSphere 8, you can use the Tanzu CLI to log in to the built-in Supervisor and deploy TKG 2.x workload clusters. For information, see Create and Manage TKG 2 Clusters with the Tanzu CLI in the TKG 2.1 docs.

Deploying a standalone management cluster to vSphere 8 when vSphere with Tanzu is not enabled is supported, but the preferred option is to enable vSphere with Tanzu and use the Supervisor. To deploy a standalone management cluster to vSphere 8, you must use TKG v1.6.1.

You cannot use the version of the Tanzu CLI that ships with TKG 1.6.x to log in to a Supervisor Cluster on vSphere 7. You can deploy a TKG 1.6 management cluster to vSphere 7 if a vSphere with Tanzu Supervisor Cluster is not present.

The management cluster is a Kubernetes cluster that runs Cluster API operations on a specific cloud provider to create and manage workload clusters on that provider. The management cluster is also where you configure the shared and in-cluster services that the workload clusters use.

Clusters Deployment Process

The following diagram shows the high-level steps for deploying management clusters and workload clusters for different IaaS providers, such as vSphere, Azure, and AWS, and the interfaces you use to perform them. For more information about these steps, see the topics Install the Tanzu CLI and Other Tools, Prepare to Deploy Management Clusters, and the procedures described in Deploy Management Clusters and Deploy Workload Clusters.

Deploy management cluster and workload clusters, Install Tanzu CLI, select UI or file configuration, select IaaS

Installer UI vs. CLI

You can deploy management clusters in two ways:

Run the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid installer, a wizard interface that guides you through the process of deploying a management cluster. This is the recommended method.
Create and edit YAML configuration files, and use them to deploy a management cluster with the CLI commands.

Platforms

You can deploy and manage Tanzu Kubernetes Grid management clusters on:

vSphere 6.7u3
vSphere 7, if the Supervisor Cluster is not enabled.
vSphere 8, if the Supervisor is not enabled. To deploy a standalone management cluster to vSphere 8, you must use TKG v1.6.1.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Microsoft Azure

You can deploy the management cluster as either a single-node control plane, for development, or as a highly-available multi-node control plane, for production environments.

For information about the required setup for management cluster deployment to your infrastructure of choice, see Prepare to Deploy Management Clusters.
When you have set up your infrastructure, see Deploy Management Clusters with the Installer Interface or Deploy Management Clusters from a Configuration File.
After you have deployed a management cluster to the platform of your choice, Examine the Management Cluster Deployment.
If you want to register your deployed management cluster with Tanzu Mission Control, see Register Your Management Cluster with Tanzu Mission Control.
After you have deployed one or more management clusters to one or more platforms, use the Tanzu CLI to Manage Your Management Clusters.
If necessary, you can Back Up and Restore Cluster Workloads.

Management Clusters and Their Configuration Files

You deploy your management cluster by running the tanzu mc create command on the bootstrap machine. To deploy a management cluster, you must specify the --ui or --file option with tanzu mc create.

Installer Interface: tanzu mc create --ui creates the management cluster with the installer interface and saves the settings from your installer input into a cluster configuration file ~/.config/tanzu/tkg/clusterconfigs/UNIQUE-ID.yaml, where UNIQUE-ID is a generated filename.
CLI: tanzu mc create --file creates the management cluster using a cluster configuration file. Before running tanzu mc create, you set configuration parameters, like INFRASTRUCTURE_PROVIDER, in the cluster configuration file and then pass it to the --file option. The recommended practice is to use a dedicated configuration file for every management cluster that you deploy.

You can also set configuration parameters as environment variables. If you set conflicting parameters, environment variables override configuration parameters set in the file passed to the --file option:

Local environment variables: Persist over a terminal session. These variables also override environment variables in the Tanzu CLI configuration file, ~/.config/tanzu/config.yaml.
Environment variables in ~/.config/tanzu/config.yaml, set by running tanzu config set: Persist until you unset them by running tanzu config unset.

The tanzu mc create command uses these sources and inputs in the following order of increasing precedence:

~/.config/tanzu/tkg/providers/config_default.yaml: This file contains system defaults, and should not be changed.
With the --file option: The cluster configuration file, which defaults to ~/.config/tanzu/tkg/cluster-config.yaml. This file configures specific invocations of tanzu mc create. Use different configuration files to save multiple configurations.
Environment variables set by running tanzu config set: The ~/.config/tanzu/config.yaml file. These variables are applied to all tanzu commands. Local environment variables override variables from ~/.config/tanzu/config.yaml.
Local environment variables: Parameter settings in your local environment override settings from configuration files. Use them to make quick config choices without having to search and edit a configuration file.
With the --ui option: Installer interface input. When you run tanzu mc create --ui, the installer sets all management cluster configuration values from user input.

What Happens When You Create a Management Cluster

Running tanzu mc create creates a temporary management cluster using a Kubernetes in Docker (kind) cluster on the bootstrap machine. After creating the temporary management cluster locally, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid uses it to provision the final management cluster in the platform of your choice.

In the process, tanzu mc create creates or modifies CLI configuration and state files in the user’s home directory on the local bootstrap machine:

Location	Content	Change
`_{/.config/tanzu/tkg/bom/}`	Bill of Materials (BoM) files that list specific versions of all of the packages that Tanzu Kubernetes Grid requires when it creates a cluster with a specific OS and Kubernetes version. Tanzu Kubernetes Grid adds to this directory as new Tanzu Kubernetes release versions are published.	Add if not already present
`/.config/tanzu/tkg/providers/`	Configuration template files for Cluster API, cloud providers, and other dependencies, organized with `ytt` overlays for non-destructive modification.	Add if not already present
`_{/.config/tanzu/tkg/providers-TIMESTAMP-HASH/}`	Backups of `/providers` directories from previous installations.	Add if not first installation
`/.config/tanzu/config.yaml`	Names, contexts, and certificate file locations for the management clusters that the Tanzu CLI knows about, and which is the current one. This file also lists discovery sources for Tanzu CLI plugins, environment variables set by `tanzu config set`, and features that are activated or deactivated by default in the Tanzu CLI.	Add new management cluster information and set it as `current`.
`_{/.config/tanzu/tkg/cluster-config.yaml}`	Default cluster configuration file that the `tanzu cluster create` and `tanzu mc create` commands use if you do not specify one with `–file`. Best practice is to use a configuration file unique to each cluster.	Add empty file if not already present.
`/.config/tanzu/tkg/clusterconfigs/IDENTIFIER.yaml`	Cluster configuration file that `tanzu mc create –ui` writes out with values input from the installer interface. `IDENTIFIER` is an unique identifier generated by the installer.	Create file
`_{/.config/tanzu/tkg/config.yaml}`	List of configurations and locations for the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid core and all of its providers.	Add if not already present
`/.config/tanzu/tkg/providers/config.yaml`	Similar to `_{/.config/tanzu/tkg/config.yaml}`, but only lists providers and configurations in the `/.config/tanzu/tkg/providers` directory, not configuration files used by core Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.	Add if not already present
`_{/.config/tanzu/tkg/providers/config_default.yaml}`	System-wide default configurations for providers. Best practice is not to edit this file, but to change provider configs through `ytt` overlay files.	Add if not already present
`/.kube-tkg/config`	Management cluster `kubeconfig` file containing names and certificates for the management clusters that the `tanzu` CLI knows about. Location overridden by the `KUBECONFIG` environment variable.	Add new management cluster info and set the cluster as the `current-context`.
`~/.kube/config`	Configuration and state for the `kubectl` CLI, including all management and workload clusters, and which is the current context.	Add new management cluster name, context, and certificate info. Do not change current `kubectl` context to new cluster.