Upgrading Workload Clusters

This topic lists procedures for upgrading workload clusters to newer versions of Kubernetes.

Upgrading Clusters Deployed by a Standalone Management Cluster

To upgrade a workload cluster deployed by a standalone management cluster, you must first upgrade the management cluster. You cannot upgrade the workload cluster until you upgrade the management cluster that manages it.

For instructions on how to upgrade a standalone management cluster and workload clusters it manages, see Upgrading Tanzu Kubernetes Grid in Deploying and Managing Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.3 Standalone Management Clusters.

Important

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid v2.4.x is the last version of TKG that supports upgrading existing TKG workload clusters on AWS and Azure. The ability to upgrade TKG workload clusters on AWS and Azure will be removed in the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid v2.5 release.

Starting from now, VMware recommends that you use Tanzu Mission Control to create native AWS EKS and Azure AKS clusters. However, upgrading existing TKG workload clusters on AWS and Azure remains fully supported for all TKG releases up to and including TKG v2.4.x.

For more information, see Deprecation of TKG Management and Workload Clusters on AWS and Azure in the VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid v2.4 Release Notes.

Upgrading Clusters Deployed by Supervisor (vSphere 8 Only)

To upgrade a workload cluster deployed by vSphere 8 Supervisor to a newer Kubernetes version, follow the instructions below:

• kubectl: See Update a TKG 2 Cluster by Changing the TKR Version Using Kubectl
• Tanzu CLI: See Update a TKG 2 Cluster by Changing the TKR Version Using the Tanzu CLI

For more information, see Maintaining TKG 2 Clusters on Supervisor.