Deploying and Managing Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.5 Standalone Management Clusters on vSphere

This publication describes how to deploy Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.5.x with a standalone management cluster on vSphere without a Supervisor, how to upgrade an older Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) deployment to TKG 2.5, and how to manage the deployment.

Note

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.x refers to how the latest versions of the Tanzu CLI (shipped with TKG v2.x) work with the Supervisor in vSphere 8 or with TKG 2.5.x management clusters, and the new capabilities of this client/server pair. Specifically, TKG 2.x uses improved Cluster object definitions backed by a new ClusterClass object type defined in version v1.x (v1beta1) of the Cluster API open-source toolset for Kubernetes cluster management. These redesigned cluster objects are simpler, more modular, and more cross-compatible than the corresponding objects in previous versions of Cluster API used by TKG 1.x.

Get Started with TKG

The first step in deploying Tanzu Kubernetes Grid is to Install the Tanzu CLI and Kubernetes CLI for Use with Standalone Management Clusters. You then use the Tanzu CLI to deploy standalone management clusters.

If you are using the vSphere with Tanzu Supervisor in vSphere 8, you do not need to deploy a standalone management cluster. In this case, go to Creating and Managing TKG 2.5 Workload Clusters on vSphere with the Tanzu CLI.

Other TKG Documentation

This publication covers using the Tanzu CLI to deploy and manage standalone TKG 2.5.x management clusters. TKG has deployment options on other infrastructures, for example using the Tanzu CLI with a vSphere with Tanzu Supervisor in vSphere 8, which are documented in other publications.

What do you want to do?	Documentation
Compare TKG deployment options with a Supervisor on vSphere 8 or with a standalone management cluster	About Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
Deploy a Supervisor cluster	vSphere with Tanzu Installation and Configuration Workflow in Installing and Configuring vSphere with Tanzu
Deploy TKG v2.5.x workload clusters, on vSphere 8 with a Supervisor, or with a standalone management clusters on vSphere without a Supervisor	Creating and Managing TKG 2.5 Workload Clusters on vSphere with the Tanzu CLI
Learn the Tanzu CLI commands	Installing and Using VMware Tanzu CLI v1.1.x