Provision a Cluster in vSphere with Tanzu using a Cluster Class

Use VMware Tanzu Mission Control to create a new Tanzu Kubernetes cluster using a cluster class.

Starting in version 8.0 of vSphere, you can leverage the power of ClusterClass to use a predefined baseline configuration to create clusters with a consistent size and shape in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service Supervisor Clusters.

For more information about ClusterClass in the Cluster API, see Introducing ClusterClass and Managed Topologies in Cluster API in the Kubernetes Blog.

Note: The data protection features of Tanzu Mission Control are not compatible with clusters created using the Tanzu Kubernetes release v1.23.8---vmware.2-tkg.1-zshippable. If you rely on Tanzu Mission Control for data protection, use a different Tanzu Kubernetes release when creating your clusters.

Prerequisites

Before you can create new clusters using Tanzu Mission Control, you must first establish a connection with your management cluster.

1. Register your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service Supervisor Cluster (vSphere version 8 or later) with Tanzu Mission Control, as described in Register a Management Cluster with Tanzu Mission Control.
2. Create a provisioner into which you will provision the cluster, as described in Create a Provisioner in Your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Management Cluster

Make sure you have the appropriate permissions to create a Tanzu Kubernetes cluster.

• To provision a cluster, you must be associated with the clustergroup.edit role on the cluster group in which you want to put the new cluster.
• To see and use a cloud provider account connection for creating a cluster, you must be associated with the organization.credential.view role.
• You must also have admin privileges on the management cluster to provision resources within it.

Log in to the Tanzu Mission Control console, as described in Log In to the Tanzu Mission Control Console.

Procedure

1. In the left navigation pane of the Tanzu Mission Control console, click Clusters.
2. On the Clusters page, click Add Cluster, and then choose Create Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster from the dropdown.
3. Click to select the management cluster in which to create the new workload cluster, and then click Continue to Create Cluster.
   If the management cluster that you selected is a Supervisor Cluster running in version 8.0 (or later) of vSphere, you enter the workflow to create a cluster using a cluster class.
4. On the Create cluster page, select the provisioner in which you want to create the cluster, and then click Next.
5. Enter the name, group, and other details for the cluster.
   1. Enter a name for the cluster.
      Cluster names must be unique within an organization.
   2. Select the cluster group to which you want to attach your cluster.
   3. You can optionally enter a description and apply labels.
   4. Click Next.
6. Select the cluster class that you want to use as the template for this cluster.
   The list of cluster classes that you can choose from is taken from the provisioner namespace in your Supervisor Cluster.
7. You can optionally specify a proxy configuration to use for this cluster.
   Note: When provisioning a cluster in vSphere with Tanzu using a proxy, make sure the proxy configuration object includes the CIDRs for pod, ingress, and egress from the workload network of the Supervisor Cluster in the No proxy list, as described in Create a Proxy Configuration Object for a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service Cluster Running in vSphere with Tanzu.
8. Click Next.
9. Configure your control plane.
   1. Select the Kubernetes version and operating system to use for the cluster's control plane.
      The latest supported version is preselected for you.
   2. Select the type of cluster you want to create.
      The primary difference between the two is that the highly available cluster is deployed with multiple control plane nodes.
   3. Select the instance type and storage class for the control plane.
      For more information about the instance types available in vSphere with Tanzu, see Virtual Machine Class Types for Tanzu Kubernetes Clusters in the vSphere with Tanzu Configuration and Management documentation.
   4. You can optionally configure additional storage volumes for your control plane.
      To configure additional volumes, click Add Volume and then specify the name, mount path, and capacity for the volume. To add another, click Add Volume again.
   5. Click Next.
10. Configure your network settings.
    1. You can optionally define an alternative service domain.
    2. You can optionally define an alternative CIDR for the pod and service.
    The network settings cannot be changed after the cluster is created.
11. You can optionally define the default node pool and create additional node pools for your cluster.
    1. Specify the number of worker nodes to provision.
    2. Select the class and instance type for worker nodes.
    3. Select the storage class.
    4. To configure metadata labels for your node pool, click Add Label.
    5. To configure worker taints for your node pool, click Add Taint.
    6. To configure worker labels for your node pool, click Add Label.
    7. To configure additional storage volumes for your node pool, click Add Volume.
    8. If you want to create another node pool, click Add Node Pool.
    9. You can optionally click Add Volume to create one or more volumes that are available to all of the node pools in the cluster.
    10. Click Next.
    For more information about node pools, see Create a Node Pool
12. You can optionally provide values for additional variables to customize your cluster.
    • NTP server
    • user password secret key and secret name
    • user SSH authorized key
    • extension certificate name and key
    • cluster encription config YAML
    • default registry secret key and secret name
    • default registry secret namespace
    • trust

      To add a trust, click Add Trust, and then enter the name and data for a trust.

13. When you ready to provision the new cluster, click Create Cluster.

Results

When you click Create Cluster, you are directed the cluster detail page where you can see its status is Unknown while it is being created. Tanzu Mission Control provisions the resources necessary for the new cluster in your management cluster. It then creates the workload cluster and attaches it to your organization in the cluster group that you specified. This process takes a few minutes.