As a platform operator, you can work with your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid administrator to register a management cluster with VMware Tanzu Mission Control to enable lifecycle management of its workload clusters.

When you register a management cluster, you create secure connection to Tanzu Mission Control that allows you to subsequently bring its workload clusters under management, assign them to cluster groups, and apply policies. You can also manage the entire lifecycle of your clusters (including create, update, and delete) from Tanzu Mission Control.

Prerequisites

Log in to the Tanzu Mission Control console.

To register a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid management cluster with Tanzu Mission Control requires the following permissions:
  • You must have admin privileges on the management cluster.

    For clusters running in vSphere or vSphere with Tanzu, this is typically the vSphere administrator.

  • In Tanzu Mission Control, you must be associated with the managementcluster.admin role.
Make sure your management cluster satisfies the minimum requirements, as described in Requirements for Registering a Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster with Tanzu Mission Control in VMware Tanzu Mission Control Concepts.
  • To register a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid management cluster running in Amazon Web Services (AWS) with Tanzu Mission Control requires permissions in addition to the minimum requirements for deploying the management cluster in your AWS account. For more information, see Prepare to Deploy Management Clusters to Amazon EC2 in the VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Product Documentation.
If you have a proxy server that manages outbound traffic for your clusters, you need to enable the cluster to communicate with Tanzu Mission Control through the proxy.
  • You can create a proxy configuration object in Tanzu Mission Control and use it when registering, provisioning, or attaching the cluster. For more information, see Connecting Through a Proxy.
  • You can enable all outbound traffic to Tanzu Mission Control for the proxy server by adding some URLs to the proxy server's allowlist, as described in What Happens When You Attach a Cluster in VMware Tanzu Mission Control Concepts.
Note: Tanzu Mission Control does not support proxy configuration for Tanzu Kubernetes clusters running in AWS.

Procedure

  1. In the Tanzu Mission Control console, click Administration in the left navigation pane.
  2. Click the Management clusters tab.
  3. Click Register Management Cluster, and then choose the kind of cluster you are registering.
    • For management clusters running in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, choose Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.
    • For management clusters running in Tanzu Community Edition, choose Tanzu Community Edition.
    • For Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service Supervisor Clusters running in vSphere with Tanzu or VMware Cloud with Tanzu services, choose vSphere with Tanzu.
  4. On the Register page, provide a name for the management cluster, and select a default cluster group for workload clusters.
    When you add workload clusters, you can choose the cluster group into which to place them. This setting simply indicates the default choice.
  5. You can optionally provide a description and labels for the management cluster.
  6. Click Next.
  7. You can optionally select a proxy configuration for the cluster.
    1. Click to toggle the Set proxy option to Yes.
    2. Select the proxy configuration you defined for this cluster.
    3. You can optionally specify an alternative proxy configuration to use as the default selection for managed workload clusters.
      When you add workload clusters, you can choose which proxy configuration to use. This setting simply indicates the default choice.
    Note: To use a proxy configuration to register a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service Supervisor Cluster, the cluster must be running on vSphere 7.0.3a or later.
  8. Click Next.
    When you click Next, Tanzu Mission Control generates a YAML file that defines how the management cluster connects to Tanzu Mission Control for registration. The credential provided in the YAML expires after 48 hours. You can optionally click View YAML to see the code.
  9. Copy the URL provided on the Register page, and give it to the administrator of your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid deployment to install the cluster agent on your management cluster and complete the registration process.
    For clusters running in vSphere or vSphere with Tanzu, this is typically the vSphere administrator.
  10. Click View Management Cluster.

Results

When you click View Management Cluster, the management cluster detail page is displayed. Because the registration is not yet complete, you cannot yet view the contents of the management cluster.

What to do next

After you have started the registration process from Tanzu Mission Control, you must complete the registration on the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid side within 48 hours.