Install Cert Manager in Workload Clusters Deployed by a Standalone Management Cluster

This topic explains how to install cert-manager into a workload cluster in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. cert-manager installs automatically in a standalone management cluster.

This topic applies to workload clusters running on vSphere, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Azure.

Prepare the Workload Cluster for cert-manager Installation

To prepare the cluster:

Get the admin credentials of the workload cluster into which you want to deploy cert-manager. For example:
```
tanzu cluster kubeconfig get my-cluster --admin
```

Set the context of kubectl to the cluster. For example:

kubectl config use-context my-cluster-admin@my-cluster

Install Cert Manager

To install cert-manager:

If you are installing cert-manager to a single-node cluster as described in Single-Node Clusters on vSphere, patch the cert-manager package annotations to prevent a conflict between the cert-manager installed as a core package on single-node clusters and the cert-manager in the Tanzu standard repo:
```
kubectl annotate --overwrite package cert-manager.tanzu.vmware.com.1.12.2+vmware.1-tkg.1 tkg.tanzu.vmware.com/package-repo='standard'
```
If the cluster does not have a package repository with the cert-manager package installed, such as the tanzu-standard repository, install one:
```
tanzu package repository add PACKAGE-REPO-NAME --url PACKAGE-REPO-ENDPOINT --namespace tkg-system
```
Where:
- PACKAGE-REPO-NAME is the name of the package repository, such as tanzu-standard or the name of a private image registry configured with ADDITIONAL_IMAGE_REGISTRY variables.
- PACKAGE-REPO-ENDPOINT is the URL of the package repository.
  - For the TKG v2.4.1 release, the tanzu-standard URL is projects.registry.vmware.com/tkg/packages/standard/repo:v2023.11.21. See List Package Repositories to obtain this value from the Tanzu CLI, or in Tanzu Mission Control see the Addons > Repositories list in the Cluster pane.
Confirm that the cert-manager package is available in your workload cluster:
```
tanzu package available list -A
```

Retrieve the version of the available package:

tanzu package available list cert-manager.tanzu.vmware.com -A

Install the cert-manager package:
```
tanzu package install cert-manager --package cert-manager.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace TARGET-NAMESPACE --version AVAILABLE-PACKAGE-VERSION
```
Where:
- TARGET-NAMESPACE is the namespace in which you want to install the cert-manager package. For example, the my-packages or tanzu-cli-managed-packages namespace.
  - If the --namespace flag is not specified, the Tanzu CLI installs the package in the default namespace.
  - The specified namespace must already exist, for example from running kubectl create namespace my-packages.
- AVAILABLE-PACKAGE-VERSION is the version that you retrieved above.
For example:
```
tanzu package install cert-manager --package cert-manager.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace my-packages --version 1.12.2+vmware.1-tkg.1
```
Confirm that the cert-manager package has been installed:
```
tanzu package installed list -A
```
The cert-manager package and cert-manager app are installed in the namespace that you specify when running the tanzu package install command.
Confirm that the cert-manager app has been successfully reconciled in your TARGET-NAMESPACE. For example:
```
kubectl get apps -A
NAMESPACE     NAME             DESCRIPTION           SINCE-DEPLOY   AGE
my-packages   cert-manager     Reconcile succeeded   3m2s           3m12s
...
```
If the status is not Reconcile Succeeded, view the full status details of the cert-manager app. Viewing the full status can help you to troubleshoot the problem.
```
kubectl get app cert-manager --namespace TARGET-NAMESPACE -o yaml
```
Where TARGET-NAMESPACE is the namespace in which you installed the package. If troubleshooting does not help you solve the problem, you must uninstall the package before installing it again:
```
tanzu package installed delete cert-manager --namespace TARGET-NAMESPACE
```
Confirm that the cert-manager- pods are running:
```
kubectl get pods -A
```
The cert-manager pods and any other resources associated with the cert-manager component are created in the cert-manager namespace.