You start using vSphere with Tanzu with vSphere networking on a cluster that uses a single vSphere Lifecycle Manager image by enabling the cluster for Workload Management. A cluster enabled for Workload Management is called a Supervisor Cluster. You enable a cluster for Workload Management from the Workload Management user interface in the vSphere Client.
Requirements
- Verify that all ESXi hosts in the Supervisor Cluster are version 7.0 Update 1 and later.
- Verify that the ESXi hosts in the Supervisor Cluster are assigned the VMware vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus with Add-on for Kubernetes license.
- Verify that vCenter Server is version 7.0 Update 1 and later.
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Note: You can manage the lifecycle of a Supervisor Cluster with either vSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines or vSphere Lifecycle Manager images. However, you cannot convert a Supervisor Cluster that uses vSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines to a Supervisor Cluster that uses vSphere Lifecycle Manager images. To use vSphere Lifecycle Manager images for a Supervisor Cluster, you must first switch the cluster which is not yet enabled for Workload Management to using images and then enable vSphere with Tanzu on that cluster.
- Review the configuration requirements and additional information in Working with vSphere Lifecycle Manager chapter in the vSphere with Tanzu Configuration and Management documentation.
Supported Workflows
- You can upgrade a Supervisor Cluster to the latest version of vSphere with Tanzu. You can also upgrade the ESXi version of the hosts in the Supervisor Cluster.
You perform the upgrade of the Supervisor Cluster from the Workload Management user interface in the vSphere Client.
You upgrade the ESXi version of the hosts in the Supervisor Cluster by remediating the cluster from the vSphere Lifecycle Manager user interface in the vSphere Client.
Note: You cannot perform a simultaneous upgrade of both vSphere with Tanzu and ESXi. - You deactivate vSphere with Tanzu from the Workload Management user interface in the vSphere Client.You can deactivate vSphere with Tanzu on a cluster that uses a single vSphere Lifecycle Manager image.
When you deactivate vSphere with Tanzu, you can use the cluster for traditional virtual machine workloads.
- You can add and remove hosts to and from a cluster that has both vSphere with Tanzu and vSphere Lifecycle Manager enabled.
For more information about adding and removing hosts to and from a cluster, see the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation.
For detailed information about working with a Supervisor Cluster that uses a single image, see the Working with vSphere Lifecycle Manager chapter in the vSphere with Tanzu Configuration and Management documentation.
Upgrading the vSphere with Tanzu Components in a vSAN Cluster
To upgrade the vSphere with Tanzu components installed on the hosts in a cluster, you must remediate the cluster against a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image that contains the latest version of those vSphere with Tanzu components.
In a vSAN cluster with configured fault domains, vSphere Lifecycle Manager recognizes the configured fault domains for the cluster and performs the solution upgrade in accordance with the fault domain configuration. If the vSAN cluster is a stretched cluster, you must upgrade the witness host separately, after vSphere Lifecycle Manager finishes remediating all fault domains. For more information about remediating vSAN stretched clusters and vSAN clusters configured with fault domains, see Using vSphere Lifecycle Manager Images to Remediate vSAN Clusters with Configured Fault Domains. For more information about stretched clusters, see the vSAN Planning and Deployment documentation.
Scalability
For information about the scalability that vSphere Lifecycle Manager supports, visit the VMware Configuration Maximums Matrix at https://configmax.vmware.com/.
