If you want to use the vSphere networking stack for Kubernetes workloads, install the HAProxy control plane VM to provide load balancing services to Tanzu Kubernetes clusters.

Prerequisites

It may be helpful to view a demonstration of how to use vSphere with Tanzu with vDS networking and HAProxy. Check out the video Getting Started Using vSphere with Tanzu.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the vCenter Server using the vSphere Client.
  2. Create a new VM from the HAProxy OVA file.
    Option Description
    Content Library If you imported the OVA to a Local Content Library:
    • Go to Menu > Content Library.
    • Select the library where you imported the OVA.
    • Select the vmware-haproxy-vX.X.X template.
    • Right-click and choose New VM from This Template.
    Local file

    If you downloaded the OVA file to your local host:

    • Select the vCenter cluster where you will enable Workload Management.
    • Right-click and select Deploy OVF Template.
    • Select Local File and click Upload Files.
    • Browse to and select the vmware-haproxy-vX.X.X.ova file.
  3. Enter a Virtual machine name, such as haproxy.
  4. Select the Datacenter where you are deploying HAProxy and click Next.
  5. Select the vCenter Cluster where you will enable Workload Management and click Next.
  6. Review and confirm the deployment details and click Next.
  7. Accept the License agreements and click Next.
  8. Select a deployment configuration. See HAProxy Network Topology for details.
    Configuration Description
    Default Select this option to deploy the appliance with 2 NICs: a Management network and a single Workload network.
    Frontend Network Select this option to deploy the appliance with 3 NICs. The frontend subnet is used to isolate cluster nodes from the network used by developers to access the cluster control plane.
  9. Select the storage policy to use for the VM and click Next.
  10. Select the network interfaces to use for the load balancer and click Next.
    Source Network Destination Network
    Management Select the Management network, such as VM Network.
    Workload Select the vDS portgroup configured for Workload Management.
    Frontend Select the vDS portgroup configured for the Frontend subnet. If you did not select Frontend configuration, this setting is ignored during installation, so you can leave the default.
    Note: The workload network must be on a different subnet than the management network. Refer to the system requirements.
  11. Customize the application configuration settings. See Appliance Configuration Settings.
  12. Provide the network configuration details. See Network Configuration.
  13. Configure load balancing. See Load Balancing Settings.
  14. Click Next to complete the configuration of the OVA.
  15. Review the deployment configuration details and click Finish to deploy the OVA.
  16. Monitor the deployment of the VM using the Tasks panel.
  17. When the VM deployment completes, power it on.

What to do next

Once the HAProxy load balancer is successfully deployed and powered on, proceed with enabling Workload Management. See Configuring and Managing a Supervisor Cluster.