Deploy to VMware vSphere
This guide provides you with the steps to deploy a PCG cluster to a VMware vSphere environment. Before you begin the installation, carefully review the Prerequisites section.
Refer to our Deploy App Workloads with a PCG tutorial for detailed guidance on how to deploy app workloads with a PCG.
Prerequisites
If you are using a self-hosted Palette instance or Palette VerteX, and you deployed the instance to a VMware vSphere environment, then you already have all the required permissions and roles. Proceed to the installation steps in the Deploy PCG guide.
-
Palette version 4.0.X or greater.
-
A Palette API key. Refer to the Create API Key page for guidance.
warningThe installation does not work with Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials. You must use an API key from a local tenant admin account in Palette to deploy the PCG. After the PCG is configured and functioning, this local account is no longer used to keep the PCG connected to Palette, so you can deactivate the account if desired.
-
Download and install the Palette CLI from the Downloads page. Refer to the Palette CLI Install guide to learn more.
The following system requirements must be met to install a PCG in VMware vSphere:
-
PCG IP address requirements:
- One IP address for a single-node PCG or three IP addresses for a three-node PCG. Refer to the PCG Sizing section for more information on sizing.
- One IP address reserved for cluster repave operations.
- One IP address for the Virtual IP (VIP).
- DNS can resolve the domain
api.spectrocloud.com
. - NTP server is reachable from the PCG.
-
A PCG requires the following minimum resources:
- CPU: 4
- Memory: 4 GiB
- Storage: 60 GiB
For production environments, we recommend using three nodes, each with 8 CPU, 8 GiB of memory, and 100 GiB of storage. Nodes can exhaust the 60 GiB storage with prolonged use. If you initially set up the gateway with one node, you can resize it at a later time.
-
An x86 Linux environment with an installed Docker daemon and connections to Palette and the VMware vSphere endpoint. The Palette CLI installation must be invoked on an up-to-date Linux system with an x86-64 architecture.
Before installing the PCG on VMware, review the following system requirements and permissions. The vSphere user account used to deploy the PCG must have the required permissions to access the proper roles and objects in vSphere.
Start by reviewing the required action items below:
-
Create two custom vSphere roles. Check out the Create Required Roles section to create the required roles in vSphere.
-
Review the vSphere Permissions section to ensure the created roles have the required vSphere privileges and permissions.
-
Create node zones and regions for your Kubernetes clusters. Refer to the Zone Tagging section to ensure that the required tags are created in vSphere to ensure proper resource allocation across fault domains.
Create Required Roles
Palette requires two custom roles to be created in vSphere before the PCG installation. Refer to the Create a Custom Role guide if you need help creating a custom role in vSphere. The required custom roles are:
-
A root-level role with access to higher-level vSphere objects. This role is referred to as the Spectro root role. Check out the Root-Level Role Privileges table for the list of privileges required for the root-level role.
-
A role with the required privileges for deploying VMs. This role is referred to as the Spectro role. Review the Spectro Role Privileges table for the list of privileges required for the Spectro role.
The user account you use to deploy the PCG must have access to both roles. Each vSphere object required by Palette must have a Permission entry for the respective Spectro role. The following tables list the privileges required for each custom role.
For an in-depth explanation of vSphere authorization and permissions, check out the Understanding Authorization in vSphere resource.
vSphere Permissions
Click to reveal all required vSphere permissions
The VMware vSphere user account that deploys host clusters or private cloud gateways requires all the vSphere privileges listed in the following sections for specific vSphere objects.
Spectro Root Role Privileges
A Spectro root role must be created that contains each privilege in the following table.
Select the tab for the vSphere version you are using to view the required privileges.
The System.*
privileges are added to all custom vSphere roles by default.
- 8.0.x
- 7.0.x
- 6.7U3
Category | Privileges |
---|---|
CNS | Searchable |
Datastore | Browse datastore |
Host | Configuration: Storage partition configuration |
Network | Assign network |
Sessions | Validate session |
Storage Views | View |
System | Anonymous Read View |
VM Storage Policies | View VM storage policies |
vSphere Tagging | Create vSphere Tag Edit vSphere Tag |
Category | Privileges |
---|---|
CNS | Searchable |
Datastore | Browse datastore |
Host | Configuration: Storage partition configuration |
Network | Assign network |
Profile-driven Storage | View |
Sessions | Validate session |
Storage Views | View |
System | Anonymous Read View |
vSphere Tagging | Create vSphere Tag Edit vSphere Tag |
Category | Privileges |
---|---|
CNS | Searchable |
Datastore | Browse datastore |
Host | Configuration: Storage partition configuration |
Network | Assign network |
Profile-driven Storage | View |
Sessions | Validate session |
Storage Views | View |
System | Anonymous Read View |
vSphere Tagging | Create vSphere Tag Edit vSphere Tag |
Click here to view the latest vSphere version's raw API permission
Cns.Searchable
Datastore.Browse
Host.Config.Storage
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateTag
InventoryService.Tagging.EditTag
Network.Assign
Sessions.ValidateSession
StorageProfile.View
StorageViews.View
System.Anonymous
System.Read
System.View
Spectro Root Role Assignments
The privileges associated with the Spectro root role must be granted via role assignments on specific vSphere objects for either the user or a group containing the user. Review the required role assignments to ensure that your user has all required privileges on all required objects.
Propegation refers to the inheritance of permissions from a parent vSphere object to a child object. If a permission is propagated to a child object, the child object inherits the permission from the parent object.
vSphere Object | Propagation | Role | Condition |
---|---|---|---|
vCenter Root | No | Spectro root role | |
Target Datacenter | No | Spectro root role | |
Target Cluster | No | Spectro root role | |
Distributed Switch | No | Spectro root role | If the Target Network is a Distributed Port Group |
Spectro Role Privileges
A Spectro role must be created that contains each privilege in the following table.
Select the tab for the vSphere version you are using to view the required privileges.
- 8.0.x
- 7.0.x
- 6.7U3
Category | Privileges |
---|---|
CNS | Searchable |
Datastore | Allocate space Browse datastore Low level file operations Remove file Update virtual machine files Update virtual machine metadata |
Folder | Create folder Delete folder Move folder Rename folder |
Host Local Operations | Reconfigure virtual machine |
Network | Assign network |
Resource | Apply recommendation Assign virtual machine to resource pool Migrate powered off virtual machine Migrate powered on virtual machine Query vMotion |
Sessions | Validate session |
Storage Views | View |
System | Anonymous Read View |
Tasks | Create task Update task |
vApp | Import View OVF environment vApp application configuration vApp instance configuration |
VM Storage Policies | View VM storage policies |
vSAN | Cluster: ShallowRekey |
vSphere Tagging | Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag Create vSphere Tag Delete vSphere Tag Edit vSphere Tag |
The following table lists Spectro role privileges for VMs by category. All privileges are for the vSphere object, Virtual Machines.
Category | Privileges |
---|---|
Change Configuration | Acquire disk lease Add existing disk Add new disk Add or remove device Advanced configuration Change CPU count Change memory Change settings Change swapfile placement Change resource Configure host USB device Configure raw device Configure managedBy Display connection settings Extend virtual disk Modify device settings Query fault tolerance compatibility Query unowned files Reload from path Remove disk Rename Reset guest information Set annotation Toggle disk change tracking Toggle fork parent Upgrade virtual machine compatibility |
Edit Inventory | Create from existing Create new Move Register Remove Unregister |
Guest Operations | Guest operation alias modification Guest operation alias query Guest operation modifications Guest operation program execution Guest operation queries |
Interaction | Console interaction Power on Power off |
Provisioning | Allow disk access Allow file access Allow read-only disk access Allow virtual machine download Allow virtual machine files upload Clone template Clone virtual machine Create template from virtual machine Customize guest Deploy template Mark as template Mark as virtual machine Modify customization specification Promote disks Read customization specifications |
Service Configuration | Allow notifications Allow polling of global event notifications Manage service configurations Modify service configuration Query service configurations Read service configuration |
Snapshot Management | Create snapshot Remove snapshot Rename snapshot Revert to snapshot |
vSphere Replication | Configure replication Manage replication Monitor replication |
Category | Privileges |
---|---|
CNS | Searchable |
Datastore | Allocate space Browse datastore Low level file operations Remove file Update virtual machine files Update virtual machine metadata |
Folder | Create Folder Delete folder Move folder Rename folder |
Host Local Operations | Reconfigure virtual machine |
Network | Assign network |
Resource | Apply recommendation Assign virtual machine to resource pool Migrate powered off virtual machine Migrate powered on virtual machine Query vMotion |
Profile-driven Storage | View |
Sessions | Validate session |
Storage Views | View |
System | Anonymous Read View |
Tasks | Create task Update task |
vApp | Import View OVF environment vApp application configuration vApp instance configuration |
vSAN | Cluster: ShallowRekey |
vSphere Tagging | Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag Create vSphere Tag Delete vSphere Tag Edit vSphere Tag |
The following table lists Spectro role privileges for VMs by category. All privileges are for the vSphere object, Virtual Machines.
Category | Privileges |
---|---|
Change Configuration | Acquire disk lease Add existing disk Add new disk Add or remove device Advanced configuration Change CPU count Change memory Change settings Change swapfile placement Change resource Configure host USB device Configure raw device Configure managedBy Display connection settings Extend virtual disk Modify device settings Query fault tolerance compatibility Query unowned files Reload from path Remove disk Rename Reset guest information Set annotation Toggle disk change tracking Toggle fork parent Upgrade virtual machine compatibility |
Edit Inventory | Create from existing Create new Move Register Remove Unregister |
Guest Operations | Guest operation alias modification Guest operation alias query Guest operation modifications Guest operation program execution Guest operation queries |
Interaction | Console interaction Power on Power off |
Provisioning | Allow disk access Allow file access Allow read-only disk access Allow virtual machine download Allow virtual machine files upload Clone template Clone virtual machine Create template from virtual machine Customize guest Deploy template Mark as template Mark as virtual machine Modify customization specification Promote disks Read customization specifications |
Service Configuration | Allow notifications Allow polling of global event notifications Manage service configurations Modify service configuration Query service configurations Read service configuration |
Snapshot Management | Create snapshot Remove snapshot Rename snapshot Revert to snapshot |
vSphere Replication | Configure replication Manage replication Monitor replication |
Category | Privileges |
---|---|
CNS | Searchable |
Datastore | Allocate space Browse datastore Low level file operations Remove file Update virtual machine files Update virtual machine metadata |
Folder | Create Folder Delete folder Move folder Rename folder |
Host Local Operations | Reconfigure virtual machine |
Network | Assign network |
Resource | Apply recommendation Assign virtual machine to resource pool Migrate powered off virtual machine Migrate powered on virtual machine Query vMotion |
Profile-driven Storage | View |
Sessions | Validate session |
Storage Views | View |
System | Anonymous Read View |
Tasks | Create task Update task |
vApp | Import View OVF environment vApp application configuration vApp instance configuration |
vSphere Tagging | Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag Create vSphere Tag Delete vSphere Tag Edit vSphere Tag |
The following table lists Spectro role privileges for VMs by category. All privileges are for the vSphere object, Virtual Machines.
Category | Privileges |
---|---|
Change Configuration | Acquire disk lease Add existing disk Add new disk Add or remove device Advanced configuration Change CPU count Change memory Change settings Change swapfile placement Change resource Configure host USB device Configure raw device Configure managedBy Display connection settings Extend virtual disk Modify device settings Query fault tolerance compatibility Query unowned files Reload from path Remove disk Rename Reset guest information Set annotation Toggle disk change tracking Toggle fork parent Upgrade virtual machine compatibility |
Edit Inventory | Create from existing Create new Move Register Remove Unregister |
Guest Operations | Guest operation alias modification Guest operation alias query Guest operation modifications Guest operation program execution Guest operation queries |
Interaction | Console interaction Power on Power off |
Provisioning | Allow disk access Allow file access Allow read-only disk access Allow virtual machine download Allow virtual machine files upload Clone template Clone virtual machine Create template from virtual machine Customize guest Deploy template Mark as template Mark as virtual machine Modify customization specification Promote disks Read customization specifications |
Service Configuration | Allow notifications Allow polling of global event notifications Manage service configurations Modify service configuration Query service configurations Read service configuration |
Snapshot Management | Create snapshot Remove snapshot Rename snapshot Revert to snapshot |
vSphere Replication | Configure replication Manage replication Monitor replication |
Click here to view the latest vSphere version's raw API permission
Cns.Searchable
Datastore.AllocateSpace
Datastore.Browse
Datastore.DeleteFile
Datastore.FileManagement
Datastore.UpdateVirtualMachineFiles
Datastore.UpdateVirtualMachineMetadata
Folder.Create
Folder.Delete
Folder.Move
Folder.Rename
Host.Local.ReconfigVM
InventoryService.Tagging.AttachTag
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateTag
InventoryService.Tagging.DeleteTag
InventoryService.Tagging.EditTag
Network.Assign
Resource.ApplyRecommendation
Resource.AssignVMToPool
Resource.ColdMigrate
Resource.HotMigrate
Resource.QueryVMotion
Sessions.ValidateSession
StorageProfile.View
StorageViews.View
System.Anonymous
System.Read
System.View
Task.Create
Task.Update
VApp.ApplicationConfig
VApp.ExtractOvfEnvironment
VApp.Import
VApp.InstanceConfig
VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.AdvancedConfig
VirtualMachine.Config.Annotation
VirtualMachine.Config.CPUCount
VirtualMachine.Config.ChangeTracking
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskExtend
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskLease
VirtualMachine.Config.EditDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.HostUSBDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.ManagedBy
VirtualMachine.Config.Memory
VirtualMachine.Config.MksControl
VirtualMachine.Config.QueryFTCompatibility
VirtualMachine.Config.QueryUnownedFiles
VirtualMachine.Config.RawDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.ReloadFromPath
VirtualMachine.Config.RemoveDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.Rename
VirtualMachine.Config.ResetGuestInfo
VirtualMachine.Config.Resource
VirtualMachine.Config.Settings
VirtualMachine.Config.SwapPlacement
VirtualMachine.Config.ToggleForkParent
VirtualMachine.Config.UpgradeVirtualHardware
VirtualMachine.GuestOperations.Execute
VirtualMachine.GuestOperations.Modify
VirtualMachine.GuestOperations.ModifyAliases
VirtualMachine.GuestOperations.Query
VirtualMachine.GuestOperations.QueryAliases
VirtualMachine.Hbr.ConfigureReplication
VirtualMachine.Hbr.MonitorReplication
VirtualMachine.Hbr.ReplicaManagement
VirtualMachine.Interact.ConsoleInteract
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create
VirtualMachine.Inventory.CreateFromExisting
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Move
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Register
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Unregister
VirtualMachine.Namespace.Event
VirtualMachine.Namespace.EventNotify
VirtualMachine.Namespace.Management
VirtualMachine.Namespace.ModifyContent
VirtualMachine.Namespace.Query
VirtualMachine.Namespace.ReadContent
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.Clone
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.CloneTemplate
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.CreateTemplateFromVM
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.Customize
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DeployTemplate
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DiskRandomAccess
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DiskRandomRead
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.FileRandomAccess
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.GetVmFiles
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.MarkAsTemplate
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.MarkAsVM
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.ModifyCustSpecs
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.PromoteDisks
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.PutVmFiles
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.ReadCustSpecs
VirtualMachine.State.CreateSnapshot
VirtualMachine.State.RemoveSnapshot
VirtualMachine.State.RenameSnapshot
VirtualMachine.State.RevertToSnapshot
Vsan.Cluster.ShallowRekey
The System.*
privileges are added to all custom vSphere roles by default.
Spectro Role Assignments
The privileges associated with the Spectro role must be granted via role assignments on specific vSphere objects for either the user or a group containing the user. Review the required role assignments to ensure that your user has all required privileges on all required objects.
vSphere Object | Propagation | Role | Condition |
---|---|---|---|
Target Network | Yes | Spectro role | |
Target Cluster | No | Spectro role | Required if using a cluster's default Resources resource pool. |
Target Resource Pool | Yes | Spectro role | Required if using a non-default resource pool. |
All ESXi hosts within the Target Cluster | No | Spectro role | |
Target Datastore | Yes | Spectro role | |
spectro-templates Folder | Yes | Spectro role | Must be manually created in advance, assigned permissions, and populated with Spectro Cloud VM Templates. |
Target VM Folder | Yes | Spectro role | For air-gapped installs, it must be manually created in advance and permissions assigned. For connected installs it is created automatically. |
Zone Tagging
You can use tags to create node zones and regions for your Kubernetes clusters. The node zones and regions can be used to dynamically place Kubernetes workloads and achieve higher availability. Kubernetes nodes inherit the zone and region tags as Labels. Kubernetes workloads can use the node labels to ensure that the workloads are deployed to the correct zone and region.
The following is an example of node labels that are discovered and inherited from vSphere tags. The tag values are applied to Kubernetes nodes in vSphere.
Label | Value |
---|---|
topology.kubernetes.io/region | usdc |
topology.kubernetes.io/zone | zone3 |
failure-domain.beta.kubernetes.io/region | usdc |
failure-domain.beta.kubernetes.io/zone | zone3 |
To learn more about node zones and regions, refer to the Node Zones/Regions Topology section of the Cloud Provider Interface documentation.
Zone tagging is required to install Palette and is helpful for Kubernetes workloads deployed in vSphere clusters through Palette if they have persistent storage needs. Use vSphere tags on data centers and compute clusters to create distinct zones in your environment. You can use vSphere Tag Categories and Tags to create zones in your vSphere environment and assign them to vSphere objects.
The zone tags you assign to your vSphere objects, such as a datacenter and clusters are applied to the Kubernetes nodes you deploy through Palette into your vSphere environment. Kubernetes clusters deployed to other infrastructure providers, such as public cloud, may have other native mechanisms for auto discovery of zones.
For example, assume a vCenter environment contains three compute clusters, cluster-1, cluster-2, and cluster-3. To
support this environment you create the tag categories k8s-region
and k8s-zone
. The k8s-region
is assigned to the
datacenter, and the k8s-zone
tag is assigned to the compute clusters.
The following table lists the tag values for the data center and compute clusters.
vSphere Object | Assigned Name | Tag Category | Tag Value |
---|---|---|---|
Datacenter | dc-1 | k8s-region | region1 |
Cluster | cluster-1 | k8s-zone | az1 |
Cluster | cluster-2 | k8s-zone | az2 |
Cluster | cluster-3 | k8s-zone | az3 |
Create a tag category and tag values for each datacenter and cluster in your environment. Use the tag categories to create zones. Use a name that is meaningful and that complies with the tag requirements listed in the following section.
Tag Requirements
The following requirements apply to tags:
-
A valid tag must consist of alphanumeric characters.
-
The tag must start and end with alphanumeric characters.
-
The regex used for tag validation is
(([A-Za-z0-9][-A-Za-z0-9_.]*)?[A-Za-z0-9])?
.
Deploy PCG
-
In an x86 Linux host with the Palette CLI installed, open up a terminal session.
-
Issue the following command to authenticate with Palette. When prompted, enter the required information. Refer to the table below for information about each parameter.
palette login
Parameter Description Spectro Cloud Console Enter the Palette endpoint URL. When using the Palette SaaS service, enter https://console.spectrocloud.com
. When using a self-hosted instance of Palette, enter the URL for that instance.Allow Insecure Connection Enabling this option bypasses x509 server Certificate Authority (CA) verification. Enter y
if you are using a self-hosted Palette or VerteX instance with self-signed TLS certificates and need to provide a file path to the instance CA. Otherwise, entern
.Spectro Cloud API Key Enter your Palette API Key. Refer to the Create API Key guide to create an API key. Spectro Cloud Organization Select your Palette Organization name. Spectro Cloud Project Select the project for which you want to register the VMware vSphere account. Acknowledge Accept the login banner message. Login banner messages are only displayed if the tenant admin enabled a login banner. infoThe
CloudAccount.apiKey
andMgmt.apiKey
values in the pcg.yaml file are encrypted and cannot be manually updated. To change these values, use thepalette pcg install --update-passwords
command. Refer to the PCG command reference page for more information. -
Once you have authenticated successfully, start the PCG installer by issuing the following command. Refer to the table below for information about each parameter.
palette pcg install
Parameter Description Management Plane Type Select Palette or VerteX. Enable Ubuntu Pro (required for production) Enter y
if you want to use Ubuntu Pro and provide an Ubuntu Pro token. Otherwise, entern
.Select an image registry type For a non-airgap installation, choose Default
to pull images from public image registries. This requires an internet connection. For an airgap installation, selectCustom
and point to our airgap support VM or a custom internal registry that contains the required images.Cloud Type Choose VMware vSphere. Private Cloud Gateway Name Enter a custom name for the PCG. Example: vmware-pcg-1
.Share PCG Cloud Account across platform Projects Enter y
if you want the Cloud Account associated with the PCG to be available from all projects within your organization. Entern
if you want the Cloud Account to only be available at the tenant admin scope. -
Next, provide environment configurations for the cluster. Refer to the following table for information about each option.
Parameter Description HTTPS Proxy Leave this blank unless you are using an HTTPS Proxy. This setting will be propagated to all PCG nodes and all of its cluster nodes. Example: https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@PROXYIP:PROXYPORT
.HTTP Proxy Leave this blank unless you are using an HTTP Proxy. This setting will be propagated to all PCG nodes and all of its cluster nodes. Example: http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@PROXYIP:PROXYPORT
.No Proxy Provide a list of local network CIDR addresses, hostnames, and domain names that should be excluded from being a proxy. This setting will be propagated to all the nodes to bypass the proxy server. Example for a self-hosted environment: my.company.com,10.10.0.0/16
.Proxy CA Certificate Filepath The default is blank. You can provide the file path of a CA certificate on the installer host. If provided, this CA certificate will be copied to each host in the PCG cluster during deployment. The provided path will be used on the PCG cluster hosts. Example: /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ca.crt
.Pod CIDR Enter the CIDR pool that will be used to assign IP addresses to pods in the PCG cluster. The pod IP addresses should be unique and not overlap with any machine IPs in the environment. Service IP Range Enter the IP address range that will be used to assign IP addresses to services in the PCG cluster. The service IP addresses should be unique and not overlap with any machine IPs in the environment. -
If you selected
Custom
for the image registry type, you will be prompted to provide the following information.Parameter Description Registry Name Assign a name to the custom registry. Registry Endpoint The endpoint or IP address for the custom registry. Example: https://palette.example.com
orhttps://10.10.1.0
.Registry Base Content Path The base content path for the custom registry. Example: spectro-images
.Configure Registry Mirror Your system default text editor, such as Vi, will open up and allow you to customize the default mirror registry settings. Add any additional registry mirrors you want to add. Otherwise, press Esc
and then:wq
to save and exit the file.Allow Insecure Connection (Bypass x509 Verification) Enabling this option bypasses x509 CA verification. Enter n
if using a custom registry with self-signed SSL certificates. Otherwise, entery
. If you entery
, you will receive a follow-up prompt asking you to provide the file path to the CA certificate.Registry CA certificate Filepath The CA certificate for the custom registry. This is optional. Provide the file path of the CA certificate on the installer host. Example: /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ca.crt
.Registry Username The username for the custom registry. Password The password for the custom registry. -
The next set of prompts is for configuring connection details for the vSphere environment. The CLI will use this information to establish a network connection to the vSphere environment and query the vSphere API to retrieve information about the environment. The information retrieved is used in the next step to select target resources.
Parameter Description vSphere Endpoint The vSphere endpoint. You can specify a Full Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) or an IP address. Make sure you specify the endpoint without the HTTP scheme https://
orhttp://
. Example:vcenter.mycompany.com
.vSphere Username The vSphere account username. vSphere Password The vSphere account password. Allow Insecure Connection (Bypass x509 Verification) Enabling this option bypasses x509 CA verification. Enter n
if using a custom registry with self-signed SSL certificates. Otherwise, entery
. If you entery
, you will receive a follow-up prompt asking you to provide the file path to the CA certificate. -
Next, fill out the VMware resource configurations. Refer to the following table for information about each option.
Parameter Description Datacenter The vSphere Datacenter to target when deploying the PCG cluster. Folder The folder to target when deploying the PCG cluster. Network The port group to which the PCG cluster will be connected. Resource Pool The resource pool to target when deploying the PCG cluster. Cluster The compute cluster to use for the PCG deployment. Select specific Datastore or use a VM Storage Policy Select the datastore or VM Storage policy to apply to the PCG cluster. Datastore The datastore to use for the PCG deployment. Add another Fault Domain Specify any fault domains you would like to use. NTP Servers Specify the IP address for any Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers the PCG cluster can reference. We recommend you specify at least one NTP server. SSH Public Keys Provide the public OpenSSH key for the PCG cluster. Use this key when establishing an SSH connection with the PCG cluster. This prompt will result in the default text editor for the Operating System to open. Vi is the more common text editor used in Linux environments. Number of Nodes The number of nodes that will make up the cluster. Available options are 1 or 3. We recommend three nodes for a High Availability (HA) cluster in a production environment. -
Specify the IP pool configuration. You have the option to select a static placement or use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). With static placement, an IP pool is created, and the PCG VMs are assigned IP addresses from the selected pool. With DHCP, PCG VMs are assigned IP addresses via DNS. Review the following tables to learn more about each parameter.
warningIf you select Static Placement, you must create a PCG IPAM pool before deploying clusters. Refer to the Create and Manage IPAM Node Pools for guidance on how to create an IPAM pool.
Static Placement Configuration
Parameter Description IP Start range Enter the first address in the PCG IP pool range. IP End range Enter the last address in the PCG IP pool range. Network Prefix Enter the network prefix for the IP pool range. Valid values are network CIDR subnet masks from the range 0 - 32
. Example:18
.Gateway IP Address Enter the IP address of the IP gateway. Name servers Comma-separated list of DNS name server IP addresses. Name server search suffixes (optional) Comma-separated list of DNS search domains. DHCP Placement Configuration
Parameter Description Search domains Comma-separated list of DNS search domains. -
Specify the cluster boot configuration.
Parameter Description Patch OS on boot This parameter indicates whether or not to patch the OS of the PCG hosts on the first boot. Reboot nodes once OS patch is applied This parameter indicates whether or not to reboot PCG nodes after OS patches are complete. This only applies if the Patch OS on boot parameter is enabled. -
Enter the vSphere Machine configuration for the Private Cloud Gateway. We recommend
M
or greater for production workloads.Parameter Description S 4 CPU, 4 GB of Memory, and 60 GB of Storage M 8 CPU, 8 GB of Memory, and 100 GB of Storage L 16 CPU, 16 GB of Memory, and 120 GB of Storage Custom Specify a custom configuration. If you select Custom
, you will be prompted to enter the number of CPUs, memory, and storage to allocate to the PCG VM. Refer to the Custom Machine Configuration table for more information.Custom Machine Configuration
Parameter Description CPU The number of CPUs in the Virtual Machine. Memory The number of memory to allocate to the Virtual Machine. Storage The amount of storage to allocate to the Virtual Machine. -
Specify the node affinity configuration.
Parameter Description Node Affinity Enter y
to schedule all Palette pods on the control plane node. -
A new PCG configuration file is generated, and its location is displayed on the console. You will receive an output similar to the following.
==== PCG config saved ====
Location: :/home/demo/.palette/pcg/pcg-20230706150945/pcg.yamlThe Palette CLI will now provision a PCG cluster in your VMware environment. You can monitor the progress of the PCG cluster by navigating to Palette and selecting Tenant Settings from the left Main Menu. Next, click on Private Cloud Gateways from the left Tenant Settings Menu and select the PCG cluster you just deployed to access its details page. From the details page, select the Events tab to view the progress of the PCG cluster deployment.
If you encounter issues during the installation, refer to the PCG Troubleshooting guide for debugging assistance. If you need additional help, reach out to our Customer Support team.
warningYou cannot modify a deployed PCG cluster. If you need to make changes to the PCG cluster, you must first delete the cluster and redeploy it. We recommend you save your PCG configuration file for future use. Use the
--config-only
flag to save the configuration file without deploying the PCG cluster. Refer to the Generate a Configuration File section to learn more. For additional assistance, visit our Customer Support portal. -
To avoid potential vulnerabilities, once the installation is complete, remove the
kind
images that were installed in the environment where you initiated the installation.Issue the following command to list all instances of
kind
that exist in the environment.docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
kindest/node v1.26.13 131ad18222cc 5 months ago 910MBThen, use the following command template to remove all instances of
kind
.docker image rm kindest/node:<version>
Consider the following example for reference.
docker image rm kindest/node:v1.26.13
Untagged: kindest/node:v1.26.13
Untagged: kindest/node@sha256:15ae92d507b7d4aec6e8920d358fc63d3b980493db191d7327541fbaaed1f789
Deleted: sha256:131ad18222ccb05561b73e86bb09ac3cd6475bb6c36a7f14501067cba2eec785
Deleted: sha256:85a1a4dfc468cfeca99e359b74231e47aedb007a206d0e2cae2f8290e7290cfd
Validate
Once installed, the PCG registers itself with Palette. To verify the PCG is registered, use the following steps.
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Log in to Palette as a tenant admin.
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Navigate to the left Main Menu and select Tenant Settings.
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From the Tenant Settings Menu, click on Private Cloud Gateways. Verify your PCG cluster is available from the list of PCG clusters displayed and that its Status is healthy.
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Navigate to the left Tenant Settings Menu and select Cloud Accounts.
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Verify a new VMware cloud account is available from the list of cloud accounts displayed.
Next Steps
After you have successfully deployed the PCG into your VMware vSphere environment, you can now deploy clusters into your VMware vSphere environment. If you selected Static Placement, make sure you define an IP Address Management (IPAM) node pool that Kubernetes clusters deployed in vSphere can use. To learn more about creating and defining node pools, refer to the Create and Manage IPAM Node Pools documentation.