Create and Manage GCP GKE Cluster

Palette supports creating and managing Kubernetes clusters using Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). This section guides you to create a Kubernetes cluster that is deployed to GKE and that Palette manages.

Prerequisites

Ensure the following requirements are met before you attempt to deploy a cluster to GCP.

• Access to a GCP cloud account.

• You have added a GCP account in Palette. Review Register and Manage GCP Accounts for guidance.

• An infrastructure cluster profile for GKE. Review Create an Infrastructure Profile for guidance.

• Palette creates compute, network, and storage resources while provisioning Kubernetes clusters. Ensure there is sufficient capacity in the preferred GCP region to create the following resources:

  • Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Network
  • Static External IP Address
  • Network Interfaces
  • Cloud NAT
  • Cloud Load Balancing
  • Persistent Disks
  • Cloud Router

Deploy a GKE Cluster

1. Log in to Palette.

2. Ensure you are in the correct project scope.

3. From the left Main Menu select Clusters, and click Add New Cluster.

4. In Public Clouds, under Managed Kubernetes, select GCP GKE.

5. In the bottom-right corner, click Start GCP GKE Configuration.

6. Fill out the following basic information and click Next.

   Field	Description
   Cluster Name	A custom name for the cluster.
   Description	Use the description to provide context about the cluster.
   Tags	Assign any desired cluster tags. Tags on a cluster are propagated to the Virtual Machines (VMs) deployed to the computing environments. Example: region:us-central1 or zone:us-central1-a.
   Cloud Account	If you already added your GCP account in Palette, select it from the drop-down Menu. Otherwise, click Add New Account and add your GCP account information.

7. Click Add Cluster Profile, select a cluster profile, and click Next. Palette displays the cluster profile layers.

8. Review the profile layers and customize parameters as desired in the YAML files that display when you select a layer. By default, the pack parameters contain values from the cluster profile.

9. Click Next to continue.

10. Fill out the following parameters, and click Next when you are done.

    Parameter	Description
    Project	The project to which the cluster belongs.
    Region	Choose the desired GCP region in which to deploy the cluster.

11. The Node configuration page is where you can specify the availability zones (AZ), instance types, disk size, and the number of nodes. Configure the worker node pool. The minimum number of CPUs and amount of memory depend on your cluster profile, but in general you need at least 4 CPUs and 4 GB of memory both in the control plane pool and across all worker pools.

    info

    You can add new worker pools to customize specific worker nodes to run specialized workloads. For example, the default worker pool may be configured with the c2.standard-4 instance types for general-purpose workloads. You can configure another worker pool with instance type g2-standard-4 to run GPU workloads.

12. An optional taint label can be applied to a node pool during the cluster creation. You can edit the taint label on existing clusters. Review the Node Pool management page to learn more. Toggle the Taint button to create a label.

13. Enable or disable node pool taints. If tainting is enabled, then you need to provide values for the following parameters.

    Parameter	Description
    Key	Custom key for the taint.
    Value	Custom value for the taint key.
    Effect	Choose the preferred pod scheduling effect from the drop-down Menu. Review the Effect Table below for more details.

    Effect Table

    Parameter	Description
    NoSchedule	A pod that cannot tolerate the node taint and should not be scheduled to the node.
    PreferNoSchedule	The system will avoid placing a non-tolerant pod to the tainted node but is not guaranteed.
    NoExecute	New pods will not be scheduled on the node, and existing pods on the node will be evicted if they do not tolerate the taint.

14. Click Next after configuring the node pool.

15. The Settings page is where you can configure the patching schedule, security scans, backup settings, and set up Role Based Access Control (RBAC). Review cluster settings and make changes if needed. Click Validate.

16. Review the settings summary and click Finish Configuration to deploy the cluster. Be aware that provisioning GKE clusters can take 15 - 30 minutes depending on the cluster profile and the node pool configuration.

You can monitor cluster deployment progress on the cluster details page.

Validate

You can validate that your cluster is up and available by reviewing the cluster details page.

1. Log in to Palette.

2. Navigate to the left Main Menu and click Clusters.

3. The Clusters page lists the available clusters that Palette manages. Select your cluster to view its details page.

4. From the cluster details page, verify the Cluster Status field displays Running.