VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 8.0

8.0 7.0 6.7 6.5

Enable
vSphere Supervisor
 on a Cluster with
NSX
 as the Networking Stack

Through the
vSphere Automation
 APIs, you can enable a vSphere cluster for managing Kubernetes workloads. A cluster configured with
NSX
 supports running
vSphere Pod
 and
TKG
 clusters.
  • Verify that your environment meets the system requirements for enabling
    vSphere Supervisor
     on the cluster. For more information about the requirements, see the
    vSphere IaaS Control Plane Concepts and Planning
     documentation.
  • Verify that the
    NSX
     is installed and configured. See Configuring NSX for vSphere Supervisor.
  • Create storage policies for the placement of pod ephemeral disks, container images, and
    Supervisor
     control plane cache.
  • Verify that DRS is enabled in fully automated mode and HA is also enabled on the cluster.
  • Configure shared storage for the cluster. Shared storage is required for vSphere DRS, HA, and storing persistent volumes of containers.
  • Verify that the user who you use to access the
    vSphere Automation
     services has the
    Modify cluster-wide configuration
     privilege on the cluster.
  • Create a subscribed content library on the
    vCenter Server
     system to accommodate the VM image that is used for creating the nodes of the
    TKG
     clusters.
To enable a vSphere cluster for Kubernetes workload management, you use the services under the
namespace_management
 package.
  1. Retrieve the IDs of the tag-based storage policies that you configured for
    vSphere Supervisor
    .
    Use the
    GET https://
    <vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>
    /api/vcenter/storage/policies
     request to retrieve a list of all storage policies and then filter the policies to get the IDs of the policies that you configured for the
    Supervisor
    .
  2. Retrieve the IDs of the vSphere Distributed Switch and the
    NSX Edge
     cluster that you created when configuring the
    NSX
     for
    vSphere Supervisor
    .
    Use the
    POST https://
    <vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>
    /api/vcenter/namespace-management/networks/nsx/distributed-switches?action=check_compatibility
     request to list all vSphere Distributed Switches associated with the specific vSphere cluster and then retrieve the ID of the Distributed Switch that you configured to handle overlay networking for the
    Supervisor
    .
    Use the
    POST https://
    <vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>
    /api/vcenter/namespace-management/networks/nsx/edges?action=check_compatibility
     request to retrieve a list of the created
    NSX Edge
     clusters for the specific vSphere cluster and associated with the specific vSphere Distributed Switch. Retrieve the ID of the
    NSX Edge
     cluster that has the tier-0 gateway that you want to use for the namespaces networking.
  3. Retrieve the ID of the port group for the management network that you configured for the management traffic.
    To list the visible networks available on the
    vCenter Server
     instance that match some criteria, use the
    GET https://
    <vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>
    /api/vcenter/namespace-management/clusters/
    <cluster_id>
    /networks
     request and then retrieve the ID of the management network you previously configured.
  4. Create a
    Clusters.EnableSpec
     JSON object and
    define
     the parameters of the
    Supervisor
     that you want to create.
    You must specify the following required parameters of the enable specification:
    • Storage policies settings and file volume support. The storage policy you set for each of the following parameters ensures that the respective object is placed on the datastore referenced in the storage policy. You can use the same or different storage policy for the different inventory objects.
      Property
      Description
      ephemeral_storage_policy
      Specify the ID of the storage policy that you created to control the storage placement of the
      vSphere Pod
      s.
      image_storage
      Set the specification of the storage policy that you created to control the placement of the cache of container images.
      master_storage_policy
      Specify the ID of the storage policy that you created to control the placement of the
      Supervisor
       control plane cache.
      Optionally, you can activate the file volume support by using
      cns_file_config
      . See Enabling ReadWriteMany Support.
    • Management network settings. Configure the management traffic settings for the
      Supervisor
       control plane.
      Property
      Description
      network_provider
      Specify the networking stack that must be used when the
      Supervisor
       is created. To use the
      NSX
       as the network solution for the cluster, set
      NSXT_CONTAINER_PLUGIN
      .
      master_management_network
      Enter the cluster network specification for the
      Supervisor
       control plane. You must enter values for the following required properties:
      • network
        - Use the management network ID retrieved in Step 3.
      • mode
         - Set
        STATICRANGE
         or
        DHCP
         for the IPv4 address assignment mode. The
        DHCP
         mode allows an IPv4 address to be automatically assigned to the
        Supervisor
         control plane by a DHCP server. You must also set the floating IP address used by the HA primary cluster by using
        floating_IP
        . Use the DHCP mode only for test purposes. The
        STATICRANGE
         mode, allows the
        Supervisor
         control plane to have a stable IPv4 address. You can use it in a production environment.
      • address_range
        - Optionally, you can configure the IPv4 addresses range for one or more interfaces of the management network. Specify the following settings:
        • The starting IP address that must be used for reserving consecutive IP addresses for the
          Supervisor
           control plane. Use up to 5 consecutive IP addresses.
        • The number of IP addresses in the range.
        • The IP address of the gateway associated with the specified range.
        • The subnet mask to be used for the management network.
      master_DNS
      Enter a list of the DNS server addresses that must be used from the
      Supervisor
       control plane. If your
      vCenter Server
       instance is registered with an FQDN, you must enter the IP addresses of the DNS servers that you use with the vSphere environment so that the FQDN is resolvable in the
      Supervisor
      . The list of DNS addresses must be specified in the order of preference.
      master_DNS_search_domains
      Set a list of domain names that DNS searches when looking up for a host name in the Kubernetes API server. Order the domains in the list by preference.
      master_NTP_servers
      Specify a list of IP addresses or DNS names of the NTP server that you use in your environment, if any. Make sure that you configure the same NTP servers for the
      vCenter Server
       instance, all hosts in the cluster, the
      NSX
      , and
      vSphere Supervisor
      . If you do not set an NTP server, VMware Tools time synchronization is enabled.
    • Workload network settings. Configure the settings for the networks for the namespaces. The namespace network settings provide connectivity to
      vSphere Pod
      s and namespaces created in the
      Supervisor
      .
      Property
      Description
      ncp_cluster_network_spec
      Set the specification for the
      Supervisor
       configured with the
      NSX
       networking stack. Specify the following cluster networking configuration parameters for
      NCPClusterNetworkEnableSpec
      :
      • cluster_distributed_switch
         - The vSphere Distributed Switch that handles overlay networking for the
        Supervisor
        .
      • nsx_edge_cluster
         - The
        NSX Edge
         cluster that has tier-0 gateway that you want to use for namespace networking.
      • nsx_tier0_gateway
        - The tier-0 gateway that is associated with the cluster tier-1gateway. You can retrieve a list of
        NSXTier0Gateway
         objects associated with a particular vSphere Distributed Switch and determine the ID of the tier-0 gateway you want to set.
      • namespace_subnet_prefix
         - The subnet prefix that defines the size of the subnet reserved for namespaces segments. Default is 28.
      • routed_mode
         - The NAT mode of the workload network. If set to
        false
        :
        • The IP addresses of the workloads are directly accessible from outside the tier-o gateway and you do not need to configure the egress CIDRs.
        • File Volume storage is not supported.
        Default is
        true
        .
      • egress_cidrs
         - The external CIDR blocks from which the
        NSX
         Manager assigns IP addresses used for performing source NAT (SNAT) from internal
        vSphere Pod
        s IP addresses to external IP addresses. Only one egress IP address is assigned for each namespace in the
        Supervisor
        . These IP ranges must not overlap with the IP ranges of the
        vSphere Pod
        s, ingress, Kubernetes services, or other services running in the data center.
      • ingress_cidrs
        - The external CIDR blocks from which the ingress IP range for the Kubernetes services is determined. These IP ranges are used for load balancer services and Kubernetes ingress. All Kubernetes ingress services in the same namespace share a common IP address. Each load balancer service is assigned a unique IP address. The ingress IP ranges must not overlap with the IP ranges of the
        vSphere Pod
        s, egress, Kubernetes services, or other services running in the data center.
      • pod_cidrs
         - The internal CIDR blocks from which the IP ranges for
        vSphere Pod
        s are determined. The IP ranges must not overlap with the IP ranges of the ingress, egress, Kubernetes services, or other services running in the data center. All
        vSphere Pod
        s CIDR blocks must be of at least /23 subnet size.
      worker_DNS
      Set a list of the IP addresses of the DNS servers that must be used on the worker nodes. Use different DNS servers than the ones you set for the
      Supervisor
       control plane.
      service_cidr
      Specify the CIDR block from which the IP addresses for Kubernetes services are allocated. The IP range must not overlap with the ranges of the
      vSphere Pod
      s, ingress, egress, or other services running in the data center.
      For the Kubernetes services and the
      vSphere Pod
      s, you can use the default values which are based on the cluster size that you specify.
    • Supervisor
       size. You must set a size to the
      Supervisor
       which affects the resources allocated to the Kubernetes infrastructure. The cluster size also determines default maximum values for the IP addresses ranges for the
      vSphere Pod
      s and Kubernetes services running in the cluster. You can use the
      GET https://
      <vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>
      /api/vcenter/namespace-management/cluster-size-info
       calls to retrieve information about the default values associated with each cluster size.
    • Optional. Associate the
      Supervisor
       with the subscribed content library that you created for provisioning
      TKG
       clusters. See Creating, Securing, and Synchronizing Content Libraries for TKG Releases.
      To set the library, use
      default_kubernetes_service_content_library
       and pass the subscribed content library ID.
  5. Enable
    vSphere Supervisor
     on a specific cluster by passing the cluster enable specification to the
    Clusters
     service.
A task runs on
vCenter Server
 for turning the cluster into a
Supervisor
. Once the task completes, Kubernetes control plane nodes are created on the hosts that are part of the cluster enabled with
vSphere Supervisor
. Now you can create
vSphere Namespace
s.
Create and configure namespaces on the
Supervisor
. See Create a vSphere Namespace.

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