Deploying AKO on vSphere with Tanzu with VDS
AKO
on vSphere with Tanzu with VDSThis topic explains how
AKO
is deployed on vSphere with Tanzu with VDS.AKO in vSphere with Tanzu
AKO
in vSphere with TanzuWhen using VDS as the networking option for vSphere with Tanzu (TKGs),
AKO
will automatically be deployed into the Supervisor cluster to handle L4 workloads in VMware Avi Load Balancer
. This para-virtualized AKO
will manage the L4 workloads in both the Supervisor cluster and each of the workload clusters.Additionally,
AKO
can be manually deployed through the helm into the workload cluster to support L7 Ingress workloads.For more information, see Install NSX Advanced Load Balancer.
AKO Compatibility
AKO
CompatibilityWhen deploying
AKO
through helm in the workload cluster, the VMware Avi Load Balancer
version must be compatible with the AKO
release. For more information, see Compatibility Matrix for AKO.Deployment Guide
AKO
can be installed on any workload cluster through helm to handle the L7 Ingress workloads.Deploying the Avi Load Balancer Controller
Avi Load Balancer Controller
For more information on deploying the .
Avi Load Balancer Controller
(or Cluster of Controllers), see Installing
topic in the Avi Load Balancer
in VMware vSphere EnvironmentsVMware Avi Load Balancer
Installation GuideConfiguring vCenter Cloud onVMware Avi Load Balancer
VMware Avi Load Balancer
The point of integration with.
VMware Avi Load Balancer
and vCenter is called a cloud. For the vCenter environment, a vCenter cloud must be configured. For more information on configuring vCenter cloud, see Installing
topic in the Avi Load Balancer
in VMware vSphere EnvironmentsVMware Avi Load Balancer
Installation GuideConfiguring VMware Avi Load Balancer IPAM Profile
VMware Avi Load Balancer
IPAM ProfileThe
VMware Avi Load Balancer
allocates IP addresses from a pool of IP addresses within the subnet configured. After creating the profile, modify the vCenter cloud and add the profile as shown below.
For more information, see .
Configuring NSX Advanced Load Balancer IPAM
topic in the VMware Avi Load Balancer
Installation GuideAvi Load Balancer
in TKGs with VDS supports only a single VIP Network in the IPAM for Essentials for Tanzu and Enterprise licenses.Configuring Avi Load Balancer DNS Profile
Avi Load Balancer
DNS ProfileAKO
uses FQDN and path-based routing. It must be authoritative in the specified domain. After creating the profile, modify the vCenter cloud, and add the profile as shown below.
For more information, see .
Configuring
topic in the Avi Load Balancer
IPAMVMware Avi Load Balancer
Installation GuideInstalling Helm on the Workload Cluster
Helm is an application manager that facilitates the installation of packages in a Kubernetes environment.
AKO
requires a helm for installation. For more information on install commands, see Installing Helm.Pod Routing
Kubernetes Ingress traffic can be routed to the pods in the following ways:
- ClusterIP
- NodePort
- NodePortLocal
ClusterIP
In ClusterIP mode, the
Avi Load Balancer
SEs will route directly to the Pod IPs. For this to work, the Avi Load Balancer
will configure static routes on the SEs for the internal Kubernetes cluster network. With this design, Avi Load Balancer
can check health of each pod individually and provide application persistence at the application level. However, this design requires a new SE Group per cluster since each SE Group will have its own static routes to each Kubernetes cluster. Additionally, the Avi Load Balancer
SEs must have a vNic in the Kubernetes node network.NodePort
In NodePort mode, the
Avi Load Balancer
SEs will route to the Kubernetes service. No static routes are required, as the service will be externally reachable through the NodePort. This design allows for the reuse of the SE Group since no static routes to the Kubernetes nodes are required. However, this design limits monitoring and persistence because most of this is handled by kube-proxy
.NodePortLocal
In
NodePortLocal
mode, the Avi Load Balancer
SEs will route directly to the pods through a nodeport. Each pod is directly exposed as a NodePort. No static routes are required with this design since the NodePorts are externally routable. Additionally, this design will allow the reuse of SE Groups.Installing AKO on the Workload Cluster
AKO
on the Workload ClusterAKO
is installed through helm using a values.yaml file with various parameters specific to the environment. For more information, see values.yaml. When using VDS in the TKGs environment, the below parameters must be configured:- AKOSettings.clusterName: cluster-1. Create a Unique cluster name for each cluster.
- AKOSettings.layer7Only: true. Set this totrue. TheVMware Avi Load Balancerwill handle the L7, and VDS will still handle the L4.
- NetworkSettings.vipNetworkList: Define the VIP Network List.
- L7Settings.serviceType: Set this to either ClusterIP (default) or NodePort.
- ControllerSettings.serviceEngineGroupName: Default-Group
- ControllerSettings.controllerVersion: 22.1.2
- ControllerSettings.cloudName: vcenter-cloud
- ControllerSettings.controllerHost: ‘’
- ControllerSettings.tenantName: admin
- Avicredentials.username: username
- Avicredentials.password: password
After configuring the necessary parameters in the
values.yaml
file, installAKO
using the following command:helm install ako/ako --generate-name --version 1.10.1 -f values.yaml namespace=avi-system
For complete installation steps, see Install Avi Kubernetes Operator.
Validating the AKO Installation
AKO
InstallationThis optional step will validate the
AKO
pod running in the avi-system
namespace. Use kubectl get pods -n avi-system
command to show ako-0 pod. Below is an example of the output:
Deploying an Ingress
AKO
is now installed and configured for L7 Ingress. After creating the first ingress, the appropriate objects are created in the Avi Load Balancer Controller
and an SE is automatically be deployed (if not configured already) to handle the L7 load balancing.