VMware Tanzu packages are service add-ons for Tanzu products that distributed as Carvel packages to standardize and simplify how you deploy and manage popular services with Tanzu.

You can install packages to:

• Make services available to apps hosted on Kubernetes workload clusters, to help developers
• Install platform intelligence or other services, to help platform operators

You can use the Tanzu CLI to install and manage packages on workload clusters deployed by Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) or clusters that run Tanzu Application Platform (TAP).

Installing and Using VMware Tanzu Packages is applicable only to Tanzu Kubernetes Grid with management clusters. If you are using TKGS with vSphere Supervisor, see Installing Standard Packages on TKG Service Clusters.

The sections below list CLI-managed packages that you can deploy to workload clusters and the package repositories where they are published.

Auto-managed packages not covered here: TKG and other products also use Carvel packages internally as auto-managed packages that are installed and upgraded automatically. These auto-managed packages are not installed by the user and do not typically require user attention. This publication covers CLI-managed packages, not auto-managed packages.

To learn more about how auto-managed packages work in TKG, see Packages in About Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.

Overview

CLI-managed packages extend Kubernetes clusters created by TKG. After creating a cluster, you can install packages from the tanzu-standard package repository or from package repositories that you add to the cluster. TKG manages the lifecycle of the tanzu-standard package repository.

VMware supports the packages listed below when deployed to TKG clusters. Custom package configurations, modifications, and updates for non-TKG clusters is not supported.

Packages and Package Repositories

A CLI-managed package is an optional component of a Kubernetes cluster that you can install and manage with the Tanzu Command Line Interface (CLI). These packages are installed after cluster creation.

CLI-managed packages are distributed via package repositories. To install and manage package repositories and the packages they contain, you use the tanzu package plugin of the Tanzu CLI. For information about how to use the tanzu package plugin, see Install and Manage Packages.

Tanzu Standard Package Repository

The Tanzu Standard package repository contains CLI-managed packages that platform operators install for their own use or to provide services that platform operators and application developers can use.

For a list of packages that the Tanzu Standard repository contains and how to install them in clusters, see Tanzu Standard Repository Packages in this documentation.

In Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) clusters, you install and manage packages using the Tanzu CLI or Kubectl, as described in this publication.

To associate TKG versions with versions of the Tanzu Standard package repository that they work with, see TKG, Tanzu CLI Plugin, and Tanzu Standard Package Repo Versions in the About TKG documentation.

To install packages from the Tanzu Mission Control (TMC)console see Install a Package in the TMC documentation.

Tanzu Application Platform Repository

The Tanzu Application Platform (TAP) repository contains CLI-managed packages useful for developers, such as Tanzu Application Platform, Tanzu Build Service, Cloud Native Runtimes, Application Accelerator for VMware Tanzu, and Cartographer.

For a list of packages that the TAP repository contains and how to install them in workload clusters, see the topics that cover package installation under Install Tanzu Application Platform in the Tanzu Application Platform documentation. In particular, to install the packages that constitute TAP, see Install Tanzu Application Platform package and profiles.

Package Versions

Package version compatibility on workload clusters is based on their Kubernetes version, not the TKG version of their standalone management cluster.

You can run different versions of the CLI-managed packages in different workload clusters. In a workload cluster, you can run either the latest supported version of a CLI-managed package or the versions that are released with the last two TKG releases.

Applying Overlays to Packages

To customize CLI-managed packages, you can apply ytt overlays. For information about how to download and install ytt, see Install the Carvel Tools in the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid documentation.

Tanzu Standard Repository Package Support

VMware provides the following support for the optional packages that are provided in the VMware Tanzu Standard Repository:

• VMware provides installation and upgrade validation for the packages that are included in the optional VMware Tanzu Standard Repository when they are deployed on Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. This validation is limited to the installation and upgrade of the package but includes any available updates required to address CVEs. Any bug fixes, feature enhancements, and security fixes are provided in new package versions when they are available in the upstream package project.
• VMware does not provide Runtime Level Support for the components provided by the Tanzu Standard Repository. The debugging of configuration, performance related issues, or debugging and fixing the package itself is not provided by VMware.

Tanzu Packages as a Deployment Option

Tanzu packages are one of several options for deploying services in Tanzu: