This topic tells you how to install Capabilities on your Kubernetes cluster.

Capabilities enable users to define a set of functions that are available by default inside a Space. Capabilities represent a collection of APIs that are available inside a given Kubernetes cluster and express a feature available to its users. The feature provided by a Capability is represented through Kubernetes resource definitions.

Some examples of Capabilities available for Kubernetes Spaces are api-gateway, certificate-management, and service-binding.

For more information about Spaces, see What is a Space.

To view a list of available Capabilities in the Tanzu Platform UI, go to Spaces > Capabilities.

Install a Capability

To install a Capability to your Kubernetes cluster:

1. Go to Spaces > Capabilities.

2. Locate the Capability to install, for example, Service Binding.

   You can click the Capability to see the package or packages that are in that Capability. You can click a package to see a more detailed description of that package.

   

3. From the ellipsis next to the Capability name, click Install.

4. Select the cluster group on which to install the Capability.

5. (Optional) Expand Advanced Configuration.

   You can use Advanced Configuration to integrate Capabilities, such as Mutual TLS and Ingress, with third-party certificate authorities so that certificate management has secure service-to-service and user-to-service communication in a Space. For more information, see CA integration for Mutual TLS & Ingress Capabilities.

6. Click Install Package.

Tanzu CLI-based steps

To install a Capability in the cluster group from the Tanzu CLI:

1. Select the Tanzu Project containing the cluster group to update by running:

   tanzu project use
   

2. Set the cluster group by running:

   tanzu operations clustergroup use CLUSTER-GROUP-NAME
   

3. Install the Capability by running:

   tanzu package install --with-capability helm.tanzu.vmware.com
   

   Example output:

   Installing 'helm.tanzu.vmware.com/1.0.1' to 'run'
   
   2:04:32PM: Creating package install resource
   

View the installation progress

To view the progress of the Capability installation:

1. On the left navigation pane, click Capabilities.

2. On the Capabilities page, click Installed.

   The Status of the installation displays.

   Click on the installed Capability to see extra details about the installation.

3. If the installation fails, a Failed status appears for the Capability. Click on the Capability to see additional information about the failure.