Introducing VMware Cloud Director's support for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid -multiclou...

VMware Tanzu Portfolio modernizes infrastructure for VMware Cloud Providers. VCD release 10.2 showcased close integration with VMware Tanzu with Supervisor Cluster(TKGs). Container Service Extension (CSE) for VMware Cloud Director enables service providers to offer Kubernetes services with Open source and Upstream Kubernetes Templates. In addition, Container Service Extension 3.0.3 introduces a significant enhancement to support Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (Multicloud), also known as TKGm. Starting with CSE 3.0.3, providers can use TKGm(1.3) as runtime. The provider administrator can install CSE with a few updated configurations to facilitate TKGm runtime for the customers.

The TKGm runtime provides many Improvements to Provider’s Kubernetes as Service offerings. Some of them are:  

Customer’s Org Networks for TKG Clusters Connectivity

The TKG clusters deployed with CSE 3.0.3 and TKGm can use the customer’s existing Network and Storage for TKG cluster deployment. The customer can easily publish Kubernetes-based Service using NAT on Customer’s Edge Gateway. 

TKG Cluster uses the customer’s Org VDC network

VMware supported TKG Binaries: 

TKG builds on trusted upstream and community projects and delivers an engineered and supported Kubernetes platform. Binaries for Kubernetes and all of the components you need to set up an enterprise-class Kubernetes development environment quickly with Tanzu Basic Edition is available. All binaries are tested and signed by VMware. The provider administrator can define the TKG template repository configuration while enabling the CSE service. The example snippet of the differential configuration is: 

cse sample:
service:
enable_tkg_m: true
remote_template_cookbook_url: "Available Soon"

The following image showcases a TKG cluster in customer organization using TKGm as runtime, Kubernetes Version 1.20.4 and Uses customer’s existing network and storage configurations. 

Customer’s TKG cluster Configuration view

New Cli to Install and Onboard Tenant to use TKGm for Provider Admin: 

Use vcd-cli to enable TKGm for Org VDCs

export CSE_TKG_M_ENABLED=True

Use vcd-cli to enable TKGm for Org VDCs

export CSE_TKG_M_ENABLED=True
vcd cse ovdc enable [OrgVDC name] -o [Org name] --tkg-m

New ‘vcd cse’ commands are available to leverage tkgm runtime for customers

vcd cse cluster apply --sample --tkg-m
api_version: ''
kind: TKGm
metadata:
cluster_name: cluster_name
org_name: organization_name
ovdc_name: org_virtual_datacenter_name spec:

To get more updates on Developer Ready Cloud and Tanzu Products, additional reading is available here:
1. CSE Github
2. Developer Ready Cloud Blogs
3. VMware Tanzu Blogs