Tanzu Management Cluster Create 101 (6 of 6) – OS Image [Video]

In this last episode of the series, we look at the final steps involved in building a TKG Management Cluster on vSphere from the UI. In this video, we will look at how to select an OS Image, where to download it from, and once installed, where they live on vSphere as templates. This OS Image is used to build the TKG control plane and worker nodes (virtual machines) in the management cluster. We will finish off with a discussion around where the completed TKG management cluster configuration file lives on your desktop, and what else it can be used…

Tanzu Management Cluster Create 101 (5 of 6) – LDAPS Identity Management [Video]

In this penultimate video in the series of installing a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (Grid) management cluster onto vSphere using the UI, we will look at the optional Identity Management configuration. In particular, we will look at integration with a secure LDAP service (in this demo, Microsoft Active Directory). We will see how to use the “Verify LDAP Configuration” utility to ensure that the LDAPS Endpoint, Bind configuration, and User and Group Search Attributes are functioning as expected before deploying the TKG management cluster onto vSphere. This will result in the deployment of additional packages on the cluster, such as Pinniped…

Tanzu Management Cluster Create 101 (4 of 6) – vSphere Resources [Video]

Today, we continue with the series of videos on how to stand up a TKG management cluster via the UI. In this video, number 4 of 6, we take a very quick look at TKG the vSphere Resources and Kubernetes Network. The video demonstrates how to choose the correct vSphere cluster and datastore for the TKG Management Cluster. This decides where the Kubernetes control plane and worker nodes (virtual machines) get deployed. We also look at the Kubernetes network which is the vSphere virtual machine network where the VMs will be plumbed up onto. Finally, we will look at how…

Tanzu Management Cluster Create 101 (3 of 6) – Cluster Settings and NSX Advanced Load Balancer [Video]

This is the third video in a series of six which describes how to deploy a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Management Cluster on vSphere from the UI. In this part of the demo series, . We also explain the fields that need to be populated when integrating with an NSX Advanced Load Balancer, including where to locate these field in the NSX ALB management portal. Stay tuned as the remaining videos will be published over the coming days.

Tanzu Management Cluster Create 101 (2 of 6) vSphere IaaS Provider [Video]

I’ve started a series of short videos to describe the process of deploying a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid management cluster onto vSphere via the UI. In this next video in the series, we will look at how to configure the IaaS Provider section for vSphere. The object is to deploy the TKG management cluster on vSphere infrastructure, and this section makes the connection to the vCenter server that is managing the vSphere infrastructure. We will also look at the purpose of the SSH Public Key, and why it is important for SSH access to the TKG control plane and worker nodes…

Tanzu Management Cluster Create 101 (1 of 6) – Launching the UI [Video]

You may have noticed a number of posts on TKG from me recently. I’ve been spending a lot of time these days with TKG (Tanzu Kubernetes Grid), predominantly deploying it onto vSphere. However, I know that this is still unexplored territory for a lot of people so I decided to create a number of very short, bite-sized, 101 videos to help get started. This very first video in the 101 series takes a look at how to launch the UI so you can deploy your first TKG management cluster. We look at the command options, including the –bind option which…

Deploying a monitoring stack (Prometheus and Grafana) on TKG v1.4 with External-DNS

Many customers who have deployed Tanzu Kubernetes would like to monitor activity on the cluster. In TKG v1.4, VMware provides all of the packages one would required to setup a full monitoring stack using Prometheus and Grafana. Prometheus records real-time metrics and Grafana provides charts, graphs, and alerts when connected to a supported data source, such as Prometheus. Prometheus has a dependency on an Ingress, which we will provide through the Contour controller package (which includes an Envoy Ingress). In fact, Prometheus leverages a special kind of Ingress called a HTTPProxy which is provided with Contour. We are also going…