Category Archives: Kubernetes

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.6 – Management Cluster deployment failure – unable to patch the cluster object

December 23, 2022VMware, Kubernetes1.6, Deployment, Error, Kubernetes, Tanzu, TKGDean

The Issue

When deploying a brand new Tanzu Kubernete Grid Management Cluster to a vSphere environment we kept hitting failures like the below. The deployment was very vanilla with the default settings, no extra metadata inputted into the build.

!! [1223 15:26:17.84239]: init.go:732] Failure while deploying management cluster, Here are some steps to investigate the cause:
!! [1223 15:26:17.84256]: init.go:733] Debug:
!! [1223 15:26:17.84262]: init.go:734] kubectl get po,deploy,cluster,kubeadmcontrolplane,machine,machinedeployment -A --kubeconfig /home/michael/.kube-tkg/tmp/config_Qd01VhPd
!! [1223 15:26:17.84272]: init.go:735] kubectl logs deployment.apps/ -n  manager --kubeconfig /home/michael/.kube-tkg/tmp/config_Qd01VhPd
!! [1223 15:26:17.84278]: init.go:738] To clean up the resources created by the management cluster:
!! [1223 15:26:17.84283]: init.go:739] tanzu management-cluster delete
✘ [1223 15:26:17.84291]: init.go:91] unable to set up management cluster, : unable to patch cluster object: unable to patch optional metadata under labels: unable to patch the management cluster object with optional metadata: unable to patch the cluster object: error while applying patch for "&TypeMeta{Kind:,APIVersion:,}" tkg-system/tkg-mgmt-vsphere-20221223151757: Cluster.cluster.x-k8s.io "tkg-mgmt-vsphere-20221223151757" is invalid: [metadata.labels: Invalid value: "": name part must be non-empty, metadata.labels: Invalid value: "": name part must consist of alphanumeric characters, '-', '_' or '.', and must start and end with an alphanumeric character (e.g. 'MyName', or 'my.name', or '123-abc', regex used for validation is '([A-Za-z0-9][-A-Za-z0-9_.]*)?[A-Za-z0-9]')]

The Cause

The tooling creates an erronous value in the cluster config file, which causes the build error.

The Fix

Search for the latest yaml file created in:

~/.config/tanzu/tkg/clusterconfigs/

and comment out the following line:

CLUSTER_LABELS: :,

# The line will now look like this:

#CLUSTER_LABELS: :,

Now re-run the creation of your cluster using the CLI

tanzu mc create --file {file_name.yaml}

Regards

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Dean Lewis

How to Deploy a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster using the Cilium CNI

September 5, 2022VMware, KubernetesCilium, CNI, Deploy, Hubble, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, TKGDean

In this blog post I’m going to dive into how you can create a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster and specify your own container network interface, for example, Cilium. Expanding on the installation, I’ll also cover installing a load balancer service, deploying a demo app, and showing some of the observability feature as well.

What is Cilium?

Cilium is an open source software for providing, securing and observing network connectivity between container workloads - cloud native, and fueled by the revolutionary Kernel technology eBPF

Let’s unpack that from the official website marketing tag line.

Cilium is a container network interface for Kubernetes and other container platforms (apparently there are others still out there!), which provides the cluster networking functionality. It goes one step further than other CNIs commonly used, by using a Linux Kernel software technology called eBPF, and allows for the insertion of security, visibility, and networking control logic into the Linux kernel of your container nodes.

Below is a high-level overview of the features.

And a high-level architecture overview.

Is it supported to run Cilium in Tanzu Kubernetes cluster?

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid allows you to bring your own Kubernetes CNI to the cluster as part of the Cluster bring-up. You will be required to take extra steps to build a cluster during this type of deployment, as described below in this blog post.

As for support for a CNI outside of Calico and Antrea, you as the customer/consumer must provide that. If you are using Cilium for example, then you can gain enterprise level support for the CNI, from the likes of Isovalent.

Recording

How to deploy a Tanzu Kubernete Cluster with Cilium

Before we get started, we need to download the Cilium CLI tool, which is used to install Cilium into our cluster.

The below command downloads and installs the latest stable version to your /usr/local/bin location. You can find more options here. Continue reading How to Deploy a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster using the Cilium CNI →

Creating a kubeconfig file for a Kubernetes Service Account

September 1, 2022KubernetesCreate, Kubeconfig, Kubernetes, Service AccountDean

Recently I was working with a software integration that required a Kubernetes Kubeconfig file. I didn’t want to provide my own kubeconfig file, and I also wanted to set the right permissions via a service account.

Below is the code I put together for this, partially inspired by this stackoverflow post I came across. If you scroll further, I’ve included creating a service account and giving it cluster-admin access, in case you need it.

######################
#  Set the variables #
#                    #
######################

clusterName=veducate-eks
## the Namespace and ServiceAccount name that is used for the config
namespace=kube-system
serviceAccount=veducate-ca
## New Kubeconfig file name
newfile=something.kubeconfig

######################
#  Main Script       #
#                    #
######################

server=${kubectl config view --minify --raw -o jsonpath='{.clusters[].cluster.server}' | sed 's/"//'}
secretName=$(kubectl --namespace $namespace get serviceAccount $serviceAccount -o jsonpath='{.secrets[0].name}')
ca=$(kubectl --namespace $namespace get secret/$secretName -o jsonpath='{.data.ca\.crt}')
token=$(kubectl --namespace $namespace get secret/$secretName -o jsonpath='{.data.token}' | base64 --decode)

echo "
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Config
clusters:
  - name: ${clusterName}
    cluster:
      certificate-authority-data: ${ca}
      server: ${server}
contexts:
  - name: ${serviceAccount}@${clusterName}
    context:
      cluster: ${clusterName}
      namespace: ${namespace}
      user: ${serviceAccount}
users:
  - name: ${serviceAccount}
    user:
      token: ${token}
current-context: ${serviceAccount}@${clusterName}
" >> ${newfile}.yaml

Below is the code I used to create a Service Account that has cluster admin access, then if I use the above code, I can get a kubeconfig file for that. Continue reading Creating a kubeconfig file for a Kubernetes Service Account →

vRealize Automation – Deploying a GKE Cluster with Code Stream, add to Tanzu Mission Control & Tanzu Service Mesh

July 26, 2022Kubernetes, VMwareCode Stream, Deploy, gke, Google Cloud, Tanzu Mission Control, Tanzu Service Mesh, vRA, vRealize AutomationDean

This walk-through will detail the technical configurations for using vRA Code Stream to deploy Google Kubernetes Clusters (GKE), register them as:

Kubernetes endpoints in vRA Cloud Assembly and Code Stream
An attached in Tanzu Mission Control
Onboard in Tanzu Service Mesh

This post mirrors my other blog posts following similar concepts:

Requirement

After covering EKS and AKS, I thought it was worthwhile to finish off the gang and deploy GKE clusters using Code Stream.

Building on my previous work, I also added in the extra steps to onboard this cluster into Tanzu Service Mesh as well.

High Level Steps

Create a Code Stream Pipeline
- Create a Google GKE Cluster
- Create GKE cluster as endpoint in both vRA Code Stream and Cloud Assembly
- Register GKE cluster in Tanzu Mission Control
- Onboard the cluster to Tanzu Service Mesh

Pre-Requisites

vRA Cloud access
- The pipeline can be changed easily for use with vRA on-premises
Google Cloud account that can provision GKE clusters
- The Kubernetes Engine API needs to be enabled
- Basic knowledge of deploying GKE
  - This is a good beginners guide if you need
- You will need to create a Service Account that the gcloud CLI tool can use for authentication
A Docker host to be used by vRA Code Stream
- Ability to run the container image: gcr.io/google.com/cloudsdktool/google-cloud-cli
Tanzu Mission Control account that can register new clusters
VMware Cloud Console Tokens for vRA Cloud, Tanzu Mission Control and Tanzu Service Mesh API access
The configuration files for the pipeline can be found in this GitHub repository

Creating a Code Stream Pipeline to deploy a Azure AKS Cluster and register the endpoints with vRA and Tanzu Mission Control

Create the variables to be used

Continue reading vRealize Automation – Deploying a GKE Cluster with Code Stream, add to Tanzu Mission Control & Tanzu Service Mesh →

vEducate.co.uk

Fixing issues and blogging

Category Archives: Kubernetes

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.6 – Management Cluster deployment failure – unable to patch the cluster object

Like this:

How to Deploy a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster using the Cilium CNI

What is Cilium?

Is it supported to run Cilium in Tanzu Kubernetes cluster?

Recording

How to deploy a Tanzu Kubernete Cluster with Cilium

Like this:

Creating a kubeconfig file for a Kubernetes Service Account

Like this:

vRealize Automation – Deploying a GKE Cluster with Code Stream, add to Tanzu Mission Control & Tanzu Service Mesh

Requirement

High Level Steps

Pre-Requisites

Creating a Code Stream Pipeline to deploy a Azure AKS Cluster and register the endpoints with vRA and Tanzu Mission Control

Create the variables to be used

Like this:

Found this useful? Then share:

Like this:

What is Cilium?

Is it supported to run Cilium in Tanzu Kubernetes cluster?

Recording

How to deploy a Tanzu Kubernete Cluster with Cilium

Found this useful? Then share:

Like this:

Found this useful? Then share:

Like this:

Requirement

High Level Steps

Pre-Requisites

Creating a Code Stream Pipeline to deploy a Azure AKS Cluster and register the endpoints with vRA and Tanzu Mission Control

Create the variables to be used

Found this useful? Then share:

Like this:

Part 1

Part 2

Found this useful? Then share:

Like this: