Category Archives: VMware

VMware Tanzu Header

Understanding the VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Terminology

VMware, , , , , , , ,

It’s not uncommon for me to see the question asking for an explanation of VMware Tanzu Kubernetes terminology and differences between similar named products. As per the below tweet. This is my blog post to address the Tanzu Kubernetes terminology and use.

Twitter thread asking about TKGm and TKGs

First, we’ll break down the high level names and products. Then move into Tanzu Kubernetes products.

What is VMware Tanzu?

VMware Tanzu is a brand name covering VMware’s modern applications suite of products, just like vRealize is the suite name for VMware’s cloud management products.

What products are covered by the VMware Tanzu brand?

Continue reading Understanding the VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Terminology →

Tanzu Mission Control Header

Tanzu Mission Control – Upgrading Kubernetes for a provisioned cluster

VMware, Kubernetes, , ,

Now we understand how to deploy a Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster using Tanzu Mission Control, let’s look at the next lifecycle step, how to upgrade the Kubernetes version of the cluster.

Below are the other blog posts in the series.

Tanzu Mission Control 
- Getting Started Tanzu Mission Control 
- Cluster Inspections 
- Workspaces and Policies  
- Data Protection 
- Deploying TKG clusters to AWS 
- Upgrading a provisioned cluster 
- Delete a provisioned cluster 
- TKG Management support and provisioning new clusters
- TMC REST API - Postman Collection
- Using custom policies to ensure Kasten protects a deployed application

When a cluster which has been provisioned by TMC, and therefore managed by TMC, has an available upgrade, you will see an “i” icon next to the version on the clusters UI view, hovering over this will tell you there is an upgrade ready.

TMC - Clusters - Upgrade Available

Click the cluster name to take you into the cluster object to see the full details,

  1. click the actions button
  2. and select upgrade.

TMC - Cluster - Actions - Upgrade

The Upgrade Cluster dialogue will appear. Select the version you want to upgrade to and click upgrade.

TMC - Cluster - Upgrade Cluster - Select Version

On both the Cluster list and Cluster Detailed view, the status will change to upgrading.

TMC - Cluster Upgrading 2TMC - Cluster Upgrading

Once the upgrade has completed, the cluster will change back to ready and show the updated version.

TMC - Cluster upgrade complete

Wrap-up and Resources

In this quick blog post, we used Tanzu Mission Control to upgrade a provisioned Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster which was running in AWS. All the steps provided in this blog post can be replicated using the TMC CLI as well.

As a reminder, to take real advantage of TMC I recommend you read the follow posts:

Tanzu Mission Control 
- Getting Started Tanzu Mission Control 
- Cluster Inspections 
- Workspaces and Policies  
- Data Protection 
- Deploying TKG clusters to AWS 
- Upgrading a provisioned cluster 
- Delete a provisioned cluster 
- TKG Management support and provisioning new clusters
- TMC REST API - Postman Collection
- Using custom policies to ensure Kasten protects a deployed application

You can get hands on experience of Tanzu Mission Control yourself over on the VMware Hands-on-Lab website, which is always free!

Regards

Dean Lewis

 

VMware Tanzu Header

Tanzu Mission Control – Delete a provisioned cluster

VMware, Kubernetes, , , ,

In this blog post we are going to cover off how to delete a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster that has been provisioned by Tanzu Mission Control. We will cover the following areas:

Below are the other blog posts in the series.

Tanzu Mission Control 
- Getting Started Tanzu Mission Control 
- Cluster Inspections 
- Workspaces and Policies  
- Data Protection 
- Deploying TKG clusters to AWS 
- Upgrading a provisioned cluster 
- Delete a provisioned cluster 
- TKG Management support and provisioning new clusters
- TMC REST API - Postman Collection
- Using custom policies to ensure Kasten protects a deployed application

We are going to use the cluster I created in my last blog post.

Below are my EC2 instances that make up my TMC provisioned cluster, here I have filtered my view using the field “tmc.cloud.vmware.com/cluster” + cluster name.

Tanzu Mission Control - AWS Consoles - Instances - Filtered tmc.cloud.vmware.com

Deleting a Provisioned cluster in the TMC UI

In the TMC UI, going to the clusters view, you can click the three dots next to the cluster you want to remove and select delete.

Tanzu Mission Control - Clusters - Delete cluster

Alternatively, within the cluster object view, click actions then delete.

Tanzu Mission Control - Cluster Object - Delete cluster

Both options will bring up the below confirmation dialog box.

You select one of the following options:

  • Delete and remove agent (recommended)
    • Remove from TMC and delete agent extensions
  • Manually delete agent extensions
    • A secondary option whereby a manual removal is needed if a cluster delete fails

Enter the name of the cluster you want to delete, to confirm the cluster deletion.

Tanzu Mission Control - Cluster Object - Delete cluster - Confirm Continue reading Tanzu Mission Control – Delete a provisioned cluster →

VMware Tanzu Header

Tanzu Mission Control – Deploying TKG Clusters to AWS

Kubernetes, VMware, , , ,

This blog post will cover a technical walk-through on using Tanzu Mission Control to deploy Tanzu Kubernetes clusters to AWS.

The follow up blog posts in this series are:

Tanzu Mission Control 
- Getting Started Tanzu Mission Control 
- Cluster Inspections 
- Workspaces and Policies  
- Data Protection 
- Deploying TKG clusters to AWS 
- Upgrading a provisioned cluster 
- Delete a provisioned cluster 
- TKG Management support and provisioning new clusters
- TMC REST API - Postman Collection
- Using custom policies to ensure Kasten protects a deployed application
Using the AWS Hosted Management Cluster

In this example, we will use the default provided AWS Hosted Management cluster.

Alternatively, you can use the Tanzu CLI to provision a TKG Management cluster into AWS and attach this to Tanzu Mission Control.

Currently it is not supported to have a Management Cluster manage clusters across platforms.

  • I.e. Management Cluster in AWS that manages workload clusters in Azure.

To get started:

  1. Go to Administration
  2. Click the Management Clusters Tab
  3. Click on the “aws-hosted” cluster object name

TMC - Administration - Management Clusters

Create a provisioner

The default tab when selecting the “aws-hosted” management cluster object is the provisioner tab.

  • Click create provisioner

TMC - aws-hosted - provisioners - create provisioner

  • Provide a name for the provisioner
  • Click confirm

TMC - aws-hosted - provisioners - create provisioner - provide name

You will be taken back to your provisioner object which is created. Using the radio button to select the object will allow you to delete it. No other action is available.

TMC - aws-hosted - provisioners - provisioner created

Create the AWS account
  1. Click on accounts tab
  2. Click the “Create Account Credential” Button

TMC - aws-hosted - accounts - create account credential Continue reading Tanzu Mission Control – Deploying TKG Clusters to AWS →

vRealize Operations Tanzu Mission Control Header

vRealize Operations integration with Tanzu Mission Control for auto cluster discovery

VMware, Kubernetes, , ,

A while ago I wrote about the vRealize Operations Kubernetes Management pack which works for all CNCF conformant Kubernetes platforms.

One of the best features of this management pack is the Tanzu Mission Control (TMC) integration it offers with vRealize Operations (vROPs).

This means when you use TMC to provision Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) clusters, currently on AWS or on vSphere, they will be automatically registered within vROPs as well.

Install the Management Pack
  1. Download the management pack pak file.
  2. Within vROPs go to Administration
  3. Click on Repository
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and select “Add/Upgrade”
  5. Select the pak file for installation and follow the wizard.
Create a CSP API Token

For the vROPs management pack adapter to be able to communicate with TMC, we need an API token.

  1. Log into https://console.cloud.vmware.com
  2. Change to correct organisation that contains your TMC instance
  3. Click your name in the top right hand corner and select “My Account”vROps TMC Integration - creating a CSP Token - Select my account
  4. Select the “API Tokens” tab, and then “Generate a new API Token” button.vROps TMC Integration - creating a CSP Token - API Tokens
  5. Set your API Token name, expiry, and access control as required. Then click the generate button. vROps TMC Integration - creating a CSP Token - Generate a new api token
  6. You will be shown a dialog box with your generated token. Save this in a safe space we will use it later on. vROps TMC Integration - creating a CSP Token - Token Generated
Connect vRealize Operations management pack adapter to Tanzu Mission Control
  1. In vROPs UI go to Administration > Under Solutions, choose “Other Accounts” and click the “Add account” button. vROps TMC Integration - Add Account in vROPs
  2. From the account type list, choose Tanzu Mission Control. vROps TMC Integration - Add Account in vROPs - Account Type Tanzu Mission Control
  3. Fill out the necessary details on the New Account screen.
    1. For the credential click the + symbol, add in a name for the credential, and the CSP token you created earlier.
    2. Select your newly created credential.
  4. Select the validate button.vROps TMC Integration - Add Account in vROPs - New Account
  5. Hopefully you get a successful message. vROps TMC Integration - Add Account in vROPs - New Account - Test Connection Successful
  6. You will see the account object in the Other Accounts view. vROps TMC Integration - Add Account in vROPs - New Account - Newly created account
Auto-Discovering Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Clusters

Now you have your account added, whenever you provision a new cluster using Tanzu Mission Control, cAdvisor will be configured in the Kubernetes cluster and a Kubernetes account type will be created in vROps automatically for you.

Below I’ve created a cluster in AWS, and we can see the object has been created in vROPs.

vROps TMC Integration - Provisioned cluster auto discovered

And finally, here is my cluster showing in the one of the Kubernetes Dashboards. vROps TMC Integration - Kubernetes Dashboard

This is a simple to implement feature but can make a massive difference in your ability to monitor your TKG clusters from the infrastructure view that vROPs provides. As your users create clusters via TMC, they don’t need to interact with the monitoring platform to ensure visibility.

Regards

Dean Lewis