1.2 - Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Concepts¶

Goals¶

Typically a VM that runs the Tanzu CLI
Used to initialize a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid instance by bootstrapping a management cluster on the cloud infrastructure of choice
After bootstrapping the management cluster, the bootstrap machine is used to manage the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Instance

Used to initialize a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid instance by creating a management clusters
After the management cluster's created, the Tanzu CLI is used to create/scale/upgrade/delete Tanzu Kubernetes Clusters
The installer interface is launched from the Tanzu CLI
A 9-step GUI wizard where you specify areas such as credentials, deployment locations, networking, etc.

A cluster plan = blueprint that describes the configuration with which to deploy a Tanzu Kubernetes cluster.
Provides a set of configurable values that determine its settings e.g.:
Control plane machine numbers
worker machine numbers
CPU and RAM values
Two plans are provided by default:
Dev
Prod
Existing cluster plans can be customised and new ones can be developed.

Management cluster - the first element deployed when creating a Tanzu Kubernetes grid instance
A cluster dedicated to running Cluster API, which provides lifecycle management support for Tanzu Kubernetes workload clusters
The cluster is composed of one or more control plane nodes and one or more worker nodes.
Tn vSphere with Tanzu, the supervisor cluster performs the role of the management cluster

These are Kubernetes clusters deployed from the management cluster by using the Tanzu CLI
Composed of one or more control plane nodes and one or more worker nodes
Note: Tanzu Kubernetes cluster and workload cluster are used interchangeably
These clusters are created based on cluster plans
The entire lifecycle of these Tanzu Kubernetes clusters can be managed by the Tanzu CLI e.g. version upgrades.

These are services that run in a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid instance. They aim to support operations such as:
Authentication
Ingress
Logging
Service discovery
Shared services run on the management cluster or a dedicated shared-services cluster, and can be used by multiple Tanzu Kubernetes clusters
The Tanzu Kubernetes Grid extensions bundle is downloaded from the VMware website and provides the required YAML configurations
In-cluster services are typically deployed to specific Tanzu Kubernetes clusters.
Shared services can be deployed typically to their own clusters.

A Tanzu Kubernetes Grid instance is a full deployment of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid i.e.:
The management cluster
The deployed Tanzu Kubernetes clusters
The shared and in-cluster services configured for usage.

A single bootstrap machine can bootstrap many instances of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid e.g.:
Environments e.g. production/development
IaaS providers e.g. vSphere, AWS
Failure domains e.g. ,

When bootstrapping multiple Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Instances, one can register all the instances with VMware Tanzu Mission Control to make the process easier.
Tanzu Mission Control provides a centralized control plane for:
Applying consistent Kubernetes policies across clusters
Self-service provisioning and lifecycle management of clusters
Data protection of Kubernetes cluster workloads