How to validate TKGm Cluster?

Please find the steps to validate a TKGm cluster deployed through VMware Container Service Extension.

Step 1 : Download kubeconfig file

  • Download the Kubeconfig file to a windows machine which has access to the Native Kubernetes cluster.
  • Create folder .kube under $HOME.

$HOME\.kube

  • Copy the configfile dowloaded to .kube folder.
  • Rename the file to ‘config’ without any extensions.

Step 2 : Download kubectl

  • Download Kubectl for Windows from
https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.22.0/bin/windows/amd64/kubectl.exe
  • Create folder $HOME\kubectl and copy kubectl.ext to the folder. Add the folder to the ‘Path’ User variable in Environment Variables.

Run kubectl

Step 3: Run a ‘hello world’ application in the cluster.

Follow the steps from following article to deploy a Hello World applicaiton in the K8S cluster created.

Exposing an External IP Address to Access an Application in a Cluster | Kubernetes

Note: In the following command use NodePort instead of LoadBalancer

kubectl expose deployment hello-world --type=LoadBalancer --name=my-service

How to enable TKG in Container Service Extension (CSE) 3.1.1?

Step1: Download the TKG OVA

Starting CSE 3.1.1, CSE allows providers to import Ubuntu 20.04 based VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid OVA into VCD via CSE server cli. The following link provide different TKG Templates. Download the template with the K8s version you need.
Note: Ubuntu 20.04 Kubernetes OVAs from VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Versions 1.4.0, 1.3.1, 1.3.0 are supported.
Kubernetes OVAs for VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.4.0 are available here


I’ve downloaded Ubuntu 2004 Kubernetes v1.21.2 OVA since that’s the lates available version.
File Name : ubuntu-2004-kube-v1.21.2+vmware.1-tkg.1-7832907791984498322.ova

Step2: Import TKG OVA to VCD Catalog

Upload the downloaded OVA to the CSE server. Use the following command to import the OVA in Catalog.

# cse template import -c encrypted-config.yaml -F ubuntu-2004-kube-v1.21.2+vmware.1-tkg.1-7832907791984498322.ova

Required Python version: >= 3.7.3
Installed Python version: 3.7.12 (default, Nov 23 2021, 15:49:55)
[GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-44)]
Password for config file decryption:
Decrypting 'encrypted-config.yaml'
Validating config file 'encrypted-config.yaml'
InsecureRequestWarning: Unverified HTTPS request is being made. Adding certificate verification is strongly advised.
Connected to vCloud Director (vcd.lab.com:443)
Connected to vCenter Server 'demovc.local' as '[email protected]' (demovc.local)
Config file 'encrypted-config.yaml' is valid
Uploading 'ubuntu-2004-kube-v1.21.2+vmware.1-tkg.1-7832907791984498322' to catalog 'cse-site1-k8s'
Uploaded 'ubuntu-2004-kube-v1.21.2+vmware.1-tkg.1-7832907791984498322' to catalog 'cse-site1-k8s'
Writing metadata onto catalog item ubuntu-2004-kube-v1.21.2+vmware.1-tkg.1-7832907791984498322.
Successfully imported TKGm OVA.

Step3: Restart CSE service.

I assume you’ve configured CSE to run as service. If yest restart the service.

Step4: Confirm TKG is available as option for Kubernetes Runtime

Login to the tenant portal and navigate to More > Kubernetes Container Clusters.

Click on New

How to delete the failed TKGm or Native k8s cluster in CSE?

In CSE 3.1.1, delete operation on a cluster (Native or TKG) that is in an error state (RDE.state = RESOLUTION_ERROR (or) status.phase = :FAILED), may fail with Bad request (400) or the Delete process will be stuck in ‘DELETEIN_PROGRESS’ state. The steps are given below to resolve the issue.

Step1: Assign API explorer privilege to the CSE Service Account.

Login to VCD Provider portal as Administrator.

Edit the CSE Service Role.

Navigate to Administration > Provider Access Control > Roles > CSE Service Role.

In the tenant portal check if there’re any stale vApp entries for the failed clusters. If so, please delete them.

Step2: Get the failed cluster ID through vcd cli

# vcd cse cluster list
Name        Org             Owner     VDC            K8s Runtime    K8s Version            Status
----------  --------------  --------  -------------  -------------  ---------------------  ------------------
test-tkg-1  CSE-Site1-Test  orgadmin  CSE-TEST-OVDC  TKGm           TKGm v1.21.2+vmware.1  DELETE:IN_PROGRESS
tkg         CSE-Site1-Test  orgadmin  CSE-TEST-OVDC  TKGm           TKGm v1.21.2+vmware.1  DELETE:IN_PROGRESS
tkgtest     CSE-Site1-Test  orgadmin  CSE-TEST-OVDC  TKGm           TKGm v1.21.2+vmware.1  DELETE:IN_PROGRESS
tkg-test    CSE-Site1-Test  orgadmin  CSE-TEST-OVDC  TKGm           TKGm v1.21.2+vmware.1  DELETE:IN_PROGRESS
tkg-test3   CSE-Site1-Test  orgadmin  CSE-TEST-OVDC  TKGm           TKGm v1.21.2+vmware.1  DELETE:IN_PROGRESS

# vcd cse cluster info tkg-test3 | grep uid
  uid: urn:vcloud:entity:cse:nativeCluster:9364bf18-0faa-49ce-8be7-7e92af692d1b

Step3: Run GET call to check the status

Login to VCD Provider portal with the CSE service account which has CSE Service Role assigned.
Open API Explorer.
Click on GET in difinedEntity section.

Click on TryitOut
In Description, provide the cluster UID from last step.
In the output we can see the state as PRE_CREATED.

Step3: Run the POST call resolve to resolve

Select the POST call from definedEntity section.

/1.0.0/entities/{id}/resolve
Validates the defined entity against the entity type schema.

Provide the cluster ID and run the call. The state will be changed to RESOLVED.


Step4: Run the DELETE call to delete RDE.

Povide the cluser ID and ‘false’ as value for inovkeHooks.

Please check and confirm the failed Cluster is deleted now.

#vcd cse cluster list
InsecureRequestWarning: Unverified HTTPS request is being made. Adding certificate verification is strongly advised.
Name      Org             Owner     VDC            K8s Runtime    K8s Version            Status
--------  --------------  --------  -------------  -------------  ---------------------  ------------------
tkg       CSE-Site1-Test  orgadmin  CSE-TEST-OVDC  TKGm           TKGm v1.21.2+vmware.1  DELETE:IN_PROGRESS
tkgtest   CSE-Site1-Test  orgadmin  CSE-TEST-OVDC  TKGm           TKGm v1.21.2+vmware.1  DELETE:IN_PROGRESS
tkg-test  CSE-Site1-Test  orgadmin  CSE-TEST-OVDC  TKGm           TKGm v1.21.2+vmware.1  DELETE:IN_PROGRESS


How to deploy Container Service Extension (CSE) 3.1.1?

Please find the steps to deploy Container Service Extension 3.1.1.

Step 1: Deploy CentOS 7 VM

Selected CentOS 7 as the Operating System for CSE server. CentOS 7 has higher EOL than CentOS 8. You can find the installations steps for CentOS 7 here.

Please find more details on CentOS releases below.

Kindly ensure following configurations are done in CSE VM.

  • Configure DNS.
  • Configure NTP.
  • Configure SSH.
  • SSH access for root user is enabled.

Please note the following network connections are required for rest of the configurations.

  • Access to VCD URL (https) from CSE Server.
  • The Internet access from CSE server.

Step 2: Take a snapshot of CSE server VM.

It’s recommended to take a snapshot of CSE server before continuing with Python installation. It’s an optional step.

Step 3: Install Python 3.7.3 or greater

Install python 3.7.3 or greater in 3.7.x series. Please note that python 3.8.0 and above is not supported (ref: CSE doc)
The built-in python version in CentOS 7 is 2.7. So, we’ve to install the latest in 3.7.x series, at the moment version 3.7.12 is the latest. Please follow the below steps to install Python.

yum update -y
yum install -y yum-utils
yum groupinstall -y development
yum install -y gcc openssl-devel bzip2-devel libffi-devel zlib-devel xz-devel

#Install sqlite3

cd /tmp/
curl -O https://www.sqlite.org/2020/sqlite-autoconf-3310100.tar.gz
tar xvf sqlite-autoconf-3310100.tar.gz
cd sqlite-autoconf-3310100/
./configure
make install

# Install Python

cd /tmp/
curl -O https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.12/Python-3.7.12.tgz
tar -xvf Python-3.7.12.tgz
cd Python-3.7.12
./configure --enable-optimizations
make altinstall
alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/local/bin/python3.7 1
alternatives --install /usr/bin/pip3 pip3 /usr/local/bin/pip3.7 1
alternatives --list

# Check Python and pip3 versions

python3 --version
pip3 --version


Step 4: Install vcd-cli

# Install and verify vcd-cli
pip3 install vcd-cli
vcd version
     vcd-cli, VMware vCloud Director Command Line Interface, 24.0.1

Step 5: Install CSE

# Install and verify cse
pip3 install container-service-extension
cse version
CSE, Container Service Extension for VMware vCloud Director, version 3.1.1

Step 6: Enable CSE client

# Create ~/.vcd-cli directory
mkdir ~/.vcd-cli

# Create profiles.yaml
cat > ~/.vcd-cli/profiles.yaml << EOF
extensions: 
- container_service_extension.client.cse
EOF

Step 7: Create CSE Service Role for CSE server management

[root@test ~]# cse create-service-role <vcd fqdn> -s
Username for System Administrator: administrator
Password for administrator:
Connecting to vCD:  <vcd fqdn>
Connected to vCD as system administrator: administrator
Creating CSE Service Role...
Successfully created CSE Service Role

Step 7: Create service account for CSE in VCD

Create a Service Account in VCD with the role ‘CSE Service Role’

Step 8: Create service account for CSE in vCenter

Create new role in vCenter with Power User + Guest Operations privilege. Assign the role to the service account for CSE.

  • Clone ‘Virtual Machine Power User (sample) role
  • Edit role
  • Select Virtual machine > Guest operations.

Step 9: Create a sample CSE config file and update it.

cse sample -o config.yaml

# vi config.yaml

mqtt:
  verify_ssl: false

vcd:
  host: vcd.vmware.com
  log: true
  password: my_secret_password
  port: 443
  username: administrator
  verify: false

vcs:
- name: vc1
  password: my_secret_password
  username: [email protected]
  verify: false

service:
  enforce_authorization: false
  legacy_mode: false
  log_wire: false
  no_vc_communication_mode: false
  processors: 15
  telemetry:
    enable: true

broker:
  catalog: cse
  ip_allocation_mode: pool
  network: my_network
  org: my_org
  remote_template_cookbook_url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vmware/container-service-extension-templates/master/template_v2.yaml
  storage_profile: '*'

Step 7: Encrypt Configuration file

cse encrypt config.yaml --output encrypted-config.yaml

Step 8: Validate the Configuration file

chmod 600 encrypted-config.yaml
cse check encrypted-config.yaml

Step 9: Install CSE

cse install -c encrypted-config.yaml --skip-template-creation

Step 10: Validate CSE Installation

cse check encrypted-config.yaml --check-install

Step 10: List the available templates

# cse template list -c encrypted-config.yaml
Password for config file decryption:
Decrypting 'encrypted-config.yaml'
Retrieved config from 'encrypted-config.yaml'
name                                revision  local    remote      cpu    memory  description                                                        deprecated
--------------------------------  ----------  -------  --------  -----  --------  -----------------------------------------------------------------  ------------
ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1           1  No       Yes           2      2048  Ubuntu 16.04, Docker-ce 20.10.7, Kubernetes 1.21.2, weave 2.8.1    No
ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.20_weave-2.6.5           2  No       Yes           2      2048  Ubuntu 16.04, Docker-ce 19.03.15, Kubernetes 1.20.6, weave 2.6.5   No
ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.19_weave-2.6.5           2  No       Yes           2      2048  Ubuntu 16.04, Docker-ce 19.03.12, Kubernetes 1.19.3, weave 2.6.5   No
ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.18_weave-2.6.5           2  No       Yes           2      2048  Ubuntu 16.04, Docker-ce 19.03.12, Kubernetes 1.18.6, weave 2.6.5   No
photon-v2_k8-1.14_weave-2.5.2              4  No       Yes           2      2048  PhotonOS v2, Docker-ce 18.06.2-6, Kubernetes 1.14.10, weave 2.5.2  Yes

Step 11: Import the latest K8S template

cse template install TEMPLATE_NAME TEMPLATE_REVISION

# cse template install ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1 1 -c encrypted-config.yaml

It will take a while to complete the download of template, be patient.

Downloading file from 'https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/xenial/release-20180418/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ova' to 'cse_cache/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ova'...
Download complete
Uploading 'ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ova' to catalog 'cse-site1-k8s'
Uploaded 'ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ova' to catalog 'cse-site1-k8s'
Deleting temporary vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'
Creating vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'
Found data file: /root/.cse_scripts/2.0.0/ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_rev1/init.sh
Created vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'
Customizing vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp', vm 'ubuntu-1604-k8s1212-weave281-vm'
Found data file: /root/.cse_scripts/2.0.0/ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_rev1/cust.sh
Waiting for guest tools, status: "vm='vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296', status=guestToolsNotRunning
Waiting for guest tools, status: "vm='vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296', status=guestToolsNotRunning
Waiting for guest tools, status: "vm='vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296', status=guestToolsNotRunning
Waiting for guest tools, status: "vm='vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296', status=guestToolsRunning
.....
......
......

waiting for process 1611 on vm 'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296' to finish (1)
waiting for process 1611 on vm 'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296' to finish (2)
waiting for process 1611 on vm 'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296' to finish (3)
waiting for process 1611 on vm 'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296' to finish (4)
waiting for process 1611 on vm 'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296' to finish (5)
waiting for process 1611 on vm 'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296' to finish (6)
waiting for process 1611 on vm 'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296' to finish (7)
waiting for process 1611 on vm 'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-2296' to finish (8)
...
...
..
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/x-grub-legacy-ec2:
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-119-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-210-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-119-generic
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

/etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub:
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-210-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-210-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-119-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-119-generic
done
customization completed

Customized vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp', vm 'ubuntu-1604-k8s1212-weave281-vm'
Creating K8 template 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_rev1' from vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'
Shutting down vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'
Successfully shut down vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'
Capturing template 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_rev1' from vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'
Created K8 template 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_rev1' from vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'
Successfully tagged template ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_rev1 with placement policy native.
Deleting temporary vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'
Deleted temporary vApp 'ubuntu-16.04_k8-1.21_weave-2.8.1_temp'

Step 12: Confirm the template is available in CSE catalog

Login to CSE Tenant portal.
Navigate to the Libraries > Catalogs > vApp Templates. We can see the newly created K8S upstream template.

Step 13: Enable Organizations for Native deployments.

The provider must explicitly enable organizational virtual datacenter(s) to host native deployments, by running the command: vcd cse ovdc enable.

vcd login <vcd> system administrator -i
InsecureRequestWarning: Unverified HTTPS request is being made. Adding certificate verification is strongly advised.
Password:
administrator logged in, org: 'system', vdc: ''

# vcd cse ovdc enable <orgvdc> -n -o <organization>
# vcd cse ovdc enable TEST-OVDC -n -o Site1-Test

InsecureRequestWarning: Unverified HTTPS request is being made. Adding certificate verification is strongly advised.
OVDC Update: Updating OVDC placement policies
task: 10e70b37-5aa6-4cf9-b437-ef478bd9f06a, Operation success, result: success

Step 14: Check Create New Native Cluster is available now

Login to the VCD Tenant portal and navigate to More > Kubernetes Container Clusters.
Click on New.

We can see the option to ‘Create New Native Cluster’.

Step 15: Publish Right Bundle ‘cse:nativeCluster Entitlement’

  • The following article has details on differences between right bundle and roles.
  • Login to VCD as Provider and navigate to Administration > Right Bundles
  • Select ‘cse:nativeCluster Entitlement’
  • Create a backup of right bundle by Cloning.
    • Select the Rights Bundle cse:nativeCluster Entitlement.
    • Select Clone.
    • Keep the auto generaed name ‘Clone:cse:nativeCluster Entitlement’
  • Edit the right bundle cse:nativeCluster Entitlement
  • Select the following rights
  • Select ‘PUBLISH’
  • Select the specific Tenants from the list.

Step 16: Add CSE rights to Global Role ‘Organization Administrator’

  • Login as Provider and edit the Global Role ‘Organization Administrator’
  • Select same rights we selected in the last step.