Kubernetes Container Clusters UI plugin for VCD

VCD 10.3.x comes with a Kubernetes Container Clusters UI plugin 3.x.0 out of the box. Refer to Compatibility Matrix and VMware Cloud Director Service Provider Admin Portal Guide documentation

Functionality

Landing Page

Select Kubernetes Container Clusters in the navigation menu to access the landing page. A list of Kubernetes clusters created by Container Service Extension (CSE) will be displayed, along with some basic cluster information.

Provider View

Service providers can view all clusters in all organizations

Tenant View

Tenants can only view clusters in their organization that they have visibility for

Common Roles

Organization Administrator: can view all clusters in the organization
Catalog Author, vApp User and Console Access Only: can view clusters created by catalog authors
vApp Author: can view clusters they own

Upon clicking on the cluster name, users can view the details page of the corresponding cluster.

Cluster Creation

Clicking the NEW button on the top left will open the cluster creation wizard.

Cluster Deletion

Select a cluster in the datagrid, and click the DELETE button on the top left.

Cluster Info Page

Clicking on the cluster name will redirect you to its info page. This info page contains the following functionalities:

Navigate back to the landing page using the top navigation bar
Download the cluster’s kube config (to be used with kubectl) using the button on the right of the cluster name.
View cluster information. Info section contains cluster-specific details, while Details section contains VCD/CSE details.
Add new worker nodes to Native clusters. Removing worker nodes from native clusters is not supported in Kubernetes Container Clusters UI plugin 1.0.3

Known Issues

Creating a cluster using Kubernetes Container Clusters UI plugin as system administrator in a large-scale VCD (many orgs, org vdcs, networks, etc) will fail

When trying to create cluster as a system administrator user, datagrids in cluster create wizard will fail to load, preventing cluster creation. (Error will be an extension timeout error). This is because plugin 1.0.3 is not optimized to fetch VCD entities (orgs, ovdcs, networks, etc) at large scale (Tested in an environment with 80+ orgs/ovdcs/networks). The request will overload CSE Server and fail to complete.

Workaround: If system administrator must create a cluster in a large-scale VCD environment, CSE CLI should be used instead.

Re-registering Kubernetes Container Clusters UI plugin with VCD fails

If the beta version of CSE UI plugin is already registered with VCD, trying to upgrade it via CSE cli or VCD UI will fail. Right now, the only way to update the UI plugin is to de-register/delete it and then re-install using the new zip file. Additionally, the provider will need to re-publish the plugin to all the tenants that were previously given access to the CSE UI plugin.

Kubernetes Container Clusters UI plugin landing page on VCD UI perpetually shows a spinning wheel

If CSE server is inaccessible/down, on VCD UI’s CSE landing page, user only sees the loading spinner instead of an error message.

Workaround: Make sure CSE server is running.

Cluster operations fail silently on UI

On clicking confirm in cluster creation/deletion wizards/confirmation message boxes, user does not immediately get to know if the plugin successfully sent the request, or if CSE Server successfully received the same. Form validation and HTTP error display is not implemented in Kubernetes Container Clusters UI plugin 1.0.3

Enterprise PKS cluster creation fails from UI

If CSE is enabled with Enterprise PKS but OrgVDCs are not enabled with Enterprise PKS as their k8s provider, Kubernetes Container Clusters UI plugin 1.0.3 will allow cluster creation operation on that OrgVDC, but the operation will eventually fail. This behavior is as designed.

Workaround: - Enable the OrgVDC explicitly for Enterprise PKS cluster deployment via the following command

>vcd cse ovdc enable [ovdc name] -k 'ent-pks' -o [Org Name] -d [domain name] -p [plan name]