Enabling new vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) Cluster Management for VCF Automation (VCFA)

As of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0.1, users can now manage the full lifecycle of their vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) Clusters, including backup and restore, using the new vSphere Kubernetes Service Cluster Management (VKSM) capability, natively integrated into VCF Automation (VCFA).

This is definitely a must have capability for users managing dozen or even hundreds of VKS Clusters across different versions, VKSM provides the easy button for platform operators!

I figured before going on PTO next week and shutting down my lab, this would be the perfect time to get this deployed in my lab ... what could go wrong, right!? 😅

Step 1 - Download the VKS Management Proxy YAML manifest (supervisor-management-proxy.yml) from the Broadcom Support Portal (BSP).

Step 2 - Login to your vCenter Server and navigate to Supervisor Management->Services and click on the new service tile and upload the VKS Management Proxy YAML

Note: Before you enable the VKS Management Proxy, make sure that vSphere Supervisor Control Plane VM is using the Medium size configuration. I initially deployed vSphere Supervisor with a Small and after a bit of troubleshooting, I realized that it was not going to be enough to run VKS Management Proxy service. You can easily resize the vSphere Supervisor Control Plane by selecting your specific vSphere Supervisor and navigate to Configure->General->Control Plane->Control Plane Size to resize the VM.

Step 3 - To enable the VKS Management Proxy service for a specific vSphere Supervisor, select the "Supervisor Management Proxy" service and then click on Action->Manage Service and select your vSphere Supervisor and when prompted during the YAML, you will need to paste the following snippet (replace the FQDN with your VCF Automation instance)

vksmHTTPRemoteEndpoint:
  host: auto01.vcf.lab
  port: 443
vksmAPIPort: 10094

Step 4 - Now login to your VCFA Provider Portal and confirm that service is healthy by navigating to Services->Overview->VKS Cluster Management->Details

You are now ready to start using VKSM!

Assuming you have already setup a VCFA Organization Portal with a VCFA Namespace provisioned, navigate to the Kubernetes service and provision a VKS Cluster (make sure the Control Plane is not using the Small / Extra Small as additional services will automatically be installed as part of the VKSM service)

Once your VKS Clusters have been deployed, you can manage them by navigating to Kubernetes Management and you should automatically see your VKS Clusters have automatically been attached to the VKMS service, no need to install anything manually!

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