Configure for vSphere

Full EKS Anywhere configuration reference for a VMware vSphere cluster.

This is a generic template with detailed descriptions below for reference.

Key: Resources are in green ; Links to field descriptions are in blue

apiVersion: anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/v1alpha1
kind: Cluster
metadata:
   name: my-cluster-name             # Name of the cluster (required)
spec:
   clusterNetwork:                   # Cluster network configuration (required)
      cniConfig:                     # Cluster CNI plugin - default: cilium (required)
         cilium: {}
      pods:
         cidrBlocks:                 # Internal Kubernetes subnet CIDR block for pods (required)
            - 192.168.0.0/16
      services:
         cidrBlocks:                 # Internal Kubernetes subnet CIDR block for services (required)
            - 10.96.0.0/12
   controlPlaneConfiguration:        # Specific cluster control plane config (required)
      count: 2                       # Number of control plane nodes (required)
      endpoint:                      # IP for control plane endpoint on your network (required)
         host: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
      machineGroupRef:               # vSphere-specific Kubernetes node config (required)
        kind: VSphereMachineConfig
        name: my-cluster-machines
      taints:                        # Taints applied to control plane nodes 
      - key: "key1"
        value: "value1"
        effect: "NoSchedule"
      labels:                        # Labels applied to control plane nodes 
        "key1": "value1"
        "key2": "value2"
   datacenterRef:                    # Kubernetes object with vSphere-specific config 
      kind: VSphereDatacenterConfig
      name: my-cluster-datacenter
   externalEtcdConfiguration:
     count: 3                        # Number of etcd members 
     machineGroupRef:                # vSphere-specific Kubernetes etcd config
        kind: VSphereMachineConfig
        name: my-cluster-machines
   kubernetesVersion: "1.25"         # Kubernetes version to use for the cluster (required)
   workerNodeGroupConfigurations:    # List of node groups you can define for workers (required) 
   - count: 2                        # Number of worker nodes 
     machineGroupRef:                # vSphere-specific Kubernetes node objects (required) 
       kind: VSphereMachineConfig
       name: my-cluster-machines
     name: md-0                      # Name of the worker nodegroup (required) 
     taints:                         # Taints to apply to worker node group nodes 
     - key: "key1"
       value: "value1"
       effect: "NoSchedule"
     labels:                         # Labels to apply to worker node group nodes 
       "key1": "value1"
       "key2": "value2"
---
apiVersion: anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/v1alpha1
kind: VSphereDatacenterConfig
metadata:
   name: my-cluster-datacenter
spec:
  datacenter: "datacenter1"          # vSphere datacenter name on which to deploy EKS Anywhere (required) 
  server: "myvsphere.local"          # FQDN or IP address of vCenter server (required) 
  network: "network1"                # Path to the VM network on which to deploy EKS Anywhere (required) 
  insecure: false                    # Set to true if vCenter does not have a valid certificate 
  thumbprint: "1E:3B:A1:4C:B2:..."   # SHA1 thumprint of vCenter server certificate (required if insecure=false)

---
apiVersion: anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/v1alpha1
kind: VSphereMachineConfig
metadata:
   name: my-cluster-machines
spec:
  diskGiB:  25                         # Size of disk on VMs, if no snapshots
  datastore: "datastore1"              # Path to vSphere datastore to deploy EKS Anywhere on (required)
  folder: "folder1"                    # Path to VM folder for EKS Anywhere cluster VMs (required)
  numCPUs: 2                           # Number of CPUs on virtual machines
  memoryMiB: 8192                      # Size of RAM on VMs
  osFamily: "bottlerocket"             # Operating system on VMs
  resourcePool: "resourcePool1"        # vSphere resource pool for EKS Anywhere VMs (required)
  storagePolicyName: "storagePolicy1"  # Storage policy name associated with VMs
  template: "bottlerocket-kube-v1-25"  # VM template for EKS Anywhere (required for RHEL/Ubuntu-based OVAs)
  cloneMode: "fullClone"               # Clone mode to use when cloning VMs from the template
  users:                               # Add users to access VMs via SSH
  - name: "ec2-user"                   # Name of each user set to access VMs
    sshAuthorizedKeys:                 # SSH keys for user needed to access VMs
    - "ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2E..."
  tags:                                # List of tags to attach to cluster VMs, in URN format
  - "urn:vmomi:InventoryServiceTag:5b3e951f-4e1d-4511-95b1-5ba1ea97245c:GLOBAL"
  - "urn:vmomi:InventoryServiceTag:cfee03d0-0189-4f27-8c65-fe75086a86cd:GLOBAL"

The following additional optional configuration can also be included:

Cluster Fields

name (required)

Name of your cluster my-cluster-name in this example

clusterNetwork (required)

Network configuration.

clusterNetwork.cniConfig (required)

CNI plugin configuration. Supports cilium.

clusterNetwork.cniConfig.cilium.policyEnforcementMode (optional)

Optionally specify a policyEnforcementMode of default, always or never.

clusterNetwork.cniConfig.cilium.egressMasqueradeInterfaces (optional)

Optionally specify a network interface name or interface prefix used for masquerading. See EgressMasqueradeInterfaces option.

clusterNetwork.cniConfig.cilium.skipUpgrade (optional)

When true, skip Cilium maintenance during upgrades. Also see Use a custom CNI.

clusterNetwork.cniConfig.cilium.routingMode (optional)

Optionally specify the routing mode. Accepts default and direct. Also see RoutingMode option.

clusterNetwork.cniConfig.cilium.ipv4NativeRoutingCIDR (optional)

Optionally specify the CIDR to use when RoutingMode is set to direct. When specified, Cilium assumes networking for this CIDR is preconfigured and hands traffic destined for that range to the Linux network stack without applying any SNAT.

clusterNetwork.cniConfig.cilium.ipv6NativeRoutingCIDR (optional)

Optionally specify the IPv6 CIDR to use when RoutingMode is set to direct. When specified, Cilium assumes networking for this CIDR is preconfigured and hands traffic destined for that range to the Linux network stack without applying any SNAT.

clusterNetwork.pods.cidrBlocks[0] (required)

The pod subnet specified in CIDR notation. Only 1 pod CIDR block is permitted. The CIDR block should not conflict with the host or service network ranges.

clusterNetwork.services.cidrBlocks[0] (required)

The service subnet specified in CIDR notation. Only 1 service CIDR block is permitted. This CIDR block should not conflict with the host or pod network ranges.

clusterNetwork.dns.resolvConf.path (optional)

File path to a file containing a custom DNS resolver configuration.

controlPlaneConfiguration (required)

Specific control plane configuration for your Kubernetes cluster.

controlPlaneConfiguration.count (required)

Number of control plane nodes

controlPlaneConfiguration.machineGroupRef (required)

Refers to the Kubernetes object with vsphere specific configuration for your nodes. See VSphereMachineConfig Fields below.

controlPlaneConfiguration.endpoint.host (required)

A unique IP you want to use for the control plane VM in your EKS Anywhere cluster. Choose an IP in your network range that does not conflict with other VMs.

NOTE: This IP should be outside the network DHCP range as it is a floating IP that gets assigned to one of the control plane nodes for kube-apiserver loadbalancing. Suggestions on how to ensure this IP does not cause issues during cluster creation process are here

controlPlaneConfiguration.taints (optional)

A list of taints to apply to the control plane nodes of the cluster.

Replaces the default control plane taint. For k8s versions prior to 1.24, it replaces node-role.kubernetes.io/master. For k8s versions 1.24+, it replaces node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane. The default control plane components will tolerate the provided taints.

Modifying the taints associated with the control plane configuration will cause new nodes to be rolled-out, replacing the existing nodes.

NOTE: The taints provided will be used instead of the default control plane taint. Any pods that you run on the control plane nodes must tolerate the taints you provide in the control plane configuration.

controlPlaneConfiguration.labels (optional)

A list of labels to apply to the control plane nodes of the cluster. This is in addition to the labels that EKS Anywhere will add by default.

Modifying the labels associated with the control plane configuration will cause new nodes to be rolled out, replacing the existing nodes.

workerNodeGroupConfigurations (required)

This takes in a list of node groups that you can define for your workers. You may define one or more worker node groups.

workerNodeGroupConfigurations[*].count (optional)

Number of worker nodes. (default: 1) It will be ignored if the cluster autoscaler curated package is installed and autoscalingConfiguration is used to specify the desired range of replicas.

Refers to troubleshooting machine health check remediation not allowed and choose a sufficient number to allow machine health check remediation.

workerNodeGroupConfigurations[*].machineGroupRef (required)

Refers to the Kubernetes object with vsphere specific configuration for your nodes. See VSphereMachineConfig Fields below.

workerNodeGroupConfigurations[*].name (required)

Name of the worker node group (default: md-0)

workerNodeGroupConfigurations[*].autoscalingConfiguration.minCount (optional)

Minimum number of nodes for this node group’s autoscaling configuration.

workerNodeGroupConfigurations[*].autoscalingConfiguration.maxCount (optional)

Maximum number of nodes for this node group’s autoscaling configuration.

workerNodeGroupConfigurations[*].taints (optional)

A list of taints to apply to the nodes in the worker node group.

Modifying the taints associated with a worker node group configuration will cause new nodes to be rolled-out, replacing the existing nodes associated with the configuration.

At least one node group must NOT have NoSchedule or NoExecute taints applied to it.

workerNodeGroupConfigurations[*].labels (optional)

A list of labels to apply to the nodes in the worker node group. This is in addition to the labels that EKS Anywhere will add by default.

Modifying the labels associated with a worker node group configuration will cause new nodes to be rolled out, replacing the existing nodes associated with the configuration.

workerNodeGroupConfigurations[*].kubernetesVersion (optional)

The Kubernetes version you want to use for this worker node group. Supported values : 1.28, 1.27, 1.26, 1.25, 1.24

Must be less than or equal to the cluster kubernetesVersion defined at the root level of the cluster spec. The worker node kubernetesVersion must be no more than two minor Kubernetes versions lower than the cluster control plane’s Kubernetes version. Removing workerNodeGroupConfiguration.kubernetesVersion will trigger an upgrade of the node group to the kubernetesVersion defined at the root level of the cluster spec.

externalEtcdConfiguration.count (optional)

Number of etcd members

externalEtcdConfiguration.machineGroupRef (optional)

Refers to the Kubernetes object with vsphere specific configuration for your etcd members. See VSphereMachineConfig Fields below.

datacenterRef (required)

Refers to the Kubernetes object with vsphere environment specific configuration. See VSphereDatacenterConfig Fields below.

kubernetesVersion (required)

The Kubernetes version you want to use for your cluster. Supported values : 1.28, 1.27, 1.26, 1.25, 1.24

VSphereDatacenterConfig Fields

datacenter (required)

The name of the vSphere datacenter to deploy the EKS Anywhere cluster on. For example SDDC-Datacenter.

network (required)

The path to the VM network to deploy your EKS Anywhere cluster on. For example, /<DATACENTER>/network/<NETWORK_NAME>. Use govc find -type n to see a list of networks.

server (required)

The vCenter server fully qualified domain name or IP address. If the server IP is used, the thumbprint must be set or insecure must be set to true.

insecure (optional)

Set insecure to true if the vCenter server does not have a valid certificate. (Default: false)

thumbprint (required if insecure=false)

The SHA1 thumbprint of the vCenter server certificate which is only required if you have a self signed certificate.

There are several ways to obtain your vCenter thumbprint. The easiest way is if you have govc installed, you can run:

govc about.cert -thumbprint -k

Another way is from the vCenter web UI, go to Administration/Certificate Management and click view details of the machine certificate. The format of this thumbprint does not exactly match the format required though and you will need to add : to separate each hexadecimal value.

Another way to get the thumbprint is use this command with your servers certificate in a file named ca.crt:

openssl x509 -sha1 -fingerprint -in ca.crt -noout

If you specify the wrong thumbprint, an error message will be printed with the expected thumbprint. If no valid certificate is being used, insecure must be set to true.

VSphereMachineConfig Fields

memoryMiB (optional)

Size of RAM on virtual machines (Default: 8192)

numCPUs (optional)

Number of CPUs on virtual machines (Default: 2)

osFamily (optional)

Operating System on virtual machines. Permitted values: bottlerocket, ubuntu, redhat (Default: bottlerocket)

diskGiB (optional)

Size of disk on virtual machines if snapshots aren’t included (Default: 25)

users (optional)

The users you want to configure to access your virtual machines. Only one is permitted at this time

users[0].name (optional)

The name of the user you want to configure to access your virtual machines through ssh.

The default is ec2-user if osFamily=bottlrocket and capv if osFamily=ubuntu

users[0].sshAuthorizedKeys (optional)

The SSH public keys you want to configure to access your virtual machines through ssh (as described below). Only 1 is supported at this time.

users[0].sshAuthorizedKeys[0] (optional)

This is the SSH public key that will be placed in authorized_keys on all EKS Anywhere cluster VMs so you can ssh into them. The user will be what is defined under name above. For example:

ssh -i <private-key-file> <user>@<VM-IP>

The default is generating a key in your $(pwd)/<cluster-name> folder when not specifying a value

template (optional)

The VM template to use for your EKS Anywhere cluster. This template was created when you imported the OVA file into vSphere . This is a required field if you are using Ubuntu-based or RHEL-based OVAs. The template must contain the Cluster.Spec.KubernetesVersion or Cluster.Spec.WorkerNodeGroupConfiguration[].KubernetesVersion version (in case of modular upgrade). For example, if the Kubernetes version is 1.24, template must include 1.24, 1_24, 1-24 or 124.

cloneMode (optional)

cloneMode defines the clone mode to use when creating the cluster VMs from the template. Allowed values are:

fullClone: With full clone, the cloned VM is a separate independent copy of the template. This makes provisioning the VMs a bit slower at the cost of better customization and performance.
linkedClone: With linked clone, the cloned VM shares the parent template’s virtual disk. This makes provisioning the VMs faster while also saving the disk space. Linked clone does not allow customizing the disk size. The template should meet the following properties to use linkedClone:
- The template needs to have a snapshot
- The template’s disk size must match the VSphereMachineConfig’s diskGiB

If this field is not specified, EKS Anywhere tries to determine the clone mode based on the following criteria:

It uses linkedClone if the template has snapshots and the template diskSize matches the machineConfig DiskGiB.
Otherwise, it uses use full clone.

datastore (required)

The path to the vSphere datastore to deploy your EKS Anywhere cluster on, for example /<DATACENTER>/datastore/<DATASTORE_NAME>. Use govc find -type s to get a list of datastores.

folder (required)

The path to a VM folder for your EKS Anywhere cluster VMs. This allows you to organize your VMs. If the folder does not exist, it will be created for you. If the folder is blank, the VMs will go in the root folder. For example /<DATACENTER>/vm/<FOLDER_NAME>/.... Use govc find -type f to get a list of existing folders.

resourcePool (required)

The vSphere Resource pools for your VMs in the EKS Anywhere cluster. Examples of resource pool values include:

If there is no resource pool: /<datacenter>/host/<cluster-name>/Resources
If there is a resource pool: /<datacenter>/host/<cluster-name>/Resources/<resource-pool-name>
The wild card option */Resources also often works.

Use govc find -type p to get a list of available resource pools.

storagePolicyName (optional)

The storage policy name associated with your VMs. Generally this can be left blank. Use govc storage.policy.ls to get a list of available storage policies.

tags (optional)

Optional list of tags to attach to your cluster VMs in the URN format.

Example:

  tags:
  - urn:vmomi:InventoryServiceTag:8e0ce079-0675-47d6-8665-16ada4e6dabd:GLOBAL

hostOSConfig (optional)

Optional host OS configurations for the EKS Anywhere Kubernetes nodes. More information in the Host OS Configuration section.

Optional VSphere Credentials

Use the following environment variables to configure the Cloud Provider with different credentials.

EKSA_VSPHERE_CP_USERNAME

Username for Cloud Provider (Default: $EKSA_VSPHERE_USERNAME).

EKSA_VSPHERE_CP_PASSWORD

Password for Cloud Provider (Default: $EKSA_VSPHERE_PASSWORD).