Kubernetes in the Geetoo cloud quickly and easily
K8s and VMware technology
As time went on, VMware Tanz options became available and some customers used TKGi and TKGs clusters for internal operation as well. As far as internal use is concerned, we are gradually moving to TKG2. The fact that we are serious about Kubernetes clusters on VMware technologies is proven by this year’s VMware Master Service Competency in Cloud Native.
Customers are increasingly asking us to create Kubernetes clusters for a variety of uses, whether for new application development or production operations. Increasingly, there is a request for a simple and fast way to create a K8s cluster in the Geetoo public cloud environment. No management requirements, with payment only for the resources currently used.
After thorough testing, we decided to integrate Container Service Extension (CSE) into the VMware Cloud Director environment. It is an extension that allows customers to easily create a functional cluster in a few minutes in the GUI, optionally with basic functions for monitoring the status of worker nodes and their automatic recovery in case of unavailability.
This extension also allows customers to easily upgrade their clusters to higher versions, and the upgrade process itself is very simple. Gradually, new cluster components are created automatically and replace the old ones. With properly deployed applications in the cluster, the entire upgrade process is failover-free.
Flexibility and cost savings
Since clusters can be easily created by the customer, resized as needed, or deleted when they are not needed, it can be advantageous to use PAYG accounting. In this case, only the actual resources used are invoiced.
For example, by shutting down the cluster when it is not needed, or shrinking it when there is no need to have excess unused memory and processing power, the customer can optimize the cost of operation quite well. Technical support and support available 24×7 in Czech can also be an advantage.
An equally interesting feature of TKG clusters running CSE in the Geetoo public cloud is the support for popular automation tools for creating and managing environments, and last but not least the feature-rich Cloud Director API ( https://developer.vmware.com/apis/1601/ ).
A relatively popular infrastructure management tool is Terraform, which can be used to automatically create, modify or delete a cluster and for which the appropriate provider(VMware Cloud Director Terraform Provider ) is available. TKG clusters also support Kubernetes Cluster-API, which also brings additional cluster management capabilities. With these tools, it is possible to automatically create and dynamically modify the environment according to the customer’s current needs.
Demo and launch
The CSE is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2024. In the meantime, you can look forward to the next article, in which we will dive into related topics such as scaling, backup, and automation. However, you can already try the extension now. Please direct demo requests to: sales@geetoo.com
