| sidebar_label | title | description | icon | hide_table_of_contents | sidebar_position | tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Deploy a Cluster |
Deploy a Cluster |
Learn to deploy a Palette host cluster. |
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30 |
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This tutorial will teach you how to deploy a host cluster with Palette using VMware vSphere and a Private Cloud Gateway (PCG). You will learn about Cluster Mode and Cluster Profiles and how these components enable you to deploy customized applications to Kubernetes with minimal effort.
As you navigate the tutorial, refer to this diagram to help you understand how Palette uses a cluster profile as a blueprint for the host cluster you deploy. Palette clusters have the same node pools you may be familiar with: control plane nodes and worker nodes where you will deploy applications. The result is a host cluster that Palette manages.
To complete this tutorial, you will need the following.
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Follow the steps described in the Set up Palette with VMware guide to authenticate Palette for use with your VMware user account.
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A successfully deployed PCG. Follow the steps described in the Deploy a PCG with Palette CLI tutorial to deploy a PCG using the Palette CLI.
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A Palette cluster profile. Follow the Create a Cluster Profile tutorial to create the required VMware cluster profile.
The following steps will guide you through deploying the cluster infrastructure.
Navigate to the left Main Menu and select Clusters. Click on Create Cluster.
Palette will prompt you to select the type of cluster. Select VMware and click the Start VMware Configuration button. Use the following steps to create a host cluster in VMware.
In the Basic Information section, insert the general information about the cluster, such as the Cluster name, Description and Tags.
Select the VMware cloud account that was registered with Palette during the PCG creation. The cloud account has the same
name as the PCG. In this tutorial, the cloud account is called gateway-tutorial.
Click on Next.
Click on Add Cluster Profile. A list is displayed of available profiles you can choose to deploy to VMware. Select the cluster profile you created in the Create a Cluster Profile tutorial, named vmware-profile, and click on Confirm.
The Cluster Profile section displays all the layers in the cluster profile.
Each layer has a pack manifest file with the deploy configurations. The pack manifest file is in a YAML format. Each pack contains a set of default values. You can change the manifest values if needed. Click on Next to proceed.
The Cluster Config section allows you to provide specific information about your VMware vSphere environment. First, select the Datacenter and Deployment Folder where the cluster nodes will be launched. Next, select the Image Template Folder to which the Spectro templates are imported, and choose DHCP as the Network Type. Finally, provide the SSH key for accessing the cluster nodes. Proceed by clicking Next to advance to the Nodes Configuration section.
The Nodes Config section allows you to configure the nodes that make up the control plane and worker nodes of the host cluster.
Provide the details for the nodes of the control plane and worker pools.
| Field | Control Plane Pool | Worker Pool |
|---|---|---|
| Node pool name | control-plane-pool | worker-pool |
| Number of nodes in the pool | 1 |
1 |
| Allow worker capability | No | Not applicable |
| Enable Autoscaler | Not applicable | No |
| Rolling update | Not applicable | Expand First |
Keep the Cloud Configuration settings the same for both pools, with CPU set to 4 cores, memory allocated at 8 GB, and disk space at 60 GB. Next, populate the Compute cluster, Resource Pool, Datastore, and Network fields according to your VMware vSphere environment. Click Next to proceed.
Select Next to proceed with the cluster deployment.
The Cluster Settings section offers advanced options for OS patching, scheduled scans, scheduled backups, and cluster role binding. For this tutorial, you can use the default settings. Click on Validate to continue.
The Review section allows you to review the cluster configuration before deploying the cluster. Review all the settings and click on Finish Configuration to deploy the cluster.
Navigate to the left Main Menu and select Clusters.
The cluster deployment process can take 15 to 30 min. The deployment time varies depending on the cloud provider, cluster profile, cluster size, and the node pool configurations provided. You can learn more about the deployment progress by reviewing the event log. Click on the Events tab to view the log.
Navigate to the left Main Menu and select Clusters.
Select your cluster to view its Overview tab. When the application is deployed and ready for network traffic, indicated in the Services field, Palette exposes the service URL. Click on the URL for port :8080 to access the Hello Universe application.
:::warning
It can take up to three minutes for DNS to properly resolve the public load balancer URL. We recommend waiting a few moments before clicking on the service URL to prevent the browser from caching an unresolved DNS request.
:::
Welcome to Hello Universe, a demo application to help you learn more about Palette and its features. Feel free to click on the logo to increase the counter and for a fun image change.
You have deployed your first application to a cluster managed by Palette. Your first application is a three-tier application with a frontend, API server, and Postgres database.
Use the following steps to remove all the resources you created for the tutorial.
To remove the cluster, navigate to the left Main Menu and click on Clusters. Select the cluster you want to delete to access its details page.
Click on Settings to expand the menu, and select Delete Cluster.
You will be prompted to type in the cluster name to confirm the delete action. Type in the cluster name to proceed with the delete step. The deletion process takes several minutes to complete.
:::info
If a cluster remains in the delete phase for over 15 minutes, it becomes eligible for a force delete. To trigger a force delete, navigate to the cluster’s details page, click on Settings, then select Force Delete Cluster. Palette automatically removes clusters stuck in the cluster deletion phase for over 24 hours.
:::
Once the cluster is deleted, navigate to the left Main Menu and click on Profiles. Find the cluster profile you created and click on the three-dot Menu to display the Delete button. Select Delete and confirm the selection to remove the cluster profile.
In this tutorial, you used the cluster profile you created in the previous Create a Cluster Profile tutorial to deploy a host cluster onto VMware vSphere. After the cluster deployed, you verified the Hello Universe application was successfully deployed.
We recommend that you continue to the Deploy Cluster Profile Updates tutorial to learn how to update your host cluster.