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Create a Kubernetes Cluster using Tanzu Mission Control (TMC)

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In this section, we will create a Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster (TKC) on vSphere using Tanzu Mission Control (TMC)

Launch Tanzu Mission Control

On your VMware Tanzu Desktop, launch the 'Tanzu Mission Control' Chrome Shortcut.

Login to VMware Cloud Services

You will be redirected to the VMware Cloud Services login page. Use your email address associated with your VMware ID account, followed by your VMware ID's password. You can look at the Credentials section below to find your VMware ID.

Launch VMware Tanzu Mission Control

Once logged in, you should see a My Services page with 'VMware Tanzu Mission Control' listed as a product in it. Launch the product.

Choose Organization

If you don't see it, then click on your username on the Cloud Services page -> Change Organization and make sure you have selected 'Pathfinder Services' as your Organization. After that, you should see the TMC product.

Create Cluster

Now that you're logged in, you should see the 'Clusters' page as your default landing page. We will create a Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster next. Click on 'Add Cluster -> Create Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Cluster'

Select Management Cluster

On the next screen that comes up, click the radio button next to pathfinder-tanzu and 'Continue to Create Cluster'

Select Provisioner

Choose the provisioner as pathfinder-tanzu from the dropdown and click 'NEXT'

Name your Cluster

Let's name your cluster. We will do three things on this step before clicking NEXT.

  1. For your Cluster name, use the format <your-username>-tanzu.
  2. [IMPORTANT] Next we must click on Cluster group, by default you will see "pathfinder-tanzu-demo". Click on the 'X' to delete this entry value. Now click the drop down to select the Cluster Group name that should be auto-populated with the name formatted as <your-username>###.
  3. For the Cluster class, select the default available entry tanzukubernetescluster.
  4. Click 'NEXT'.


NOTE: Tanzu will not let you finish creating your cluster in the following steps if you leave the Cluster Group name as the default value of "pathfinder-tanzu-demo"

Ignore Proxy Configuration

Leave the optional Proxy Configuration as it is (OFF) and click NEXT.

Configure Network Settings

Under the Configure network setting section, select the following objects:

  1. Allowed storage classes as 'vsphere-with-tanzu-storage-policy'
  2. Default storage class as 'vsphere-with-tanzu-storage-policy'
  3. Click on 'NEXT'

[IMPORTANT] NOTE: You MUST select 'vsphere-with-tanzu-storage-policy' as your persistent volume storage even though it's marked as optional.

Configure Control plane

On the Control plane page, use the default configuration i.e. Single Node with Instance Type as 'best-effort-default-small (2vCPU, 4GB RAM)' and click 'NEXT'.

 

NOTE: Since this is a shared demo environment, we  request all users to follow the guidelines for selecting Instance Type to optimize resource usage.

Configure default volumes

We will leave this configuration unchanged and click 'NEXT'.

Configure node pool

On the Configure node pool page, set the following configuration values:

  1. Worker Count = 1
  2. Instance Type = best-effort-default-small (2vCPU, 4GB RAM)
  3. Storage class = vsphere-with-tanzu-storage-policy
  4. Click 'NEXT'

 

NOTE: Since this is a shared demo environment, we  request all users to follow the guidelines for selecting Instance Type to optimize resource usage. Please do not create more than 1 worker node.

Additional cluster configuration (optional)

On this page, we will leave everything as it is (optional configuration) and proceed to 'CREATE CLUSTER'. Here's what your configuration summary should look like.

Cluster Creation in Progress

You will now see a screen with message 'Your cluster is being created'.  Please allow 7-10 minutes for the Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster health to show as 'Healthy' and Cluster status as 'Ready'


NOTE: You might see a temporary message of 'This cluster status is unknown'. This message will go if you refresh the page. Continue to refresh the screen.

Access API Token

[IMPORTANT] While we wait for the cluster to get created, let us generate and save the API Token which will be used in upcoming steps to access our K8s cluster. To do this, click on your username -> My Account (under User Settings)  to launch the 'My Account' page.

Generate API Token

On this page, navigate to 'API Tokens' tab and click on 'GENERATE TOKEN' to generate a new token. Give it a name (for e.g. <your-username>-tanzu) and select the 'All Roles' checkbox. Click on 'GENERATE'

Copy API Token

Your token will be generated. Next, copy the token by clicking on the COPY button or highlighting it and using Ctrl + C (Windows) or Command (⌘) + C (macOS).

Next, open Notepad++ from your desktop and paste the API Token. It is recommended to save this file under your 'My Documents' folder or store the Token on your local machine if you want to try this experience again and save some effort.


[IMPORTANT] Do not exit this screen until you verify that you've saved your API Token. Also, please DO NOT save your token on the Demo Credentials text file.

Navigate Back to Tanzu Mission Control Console

To close the API Token popup screen click on the 'CONTINUE' or 'X' button to exit this screen. 

To navigate back to the TMC Console screen, click on the App Launcher at the top right of the screen and from the drop down click on "VMware Tanzu Mission Control"