VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.3.1
By: Date: 26/04/2022 Categories: vExpert,VMware Tags:

VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.3.1

VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid provides Enterprise organizations with a consistent, upstream compatible, regional Kubernetes substrate across SDDC, Public Cloud, and Edge environments that is ready for end-user workloads and ecosystem integrations. TKG builds on trusted upstream and community projects and delivers an engineered and supported Kubernetes platform for end users and partners.

Key features include:

  • The Tanzu Kubernetes Grid installer interface, a graphical installer that walks you through the process of deploying management clusters to vSphere, Amazon EC2, and Microsoft Azure.
  • The Tanzu CLI, providing simple commands that allow you to deploy CNCF conformant Kubernetes clusters to vSphere, Amazon EC2, and Microsoft Azure.
  • Binaries for Kubernetes and all of the components that you need in order to easily stand up an enterprise-class Kubernetes development environment. All binaries are tested and signed by VMware.
  • Extensions for your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid instance, that provide authentication and authorization, logging, networking, monitoring, Harbor registry, and ingress control. 
  • VMware support for your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid deployments.

New Features in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid v1.3.1

  • New Kubernetes versions:
    • 1.20.5
    • 1.19.9
    • 1.18.17
  • Workload clusters no longer use the Tanzu Mission Control Extension Manager.
  • OIDC authentication no longer uses dex .
  • Running tanzu cluster create --dry-run generates a workload cluster template from a configuration file without requiring a management cluster.
  • Bill of Materials (BoM) handling supports custom registry sources for individual images, overriding default registry.
  • Users can upgrade add-ons independently of upgrading Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.
  • (vSphere) Supports routable, no-NAT IP addresses for workload cluster pods, enabling traceability and auditing.
  • (vSphere v6.7) Installer interface includes access and configuration options for NSX-T Advanced Load Balancer.
  • (vSphere) Supports deploying multiple MachineDeployment and KubeadmControlPlane objects without changing overlay file.
  • (Azure) New cluster configuration variables:
    • AZURE_CUSTOM_TAGS applies Azure tags to cluster resources.
    • AZURE_ENABLE_PRIVATE_CLUSTER and AZURE_FRONTEND_PRIVATE_IP run workload clusters as private clusters with internal load balancers.
    • AZURE_ENABLE_NODE_DATA_DISK optionally provisions a data disk for worker nodes.
    • AZURE_CONTROL_PLANE_ and AZURE_NODE_ variables for DATA_DISK_SIZE_GIB and OS_DISK_SIZE_GIB configure data and OS disk sizes for control plane and worker nodes.
    • AZURE_CONTROL_PLANE_OS_DISK_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_TYPE and AZURE_NODE_OS_DISK_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_TYPE specify storage account for control plane and worker node disks.
  • (Azure) Future-compatibility cluster configuration variable AZURE_ENABLE_ACCELERATED_NETWORKING (default value: false) can be used to enable Azure accelerated networking if the TKR supports it.

Supported Kubernetes Versions in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid v1.3.1

Each version of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid adds support for new Kubernetes versions. This version also supports versions of Kubernetes from previous versions of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid VersionProvided Kubernetes VersionsSupported in v1.3.1?
1.3.11.20.5
1.19.9
1.18.17
YES
YES
YES
1.3.01.20.4
1.19.8
1.18.16
1.17.16*
YES
YES
YES
NO
1.2.11.19.3
1.18.10
1.17.13
YES
YES
NO
1.21.19.1
1.18.8
1.17.11
YES
YES
NO
1.1.31.18.6
1.17.9
YES
NO
1.1.21.18.3
1.17.6
YES
NO
1.1.01.18.2YES
1.0.01.17.3NO

Product Snapshot for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid v1.3.1

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid v1.3.1 supports the following infrastructure platforms and operating systems (OSs), as well as cluster creation and management, networking, storage, authentication, backup and migration, and observability components. The component versions listed in parentheses are included in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid v1.3.1. For more information, see Component Versions.

 vSphereAmazon EC2Azure
Infrastructure platformvSphere 6.7U3vSphere 7VMware Cloud on AWS****Azure VMware SolutionNative AWS*Native Azure
Cluster creation and managementCore Cluster API (v0.3.14), Cluster API Provider vSphere (v0.7.7)Core Cluster API (v0.3.14), Cluster API Provider AWS (v0.6.4)Core Cluster API (v0.3.14), Cluster API Provider Azure (v0.4.10)
Kubernetes node OS distributed with TKGPhoton OS 3, Ubuntu 20.04Amazon Linux 2, Ubuntu 20.04Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04
Bring your own imagePhoton OS 3, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04Amazon Linux 2, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04
Container runtimeContainerd (v1.4.4) +Containerd (v1.4.4) +Containerd (v1.4.4) +
Container networkingAntrea (v0.11.3), Calico (v3.11.3)Antrea (v0.11.3), Calico (v3.11.3)Antrea (v0.11.3), Calico (v3.11.3)
Container registryHarbor (v2.1.3)Harbor (v2.1.3)Harbor (v2.1.3)
IngressNSX Advanced Load Balancer Essentials (v20.1.3)**, Contour (v1.12.0)Contour (v1.12.0)Contour (v1.12.0)
StoragevSphere Container Storage Interface (v2.1.0***) and vSphere Cloud Native StorageIn-tree cloud providers onlyIn-tree cloud providers only
AuthenticationOIDC via Pinniped (v0.4.1), LDAP via Pinniped (v0.4.1) and DexOIDC via Pinniped (v0.4.1), LDAP via Pinniped (v0.4.1) and DexOIDC via Pinniped (v0.4.1), LDAP via Pinniped (v0.4.1) and Dex
ObservabilityFluent Bit (v1.6.9), Prometheus (v2.18.1), Grafana (v7.3.5)Fluent Bit (v1.6.9), Prometheus (v2.18.1), Grafana (v7.3.5)Fluent Bit (v1.6.9), Prometheus (v2.18.1), Grafana (v7.3.5)
Backup and migrationVelero (v1.5.4)Velero (v1.5.4)Velero (v1.5.4)

NOTES:

Supported AWS Regions

You can use Tanzu Kubernetes Grid v1.3.1 to deploy clusters to the following AWS regions:

  • ap-northeast-1
  • ap-northeast-2
  • ap-south-1
  • ap-southeast-1
  • ap-southeast-2
  • eu-central-1
  • eu-west-1
  • eu-west-2
  • eu-west-3
  • sa-east-1
  • us-east-1
  • us-east-2
  • us-gov-east-1
  • us-gov-west-1
  • us-west-2

User Documentation

The Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.3 documentation applies to all of the 1.3.x releases. It includes information about the following subjects: