How to install TKG 1.2.0 on vSphere: Part 2: Prepare the vSphere environment

In the previous blog post, we prepared the bootstrap virtual machine from which we will be initiating our TKG installation. In this blog post, we will discuss what need to be configured in the vSphere environment.

Requirements:

• vSphere cluster with at least two hosts
• It is recommended to enable vSphere DRS in the cluster
• Optionally, a resource pool in which to deploy the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Instance
• A VM folder in which to collect the TKG VMs
• A shared datastore with sufficient capacity for the TKG control plane and worker node VM
• DHCP enabled network to which the TKG vms will connect.
• The node VMs must be able to connect to vSphere
• Traffic to vCenter Server is allowed from the network on which clusters will run
• ESXi hosts are configured with NTP
• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.2.0 OVAs for Kubernetes downloaded from myvmware
• Create a tkg-user with necessary permissions needed if you choose not to use the administrator@vsphere.local account

Create OS Image Template

Before starting with management cluster deployment, or TKG clusters to vSphere, you must provide a base OS image template to vSphere. TKG creates the management cluster and Tanzu Kubernetes cluster node VMs from this template. We have already downloaded the VMware TKG 1.2.0 image OVAs from myvmware download page.

In this step, we will import the ova and after importing , we will convert the resulting VM into a VM template.

1. In the vSphere Client, right-click an object in the vCenter Server inventory and select Deploy OVF template.

2. Select Local file, click the button to upload files, and navigate to a downloaded OVA file on your local machine.

3. Leave the vm name as default and click on next

4. Select a compute resource and click on next

4. Review the details and click next

5. Accept the license agreement and click next

6. Select a datastore for the OVF deployment and click on next

7. Select the network port group for the TKG node vms and click next

8. Review the details and click on finish to start the OVF deployment

9. When the OVA deployment finishes, right-click the VM and select Template > Convert to Template

10. We can now see the template in the VMs and Templates section. If you are creating a tkg-user, make sure to give permission to this template.

Now our vSphere environment is also ready for the TKG 1.2.0 deployment. In this next part of this blog post series, we will see how to deploy a management cluster.

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