This document shows how to manually import the OVAs needed for your cluster nodes to vSphere.
Typically there is no need to manually import OVAs, because gkectl
imports the
OVAs automatically.
The typical procedure is as follows:
Create an admin workstation.
On your admin workstation, create a cluster configuration file.
On your admin workstation, run
gkectl prepare
. This command fetches the OVAs from a Cloud Storage bucket, imports the OVAs to vSphere, and marks the OVAs as templates.On your admin workstation, run
gkectl create
to create a cluster.
Why manually import?
If your security policies do not allow your admin workstation to have access to
your ESXI hosts, then gkectl
cannot automatically import OVAs to vSphere.
Also, if you want to use Windows Server for some of your user clusster nodes, you must manually import an OVA. For more information, see Windows Server.
Determine which OVAs you need
Before you create an admin cluster, you fill in an admin cluster configuration
file. In the configuration file, you set the
osImageType
field to specify the type of OS image you want to use for your admin cluster
nodes. The options are:
- Ubuntu with containerd
- Ubuntu
- Container Optimized OS (COS)
Before you create a user cluster, you fill in a user cluster configuration file. In the configuration file, you specify one or more node pools. For each node pool, you specify the type of OS image you want to use for the nodes in the pool.
The options are:
- Ubuntu with containerd
- Ubuntu
- Container Optimized OS (COS)
- Windows Server
For each OS that you plan to use in an admin cluster or user cluster, you need to download the OS image from Cloud Storage and import it to vSphere.
Ubuntu or Ubuntu with containerd
Download the Ubuntu OVA from Cloud Storage:
gcloud storage cp gs://gke-on-prem-release/node-os-ubuntu/gke-on-prem-ubuntu-1.10.0-gke.194.ova ./
Import the OVA to vSphere and mark it as a template:
govc import.ova -options - gke-on-prem-release/node-os-ubuntu/gke-on-prem-ubuntu-1.10.0-gke.194.ova <<EOF { "DiskProvisioning": "thin", "MarkAsTemplate": true } EOF
Container Optimized OS
Download the COS OVA from Cloud Storage:
gcloud storage cp gs://gke-on-prem-release/node-os-cos/gke-on-prem-cos-1.10.0-gke.194.ova ./
Import the OVA to vSphere and mark it as a template:
govc import.ova -options - gke-on-prem-release/node-os-cos/gke-on-prem-cos-1.10.0-gke.194.ova <<EOF { "DiskProvisioning": "thin", "MarkAsTemplate": true } EOF
Windows Server
Follow these steps: Create a VMware vSphere template for Windows Server 2019.
For more information, see Windows Server node pools.