vSphere requirements

GKE on-prem runs in your data center in a vSphere 6.5 or 6.7 Update 3 environment. This topic describes requirements for your vSphere environment, including storage, CPU, RAM and virtual networks.

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Hardware requirements

GKE on-prem runs on a set of physical hosts that run the VMware ESXi hypervisor. To learn about the hardware requirements for ESXi, see ESXi Hardware Requirements.

vSphere requirements

vSphere is VMware's server virtualization software. GKE on-prem uses VMware's vCenter Server to manage your clusters. To learn about installing vSphere and vCenter Server, refer to Overview of the vSphere Installation and Setup Process in the VMware documentation.

License edition and version requirements

GKE on-prem requires VMware vSphere 6.5 or 6.7 Update 3. You need the following VMware licenses:

• A vSphere Enterprise Plus or vSphere Standard license. The Enterprise Plus license is recommended, because it allows you to enable the VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS). With DRS enabled, VMware automatically distributes your GKE on-prem cluster nodes across physical hosts in your data center.

  Starting with version 1.1.0-gke.6, DRS is enabled by default. So to use a Standard license, you must explicitly disable DRS.

  Along with this license, you must purchase a support subscription for at least one year.

• A vCenter Server Standard license.

  Along with this license, you must purchase a support subscription for at least one year. See VMware vCenter Server Editions on the VMware pricing page.

vCenter user account privileges

The vSphere user account you use to install GKE on-prem must have sufficient privileges. vCenter's Administrator role provides its users complete access to all vCenter objects.

Alternatively, you can choose to create a custom role with the minimum set of privileges required, detailed in the table below.

<-- Click the disclosure arrow to reveal the table of required vSphere privileges

Entity	Privilege
Cloud Native Storage	Searchable
Datastore	Allocate space Browse datastore Low level file operations Remove file Update virtual machine files Update virtual machine metadata
Folder	Create folder Delete folder Move folder Rename folder
Host Inventory	Edit cluster
vSphere Tagging	Create vSphere Tag
Root vCenter Server	Validate session
Network	Assign network
Resource	Apply recommendation Assign virtual machine to resource pool Migrate powered off virtual machine Migrate powered on virtual machine Query vMotion
Storage views	View
System	Anonymous Read View
Tasks	Create task Update task
vApp	Import vApp application configuration vApp instance configuration
Virtual machines	Configuration Add existing disk Add new disk Add or remove device Advanced Change CPU count Change resource Configure managedBy Disk change tracking Disk lease Display connection settings Extend virtual disk Host USB device Memory Modify device settings Query Fault Tolerance compatibility Query unowned files Raw device Reload from path Remove disk Rename Reset guest information Set annotation Settings Swapfile placement Toggle fork parent Upgrade virtual machine compatibility Guest operations Guest operation alias modification Guest operation alias query Guest operation modifications Guest operation program execution Guest operation queries Interaction Answer question Backup operation on virtual machine Configure CD media Configure floppy media Console interaction Create screenshot Defragment all disks Device connection Drag and drop Guest operating system management by VIX API Inject USB HID scan codes Pause or Unpause Perform wipe or shrink operations Power off Power on Record session on virtual machine Replay session on virtual machine Reset Resume Fault Tolerance Suspend Suspend Fault Tolerance Test failover Test restart Secondary VM Turn off Fault Tolerance Turn on Fault Tolerance VMware Tools install Inventory Create from existing Create new Move Register Remove Unregister Provisioning Allow disk access Allow file access Allow read-only disk access Allow virtual machine download Allow virtual machine files upload Clone template Clone virtual machine Create template from virtual machine Customize Deploy template Mark as template Mark as virtual machine Modify customization specification Promote disks Read customization specifications Service configuration Allow notifications Allow polling of global event notifications Manage service configurations Modify service configuration Query service configurations Read service configuration Snapshot management Create snapshot Remove snapshot Rename snapshot Revert to snapshot vSphere Replication Configure replication Manage replication Monitor replication

To learn how to manage privilegess, refer to Managing Permissions for vCenter Components.

Resource requirements for admin workstation, admin cluster, and user clusters

The physical ESXi hosts in your data center must provide enough storage, CPU, and RAM resources to fulfill the needs of the virtual machines that you will create during your initial installation of GKE on-prem. Your data center must also provide enough virtual disk space to fulfill PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) created by Prometheus and Google Cloud Observability.

The initial installation of GKE on-prem requires these resources:

• 36 vCPU
• 98241 MB RAM
• 2280 GB virtual disk space

For more detailed information on resource requirements, see CPU, RAM, and Storage requirements.

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