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NetApp Solutions

NVA-1166: VMware Tanzu with NetApp

Contributors kevin-hoke
PDFs

Alan Cowles and Nikhil M Kulkarni, NetApp

This reference document provides deployment validation of different flavors of VMware Tanzu Kubernetes solutions, deployed either as Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG), Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service (TKGS), or Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated (TKGI) in several different data center environments as validated by NetApp. It also describes storage integration with NetApp storage systems and the Trident storage orchestrator for the management of persistent storage and Astra Control Center for the backup and cloning of the stateful applications using that persistent storage. Lastly, the document provides video demonstrations of the solution integrations and validations.

Use cases

The VMware Tanzu with NetApp solution is architected to deliver exceptional value for customers with the following use cases:

  • Easy to deploy and manage VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid offerings deployed on VMware vSphere and integrated with NetApp storage systems.

  • The combined power of enterprise container and virtualized workloads with VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid offerings.

  • Real world configuration and use cases highlighting the features of VMware Tanzu when used with NetApp storage and the NetApp Astra suite of products.

  • Application-consistent protection or migration of containerized workloads deployed on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters whose data resides on NetApp storage systems using Astra Control Center.

Business value

Enterprises are increasingly adopting DevOps practices to create new products, shorten release cycles, and rapidly add new features. Because of their innate agile nature, containers and microservices play a crucial role in supporting DevOps practices. However, practicing DevOps at a production scale in an enterprise environment presents its own challenges and imposes certain requirements on the underlying infrastructure, such as the following:

  • High availability at all layers in the stack

  • Ease of deployment procedures

  • Non-disruptive operations and upgrades

  • API-driven and programmable infrastructure to keep up with microservices agility

  • Multitenancy with performance guarantees

  • Ability to run virtualized and containerized workloads simultaneously

  • Ability to scale infrastructure independently based on workload demands

  • Ability to deploy in a hybrid-cloud model with containers running in both on-premises data centers as well as in the cloud.

VMware Tanzu with NetApp acknowledges these challenges and presents a solution that helps address each concern by deploying VMware Tanzu Kubernetes offerings in the customer's choice of hybrid cloud environment.

Technology overview

The VMware Tanzu with NetApp solution is comprised of the following major components:

VMware Tanzu Kubernetes platforms

VMware Tanzu comes in a variety of flavors that the solutions engineering team at NetApp has validated in our labs. Each Tanzu release successfully integrates with the NetApp storage portfolio, and each can help meet certain infrastructure demands. The following bulleted highlights describe the features and offerings of each version of Tanzu described in this document.

VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG)

  • Standard upstream Kubernetes environment deployed in a VMware vSphere environment.

  • Formerly known as Essential PKS (from Heptio acquisition, Feb 2019).

  • TKG is deployed with a separate management cluster instance for support on vSphere 6.7U3 onward.

  • TKG deployments can be deployed in the cloud as well with AWS or Azure.

  • Allows for use of Windows or Linux worker nodes (Ubuntu/Photon).

  • NSX-T, HA Proxy, AVI networking, or load balancers can be used for control plane.

  • TKG supports MetalLB for the application/data plane.

  • Can use vSphere CSI as well as third party CSIs like NetApp Trident.

VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service (TKGS)

  • Standard upstream Kubernetes environment deployed in a VMware vSphere environment.

  • Formerly known as Essential PKS (from Heptio acquisition, Feb 2019).

  • TKGS deployed with supervisor cluster and workload clusters only on vSphere 7.0U1 onward.

  • Allows for use of Windows or Linux worker nodes (Ubuntu/Photon).

  • NSX-T, HA Proxy, AVI networking, or load balancers can be used for control plane.

  • TKGS supports MetalLB for application/data plane.

  • Can use vSphere CSI as well as third party CSIs like NetApp Trident.

  • Provides support for vSphere Pods with Tanzu, allowing pods to run directly on enabled ESXi hosts in the environment.

VMWare Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated (TKGI)

  • Formerly known as Enterprise PKS (from Heptio acquisition, Feb 2019).

  • Can use NSX-T, HA Proxy, or Avi. You can also provide your own load balancer.

  • Supported from vSphere 6.7U3 onward, as well as AWS, Azure, and GCP.

  • Setup via wizard to allow for ease of deployment.

  • Runs Tanzu in controlled immutable VMs managed by BOSH.

  • Can make use vSphere CSI as well as third party CSIs like NetApp Trident (some conditions apply).

vSphere with Tanzu (vSphere Pods)

  • vSphere-native pods run in a thin, photon-based layer with prescribed virtual hardware for complete isolation.

  • Requires NSX-T, but that allows for additional feature support such as a Harbor image registry.

  • Deployed and managed in vSphere 7.0U1 onward using a virtual Supervisor cluster like TKGS. Runs pods directly on ESXi nodes.

  • Fully vSphere integrated, highest visibility and control by vSphere administration.

  • Isolated CRX-based pods for the highest level of security.

  • Only supports vSphere CSI for persistent storage. No third-party storage orchestrators supported.

NetApp storage systems

NetApp has several storage systems perfect for enterprise data centers and hybrid cloud deployments. The NetApp portfolio includes NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Element, and NetApp e-Series storage systems, all of which can provide persistent storage for containerized applications.

For more information, visit the NetApp website here.

NetApp storage integrations

NetApp Astra Control Center offers a rich set of storage and application-aware data management services for stateful Kubernetes workloads, deployed in an on-prem environment, and powered by trusted NetApp data protection technology.

For more information, visit the NetApp Astra website here.

Trident is an open-source, fully-supported storage orchestrator for containers and Kubernetes distributions, including VMware Tanzu.

For more information, visit the Trident website here.

Current support matrix for validated releases

Technology

Purpose

Software version

NetApp ONTAP

Storage

9.9.1

NetApp Astra Control Center

Application Aware Data Management

22.04

NetApp Trident

Storage Orchestration

22.04.0

VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid

Container orchestration

1.4+

VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service

Container orchestration

0.0.15 [vSphere Namespaces]

1.22.6 [Supervisor Cluster Kubernetes]

VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated

Container orchestration

1.13.3

VMware vSphere

Data center virtualization

7.0U3

VMware NSX-T Data Center

Networking and Security

3.1.3

VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer

Load Balancer

20.1.3