Deploy an MKE 4k child cluster

The instructions herein assume that you are familiar with the k0rdent platform and the basics of how to deploy child clusters.

1. Prepare the child cluster configuration. Set the required MKE version, cloud provider, region, and the name of the installed k0rdent Credential.

   Example: Basic AWS MKE 4k child cluster:

   apiVersion: mke.mirantis.com/v1alpha1
   kind: MkeChildConfig
   metadata:
     name: my-mke-child
     namespace: k0rdent
   spec:
     version: v4.1.1
     infrastructure:
       provider: aws
       credential: aws-cluster-identity-cred
       region: eu-west-3

2. Enable the k0rdent CAPI providers for the specified cloud provider.

   To check whether providers are already enabled or to get the list of required providers, make an attempt to apply the MkeChildConfig object you created:

   kubectl apply -f path/to/mkechild.yaml

   If the providers are missing, the configuration will be rejected with the list of provider names. For example:

   The MkeChildConfig "my-mke-child" is invalid: spec.infrastructure.provider: Invalid value: "aws": one or more required k0rdent providers are not deployed yet: [cluster-api-provider-aws cluster-api-provider-k0sproject-k0smotron]

   To enable k0rdent providers you must add the providers from the error you received to the mke4.yaml configuration file of the mothership cluster. Be aware that the providers require a few minutes to start.

   spec:
     k0rdent:
       enabled: true
       providers:
         - name: cluster-api-provider-aws
         - name: cluster-api-provider-k0sproject-k0smotron

3. Apply the edited mke4.yaml configuration file.

   mkectl apply -f mke4.yaml

4. Prepare and install the k0rdent Credential object for the cloud provider that you will use with the MkeChildConfig object. Refer to the offiical k0rdent documentation, The process

5. Apply the child cluster:

   kubectl apply -f path/to/mkechild.yaml

6. Check the created object:

   kubectl -n k0rdent get mkechildconfig

   Example output:

   NAME                   AGE
   my-mke-child           1m

   The ClusterDeployment for the child cluster will be created, with the same name as MkeChildConfig. This can require some time the first time you attempt to create ClusterDeployment, as the required cluster and service templates need to be downloaded.

7. Confirm that ClusterDeployment for the child cluster is ready.

   kubectl -n k0rdent get clusterdeployment my-mke-child

   Example output:

   NAME                       READY   SERVICES   TEMPLATE                MESSAGES          AGE
   my-mke-child               True    10/10      mke4k-aws-1-1-2         Object is ready   1m

8. View the status of the applied MkeChildConfig to obtain the name of the secret that contains the kubeconfig:

   kubectl -n k0rdent get mkechildconfig my-mke-child -o yaml

   Example status, with secret:

   status:
     clusterID: kube-system:20d005f3-d8c5-4c88-a8d9-7e97e6a1a8ca
     kubeConfigSecret: my-mke-child-kubeconfig
     licenseStatus:
       licenseType: unlicensed

9. Get the kubeconfig and use it to connect to the child cluster:

   kubectl -n k0rdent get secret my-mke-child-kubeconfig -o jsonpath='{ .data.value }' | base64 -d > kubeconfig.yaml

10. Use the obtained kubeconfig to connect to the cluster:

KUBECONFIG=kubeconfig.yaml kubectl get no

Example output:

NAME                                        STATUS   ROLES           AGE    VERSION
ip-172-31-0-32.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    control-plane   3h5m   v1.32.6+k0s
ip-172-31-0-49.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    <none>          3h5m   v1.32.6+k0s
...