Skip to main content

Managed Kubernetes: Quick Start

You can work with a Managed Kubernetes cluster in the control panel, via the Managed Kubernetes API, or Terraform.

  1. Create a cluster on a cloud server in the control panel.
  2. Connect to the cluster.
  3. Install Envoy Gateway.

1. Create a cluster on a cloud server in the control panel

  1. Configure a cluster on a cloud server.
  2. Configure a node group.
  3. Configure automation.

1. Configure a cluster on a cloud server

  1. In the Control panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Managed Kubernetes.

  2. In the Clusters section, click Create cluster.

  3. Enter a cluster name. The name will be displayed in cluster object names: node groups, nodes, load balancers, networks, and disks. For example, if the cluster name is kelsie, the node group name will be kelsie-node-gdc8q, and the boot disk name will be kelsie-node-gdc8q-volume.

  4. Select a location where the master nodes will be located. You cannot change the location after creating the cluster.

  5. Select a Kubernetes version. You can upgrade the Kubernetes version after creating the cluster.

  6. Optional: select a network plugin (CNI). Calico is used in the cluster by default. You cannot change the CNI after the cluster is created.

    In the Cilium network plugin, the following are enabled by default:

    • the envoy daemonset setting is enabled – for more details, see the Envoy section in the Cilium documentation;
    • the hubble-relay setting is disabled – for more details, see the Hubble Relay subsection of the Hubble internals article in the Cilium documentation.

    If you want to change these settings, create a cluster using the Managed Kubernetes API. Note that to use the hubble-relay setting, a node must have at least 4 GB of RAM.

  7. Select a cluster type. You cannot change the cluster type after creating the cluster.

  8. Optional: to make the cluster accessible via a private network and inaccessible from the Internet, check the Private kube API checkbox. By default, the cluster is created in a public network and is automatically assigned a public kube API IP address, which is accessible from the Internet. You cannot change the kube API access type after creating the cluster.

  9. Click Continue.

2. Configure a node group

  1. In the Server type field, select Cloud server.

  2. Select a location where all worker nodes in the group will be located. You cannot change the location after creating the cluster.

  3. Configure the worker node group settings:

    3.1. Click Select configuration and choose the worker node configuration in the group:

    • custom — you can specify any resource ratio;
    • or fixed with GPU — prebuilt node configurations with GPUs and a specified resource ratio.

    If standard configurations do not fit your needs, you can add a node group with a fixed cloud server configuration via the Managed Kubernetes API or Terraform.

    3.2. If you have selected a custom configuration, specify the number of vCPUs, RAM, and select a boot disk. Specify the disk size.

    3.3. If you have selected a fixed configuration with GPU, select a prebuilt node configuration with GPUs, a boot disk, and specify the disk size. To install GPU drivers manually, turn off the GPU drivers switch. By default, the GPU drivers switch is turned on, and the cluster uses preinstalled drivers.

    3.4. Click Save.

  4. Configure the number of worker nodes. For fault-tolerant operation of system components and the Cilium network plugin, we recommend having at least two worker nodes in the cluster, which can be in different groups:

    4.1. To have a fixed number of nodes in a node group, open the Fixed tab and specify the number of nodes.

    4.2. To use autoscaling with Cluster Autoscaler in a node group, open the With autoscaling tab and set the minimum and maximum number of nodes in the group; the number of nodes will only change within this range. Autoscaling is not available for GPU node groups without drivers.

  5. Optional: to make a node group preemptible, check the Preemptible node group checkbox. Preemptible node groups are available in the St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Novosibirsk regions.

  6. Optional: add node group labels:

    6.1. In the Tags field, click Add.

    6.2. Enter the label key.

    6.3. Enter the label value.

    6.4. Click Add.

  7. Optional: add node group taints:

    7.1. In the Taints field, click Add.

    7.2. Enter the taint key.

    7.3. Enter the taint value.

    7.4. Select the effect:

    • NoSchedule — new pods will not be scheduled, and existing ones will continue to run;
    • PreferNoSchedule — new pods will be scheduled if there is no other capacity in the cluster;
    • NoExecute — running pods without corresponding tolerations will be evicted.

    7.5. Click Add.

  8. Optional: add a script with custom parameters to configure the Managed Kubernetes cluster:

    8.1. In the User data field, click Add.

    8.2. Paste the script. The maximum size of a script containing non-Base64-encoded data is 47 KB. You can find script examples and supported formats in the User data guide.

  9. Optional: to add an additional worker node group to the cluster, click Add node group. You can create a cluster with worker node groups in different segments of the same pool. This will improve fault tolerance and help maintain application availability if a failure occurs in one of the segments.

  10. In the Cloud network block, configure a private subnet without internet access to group all cluster nodes.

    10.1. To create a private subnet, in the Subnet for nodes field, select New private subnet.

    A private network <cluster_name>-network, a private subnet, and a <cluster_name>-router router will be created automatically, where <cluster_name> is the cluster name. The CIDR is assigned automatically.

    The default security group will be assigned to node ports. Do not change its rules and do not assign a different security group. This will help avoid cluster operation failures.

    10.2. If a private subnet has already been created, in the Subnet for nodes field, select an existing subnet. The subnet must meet the following conditions:

    • belongs to the network of the project in which you are creating the cluster. You can check which project a network belongs to in the Control panel: on the top menu, click Products → Managed Kubernetes → Network → Private networks tab → network card. If the network belongs to a different project, the network card will have a Cross-project tag and information about the ID of the project in which it was created;
    • connected to a cloud router;
    • does not overlap with the 10.10.0.0/16, 10.96.0.0/12, 10.250.0.0/16, and 10.251.0.0/24 ranges. These ranges are used for Managed Kubernetes internal addressing;
    • DHCP is disabled;
    • only the default security group is assigned to the ports. Do not change its rules and do not assign a different security group. This will help avoid cluster operation failures. You can view security groups on ports.

  11. Click Continue.

3. Configure automation

  1. Optional: to enable node auto-recovery, check the Node auto-recovery checkbox. If the cluster has only one worker node, auto-recovery is not available.

  2. Optional: to enable automatic patch version updates, check the Automatic patch version updates checkbox. If the cluster has only one master node (a base cluster) or only one worker node, automatic Kubernetes patch version updates are not available.

  3. Select the maintenance start time for the cluster — the time when automatic cluster maintenance actions will begin.

  4. Optional: to enable audit logs, check the Audit logs checkbox. After creating the cluster, configure integration with a log storage and analysis system.

  5. Check the price of the cluster on a cloud server.

  6. Click Create. Creating a cluster takes a few minutes; during this time, the cluster will have the CREATING status. The cluster will be ready to use when it enters the ACTIVE status.

2. Connect to the cluster

To start working with the cluster, you need to configure kubectl.

For your information

We recommend performing all actions with cluster nodes, load balancers, and volumes only via kubectl.

After updating the certificates for system components, you must reconnect to the cluster.

  1. Install the Kubernetes console client, kubectl, according to the official instructions.

  2. In the Control panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Managed Kubernetes.

  3. In the Clusters section, open the cluster page → Settings tab.

  4. If you are using a private kube API, check access to it. The IP address is specified in the Kube API **** field.

  5. Click Download kubeconfig. Downloading the kubeconfig file is not available if the cluster status is PENDING_CREATE, PENDING_ROTATE_CERTS, PENDING_DELETE, or ERROR.

  6. Export the path to the kubeconfig file to the KUBECONFIG environment variable:

    export KUBECONFIG=<path>

    Specify <path> — the path to the cluster_name.yaml kubeconfig file.

  7. Check that the setup is correct — connect to the cluster via kubectl:

    kubectl get nodes

    Nodes must be in the Ready`` status.

3. Install Envoy Gateway

A load balancer of the Basic with redundancy type and a public floating IP address will be created for the application to work. You cannot change the type of the created load balancer. If you want to change the load balancer type or its parameters, install the application using a Helm chart.

  1. Ensure that a quota for at least one public floating IP address is allocated in the pool.
  2. In the Control panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Managed Kubernetes.
  3. In the Clusters section, open the cluster page → Applications tab.
  4. In the Available for installation block, click Envoy Gateway.
  5. Check the price of the load balancer and the public floating IP address.
  6. Click Install. A new Basic redundant load balancer with a public floating IP address will be created. The load balancer will appear in the Control panel: in the top menu, click Products and select Cloud servers → section Load Balancers → tab Load Balancers.