Simple vcluster

A minimal vcluster is one Helm release and one three-line values file. The chart brings up an API server pod in the target namespace; that pod is your virtual cluster.

1. write the values file. distro.k8s runs vanilla Kubernetes.

   controlPlane:
     distro:
       k8s:
         enabled: true
   

2. install the chart into its own namespace.

   helm upgrade --install my-vcluster vcluster \
     --repo https://charts.loft.sh \
     --version 0.37.2 \
     -n my-vcluster --create-namespace \
     -f values.yaml
   

3. the control-plane pod comes up in the host namespace.

   $ kubectl -n my-vcluster get pod
   NAME               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   my-vcluster-0      1/1     Running   0          58s
   

4. vcluster writes a kubeconfig secret vc-<name> in the same namespace.

   $ kubectl -n my-vcluster get secret
   NAME               TYPE     DATA   AGE
   vc-my-vcluster     Opaque   3      58s
   

5. connect with the CLI. It starts a background proxy and switches your context into the virtual cluster.

   $ vcluster connect my-vcluster -n my-vcluster
   $ kubectl get namespaces
   NAME              STATUS   AGE
   default           Active   1m
   kube-system       Active   1m
   

6. anything you create here is a virtual object. The pods are synced down and scheduled as real pods on the host, renamed under the vcluster's namespace.
7. disconnect to return your context to the host cluster.

   vcluster disconnect
   

8. without the CLI, read the exported secret and point KUBECONFIG at it.

   kubectl -n my-vcluster get secret vc-my-vcluster \
     -o jsonpath='{.data.config}' | base64 -d > kubeconfig.yaml
   export KUBECONFIG=$(pwd)/kubeconfig.yaml
   kubectl get namespaces
   

Manifests

values.yaml

controlPlane:
  distro:
    k8s:
      enabled: true

https://www.vcluster.com/docs/vcluster/deploy/basics https://www.vcluster.com/docs/vcluster/configure/vcluster-yaml/control-plane