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Birat Aryal — birataryal.github.io Created Date: 2026-02-16
Updated Date: Monday 16th February 2026 22:44:11
Website - birataryal.com.np
Repository - Birat Aryal
LinkedIn - Birat Aryal
DevSecOps Engineer | System Engineer | Cyber Security Analyst | Network Engineer

Management Vm

Containerd, Kubectl, git

Install containerd

Bash
yum install -y epel-release
sudo yum config-manager --add-repo https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
sudo yum install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
sudo systemctl enable --now docker
sudo systemctl status docker

Install govc

Bash
curl -L https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/releases/latest/download/govc_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz -o govc.tgz
tar -xzf govc.tgz govc
sudo install -m 0755 govc /usr/local/bin/govc

Tip

Using this govc could be installed and used later on for the configuration in this section.

Install kubectl

Bash
curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"

sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Download Clusterctl

Bash
wget https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/releases/download/v1.12.2/clusterctl-linux-amd64

sudo install -m 0755 clusterctl-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/clusterctl

Install kind

Bash
curl -Lo kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/latest/kind-linux-amd64

chmod +x kind

sudo install -m 0755 kind /usr/local/bin/kind

kind version

Create Bootstrap Cluster

Bash
kind create cluster --name capi-bootstrap
kubectl config use-context kind-capi-bootstrap
kubectl get nodes -o wide
KindBootstrapCluster

Initialize the Cluster

Info

To initialize the cluster api, vSphere, clusterctl requires the following variables to be set in ~/.cluster-api/clusterctl.yaml as following:

  1. Create the Configuration file in the user's home directory.

    Bash
    mkdir -p ~/.cluster-api
vim ~/.cluster-api/clusterctl.yaml

  2. Add the Contents inside the cluster.yaml file.

    YAML
    providers:
  - name: cluster-api
    type: CoreProvider
    url: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/releases/v1.12.2/core-components.yaml

  - name: kubeadm
    type: BootstrapProvider
    url: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/releases/v1.12.2/bootstrap-components.yaml

  - name: kubeadm
    type: ControlPlaneProvider
    url: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/releases/v1.12.2/control-plane-components.yaml

  - name: vsphere
    type: InfrastructureProvider
    url: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/releases/v1.15.2/infrastructure-components.yaml

Tip

When the following command is executed:

clusterctl init clusterctl performs the following: 1. Reads the provider configuration from: ~/.cluster-api/clusterctl.yaml 2. Downloads the provider manifests from the specified URLs. 3. Installs the required components into the management cluster, including:

Text Only
- CRDs
- Controllers
- Webhooks
- RBAC permissions
  1. The controllers begin watching Cluster API resources and reconciling infrastructure state.

Note

Initialize the Cluster API providers using the following command:

Bash
clusterctl init --config ~/.cluster-api/clusterctl.yaml

ClusterInitialization

  1. Configure the IPAM so that it could be used for provisioning the IP for Clusters which are not in DHCP Network.
    Bash
    clusterctl init --ipam in-cluster
kubectl get pods -A |grep ipam

Tip

All the pods should be running.

  1. Create the ipool.yaml file so that it could be used by the management cluster while creating the new VM.
YAML
apiVersion: ipam.cluster.x-k8s.io/v1alpha2
kind: InClusterIPPool
metadata:
  name: <ippool Name>
  namespace: default
spec:
  addresses:
  - <Network Start Range>-<Network End Range>
  prefix: <Subnet Mask>
  gateway: <Gateway>

Export the Environment Variables

Vcenter Environment Variables

The following environment variables are required for deploying Kubernetes clusters using Cluster API Provider vSphere.

  • Create the secure environment file /etc/capi-vsphere.env which would be used for the storing all the details for the vsphere deployment.

Warning

Do not commit real credentials or internal infrastructure values to a public repository.
Replace the placeholder values below with the appropriate values for your environment.

Text Only
# vCenter credentials
export VSPHERE_USERNAME='<VCENTER_USERNAME>'
export VSPHERE_PASSWORD='<VCENTER_PASSWORD>'
export VSPHERE_SERVER='<VCENTER_FQDN_OR_IP>'

# vSphere infrastructure details
export VSPHERE_DATACENTER='<DATACENTER_NAME>'
export VSPHERE_DATASTORE='<DATASTORE_NAME>'
export VSPHERE_RESOURCE_POOL='<RESOURCE_POOL_PATH>'
export VSPHERE_FOLDER='<VM_FOLDER_PATH>'
export VSPHERE_NETWORK='<PORTGROUP_NETWORK_NAME>'

# Allow self-signed certificates if required
export VSPHERE_INSECURE='true'

# VM template used for node cloning
export VSPHERE_TEMPLATE='<VM_TEMPLATE_NAME>'

# Kubernetes API endpoint (VIP)
export CONTROL_PLANE_ENDPOINT_IP='<CONTROL_PLANE_VIP_IP>'
export CONTROL_PLANE_ENDPOINT_HOST='<CONTROL_PLANE_VIP_DNS>'

# Workload cluster metadata
export CLUSTER_NAME='<CLUSTER_NAME>'
export KUBERNETES_VERSION='<KUBERNETES_VERSION>'
export CONTROL_PLANE_MACHINE_COUNT='<CONTROL_PLANE_NODE_COUNT>'
export WORKER_MACHINE_COUNT='<WORKER_NODE_COUNT>'

# Network interface used by kube-vip
export VIP_NETWORK_INTERFACE='<NETWORK_INTERFACE_NAME>'

# vCenter TLS certificate thumbprint
export VSPHERE_TLS_THUMBPRINT='<VCENTER_TLS_THUMBPRINT>'

# vSphere Cloud Provider Interface image version
export CPI_IMAGE_K8S_VERSION='<CPI_VERSION>'

# SSH public key injected into nodes
export VSPHERE_SSH_AUTHORIZED_KEY='<SSH_PUBLIC_KEY>'

# Storage policy (optional)
export VSPHERE_STORAGE_POLICY='<STORAGE_POLICY_NAME_OR_EMPTY>'

# Node network configuration
export NODE_GATEWAY='<NETWORK_GATEWAY>'
export NODE_DNS_1='<PRIMARY_DNS_SERVER>'
export NODE_DNS_2='<SECONDARY_DNS_SERVER>'
export NODE_DNS_3='<TERTIARY_DNS_SERVER>'

# Kubernetes networking configuration
export POD_CIDR='<POD_NETWORK_CIDR>'
export SERVICE_CIDR='<SERVICE_NETWORK_CIDR>'

# Cluster API IPAM pool
export IP_POOL_NAME='<IPAM_POOL_NAME>'

Apply the environment variables to the shell for the variables.

Bash
source /etc/capi-vsphere.env

Govc Environment Variables

Since govc is used for the connecting with the vcenter using the api's. Based on the environment varialbles configured above apply the environment variables.

Bash
export GOVC_URL="https://${VSPHERE_SERVER}"
export GOVC_USERNAME="${VSPHERE_USERNAME}"
export GOVC_PASSWORD="${VSPHERE_PASSWORD}"
export GOVC_INSECURE=1
export GOVC_DATACENTER="${VSPHERE_DATACENTER}"

Tip

Verify the resoures that you have defined on the envrionment variables are correct or not by:

Bash
govc datastore.info -ds "${VSPHERE_DATASTORE}"
#List folders to confirm exact spelling/path
govc ls "/${VSPHERE_DATACENTER}/vm"
govc ls "/<DATACENTER_NAME>/host"