Kubernetes as a Service utilizing Nirmata and VMware vCloud Director

Over two years ago, VMware had released vCloud Director Container Service Extension (CSE). The idea back then was to allow service providers to spin Kubernetes Clusters for their customers at ease with a single command line. CSE has as well allowed our VMware Cloud Providers to offer Kubernetes Clusters as a self service, where Tenants can request, create and delete their own clusters within few minutes and with a very minimal interaction.

Even better CSE had two methods of integrations, where CSE was able to deploy Kubernetes clusters directly into vCloud Director as a vAPP that contains all masters and workload nodes or to integrate with Enterprise PKS and deploy on top of PKS benefiting from PKS capabilities and features.

While CSE had been very capable Open Source plugin that was originated by VMware, it was missing few features that many Cloud Providers desired. Nirmata had seen the need, and created Nirmata Plugin for vCloud Director which had fulfilled the below desired enhancements:

Nirmata for Kubernetes Logo

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

While vCloud Director Container Service Extension (CSE) had been very capable as far as deploying and managing Kubernetes clusters goes, it lacked a nice Graphical User Interface (GUI). Actually out of the box CSE had no GUI at all.… Read More