This page describes how to manage virtual machines on Google Distributed Cloud connected racks running VM Runtime on Google Distributed Cloud. You must be familiar with VM Runtime on GDC before completing the steps on this page. For a list of supported guest operating systems, see Verified guest operating systems for VM Runtime on GDC.
Virtual machine workloads are supported on legacy ("Config 1" and "Config 2") rack hardware, but not on any superseding rack hardware configurations.
To learn how virtual machines serve as an essential component of the Distributed Cloud connected platform, see Extending GKE Enterprise to manage on-premises edge VMs.
Distributed Cloud connected clusters support virtual machine webhooks. This allows Distributed Cloud connected to validate user requests made to the local Kubernetes API server. Rejected requests generate detailed information on the reason for rejection.
Upgrade existing virtual machines to Distributed Cloud connected version 1.7.0
You must add the following to the spec section of the VMRuntime resource on your cluster
and then apply the modified resource to the cluster before upgrading the cluster to
Distributed Cloud connected software to version 1.7.0:
spec: haPolicy: defaultRecoveryStrategy: Reschedule nodeHeartbeatInterval: 15s nodeMonitorGracePeriod: 55s
Enable VM Runtime on GDC support on Distributed Cloud connected
By default, VM Runtime on GDC virtual machine support is disabled on Distributed Cloud connected. To enable it, complete the steps in this section. The instructions in this section assume that you have a fully functioning Distributed Cloud connected cluster.
Modify the
VMRuntimecustom resource with the following contents and apply it to your cluster:apiVersion: vm.cluster.gke.io/v1 kind: VMRuntime metadata: name: vmruntime spec: # Enable Anthos VM Runtime support enabled: true # vmImageFormat defaults to "raw" if not set vmImageFormat: "raw" # Set node grace period to 55 seconds; required for upgrading to 1.7.0 haPolicy: defaultRecoveryStrategy: Reschedule nodeHeartbeatInterval: 15s nodeMonitorGracePeriod: 55s
Do not change the value of the
vmImageFormatparameter. Distributed Cloud connected does not support any other virtual disk formats.This process typically takes several minutes to complete.
Do not change the value of the
vmImageFormatparameter. Distributed Cloud connected does not support any other virtual disk formats.This process typically takes several minutes to complete.
Use the following command to verify that the
VMRuntimecustom resource has been applied to your cluster:kubectl get vmruntime -o yaml
The command returns output similar to the following example:
- apiVersion: vm.cluster.gke.io/v1 kind: VMRuntime metadata: name: vmruntime ... spec: enabled: true vmImageFormat: raw status: ... ready: true ...Use the following command to verify that VM Runtime on GDC virtual machine support has been enabled on your cluster:
kubectl get pods -n vm-system
The command returns output showing the VM Runtime on GDC subsystem Pods running on your cluster, similar to the following example:
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE cdi-apiserver-6c76c6cf7b-n68wn 1/1 Running 0 132m cdi-deployment-f78fd599-vj7tv 1/1 Running 0 132m cdi-operator-65c4df9647-fcb9d 1/1 Running 0 134m cdi-uploadproxy-7765ffb694-6j7bf 1/1 Running 0 132m macvtap-fjfjr 1/1 Running 0 134m virt-api-77dd99dbbb-bs2fb 1/1 Running 0 132m virt-api-77dd99dbbb-pqc27 1/1 Running 0 132m virt-controller-5b44dbbbd7-hc222 1/1 Running 0 132m virt-controller-5b44dbbbd7-p8xkk 1/1 Running 0 132m virt-handler-n76fs 1/1 Running 0 132m virt-operator-86565697d9-fpxqh 2/2 Running 0 134m virt-operator-86565697d9-jnbt7 2/2 Running 0 134m vm-controller-controller-manager-7844d5fb7b-72d8m 2/2 Running 0 134m vmruntime-controller-manager-845649c847-m78r9 2/2 Running 0 175m
Install the virtctl management tool
You need the virtctl
client tool to manage virtual machines on your
Distributed Cloud connected cluster. To install the tool, complete the
following steps:
Install the
virtctlclient tool as akubectlplugin:export VERSION=v0.59.0-anthos1.28-gke.8 gcloud storage cp gs://anthos-baremetal-release/virtctl/${VERSION}/linux-amd64/virtctl/usr/local/bin/virtctl cd /usr/local/bin sudo ln -s virtctl kubectl-virt sudo chmod a+x virtctl cd -
Verify that the
virtplugin is installed:kubectl plugin list
If the plugin has been successfully installed, the command's output lists
kubectl-virtas one of the plugins.
Provision a virtual machine on Distributed Cloud connected
This section provides configuration examples that illustrate how to provision a Linux virtual machine and a Windows virtual machine on a Distributed Cloud connected cluster with the Symcloud Storage abstraction layer.
Note that you cannot create a virtual machine on a Distributed Cloud connected cluster directly
by using the kubectl virt command because Distributed Cloud connected does not provide
file system storage to virtual machines.
Before completing the steps in this section, you must first complete the steps in Configure Distributed Cloud connected for Symcloud Storage. If you later disable Symcloud Storage on the cluster, virtual machines configured to use Symcloud Storage will fail.
Provision a Linux virtual machine on Distributed Cloud connected
The following example illustrates how to provision a Linux virtual machine with Symcloud Storage running Ubuntu Server 22.04. The installation source is the Ubuntu Server 22.04 ISO disc image.
Create a
VirtualMachineDiskresource with the following contents for the Ubuntu Server installation disc image, and then apply it to your cluster:apiVersion: vm.cluster.gke.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachineDisk metadata: name: ubuntu-iso-disk spec: size: 20Gi storageClassName: robin diskType: cdrom source: http: url: https://releases.ubuntu.com/jammy/ubuntu-22.04.3-live-server-amd64.iso
Create a
VirtualMachineDiskresource with the following contents for the virtual machine's virtual hard disk, and then apply it to your cluster: