Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers

SE Radio 649: Lukas Gentele on Kubernetes vClusters

Jan 2, 2025

Lukas Gentele, CEO of Loft Labs and a Kubernetes expert, discusses the intriguing world of vClusters. He explains how these virtual clusters operate within a host Kubernetes environment, enhancing multi-tenancy and resource sharing. Lukas delves into scalability, deployment models, and the quick spin-up of environments that dramatically benefit organizations. The conversation also touches on efficient management strategies for handling multiple vClusters and the role of Kubernetes operators. Plus, he reveals the ease of setting up vClusters, making them accessible for developers.

58:14

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Episode guests

Lukas Gentele

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

vClusters provide isolated environments within a Kubernetes host cluster, facilitating multi-tenancy and resource sharing for different teams or clients.

The architecture of vClusters allows rapid deployment and dynamic scaling, significantly enhancing efficiency compared to traditional static clusters.

Deploying vClusters necessitates careful resource management and configurations to ensure high availability and optimal performance for sensitive applications.

Deep dives

Understanding vClusters

A virtual cluster (vCluster) operates within a traditional Kubernetes cluster, leveraging its underlying resources while providing isolated environments for different workloads. Unlike traditional clusters that are composed of dedicated machines, vClusters run as containers atop the host cluster, allowing for shared utilization of the underlying nodes. This architecture facilitates multi-tenancy, enabling different teams or clients to operate independently yet within the same physical infrastructure. The virtual cluster's design emphasizes the importance of providing users with a distinct and isolated control plane, ensuring secure and efficient resource management.

Intro

5min

Exploring Kubernetes Virtual Clusters

15min

Unlocking Efficiency with vClusters

9min

Experiences and Evolution in Multi-Tenant Virtual Clusters

3min

Navigating Kubernetes Operators and Virtual Clusters

19min

Exposing Workloads in vClusters

5min

Getting Started with vClusters: An Easy Approach

2min

Exploring Open Source Projects and Community Engagement

2min

Lukas Gentele, CEO of Loft Labs, joins host Robert Blumen for a discussion of kubernetes vclusters (virtual clusters). A vcluster is a kubernetes cluster that runs kubernetes application on a host kubernetes cluster. The conversation covers: vcluster basics; sharing models; what is owned by the vcluster and what is shared with the host; attached nodes versus shared nodes; the primary use case: multi-tenancy vcluster per tenant; alternatives - namespace per tenant, full cluster per tenant; trade-offs - isolation; less resource use; spin up time; scalability; how many clusters and how many vclusters should an org have? Deployment models for vclusters - helm chart with standard resources; vcluster operator; persistent storage models for vclusters; vcluster snapshotting, recovery, and migration. how many vclusters can run on a cluster? ingress, TLS and DNS.

Brought to you by IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Software magazine.

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