Create a vSphere VM Template

Prerequisites

You need to create a base OS image in vSphere before starting this procedure.

Create a vSphere template for your cluster from a base OS image

Using the base OS image created in a previous procedure, DKP creates the new vSphere template directly on the vCenter server.

1. Set the following vSphere environment variables on the bastion VM host:
   

   CODE

   export VSPHERE_SERVER=your_vCenter_APIserver_URL
   export VSPHERE_USERNAME=your_vCenter_user_name
   export VSPHERE_PASSWORD=your_vCenter_password

2. Copy the base OS image file created in the vSphere Client to your desired location on the bastion VM host, and make a note of the path and file name.

3. Create an image.yaml file and add the following variables for vSphere. DKP uses this file and these variables as inputs in the next step.
   

   CODE

   build_name: "vsphere-rhel-79"
   packer_builder_type: "vsphere"
   packer:
     cluster: "example_zone"
     datacenter: "example_datacenter"
     datastore: "example_datastore"
     folder: "example_folder"
     insecure_connection: "false"
     network: "example_network"
     resource_pool: "example_resource_pool"
     template: "example_base_OS_template_name"
     vsphere_guest_os_type: "example_rhel8_64Guest"
     guest_os_type: "example_rhel7-64"
     #goss params
     distribution: "example_RHEL"
     distribution_version: "example_7.9"

4. Create a vSphere VM template with the following command:
   

   CODE

   konvoy-image build path/to/image.yaml \
     --overrides /path/to/overrides/offline.yaml

   
   The DKP image builder uses the values in image.yaml and the input base OS image to create a vSphere template that contains the required artifacts needed to create a Kubernetes cluster. Give the file a suitable name using this suggested naming convention: creator-ova-vsphere-OS-ver-k8sver-unique_identifier. As an example, the filename you create might resemble dkp-ova-vsphere-rhel-84-1.21.6-1646938922.

   DKP creates the new vSphere template directly on the vCenter server.

Next, create a Kubernetes bootstrap cluster to enable creating your vSphere cluster and moving CAPI objects to it.