Introducing VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service 3.4: Extended Kubernetes Support, Istio Service Mesh, and Enhanced Multi-Cluster Management

We are thrilled to announce the general availability of VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) 3.4 — and here’s why you should be excited too! 

With VKS 3.4,  We are delighted to announce Extended Support for vSphere Kubernetes release (VKr) version 1.33. This means, you get 24 months of support for VKr 1.33. There’s more! We take the feedback from our customers very seriously. Platform engineers need the state of art service mesh capability to equip them with the right tools to simplify and manage their operations. We are happy to announce the introduction of Istio Service mesh as a VKS Standard package. Read the blog to know more about what else is new in VKS 3.4. 

Extended Support for Kubernetes version 1.33 

Moving forward, we plan to make Extended Support available with certain versions of vSphere Kubernetes releases (VKr), enabling support to be available for a period of 24 months from GA. This will help VMware Cloud Foundation customers to remain on a Kubernetes minor version for a much longer period, if they need. The first release that comes with Extended Support is VKr 1.33. Extended support is also applicable to the core packages that are included in the VKr and some select Standard packages.

Multi Cluster Management

VCF customers are now entitled to Tanzu Mission Control Self-Managed at no additional cost. TMC-SM provides a comprehensive portfolio of capabilities empowering Platform and DevOps teams to manage their VKS fleets at scale. We are excited to announce the general availability of TMC-SM 1.4 which adds lifecycle management support for VKS 3.4 including VKr 1.33 and associated ClusterClass versions; plus a new UI based installer, enabling teams to get up and running quickly.  Please refer to the Broadcom Products Download page and TMC-SM Release Notes for more information and to get started.   

Istio Service Mesh – Zero trust security, observability and advanced traffic management

As enterprises scale their Kubernetes environments, managing microservices securely and reliably becomes increasingly complex. Istio provides tools for platform engineers to secure service communication, perform fine-grained traffic management, implement consistent policy to build resilient and manageable Kubernetes environments. VKS 3.4 introduces the support for Istio Service mesh as a VKS Standard package with runtime support, that is beyond the installation and upgrade support that is offered for other standard packages.

Introducing Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Support for VKr 

VKr 1.33 will introduce support for Ubuntu 24.04 as one of the OS versions supported, in addition to Photon OS 5.0 and Ubuntu 22.04. Please note,  FIPS 140-3 modules for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS kernel are currently undergoing assessment by CMVP, pending FIPS Validation (see update). If you are using VKr 1.32 (Ubuntu OS 22.04) with Ubuntu Pro and FIPS-140-3 enabled for your OS, you must upgrade to VKr 1.33 (Ubuntu OS version 22.04) to continue utilizing Ubuntu Pro FIPS 140-3 validated kernel modules. In such case, you must NOT choose Ubuntu 24.04 when you upgrade to VKr 1.33

Since VKr supports both, Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04, while creating a new 1.33 cluster or upgrading from V1.32 to v1.33, you will have to update the ‘resolve-os-image’ annotation in the cluster object configuration to reflect the required Ubuntu version number. Please refer to the Important Upgrade recommendations in the VKr release notes

Cluster API Improvements & Updates

• Efficient ClusterClass consumption across namespaces – VKS 3.4 introduces more efficient ways of sharing and referencing ClusterClass. All the ClusterClass shipped with VKS are now centrally hosted in the  “vmware-system-vks-public” namespace, from where the ClusterClass definitions can be referenced, instead of replicating it in each namespace. This change will not require any modifications to the existing clusters. Custom ClusterClass present in a namespace can now be optionally shared across namespaces. ClusterClass  builtin-generic-v3.3.0 and below will remain available in all namespaces to retain backwards compatibility.
  
• Customizable Storage Class Labels and Annotations –  VKS 3.4 allows users to specify labels and annotations that may be customized on storageClass instances synchronized from the Supervisor into the VKS cluster. This ensures that StorageClass metadata can be set within the VKS cluster for use by components requiring it, such as third-party backup tools.
  
• Blocking the use of TanzuKubernetesCluster API creation of new VKS clusters – Cluster API is now the default method for bootstrapping, configuring, and managing Kubernetes clusters, replacing TanzuKubernetesCluster API. However, starting version 3.4.0,  VKS will not allow creation of Kubernetes 1.33 cluster,  or upgrade an existing cluster to Kubernetes release 1.33, with the deprecated TKC API. You will still be able to create a Kubernetes release 1.32 cluster or lower with the TKC API.

VKS 3.4 includes more enhancements and bug fixes, details of which can be found in the Release Notes. 

Upgrade Path and Compatibility 

Prerequisites for upgrade to VKS 3.4

• Supervisor Kubernetes version should be at least 1.29. That means you must be on vCenter 9.0 (recommended) or at least  vCenter 8.0 Update 3b or higher if you are on VCF 9.0
  
• VKS 3.4 adds compatibility to Kubernetes minor version 1.33. It drops the compatibility for Kubernetes version 1.28. This means, before you upgrade to VKS 3.4, you must upgrade the Kubernetes version on your workload clusters to at least 1.29.
  
•  You can upgrade to VKS 3.4 directly from VKS version 3.1 through VKS 3.3. If you’re using VKS 3.0, you’ll need to upgrade to VKS 3.1 or later before upgrading to VKS 3.4. We suggest upgrading to VKS 3.3

VKS 3.4 can be upgraded on VCF 5.2.x 

We would strongly recommend upgrading to VCF 9.0 to get access to the latest capabilities that VCF 9.0 has to offer. For example, with VCF 9.0, you add more than one content libraries on a Supervisor.  However, VKS 3.4 release is also compatible with the Supervisor on VCF 5.2.x deployments with vCenter 8.0 Update 3b or higher with Supervisor Kubernetes 1.29 at least. You can refer to the interoperability matrix for more details. 

Deprecations Announcements & Updates

VKS v3.4 introduces the recommended builtin-generic-v3.4.0 ClusterClass. Existing clusters must rebase to this Class before or during any Kubernetes v1.33+ upgrade. Older ClusterClass (tanzukubernetescluster, builtin-generic-v3.1.0, builtin-generic-v3.2.0, and builtin-generic-v3.3.0) are deprecated and will be removed in future. (see table below).

With VKS v3.4, use builtin-generic-v3.4.0 as the base for Custom ClusterClass, rebasing existing ones. Older Custom ClusterClass (tanzukubernetescluster, builtin-generic-v3.1.0, builtin-generic-v3.2.0, and builtin-generic-v3.3.0) are deprecated and will be removed in future. (see table below).

***

Ready to get hands-on with VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0?  Dive into the newest features in a live environment with Hands-on Labs that cover platform fundamentals, automation workflows, operational best practices, and the latest vSphere functionality for VCF 9.0.