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Configure Embedded Cluster

This topic provides information about how to configure your application releases to support installations with Replicated Embedded Cluster. For an introduction to Embedded Cluster, see Embedded Cluster Overview.

Add the Embedded Cluster Config resource​

An Embedded Cluster Config must be present in the release to support installation with Embedded Cluster. The Embedded Cluster Config sets the version of Embedded Cluster to install, and lets you define additional characteristics about the cluster.

To add the Embedded Cluster Config:

  1. Create a new release that includes your application and a unique HelmChart v2 custom resource for each Helm chart in the release.

    If you have not yet configured the HelmChart custom resource for your application, see Onboard to the Replicated Platform for more detailed instructions on how to configure releases that support installation with a Replicated installer.

  2. In the release, add an Embedded Cluster Config manifest that specifies the Embedded Cluster version to use:

    apiVersion: embeddedcluster.replicated.com/v1beta1
    kind: Config
    spec:
      version: 2.13.5+k8s-1.33

  3. If your application requires that certain components are deployed before the application and as part of the Embedded Cluster itself, update the Embedded Cluster Config to add extensions.

  4. Save the release and promote it to the channel that you use for testing internally.

  5. Install with Embedded Cluster in a development environment to test:

    1. Go to the Manage customer page for a new or existing Development customer.

    2. Under Install types, enable the Embedded Cluster (current generation product) option. Click Save.

    3. At the top right of the customer page, click Install instructions and choose Embedded Cluster. A dialog appears with instructions on how to download the Embedded Cluster installation assets and install your application.

      Customer install instructions drop down button

      View a larger version of this image

    4. On your VM, run the commands in the Embedded Cluster install instructions dialog.

      Embedded cluster install instruction dialog

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    5. Enter an Admin Console password when prompted.

      The Admin Console URL is printed when the installation finishes. Access the Admin Console and follow the instructions in the wizard to install your application.

  6. After successfully installing your application with Embedded Cluster, customize the Embedded Cluster Config as desired:

    • Add your custom domain for the Replicated proxy registry and Replicated app service. See domains.
    • Add custom Helm extensions. Extensions allow you to provide Helm charts that are deployed before your application. For example, you can add a Helm extension to ship an ingress controller. See extensions.
    • Define roles to assign workloads to specific nodes in multi-node installations. See roles.

    Replicated recommends that you work in small iterations and test your changes frequently in your development environment.

(Optional) Serve installation assets using the vendor API​

To install with Embedded Cluster, your end customers need to download the Embedded Cluster installer binary and their license. Air gap installations also require an air gap bundle. End customers can download all these installation assets using a curl command by following the installation steps available in the Replicated Enterprise Portal.

However, some vendors already have a portal where their customers can log in to access documentation or download artifacts. In cases like this, you can serve the Embedded Cluster installation assets yourself using the Replicated Vendor API, rather than having customers download the assets from the Replicated app service using a curl command during installation.

To serve Embedded Cluster installation assets with the Vendor API:

  1. If you have not done so already, create an API token for the Vendor API. See Use the Vendor API v3.

  2. Call the Get an Embedded Cluster release endpoint to download the assets needed to install your application with Embedded Cluster. Your customers must take this binary and their license and copy them to the machine where they will install your application.

    Note the following:

    • (Recommended) Provide the customerId query parameter so that the customer’s license is included in the downloaded tarball. This mirrors what is returned when a customer downloads the binary directly using the Replicated app service and is the most useful option. Excluding the customerId is useful if you plan to distribute the license separately.

    • If you do not provide any query parameters, this endpoint downloads the Embedded Cluster binary for the latest release on the specified channel. You can provide the channelSequence query parameter to download the binary for a particular release.

Distribute the NVIDIA GPU Operator with Embedded Cluster​

note

Distributing the NVIDIA GPU Operator with Embedded Cluster is not an officially supported feature from Replicated. However, it is a common use case.

Replicated recommends using Embedded Cluster builds with Kubernetes 1.36 or later, which ship with containerd 2.x, when deploying the NVIDIA GPU Operator.

The NVIDIA GPU Operator uses the operator framework within Kubernetes to automate the management of all NVIDIA software components needed to provision GPUs. For more information about this operator, see the NVIDIA GPU Operator documentation.

Include the NVIDIA GPU Operator and configure containerd options​

You can include the NVIDIA GPU Operator in your release as an additional Helm chart, or using Embedded Cluster Helm extensions. For information about adding Helm extensions, see extensions in Embedded Cluster Config.

Using the NVIDIA GPU Operator with Embedded Cluster requires configuring the containerd options in the operator as follows:

# Embedded Cluster Config

  extensions:
    helm:
      repositories:
        - name: nvidia
          url: https://nvidia.github.io/gpu-operator
      charts:
        - name: gpu-operator
          chartname: nvidia/gpu-operator
          namespace: gpu-operator
          version: "v26.3.3"
          values: |
            toolkit:
             env:
             - name: CONTAINERD_CONFIG
               value: /etc/k0s/containerd.d/nvidia.toml
             - name: CONTAINERD_SOCKET
               value: /run/k0s/containerd.sock
             - name: RUNTIME_CONFIG_SOURCE
               value: file

Prepare GPU nodes and containerd configuration​

Install Embedded Cluster on a clean VM without containerd or k0s already installed. Embedded Cluster installs and manages its own containerd through k0s.

For Kubernetes 1.36 and newer builds using containerd 2.x, initialize the NVIDIA configuration with schema version 3 on every GPU node before starting the Embedded Cluster installation or joining an existing cluster:

Run as root:

mkdir -p /etc/k0s/containerd.d && echo 'version = 3' > /etc/k0s/containerd.d/nvidia.toml

Back up any existing NVIDIA runtime configuration before running this command.

This workaround was verified with NVIDIA GPU Operator 26.3.3.

For Kubernetes 1.35 and older builds using containerd 1.x, see NVIDIA GPU Operator pods remain initializing if GPU Operator pods do not start.

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