Make the New Cluster Self-Managing

Konvoy deploys all cluster lifecycle services to a bootstrap cluster. This bootstrap cluster deploys a workload cluster. When the workload cluster is ready, move the cluster lifecycle services to the workload cluster. The workload cluster now manages its own lifecycle. This guide describes how to make a workload cluster self-managing.

Before you start, make sure you have created a workload cluster, as described in Create a New Cluster.

Make the new Kubernetes cluster manage itself

Deploy cluster lifecycle services on the workload cluster:

By default, create bootstrap controllers configures the Cluster API controllers to use the AWS credentials from your environment. We recommend you use the --with-aws-bootstrap-credentials=false flag to configure the Cluster API controllers of your self-managing AWS cluster to use AWS IAM Instance Profiles, instead of the AWS credentials from your environment.

dkp create bootstrap controllers --with-aws-bootstrap-credentials=false --kubeconfig ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf

INFO[2021-06-07T14:10:08-07:00] Initializing bootstrap controllers            src="bootstrap/controllers.go:88"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:34-07:00] Created bootstrap controllers                 src="bootstrap/controllers.go:93"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:34-07:00] Waiting for bootstrap controllers to be ready  src="bootstrap/controllers.go:96"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:40-07:00] Bootstrap controllers are ready               src="bootstrap/controllers.go:101"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:40-07:00] Initializing Tigera operator                  src="bootstrap/clusterresourceset.go:35"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:41-07:00] Created Tigera operator                       src="bootstrap/clusterresourceset.go:40"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:41-07:00] Initializing Calico installation              src="bootstrap/clusterresourceset.go:42"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:42-07:00] Created Calico Installation                   src="bootstrap/clusterresourceset.go:47"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:42-07:00] Initializing AWS EBS CSI CustomResourceSet    src="bootstrap/clusterresourceset.go:107"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:42-07:00] Created AWS EBS CSI CustomResourceSet         src="bootstrap/clusterresourceset.go:112"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:42-07:00] Initializing Cluster Autoscaler CustomResourceSet  src="bootstrap/clusterresourceset.go:180"
INFO[2021-06-07T14:11:42-07:00] Created Cluster Autoscaler CustomResourceSet  src="bootstrap/clusterresourceset.go:185"

Move the Cluster API objects from the bootstrap to the workload cluster:

The cluster lifecycle services on the workload cluster are ready, but the workload cluster configuration is on the bootstrap cluster. The move command moves the configuration, which takes the form of Cluster API Custom Resource objects, from the bootstrap to the workload cluster. This process is also called a Pivot.
```
dkp move --to-kubeconfig ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf
```
```
INFO[2021-08-11T12:09:36-07:00] Pivot operation complete.                     src="move/move.go:154"
INFO[2021-08-11T12:09:36-07:00] You can now view resources in the moved cluster by using the --kubeconfig flag with kubectl. For example: kubectl --kubeconfig=/home/clusteradmin/.kube/config get nodes  src="move/move.go:155"
```
NOTE: To make sure only one set of cluster lifecycle services manages the workload cluster, Konvoy first pauses reconciliation of the objects on the bootstrap cluster. Konvoy then creates the objects on the workload cluster. As Konvoy copies the objects, the cluster lifecycle services on the workload cluster reconcile them. The workload cluster becomes self-managing after Konvoy creates all the objects. The move command can be safely retried, if it fails.

Wait for the cluster control-plane to be ready:

kubectl --kubeconfig ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf wait --for=condition=ControlPlaneReady "clusters/${CLUSTER_NAME}" --timeout=20m

cluster.cluster.x-k8s.io/aws-example condition met

Use the cluster lifecycle services on the workload cluster to check the workload cluster status:

NOTE: After moving the cluster lifecycle services to the workload cluster, remember to use Konvoy with the workload cluster kubeconfig.

dkp describe cluster --kubeconfig ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf -c ${CLUSTER_NAME}

NAME                                                            READY  SEVERITY  REASON  SINCE  MESSAGE
/aws-example                                                    True                     35s
├─ClusterInfrastructure - AWSCluster/aws-example                True                     4m47s
├─ControlPlane - KubeadmControlPlane/aws-example-control-plane  True                     36s
│   └─3 Machine...                                              True                     4m20s
└─Workers
    └─MachineDeployment/aws-example-md-0

Remove the bootstrap cluster, as the workload cluster is now self-managing:

dkp delete bootstrap

INFO[2021-06-07T14:53:36-07:00] Deleting bootstrap cluster                    src="bootstrap/bootstrap.go:182"

Known Limitations

NOTE: Be aware of these limitations in the current release of Konvoy.

Before making a workload cluster self-managing, be sure that its control plane nodes have sufficient permissions for running Cluster API controllers. See IAM Policy Configuration.
Konvoy supports moving only one set of cluster objects from the bootstrap cluster to the workload cluster, or vice-versa.
Konvoy only supports moving all namespaces in the cluster; Konvoy does not support migration of individual namespaces.