vSphere feature incompatibility
This section describes the vSphere features that are incompatible with GKE on VMware.
VM snapshot
VM
snapshot
is not compatible with GKE on VMware. Taking snapshots of VMs created
by GKE on VMware will break many features including cluster upgrade,
cluster update, node auto-repair and
admin cluster control plane
recovery. When
GKE on VMware tries to manage a VM with snapshots, you will see
failures such as Invalid configuration for device '0' in the
csi-controller-manager and vsphere-controller-manager logs. For more information on snapshots, see Best Practices for using
VMware snapshots.
Don't create snapshots on Anthos VMs. To recover from VM or storage failures, see Recovery from VM failures and Recovery from storage failures.
VM clone
Cloning a VM that is created and managed by GKE on VMware may result in data and cluster state inconsistencies.
Don't clone Anthos VMs. To recover from VM or storage failures, see Recovery from VM failures and Recovery from storage failures.
Storage vMotion
Storage vMotion lets you migrate the virtual disks of a VM from one datastore to another. This is different from the regular vMotion, which migrates a VM from one host to another. vMotion is supported by GKE on VMware.
Storage vMotion is not compatible with GKE on VMware whether you use the in-tree driver or Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver. Operations such as cluster update, upgrade, user cluster creation and node auto-repair will fail when you use storage vMotion.
Don't perform a storage vMotion, if possible. To recover from unplanned storage vMotion, or to plan a workaround, contact Google support.
Storage DRS
Storage DRS manages virtual machine disk placement and migration to balance the storage space or I/O resources between datastores in the datastore cluster.
Don't activate Storage DRS as it is not compatible with GKE on VMware.
Changed Block Tracking(CBT)
Chnged Block Tracking(CBT) is a VMkernel feature that identifies blocks of data that have changed or are in use, which is enabled through VMware API calls by 3rd-party backup software or appliances.
Don't use 3rd-party backup software or appliances to backup GKE on VMware VMs. They usually enable CBT through the VMware API that is not compatible with GKE on VMware.
Networking incompatibility
This section applies to you if you are using the Seesaw load balancer.
Cisco ACI with IP Data-plane Learning
Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) with Dataplane IP Learning is not compatible with Seesaw load balancer. We recommend that you use MetalLB as your load balancer as Seesaw is in maintenance mode, or disable Dataplane IP Learning when using Seesaw as your load balancer.
Stateful NSX-T Distributed Firewall (DFW)
Stateful NSX-T DFW is not compatible with Seesaw load balancer. We recommend that you use MetalLB as your load balancer as Seesaw is in maintenance mode, or configure a stateless NSX-T DFW policy for the Seesaw VMs when using Seesaw as your load balancer. For more information, see Configuring stateless NSX-T distributed firewall policies for use with Seesaw load balancer.