Node image

This page describes the node operating system (node OS) image that runs on GKE on VMware cluster nodes.

GKE on VMware cluster nodes run Ubuntu version 18.04 (bionic). The image is very similar to Google Kubernetes Engine's Ubuntu node image.

Kubernetes version

New GKE on VMware versions sometimes introduce a new Kubernetes version for clusters. Version changes are announced in Release notes. To learn which Kubernetes version your cluster runs, see Versions.

Preinstalled tools

  • GKE on VMware's node OS has the following tools preinstalled: arping cloud-utils, conntrack, logrotate, prips, systemd-container
  • GKE on VMware's node OS has the debug-toolbox container image preinstalled. debug-toolbox includes several packages for debugging node issues. You run an accompanying shell script, toolbox, to unpack and run the debug-toolbox container. Learn about the toolbox script.

Networking

As of GKE on VMware version 1.1.0-gke.6, the node OS' default networking configuration is disabled to support static IP allocation.

Security

See node security.