Setting up GKE Enterprise

This section shows you how to set up Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Enterprise edition on your chosen platform or platforms. The setup path that you choose depends on whether you want to use GKE Enterprise on Google Cloud only, with Google Distributed Cloud Virtual on-premises (either on VMware or bare metal), on another public cloud provider, or a combination of environments. For example, you can combine a GKE Enterprise deployment on Google Cloud with on-premises GKE clusters to create a hybrid deployment, or you can have GKE Enterprise-managed clusters across multiple public clouds.

You can see details of the available features for each deployment option in our Deployment options guide.

GKE Enterprise requirements

Regardless of your installation option, you need the following to use GKE Enterprise:

  • A Google Cloud project. You might have access to a project if your company already uses Google Cloud. A project is required to use Google Cloud APIs and enable billing.

  • You must enable GKE Enterprise in the project that you want to use.

  • All the clusters you want to use with GKE Enterprise must be registered to a fleet in your project. After you enable GKE Enterprise, all registered clusters incur per-vCPU GKE Enterprise charges. You can learn more about GKE Enterprise pricing in our Pricing guide.

Additional APIs and permissions may be required for particular installation options and to enable GKE Enterprise features. For details, see the relevant prerequisite and installation guides.

Note that for clusters on Google Cloud only, you can choose to not enable GKE Enterprise but still use fleets. This option lets you create fleets of GKE clusters and pay only for the enterprise features you use with them, in addition to your GKE charges. You can see a complete list of supported enterprise features for each option in Deployment options.

Set up your GKE Enterprise environment

For each environment where you want to use GKE Enterprise, follow the appropriate setup guide to first set up and register your clusters, and then enable your chosen GKE Enterprise features.

  • Set up GKE Enterprise on Google Cloud: This is the simplest setup option and offers easy setup via the Google Cloud console.

    Set up GKE Enterprise on Google Cloud

  • Set up Google Distributed Cloud Virtual (on-premises): GKE Enterprise provides two on-premises installation options: on VMware or on bare metal.

    Set up GKE Enterprise on premises

  • Set up GKE Enterprise on other public clouds: GKE Enterprise can manage clusters on other public clouds, letting you use consistent cluster management and GKE Enterprise features in a multicloud or hybrid deployment. Installation on AWS and Azure is supported, with the option to add attached clusters on AWS and Azure.

    Set up GKE Enterprise on other public clouds

Add third-party Kubernetes clusters

While GKE clusters form the foundation of GKE Enterprise, you can also add non-managed Kubernetes clusters to GKE Enterprise. With attached clusters, you can take advantage of many GKE Enterprise features on your existing systems even without a full migration to GKE. Attaching clusters to your fleet lets you view them in the Google Cloud console along with your GKE clusters, and enable a subset of GKE Enterprise features on them.

Set up GKE Enterprise attached clusters

Disable GKE Enterprise

You can choose to disable GKE Enterprise for a project. This removes your entitlement to use GKE Enterprise features in that project.

Disable GKE Enterprise