There are many variations, some simple and some complex, on how to install GKE on-prem and create your user clusters.
To keep your initial installation straightforward, this documentation takes you through an installation journey that chooses the simpler options. At the end of the journey, you have an admin cluster and a small user cluster that you can use to deploy Kubernetes workloads.
After you've had some experience with your small cluster, you can read the advanced topics on setup and installation. At that point, you can perform a second installation that includes the advanced features of your choice, including creating a larger user cluster.
Following are the steps for installing GKE on-prem and creating your initial user cluster:
- Get an GKE Enterprise subscription.
- Prepare your vSphere environment.
- Set up networking and load balancing.
- Configure your Google Cloud project.
- Create an admin workstation.
- Create an admin cluster and a user cluster.
The initial installation journey makes these choices:
- Use the F5 BIG-IP load balancer. This way, the initial installation topics do not have to discuss the several load balancing options.
- Use static IP addresses for cluster nodes and the admin workstation.
- Use Container Registry to host GKE on-prem's container images instead of a private Docker registry.
- Create a user cluster that has three worker nodes and one control plane node.
After you have your GKE Enterprise subscription, the next step is to prepare your vSphere environment.