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Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped provides a managed Kubernetes service with
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Enterprise edition,
letting you deploy and run container workloads using industry standard
Kubernetes methodologies. Your GDC Sandbox instance comes with three
clusters created for you:
An org infrastructure cluster, which serves as the control plane for your
instance, and
Two Kubernetes clusters for running your container workloads.
For details on Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped clusters, see
Cluster architecture.
The org infrastructure cluster
GDC Sandbox provides you an org infrastructure cluster called
org-1-admin. The org infrastructure runs the control plane and data plane
components of the organization. It also hosts the Management API server where
all non-container workloads and services are deployed. For example, you would
use the Management API server to launch and control VMs.
To work with the Management API server on the command line, do the following:
Make sure that you have downloaded, configured, and authenticated with
the gdcloud command as described in Connect.
Set a KUBECONFIG environment variable and download a kubeconfig file
for the Management API server:
Your GDC Sandbox instance comes with two pre-created Kubernetes clusters,
called user-vm-1 and user-vm-2, in the
org-1 organization. Use these clusters for container-based workloads.
A Kubernetes cluster is sometimes referred to as a user cluster
in Distributed Cloud.
To work with Kubernetes clusters on the command line, do the following:
Make sure that you have downloaded, configured, and authenticated with
the gdcloud command as described in Connect.
Set a KUBECONFIG environment variable and download a kubeconfig file
for the cluster you want to use, either user-vm-1 or user-vm-2.
The following example downloads a kubeconfig for user-vm-1:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-03 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Work with clusters\n\nGoogle Distributed Cloud air-gapped provides a managed Kubernetes service with\n[Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Enterprise edition](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/gke-editions#why),\nletting you deploy and run container workloads using industry standard\nKubernetes methodologies. Your GDC Sandbox instance comes with three\nclusters created for you:\n\n- An *org infrastructure cluster*, which serves as the control plane for your instance, and\n- Two *Kubernetes clusters* for running your container workloads.\n\nFor details on Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped clusters, see\n[Cluster architecture](/distributed-cloud/hosted/docs/latest/gdch/platform/pa-user/clusters#cluster-architecture).\n\nThe org infrastructure cluster\n------------------------------\n\nGDC Sandbox provides you an org infrastructure cluster called\n`org-1-admin`. The org infrastructure runs the control plane and data plane\ncomponents of the organization. It also hosts the Management API server where\nall non-container workloads and services are deployed. For example, you would\nuse the Management API server to launch and control VMs.\n\nTo work with the Management API server on the command line, do the following:\n\n1. Make sure that you have downloaded, configured, and authenticated with\n the `gdcloud` command as described in [Connect](/distributed-cloud/sandbox/latest/gdcloud).\n\n2. Set a `KUBECONFIG` environment variable and download a kubeconfig file\n for the Management API server:\n\n export KUBECONFIG=org-1-admin-kubeconfig\n gdcloud clusters get-credentials org-1-admin\n\nIn a similar way, to work with the `org-infra` cluster, do the following:\n\n1. Set a `KUBECONFIG` environment variable and download a kubeconfig file\n for the Management API server:\n\n export KUBECONFIG=org-1-infra-kubeconfig\n gdcloud clusters get-credentials org-1-infra\n\nKubernetes clusters\n-------------------\n\nYour GDC Sandbox instance comes with two pre-created Kubernetes clusters,\ncalled `user-vm-1` and `user-vm-2`, in the\n`org-1` organization. Use these clusters for container-based workloads.\nA Kubernetes cluster is sometimes referred to as a *user cluster*\nin Distributed Cloud.\n| **Warning:** Don't attempt to create new Kubernetes clusters. GDC Sandbox doesn't support additional clusters.\n\nYou can attach clusters to a project when you\n[create a project](/distributed-cloud/sandbox/latest/create-project).\n\nTo work with Kubernetes clusters on the command line, do the following:\n\n1. Make sure that you have downloaded, configured, and authenticated with\n the `gdcloud` command as described in [Connect](/distributed-cloud/sandbox/latest/gdcloud).\n\n2. Set a `KUBECONFIG` environment variable and download a kubeconfig file\n for the cluster you want to use, either `user-vm-1` or `user-vm-2`.\n The following example downloads a kubeconfig for `user-vm-1`:\n\n export KUBECONFIG=user-vm-1-kubeconfig\n gdcloud clusters get-credentials user-vm-1 --zone zone1"]]
