Creating Kubernetes or OpenShift Clusters

Summary

There are numerous vendors that supply the tools necessary to deploy Kubernetes or OpenShift, in the cloud or locally. Because of the varieties of deployment options, we've provided a few reference links here to get you started. After deploying your Kubernetes cluster, you can begin creating an availability group in Kubernetes or OpenShift using the SQL Server Availability Groups in Kubernetes guide.

Information

Azure

Azure provides tutorials and documentation for setting up Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) clusters.

Kubernetes

• CLI: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/learn/quick-kubernetes-deploy-cli

• Portal: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/learn/quick-kubernetes-deploy-portal?tabs=azure-cli

OpenShift

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/openshift/tutorial-create-cluster

Amazon Web Services

Similar to Azure, AWS provides managed Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and Red Hat OpenShift on AWS (ROSA) services. They also provide documentation on deploying OpenShift clusters on AWS infrastructure without ROSA management.

Kubernetes

• CLI: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/getting-started-eksctl.html

• Management Console: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/getting-started-console.html

OpenShift

• ROSA: https://docs.openshift.com/rosa/welcome/index.html

• Non-ROSA reference deployment: https://aws.amazon.com/quickstart/architecture/openshift/

Google Cloud

Google provides a robust Kubernetes service (including Autopilot mode), but they do not have a dedicated OpenShift management platform like some other cloud providers do. OpenShift can still be installed manually on Google Cloud using instructions provided by Red Hat.

Kubernetes

https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/deploy-app-cluster

caution

If using the DH2i NATMatchmaking service to join pods from multiple regions and/or sites to the same cluster, then using Autopilot from Google Cloud is not recommended. The Autopilot feature automatically enables network rules that make external traffic act as though it is behind a symmetric NAT device. See the following KB article for more information:

• Understanding Different NAT Types and Hole Punching

To deploy a GKE cluster without Autopilot, use the gcloud container clusters create command instead of the gcloud container clusters create-auto command.

OpenShift

https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/4.7/installing/installing_gcp/installing-gcp-default.html

Deploying Locally

Instructions for local deployments will vary based on who is providing the Kubernetes binaries for you to install.

info

Some of the options provided below are intended for development and testing purposes and not for production deployments.

Kubernetes

• K3s: https://k3s.io/

  tip

  It is recommended to replace the default Klipper load balancer with another option such as MetalLB.

• MicroK8s: https://microk8s.io/

OpenShift

https://developers.redhat.com/products/openshift-local/overview

Additional Information

• OpenShift Container Platform Documentation

• Kubernetes Documentation