Create or access an IBM Cloud Kubernetes cluster on a VPC
Create and setup a new cluster
Follow these steps to create and setup a new IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service(IKS) cluster on vpc-gen2
provider.
A vpc-gen2
cluster does not expose each node to the public internet directly and thus has more secure
and more complex network setup. It is recommended setup for secured production use cases of Kubeflow.
Setting environment variables
Choose the region and the worker node provider for your cluster, and set the environment variables.
export KUBERNERTES_VERSION=1.18
export CLUSTER_ZONE=us-south-3
export CLUSTER_NAME=kubeflow-vpc
where:
KUBERNETES_VERSION
: Runibmcloud ks versions
to see the supported Kubernetes versions. Refer to Supported version matrix.CLUSTER_ZONE
: Runibmcloud ks locations
to list supported zones. For example, chooseus-south-3
to create your cluster in the Dallas (US) data center.CLUSTER_NAME
must be lowercase and unique among any other Kubernetes clusters in the specified${CLUSTER_ZONE}
.
Notice: Refer to Creating clusters in the IBM Cloud documentation for additional information on how to set up other providers and zones in your cluster.
Choosing a worker node flavor
The worker nodes flavor name varies from zones and providers. Run
ibmcloud ks flavors --zone ${CLUSTER_ZONE} --provider vpc-gen2
to list available flavors.
Below are some examples of flavors supported in the us-south-3
zone with vpc-gen2
node provider:
ibmcloud ks flavors --zone us-south-3 --provider vpc-gen2
Example output:
For more information about these flavors, see 'https://ibm.biz/flavors'
Name Cores Memory Network Speed OS Server Type Storage Secondary Storage Provider
bx2.16x64 16 64GB 16Gbps UBUNTU_18_64 virtual 100GB 0B vpc-gen2
bx2.2x8† 2 8GB 4Gbps UBUNTU_18_64 virtual 100GB 0B vpc-gen2
bx2.32x128 32 128GB 16Gbps UBUNTU_18_64 virtual 100GB 0B vpc-gen2
bx2.48x192 48 192GB 16Gbps UBUNTU_18_64 virtual 100GB 0B vpc-gen2
bx2.4x16 4 16GB 8Gbps UBUNTU_18_64 virtual 100GB 0B vpc-gen2
...
The recommended configuration for a cluster is at least 8 vCPU cores with 16GB memory. Hence, we recommend
bx2.4x16
flavor to create a two-worker-node cluster. Keep in mind that you can always scale the cluster
by adding more worker nodes should your application scales up.
Now set the environment variable with the flavor you choose.
export WORKER_NODE_FLAVOR=bx2.4x16
Create an IBM Cloud Kubernetes cluster for vpc-gen2
infrastructure
Creating a vpc-gen2
based cluster needs a VPC, a subnet and a public gateway attached to it. Fortunately, this is a one
time setup. Future vpc-gen2
clusters can reuse the same VPC/subnet(with attached public-gateway).
-
Begin with installing a
vpc-infrastructure
plugin:ibmcloud plugin install vpc-infrastructure
Refer to this link, for more information.
-
Target
vpc-gen 2
to access gen 2 VPC resources:ibmcloud is target --gen 2
Verify that the target is correctly set up:
ibmcloud is target
Example output:
Target Generation: 2
-
Create or use an existing VPC:
a) Use an existing VPC:
ibmcloud is vpcs
Example output:
Listing vpcs for generation 2 compute in all resource groups and region ... ID Name Status Classic access Default network ACL Default security group Resource group r006-hidden-68cc-4d40-xxxx-4319fa3gxxxx my-vpc1 available false husker-sloping-bee-resize blimp-hasty-unaware-overflow kubeflow
If the above list contains the VPC that can be used to deploy your cluster - make a note of its ID.
b) To create a new VPC, proceed as follows:
ibmcloud is vpc-create my-vpc
Example output:
Creating vpc my-vpc in resource group kubeflow under account IBM as ... ID r006-hidden-68cc-4d40-xxxx-4319fa3fxxxx Name my-vpc ...
Save the ID in a variable
VPC_ID
as follows, so that we can use it later.export VPC_ID=r006-hidden-68cc-4d40-xxxx-4319fa3fxxxx
-
Create or use an existing subnet:
a) To use an existing subnet:
ibmcloud is subnets
Example output:
Listing subnets for generation 2 compute in all resource groups and region ... ID Name Status Subnet CIDR Addresses ACL Public Gateway VPC Zone Resource group 0737-27299d09-1d95-4a9d-a491-a6949axxxxxx my-subnet available 10.240.128.0/18 16373/16384 husker-sloping-bee-resize my-gateway my-vpc us-south-3 kubeflow
If the above list contains the subnet corresponding to your VPC, that can be used to deploy your cluster - make sure you note it’s ID.
b) To create a new subnet:
- List address prefixes and note the CIDR block corresponding to a Zone;
in the below example, for Zone:
us-south-3
the CIDR block is :10.240.128.0/18
.
ibmcloud is vpc-address-prefixes $VPC_ID
Example output:
Listing address prefixes of vpc r006-hidden-68cc-4d40-xxxx-4319fa3fxxxx under account IBM as user new@user-email.com... ID Name CIDR block Zone Has subnets Is default Created r006-xxxxxxxx-4002-46d2-8a4f-f69e7ba3xxxx rising-rectified-much-brew 10.240.0.0/18 us-south-1 false true 2021-03-05T14:58:39+05:30 r006-xxxxxxxx-dca9-4321-bb6c-960c4424xxxx retrial-reversal-pelican-cavalier 10.240.64.0/18 us-south-2 false true 2021-03-05T14:58:39+05:30 r006-xxxxxxxx-7352-4a46-bfb1-fcbac6cbxxxx subfloor-certainly-herbal-ajar 10.240.128.0/18 us-south-3 false true 2021-03-05T14:58:39+05:30
- Now create a subnet as follows:
ibmcloud is subnet-create my-subnet $VPC_ID $CLUSTER_ZONE --ipv4-cidr-block "10.240.128.0/18"
Example output:
Creating subnet my-subnet in resource group kubeflow under account IBM as user new@user-email.com... ID 0737-27299d09-1d95-4a9d-a491-a6949axxxxxx Name my-subnet
- Make sure you export the subnet IDs follows:
export SUBNET_ID=0737-27299d09-1d95-4a9d-a491-a6949axxxxxx
- List address prefixes and note the CIDR block corresponding to a Zone;
in the below example, for Zone:
-
Create a
vpc-gen2
based Kubernetes cluster:ibmcloud ks cluster create vpc-gen2 \ --name $CLUSTER_NAME \ --zone $CLUSTER_ZONE \ --version ${KUBERNETES_VERSION} \ --flavor ${WORKER_NODE_FLAVOR} \ --vpc-id ${VPC_ID} \ --subnet-id ${SUBNET_ID} \ --workers 2
-
Attach a public gateway
This step is mandatory for Kubeflow deployment to succeed, because pods need public internet access to download images.
- First, check if your cluster is already assigned a public gateway:
ibmcloud is pubgws
Example output:
Listing public gateways for generation 2 compute in all resource groups and region ... ID Name Status Floating IP VPC Zone Resource group r006-xxxxxxxx-5731-4ffe-bc51-1d9e5fxxxxxx my-gateway available xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx my-vpc us-south-3 default
In the above run, the gateway is already attached for the vpc:
my-vpc
. In case no gateway is attached, proceed with the rest of the setup.- Next, attach a public gateway by running the following command:
ibmcloud is public-gateway-create my-gateway $VPC_ID $CLUSTER_ZONE
Example output:
ID: r006-xxxxxxxx-5731-4ffe-bc51-1d9e5fxxxxxx
Save the above generated gateway ID as follows:
export GATEWAY_ID="r006-xxxxxxxx-5731-4ffe-bc51-1d9e5fxxxxxx"
- Finally, attach the public gateway to the subnet:
ibmcloud is subnet-update $SUBNET_ID --public-gateway-id $GATEWAY_ID
Example output:
Updating subnet 0737-27299d09-1d95-4a9d-a491-a6949axxxxxx under account IBM as user new@user-email.com... ID 0737-27299d09-1d95-4a9d-a491-a6949axxxxxx Name my-subnet ...
Verifying the cluster
To use the created cluster, switch the Kubernetes context to point to the cluster:
ibmcloud ks cluster config --cluster ${CLUSTER_NAME}
Make sure all worker nodes are up with the command below:
kubectl get nodes
and verify that all the nodes are in Ready
state.
Delete the cluster
Delete the cluster including it’s storage:
ibmcloud ks cluster rm --force-delete-storage -c ${CLUSTER_NAME}
Feedback
Was this page helpful?
Glad to hear it! Please tell us how we can improve.
Sorry to hear that. Please tell us how we can improve.