Loft Labs Integrates Virtual Kubernetes Clusters With Rancher

Loft Labs revealed today it has integrated its platform for spinning up virtual Kubernetes clusters with the Rancher management platform provided by SUSE.

The vCluster platform created by Loft Labs enables IT teams to create lightweight Kubernetes clusters that run inside the namespaces of a multi-tenant cluster.

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Loft Labs CEO Lukas Gentele said vCluster for Rancher will make it simpler for IT teams that rely on this platform to manage physical clusters to also manage virtual ones.

Originally launched in 2021, a vCluster behaves just like any certified distribution of Kubernetes, which means that it passes all conformance tests required by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). A vCluster can be spun up using either a graphical tool or via the Loft command line interface (CLI) or, alternatively, by using the kubectl CLI that comes with Kubernetes.

The integration includes a user interface extension for Rancher. Whenever a virtual cluster is established using a template, it can be set to update automatically upon the release of a new version of the template. Alternatively, administrators of the vCluster have the option to receive notifications and decide on the timing of upgrades.

Some IT teams have already integrated vClusters with other management frameworks on their own, but Loft Labs decided to take this task on themselves to ensure Rancher integration was available sooner. In the longer term, Loft Labs will add additional integrations with other management platforms, he noted.

As more Kubernetes clusters are deployed, the need to expand the available pool of IT talent capable of managing them becomes more urgent. Many Kubernetes clusters are initially deployed by DevOps engineers who have experience working with YAML files. As the number of clusters increases, however, the need to provide IT administrators with graphical tools to manage Kubernetes clusters is becoming more apparent. Beyond creating virtual clusters using a graphical interface, virtual clusters can also be created using, for example, the vCluster command line interfaces CLI, custom resource definitions, Helm charts or Terraform infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools.

Virtual Kubernetes clusters are used most widely in pre-production environments to reduce the total number of physical Kubernetes servers an organization needs to deploy. However, the number of instances of virtual clusters being used in production environments is growing as more organizations look to reduce the total cost of IT, noted Gentele. The vCluster platform makes it simpler to ensure the appropriate guardrails are in place as virtual clusters are spun up and torn down, noted Gentele.

With more organizations than ever deploying Kubernetes clusters at an unprecedented scale, there is a growing need to isolate workloads on individual clusters to minimize potential disruption should the underlying infrastructure become unavailable. However, as organizations find themselves managing fleets of Kubernetes clusters, the cost of managing them quickly becomes prohibitive.

It’s not clear just how many virtual Kubernetes clusters may have been spun up in recent years, but given the potential number of virtual clusters that could run on a single physical cluster, it may not be too long before those virtual clusters far outnumber existing physical clusters.