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Manually configure a cluster

Each cluster belongs to a project. Projects control whether users can create clusters with or without templates.

Who can create clusters without a template​

By default, projects require templates for cluster creation. This means:

  • Project users can only create clusters from allowed templates configured by the project admin.
  • Project admins and platform admins can always create clusters without a template, regardless of project settings.

If project admins disable the requireTemplate setting, project users can also create clusters without templates. Keep this setting enabled in production environments to maintain security controls.

Create without template​

Security consideration

Creating clusters without a template bypasses the security controls that templates provide. Users with this capability can configure any vCluster settings, including sync configurations that could grant elevated access to control plane cluster resources.

For production environments:

  • Keep templates required for all projects (the default requireTemplate setting)
  • Grant project admin roles only to users who need to create clusters without templates
  • Control who can create projects, since project creators become project admins. See project membership for details on project roles
  • Use hardened templates to control which resources can be synced to and from the control plane cluster

  1. From the project drop-down menu (top left corner), select the project you'd like to create the cluster in.

  2. Click on Clusters.

  3. Click the button.

  4. Follow the steps in the UI to create the cluster.

  5. Retrieve a kube-context for a cluster using the CLI:

    vcluster connect [vcluster-name] --project [project-name] --driver platform
tip

The platform uses Helm to manage clusters. If your cluster is running in an air-gapped environment, you may host Helm charts in an OCI compatible private registry. To use a private registry for clusters there are several configuration options: