Deploy vCluster
Your infrastructure determines your deployment path. Choose the section that matches what you have today.
I have a Kubernetes cluster​
The control plane runs as a pod on any conformant Kubernetes cluster, including EKS, GKE, AKS, OpenShift, and self-managed clusters.
You choose how to provision worker nodes for each tenant cluster:
- Shared nodes — tenant workloads run on the Control Plane Cluster's existing node pool. Good for internal platforms, CI/CD, and development environments.
- Private nodes — dedicated nodes join each tenant cluster exclusively. Ideal for GPU workloads, regulated environments, and full isolation.
You can't mix shared and private nodes in a single vCluster, and you can't change the node type after deployment.
Decide before you deploy. vCluster locks the worker node type, backing store (SQLite, etcd, MySQL, or PostgreSQL), and control plane distro at creation time. You can't change them by upgrading an existing vCluster.
Deploy on a Kubernetes cluster →
I have bare metal or VMs​
vCluster Standalone deploys a full Kubernetes cluster directly on your nodes. No existing cluster required, minimal setup, no heavyweight distribution overhead. Add nodes as needed and have a working cluster in minutes.
Once the cluster is up, join worker nodes from any infrastructure. Nodes connect to the exposed cluster endpoint using a bootstrap token, so workers don't need to be co-located. Bring in cloud provider instances, VMs from a different site, or additional bare metal machines. See Private nodes for requirements and steps. To add vCluster tenant clusters on top, follow the Kubernetes path above.
Decide before you deploy. vCluster sets the backing store at install time. You can't change it without redeploying.
I am using Docker​
vind runs a full Kubernetes cluster entirely in Docker. The control plane and worker nodes all run as containers. Docker is the only requirement.
Use vind for local development, offline CI pipelines, and testing configurations before committing to a cluster deployment.
Decide before you deploy. vCluster sets the backing store and control plane distro at creation time. You can't change them without redeploying.