Start vCluster.Pro
Using vCluster.Pro CLI is the preferred way to deploy vCluster.Pro to a Kubernetes cluster. If you decide later on you want to manage your vCluster.Pro instance via GitOps, you may export the applied Kubernetes manifests or Helm chart configuration and store this data in a git repository.
1. Download and Install vCluster.Pro CLI
Use one of the following commands to download the vCluster.Pro CLI binary from GitHub:
- Homebrew
- Mac (Intel/AMD)
- Mac (Silicon/ARM)
- Linux (AMD)
- Linux (ARM)
- Windows Powershell
brew install loft-sh/tap/vcluster
curl -L -o vcluster "https://github.com/loft-sh/vcluster/releases/latest/download/vcluster-darwin-amd64" && sudo install -c -m 0755 vcluster /usr/local/bin
curl -L -o vcluster "https://github.com/loft-sh/vcluster/releases/latest/download/vcluster-darwin-arm64" && sudo install -c -m 0755 vcluster /usr/local/bin
curl -L -o vcluster "https://github.com/loft-sh/vcluster/releases/latest/download/vcluster-linux-amd64" && sudo install -c -m 0755 vcluster /usr/local/bin
curl -L -o vcluster "https://github.com/loft-sh/vcluster/releases/latest/download/vcluster-linux-arm64" && sudo install -c -m 0755 vcluster /usr/local/bin
md -Force "$Env:APPDATA\loft"; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.SecurityProtocolType]'Tls,Tls11,Tls12';
Invoke-WebRequest -URI "https://github.com/loft-sh/vcluster/releases/latest/download/vcluster-windows-amd64.exe" -o $Env:APPDATA\loft\vcluster.exe;
$env:Path += ";" + $Env:APPDATA + "\loft";
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", $env:Path, [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User);
Line 4 of this install script adds the install directory %APPDATA%\loft to the $PATHenvironment variable. This is only effective for the current Powershell session, i.e., when opening a new terminal window,loft may not be found.
Make sure to add the folder %APPDATA%\loft to the PATH environment variable after installing vCluster.Pro CLI via Powershell. Afterward, a reboot might be necessary.
To confirm that vCluster.Pro CLI is successfully installed, reboot and test via:
vcluster --version
Alternatively, you can download the binary for your platform from the GitHub Releases page and add this binary to your PATH.
2. Deploy the vCluster.Pro Platform
Make sure you are using the correct host cluster kube-context via kubectl config current-context and then run:
Please make sure you meet the following requirements before running this command:
- Current kube-context has admin access to the cluster
- Helm v3 must be installed
- kubectl must be installed
vcluster pro start
This will deploy the vCluster.Pro platform into the host vcluster-pro namespace, by default, and then establishes a port-forwarding connection.
The UI will automatically open in your browser and log you in. You will be asked for your user details to create the admin user.
From this point on, you will be able to create virtual clusters using the Pro Distro.
Your vCluster.Pro pod is not starting or the UI is not showing up? View our Troubleshooting Guide if you have any issues.
3. Logging in
While vcluster pro start logs you in automatically, you can also manually login via the CLI:
vcluster login https://1rtjxak.loft.host # See `vcluster pro start` output for login credentials and your actual sub-domain name (auto-generated).
This command will open the browser where you can sign in using the login data shown in the
output of vcluster pro start.
4. Create vClusters
Let's now create a virtual cluster called my-vcluster-pro in the my-vcluster-pro-namespace namespace, via the vCluster CLI:
vcluster create my-vcluster-pro --namespace my-vcluster-pro-namespace
This command will create a virtual cluster using the Pro Distro.
While logged in to vCluster.Pro, all vClusters will be created using the vCluster.Pro Distro, unless you add the --disable-pro flag to the create command. Please note that these OSS vClusters will not show up in the vCluster.Pro UI, unless you also import them.