Creating Clusters With CloudCasa

CloudCasa has the capability to automatically create new cloud-based Kubernetes clusters as part of a restore, replication, or migration job, if you have registered appropriate cloud accounts. When defining a job, if the “Create new cluster” option is selected when selecting a destination cluster, you will be propted to select a cluster type (EKS, AKS, or GKE), and the cloud account to use to create it.

See also

For information on registering cloud accounts with CloudCasa see: Cloud Accounts.

Tip

The option for each cloud cluster type will only be available if an appropriate cloud account has been registered with CloudCasa.

Once you select a cluster type and cloud account, a new section will open in the wizard with configuration options specific to that cloud provider (see below). If restoring or replicating to the same type of cluster as the source cluster, most creation options will be pre-filled with configuration data retrieved from the backup or source cluster.

During job execution, CloudCasa will first create the cluster and then proceed with restoring/replicating the Kubernetes resources and persistent volume data.

Creating an AWS EKS cluster

CloudCasa will prompt for the following parameters when creating an EKS cluster on AWS:

  1. Cluster name: the name for the newly created cluster. This must be a name unique to the AWS region.

  2. AWS user: the user that will have access to this cluster once the restore is complete.

  3. Region: the AWS region where this EKS cluster will be created.

  4. EKS Cluster IAM role: the IAM role that will allow the cluster to make calls to other AWS services.

    See also

    For information on how to find or create an EKS cluster IAM role see:

  5. VPC Configuration: Select the VPC and subnet groups which will be used by the EKS cluster. Also select any security groups to associate with the cluster, or leave this field empty to allow Amazon EKS to create a security group for you.

  6. Node Pools Config: the configuration for each EKS node group. Click Add Node Pool to create nodes of different configurations.

    1. Node IAM role: the IAM role that will allow the cluster nodes to make calls to other AWS services.

      See also

      For information on how to find or create an EKS node IAM role see:

    2. VM Size: the instance type to use for each node.

      See also

      For view a list of all the available instance types see:

    3. TMP Disk Size (system): the root device disk size (in GiB) for each node.

    4. Worker node auto-scaling: the minimum, maximum, and desired number of nodes for this configuration.

Creating an Azure AKS cluster

CloudCasa will prompt for the following parameters when creating an AKS cluster on Azure:

  1. Cluster name: the name for the newly created cluster.

  2. Resource group: select an Azure resource group that will be associated with the cluster.

  3. Region: the Azure region where this AKS cluster will be created.

  4. Kubernetes version: the Kubernetes version for the new cluster, from the list of available versions.

  5. Client ID: the client ID credential to use when creating the AKS cluster.

  6. Client Secret: the client secret credential used when creating the AKS cluster.

  7. Admin password: the admin password for the new cluster.

  8. Networking gives you the option to either restore a saved VNet (if available) by selecting Restore VNet and choosing the subnets to restore, or to choose networking type Kubenet or Azure CNI along with the appropriate options for each. For Azure CNI, you will be prompted to choose a Virtual Network from the list and optionally supply Kubernetes service address range, Kubernetes DNS service IP address, and Docker bridge CIDR.

  9. Node Pools: Select the Customize node pools config option in order to set custom parameters for each AKS node pool. Click Add Node Pool to create additional node pools. The following parameters can be set:

    1. Node pool mode: can be set to either “system”, to host critical system pods, or “user” for general applications. If there is only one node pool, its mode will always be set to “system”.

    2. Name: The name to assign to the node pool.

    3. OS SKU: the OS for the node pool, currently either Ubuntu or Azure Linux.

    4. VM Size: the VM size to be used for each node.

      See also

      For view a list of all the available VM sizes see:

    5. Node count: the number of nodes to be created for this pool.

    6. Auto-scaling: select Customize worker node auto-scaling to replace the fixed Node count with the auto-scaling properties Minimum size, Maximum size, and Desired size.

    7. Advanced Options: Opening the Node Pool Advanced options section will allow you to modify several less frequently used node pool options:

      OS Disk Type

      The OS disk type to be used for nodes in the pool. Can be “Ephemeral” or “Managed”.

      Max pods

      The maximum number of pods deployable to nodes in this pool.

      Kubernetes version

      The Kubernetes version to use for nodes in this pool.

      Enable node Public IP

      Enable VMSS node public IP. Default is false.

      Enable FIPS

      Create a node pool that provides FIPS 140-2 cryptographic modules. Default is false.

      Availability Zones

      The availability zone(s) where agent nodes will be placed.

      Node labels

      The node labels for the node pool, specified as key:value pairs.

      Tags

      Tags for the node pool, specified as key:value pairs.

      Node Taints

      The node taints for the node pool. Click + Add Node Taints to add taints.

    8. Cluster Addons: Allows you to select optional cluster Addons, such as Azure Policy, Container monitoring, etc.

Creating a Google GKE cluster

CloudCasa will prompt for the following parameters when creating a GKE cluster in a GCP account:

  1. Cluster name: the name for the cluster that is to be created.

  2. Location: Select type Zonal or Regional, and then select the Zone or Region from the dropdown. Note that loading the available zones or regions may take a few seconds. Next select the desired Node locations from the list.

  3. Kubernetes version: Select your desired Kubernetes version from the list of available versions.

  4. Networking: Select Network and Subnet from the lists in the dropdowns. If the source and destination clusters are both GKE, a Restore VPC option may be present. Enabling this will re-create the saved VPC with selected subnets (the cluster subnet is always selected).

  5. Node Pools: Multiple node pools can be created by clicking Add Node Pool. For each node pool, you can enter the following parameters:

    1. Select VM Size for the pool nodes.

    2. Enter Root Disk Size in GiB for the pool nodes.

    3. Enter Node count for the pool or select Customize worker node auto-scaling and enter Minimum size, Maximum size, and Desired size.

    If the source and destination clusters are both GKE, the saved node pool information will be displayed. It can be modified by selecting the Customize node pools config option.

  6. Cluster Addons: Select any desired add-ons for the cluster, such as HTTP Load Balancing, Horizontal Pod Autoscaling, etc.

See also

For more information on GKE configuration options see: The Google Kubernetes Engine Documentation