NSX-T Load Balancer Controller

A Kubernetes load balancer provider for NSX-T. It can be used in parallel with the regular vSphere cloud controller manager.

This cloud controller manager implements (only) the load balancing API of a cloud controller for an NSX-T environment. It uses by default a different lease resource than the regular cloud controller manager.

There are two different modes:

• the managed mode manages the load balancer service. The NSX-T load balancer service is only created if it is required. This saves resources if no kubernetes service of type LoadBalancer is actually used.
• the unmanaged mode is used if the configuration specifies a load balancer service id. Here only the virtual servers are managed.

All generated NSX-T elements are tagged with the cluster name and the information from the service. Using this tagging it is able to handle recovery of lost or dangling elements and garbage collection of unused elements previously generated by the controller, even if the kubernetes service object is already (accidentally) gone.

Load Balancer Classes

This load balancer controller supports the usage of multiple load balancer classes. Every class may use another IPPool configured in NSX-T. This supports the creation of load balancers in different visibility realms, for example an `internet facing or a private load balancer. The IPPools must be preconfigured in NSX-T. To select a dedicated loadbalancer class the kunernetes service object must be annotated with the annotation:

loadbalancer.vsphere.class=<class name>

If no such annotation is given the default class will be used.

Health Checks

For TCP load balancers a health check will be generated.

Configuration File

The controller manager requires a configuration file:

[LoadBalancer]
ipPoolName = pool1
#ipPoolId = 0815
lbServiceId = 4711
size = MEDIUM

[LoadBalancerClass "public"]
ipPoolName = poolPublic

[LoadBalancerClass "private"]
ipPoolName = poolPrivate

[Tags]
tag1 = value1
tag2 = value2

[NSX-T]
user = admin
password = secret
host = nsxt-server
logicalRouterId = 1234

Only one of ipPoolId or ipPoolName may be given. If the lbServiceId is given the controller is running in the unmanaged mode. Otherwise the logicalRouterId must be given. If both are given the configuration of the load balancer services is validated.

The LoadBalancer section defines an implicit default load balancer class. This load balancer class is used if the service does not specify a dedicated load balancer class via annotation. Its values are also used as defaults for all explicitly specified load balancer classes.

Additionaly classes may be configured by the labeled LoadBalancerClass sections.

The tags configured in the Tags section will be added as tags to all generated elements in NSX-T.