How to pick up correct Cluster Essentials when deploying a new TAP environment

Products

• VMware Tanzu Application Platform

Issue/Introduction

It is required to install Cluster Essentials if you are going to deploy TAP in your Kubernetes cluster except VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster. The TAP document provides a link of Cluster Essentials, for example TAP v1.7 redirecting to Cluster Essentials v1.7 while TAP v1.8 routing to Cluster Essentials v1.8. This gives an illusion that the TAP requires the same version with Cluster Essentials.

You might get confused when deploying TAP v1.12 as the highest version of Cluster Essentials is v1.10.

Resolution

Cluster Essentials simplifies the process of installing the open-source Carvel tools on Kubernetes cluster. These tools are essential for easy installation and management of various Tanzu products, such as TAP. They are two different products and there is no direct mapping between them.

A new minor release for Cluster Essentials is published every quarter. Monthly patch releases are published to address critical bugs and CVEs. It is common to see the latest versions are different between TAP and Cluster Essentials.

When deploying Cluster Essentials, it is recommended to pick up the latest version, which supports your Kubernetes versions and platforms. For example, Cluster Essentials v1.9 is recommended for Kubernetes cluster v1.25 not Cluster Essentials v1.10 as Kubernetes cluster v1.26 is the lowest version supported by Cluster Essentials v1.10.