tkg.vsphere.vmware.com Reconciliation Fails with “Unsupported way to fetch templates” After Relocation to a Private Registry

Products

• VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service

Issue/Introduction

When relocating the Supervisor Service tkg.vsphere.vmware.com to a private container image registry, the Supervisor Cluster may remain stuck in the Configuring state.
This issue typically occurs due to reconciliation failures during Supervisor Service deployment or update, resulting from incorrect or incomplete private registry configuration details in the YAML manifest.

Administrators may observe repeated reconciliation attempts and error messages related to unsupported fetch templates.

You may observe the following symptoms:

• The Supervisor Cluster remains in the Configuring state.
• The tkg.vsphere.vmware.com package fails to reconcile.

The following errors appear in when you describe the package using command "kubectl describe pkgi tkg.vsphere.vmware.com -n vmware-system-supervisor-services"

  Message:               Error (see .status.usefulErrorMessage for details)
  Status:                True
  Type:                  ReconcileFailed
Friendly Description:    Reconcile failed: Error (see .status.usefulErrorMessage for details)
Last Attempted Version:  3.3.x
Observed Generation:     12
Useful Error Message:    Fetching (1): Unsupported way to fetch templates
Version:                 3.3.x
Events:                  <none>
Additional errors may include:
Error from server (NotFound): packageinstalls.packaging.carvel.dev "tkg.vsphere.vmware.com" not found 
Error from server (NotFound): packageinstalls.packaging.carvel.dev "3.3.x" not found 
Error message summary: Unsupported way to fetch templates

Environment

VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service

 

Cause

This issue occurs when the Supervisor Service YAML contains incorrect or incomplete information during relocation to a private registry.
Typical cause for the issue is incorrect YAML format, which will lead to a reconciliation failure with the error:
“Fetching (1): Unsupported way to fetch templates.”

Resolution

To resolve the issue, ensure the Supervisor Service tkg.vsphere.vmware.com is correctly relocated to your private registry and references the proper image bundle.

Step 1: Copy the Image to Your Private Registry

Use the imgpkg copy command to copy the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Supervisor Service image to your private registry.

imgpkg copy --tar ./tkg-service-v3.3.#.tar --to-repo <private-registry-path>/tkg:3.3.3

Note: Replace <private-registry-path> with the actual path to your private image repository.

Step 2: Update the Service in vSphere UI

1. Navigate to Workload Management → Services → Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service
2. Select Actions → Manage Service
3. Choose the Supervisor Cluster
4. Click Next, and update the following fields:

namespace: vmware-system-supervisor-services
template:
spec:
fetch:
- imgpkgBundle:
image: <private-registry-path>/tkg:3.3.#

Step 3: Validate Package Reference in Supervisor Context

1. Switch to the Supervisor Cluster’s kubectl context.
2. Verify that the package vsphere.vmware.com references the image in your private registry:
3. kubectl get pkgi tkg.vsphere.vmware.com -o yaml

Confirm the reference:

image: <private-registry-path>/tkg:3.3.2

4. If it does not reference the correct image, manually update it to the correct one.
5. Allow a few minutes for the package (pkgi) to reconcile automatically.

Additional Information

^{For detailed guidance on relocating Supervisor Services to a private registry, refer to:
🔗 Relocate Supervisor Services to a Private Registry (Broadcom TechDocs)}