As Kubernetes has become the foundational technology for Enterprises to go cloud-native, Enterprises need solutions that simplify Kubernetes cluster and application management to scale across their organizations. 

Nutanix Karbon is a curated turnkey offering that provides simplified provisioning, operations, and lifecycle management of Kubernetes clusters and workloads. Nutanix Karbon provides a curated distribution of Kubernetes optimized to run on Nutanix AHV that is 100% supported by Nutanix. 

Nirmata natively integrates with Nutanix Karbon and provides integrated cluster and application management platform to meet the needs of central platform and infrastructure operators and developers. 

Nirmata and Nutanix have built a technology integration that brings together Nutanix Karbon, a Kubernetes service along with Nirmata’s Kubernetes multi-cloud workload management, governance, across and policy management solution. 

Here are some key benefits for customers looking to deployment Kubernetes – 

• Automated cluster and application deployment and scaling – Nirmata and Karbon integration provide a single pane view into the Karbon cluster and Kubernetes application lifecycle management. 
• Visibility into cluster health – Get full visibility into the cluster and workloads with easy-automated analysis of complex issues. Nirmata integrates with ticketing and change management tools for process automation that cuts down on hours of manual troubleshooting and costly handoffs.
• Correlated alerting and notifications – Nirmata listens for cluster changes and generates alerts based on built-in rules for state changes, metrics, threshold crossings, as well as other error conditions. Nirmata routes workload alerts to the appropriate teams, freeing up cluster administrators to focus on delivering value.
• Application catalogs with flexible developer workflows – With Nirmata, product teams can have application catalogs that support GitOps, Helm upstream, and Kubernetes-native YAML syntax to provide easy modeling and validation of configurations in a central location. Nirmata supports GitOps-style workflows as well as Release and Channels promote changes from the upstream to multiple environments, with approvals and change notifications. 
• Centralized identity & access management – Nirmata integrates with your central enterprise user directory service and automates the management of user identities and access controls across all your Karbon clusters. Each team can be provided access roles to clusters, and teams can securely share clusters with Nirmata automating the management of resource quotas, network policies, and role bindings. 

Nutanix Karbon-Nirmata Integration

Let’s dive in and see Nirmata deploy a Nutanix Karbon cluster. There are a couple of steps required to set up the integration.

First, cloud credentials access Karbon will have to be created in NIrmata. This can be accomplished by going to the Cloud Credentials menu in Nirmata,  click the “Add cloud credentials” option, and choose “Nutanix Karbon”. Cloud credentials require the Nutanix AHV API endpoint address along with username and password for access. Fill in all the details as shown below

Second, define a Cluster Type which is basically a template that defines the cluster configuration used to create a cluster. Create a Cluster Type by navigating to Policies -> Cluster Types-> Add Cluster type and then choose “Nutanix”

Fill in the details with the required configurations and click on “Create”.

 Configure add-on services like ingress, monitoring, logging, etc. that can be deployed along with cluster deployment. 

Using a single cluster-type, create multiple clusters with the same consistent configuration. Now, create a cluster with this cluster-type

Navigate to Clusters and Select “Add Cluster” Choose “Nutanix” option and fill in details to create a Cluster.

Once, cluster deployment is complete, all cluster configuration and resources will be available in the cluster panel.

Now, you can leverage the application catalog, identity access management, virtual clusters and workload policies on Karbon clusters using Nirmata.

Summary

As you look to scale your Kubernetes deployments across the Enterprise, Nutanix Karbon and Nirmata deliver a simple and seamless experience to manage Kubernetes clusters and workloads, eliminating operational complexity and pain. 

Learn more about Nutanix Karbon here

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