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Kubernetes Distribution

The distribution analyzer is used to check for known managed (hosted) and self-hosted versions of Kubernetes. The when attribute supports standard comparators to compare the result to.

The distribution analyzer uses data from the clusterResources collector. The clusterResources collector is automatically added and will always be present.

The distribution analyzer supports the following distributions:

  • aks (Azure Kubernetes Services)
  • digitalocean (DigitalOcean)
  • docker-desktop (Docker Desktop)
  • eks (Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service)
  • embedded-cluster (Replicated Embedded Cluster)
  • gke (Google Kubernetes Engine)
  • ibm (IBM Cloud)
  • k0s (Mirantis k0s)
  • k3s (K3s)
  • kind (Kind)
  • kurl (Replicated kURL)
  • microk8s (MicroK8s)
  • minikube (minikube)
  • oke (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Container Engine for Kubernetes)
  • openShift (RedHat OpenShift)
  • rke2 (Rancher RKE2)
  • tanzu (VMware Tanzu)

How Detection Works​

Distributions are identified from the data the clusterResources collector already gathers, using whichever signals are distinctive for each one:

  • node labels, such as kots.io/embedded-cluster-role for Embedded Cluster or minikube.k8s.io/version for minikube
  • node annotations, such as rke2.io/node-args for RKE2
  • the node providerID prefix, such as aws: for EKS or digitalocean: for DigitalOcean
  • the node OS image, such as Docker Desktop
  • API groups present in the cluster, such as apps.openshift.io/ for OpenShift

Tanzu is detected from either the run.tanzu.vmware.com/kubernetesDistributionVersion node label or the presence of the run.tanzu.vmware.com/ API group, so it is recognized on TKG and VKS clusters whether or not the supervisor exposes that API group.

Because detection relies on these signals, a distribution can go unrecognized on a cluster where the expected labels or API groups have been stripped or renamed. Outcomes are evaluated in the order they are declared, and an outcome with no when attribute always matches, so it is worth ending a spec with one to catch unrecognized distributions. If no outcome matches, the analyzer reports a warning.

Parameters​

There are no parameters available for this analyzer.

Example Analyzer Definition​

apiVersion: troubleshoot.sh/v1beta2
kind: Preflight
metadata:
  name: require-hosted-k8s
spec:
  analyzers:
    - distribution:
        outcomes:
          - pass:
              when: "== k0s"
              message: k0s is a supported distribution
          - pass:
              when: "== openShift"
              message: OpenShift is a supported distribution
          - fail:
              when: "== docker-desktop"
              message: The application does not support Docker Desktop
          - warn:
              when: "== microk8s"
              message: The application does not support Microk8s
          - warn:
              when: "== kind"
              message: The application does not support Kind
          - pass:
              when: "== eks"
              message: EKS is a supported distribution
          - pass:
              when: "== gke"
              message: GKE is a supported distribution
          - pass:
              when: "== aks"
              message: AKS is a supported distribution
          - pass:
              when: "== digitalocean"
              message: DigitalOcean is a supported distribution
          - pass:
              when: "== tanzu"
              message: Tanzu is a supported distribution
          - warn:
              when: "== minikube"
              message: Minikube is not suitable for production environments
          - warn:
              when: "== ibm"
              message: The application does not support IBM Cloud
          - warn:
              message: Unable to determine the distribution of Kubernetes