Platform Setup Overview

This section contains detailed guides for setting up the complete Tanzu Kubernetes platform in the homelab environment.

Quick Links

Core Platform Components

• Kubernetes Cluster Setup - Initial cluster configuration and RBAC
• Ingress Controller (Contour) - HTTP/HTTPS ingress configuration
• Certificate Management - Automated TLS with cert-manager
• Tanzu Build Service - Cloud-native buildpacks for container images

Additional Components

• Harbor Registry - Container registry setup
• Knative - Serverless workloads
• Tekton - CI/CD pipelines
• Storage Configuration - Persistent volume setup

Platform Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Tanzu Kubernetes Grid                    │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────────────┐  │
│  │   Contour   │  │cert-manager │  │  Tanzu Build Svc  │ │  │
│  │  (Ingress)  │  │   (TLS)     │  │   (Buildpacks)    │ │  │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                    Kubernetes (vSphere)                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Setup Order

Follow this sequence for initial platform setup:

1. Kubernetes Cluster
   • Create TKG cluster
   • Configure RBAC
   • Set up pod security policies
2. Ingress Controller
   • Deploy Contour
   • Configure LoadBalancer
   • Test HTTP routing
3. Certificate Management
   • Install cert-manager
   • Configure DNS validation
   • Generate wildcard certificates
4. Harbor Registry
   • Deploy Harbor
   • Configure TLS
   • Set up replication
5. Build Service
   • Install Kpack/TBS
   • Configure builders
   • Create image pipelines

Common Operations

Check Platform Health

# Verify all components
kubectl get pods -A | grep -E 'contour|cert-manager|harbor|build-service'

# Check ingress
kubectl get httpproxy -A

# Check certificates
kubectl get certificates -A

Update Platform Components

# Update cert-manager
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/jetstack/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.5.4/cert-manager.yaml

# Update Contour
kubectl apply -f https://projectcontour.io/quickstart/contour.yaml

Maintenance Tasks

Certificate Rotation

See Certificate Management

Harbor Certificate Update

See Harbor Setup

Build Service Updates

See TBS Configuration

Troubleshooting Quick Reference

Component	Logs Command	Common Issues
Contour	kubectl logs -n projectcontour deployment/contour	No external IP
cert-manager	kubectl logs -n cert-manager deployment/cert-manager	DNS validation fails
Harbor	kubectl logs -n harbor deployment/harbor-core	Certificate mismatch
TBS	kp build logs <image-name>	Registry auth fails

References

• Platform Components Overview
• Network Architecture
• Storage Configuration

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This is the main overview document for platform setup. Individual component guides contain detailed instructions.