work station gkectl consolidation and compatibility.

[Thunder]

Hi all,

I'm working on optimizing our workstations. We have several workstations, each dedicated to a specific cluster. To streamline the process, I kept one workstation active and deleted the rest (which were virtual machines). The clusters are still running, but they're using different software versions. For each cluster, I created a dedicated directory. In each directory, I downloaded the corresponding version of gkectl, gkeadm, and the necessary bundles (tgz and ova files).

This setup allows me to upgrade, install, and delete clusters from within their respective directories. Everything seems to be working well so far.

However, I have a concern: Will I encounter any issues, such as missing dependencies or cluster incompatibilities, if I run gkectl from a workstation that has a different version of the software compared to the clusters it's managing? Also for any reason gcp support will refuse to support if I consolidate workstations.

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Thunder

[garisingh]

Just to clarify, are you looking to have a single workstation and multiple admin clusters or are you looking to have a single admin workstation, single admin cluster and multiple user clusters?

[Thunder]

Hi Garisingh,

I think there is no issue with single workstation single admin cluster and multiple user clusters. I believe this scenario will work and documented well

I am looking for single WorkStation for "any" activity, means it can be multiple admin clusters and user clusters of different locations. This workstation is connectable to all the clusters. The directories created for each cluster will have to script to do gcloud config/auth etc.

Is this a bad adventure  ? Will there be any dependencies of multiple admin cluster creations from this Workstation?

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Thunder

[Thunder]

Hi,

I created directory structure

 ./
├──  admincluster1/
│ ├──  k8s1user1/
│ ├── k8s1user2/
│ └──  k8s1user3/
├── admincluster2/
│ ├──  k8s2secusr1/
│ ├──  k8s2secusr2/
│ └──  k8s2secusr3/
└──  admincluster3/
├──  k8s3usr1/
├──  k8s3usr2/
└──  k8s3usr3/

Additionally, I have downloaded the necessary gkectl versions corresponding to each cluster and their respective bundles. I have successfully brought up the initial set of clusters: admincluster1, k8s1user1, k8s1user2, and k8s1user3, and everything appears to be functioning correctly.

Based on this successful trial, I believe it may be feasible to consolidate our efforts by using a single workstation VM to manage the binaries for installation, upgrades, and cluster deletions. This approach could potentially save energy. However, I acknowledge there may be unforeseen risks or side effects, and I would appreciate your insights on any potential issues that might arise from using multiple workstations per admincluster.

@garisingh  Will this approach works or not?

Looking forward to your guidance on this matter.

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Thunder