VKS | The Nested Lab

The blueprint designer's palette, Supervisor Namespace, VPC and Workload groups, unfolding into five YAML types and the Kubernetes kinds behind each item

Every resource in the VCF Automation 9.1 blueprint designer: the complete guide

A complete guide to the VCF Automation 9.1 blueprint designer: every palette item, the YAML behind it, every field the platform accepts, recipes and traps. Every snippet validated, dry-run or deployed.

Telegraf pods stuck in FailedMount until the Supervisor Management Proxy exists; then a domainless service URL until serviceDomain is set

Telegraf on VKS: the dependency that isn't in the README

On VCF 9.1, the supported route installs Telegraf in new VKS clusters for you. Underneath sits a dependency the README never mentions, two secrets from the Supervisor Management Proxy, and without them every Telegraf pod is stuck.

Two fluent-bit shippers — a VKS package and a Windows service — converging on one Ops for Logs endpoint

fluent-bit two ways: VKS add-on and Windows agent, one log endpoint

One log pipeline, two very different worlds: fluent-bit as a VKS package and as a Windows Server 2025 service, both shipping to the same VCF Operations for Logs. One backend, two configs, lessons from both.

Seven demo apps behind seven VIPs on one VCFA-deployed VKS cluster

Seven demo apps, one request: deploying a showcase stack via VCF Automation

Seven demo apps, Pac-Man and KubeDoom among them, on a VKS cluster that VCF Automation built in a tenant VPC, each with its own NSX virtual IP. The proper tenanted path, what you get for free, and the traps.

Pac-Man inside a VPC boundary; a LoadBalancer VIP is the one door out

What's a VPC? Let Pac-Man explain

Part 0 of the Pod Papers: an NSX VPC explained with a running game of Pac-Man. Private by default, one deliberate door out, and a self-inflicted outage where five green layers hid one wrong integer.

The same Cluster manifest applied by kubectl and requested through the catalog — and what the second path adds for free

One VKS cluster, two ways: kubectl vs VCF Automation All Apps

The same VKS cluster built twice: once with kubectl, once as a VCF Automation request. The Cluster object is identical. Everything around it isn’t, and the difference is what you get for free.