KubeSphere Federation

    Before you use the central control plane of KubeSphere to management multiple clusters, you need to create a host cluster, also known as host cluster. The host cluster, essentially, is a KubeSphere cluster with the multi-cluster feature enabled. It provides you with the control plane for unified management of Member Clusters, also known as member cluster. Member clusters are common KubeSphere clusters without the central control plane. Namely, tenants with necessary permissions (usually cluster administrators) can access the control plane from the host cluster to manage all member clusters, such as viewing and editing resources on member clusters. Conversely, if you access the web console of any member cluster separately, you cannot see any resources on other clusters.

    There can only be one host cluster while multiple member clusters can exist at the same time. In a multi-cluster architecture, the network between the host cluster and member clusters can be connected directly or through an agent. The network between member clusters can be set in a completely isolated environment.

    KubeSphere features a powerful, inclusive central control plane so that you can manage any KubeSphere clusters in a unified way regardless of deployment environments or cloud providers.

    Before you enable multi-cluster management, make sure you have enough resources in your environment.

    • The request and limit of CPU and memory resources all refer to single replica.

    Different from other components in KubeSphere, the KubeSphere App Store serves as a global application pool for all clusters, including host cluster and member clusters. You only need to enable the App Store on the host cluster and you can use functions related to the App Store on member clusters directly (no matter whether the App Store is enabled on member clusters or not), such as and app repositories.

    However, if you only enable the App Store on member clusters without enabling it on the host cluster, you will not be able to use the App Store on any cluster in the multi-cluster architecture.