VKS now supports Kubernetes 1.29 with a range of new capabilities

In its general availability release in Q2 2024, VKS became the first Kubernetes service provider in Vietnam to support Kubernetes version 1.29.

The latest version, released at the end of 2023, the releaseKubernetes v1.29: Mandalamarks significant improvements across Kubernetes features. This new release will help platform engineers and DevOps engineers manage Kubernetes clusters more easily and efficiently.

VKS is currently open for free trial registration; see more at:Sign up for a VKS trial.

In this article we review the advantages of VKS and the benefits you get from using HiTechCloud's VKS service on Kubernetes v1.29.

What is VKS?

HiTechCloud Kubernetes Service (VKS) is a managed Kubernetes solution built on the open-source Kubernetes platform. Kubernetes is an open-source system developed by Google to automate the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications — also known as a Container Orchestration Engine.

Deployed on HiTechCloud's public cloud infrastructure, VKS provides a complete OS-level virtualization environment. Solutions built on Kubernetes normally require users to administer both master nodes and worker nodes. Because HiTechCloud controls master node administration entirely, users get a stable, well-tuned operating environment — one that lets them develop, test, deploy and ship their applications simply, quickly and efficiently.

HiTechCloud VKS offers a range of advanced features

VKS gives you a more capable and efficient Kubernetes management experience. Key VKS features include:

• Full control over the control plane: The control plane is managed entirely automatically by HiTechCloud. Through automatic node distribution, connection and operation, VKS ensures you always have an optimal environment in which to run your applications.
• Flexible Kubernetes version updates: You can choose automatic updates, or manually update to the Kubernetes version you want. VKS currently supports Kubernetes versions up to 1.29. Updating to the latest versions gives you a more stable and efficient operating environment.
• IP Whitelist and Private Node: To strengthen system security, you can create and run a Private Node Group with Private IPs only, and restrict access to the cluster management API to a preconfigured set of IP addresses.
• Automatically add Node Groups: Node groups run on an autoscaling mechanism and are scaled up or down automatically according to application demand and actual usage. This keeps your applications running at optimal performance at the lowest cost.
• Automatic node recovery: VKS automatically reboots failed nodes and removes or replaces nodes that do not respond to health checks.
• Persistent Storage: Comes with a built-in NFS Node – Persistent Storage for long-term data storage, configured automatically at provisioning time so that every node in the cluster can share it.
• Integrates a range of operational support tools: VKS integrates Calico CNI, which delivers efficiency and strong security. VKS also provides Blockstore and NLB/ALB management through Kubernetes YAML.

Kubernetes versions supported by VKS

VKS currently supports the three latest Kubernetes versions: v1.27, v1.28 and v1.29.

Kubernetes 1.29 is the newest version supported in the VKS alpha release, which launched on 17 April 2024.

In the period ahead, the HiTechCloud team is committed to continuing to release the latest updates in line with the most stable and complete Kubernetes source versions.

What is new in the Kubernetes 1.29 release?

Released at the end of 2023, Kubernetes 1.29: Mandala brings a substantial set of improvements over earlier versions. This release introduces 49 enhancements, of which 11 features are stable, 19 are in Beta and 19 are in Alpha. To maintain service quality and a stable experience, VKS uses only the stable (GA) features of Kubernetes.

In this release, Kubernetes introduced several new stable features, including:

• Removal of transient node predicates from the KCCM's service controller: This improvement removes the service controller's transient checks when deciding where to place a pod. Because those checks were based on short-lived conditions, they could cause pods to be relocated unnecessarily.
• Set the nodeport range for dynamic and static allocation: Administrators can reserve a specific range for Kubernetes dynamic allocation, or configure it so that users assign ports manually (static). This avoids conflicts between automatically assigned ports and manually configured ones.
• Priority and allocation for API server requests: The Kubernetes API server handles requests from many different sources, such as applications and cluster management tools. This feature introduces mechanisms that prioritize certain types of API request and ensure fairness in how they are processed. This can be critical to ensuring the system can respond to important tasks.
• KMS v2 improvements: With Kubernetes v1.29, KMS v2 has become a stable feature, bringing improvements in performance, key rotation, health checks, and observability. These improvements give users a reliable way to encrypt all resources in their Kubernetes cluster.

• Supports paged LIST queries against the Kubernetes API: A large deployment can produce a substantial number of resources (pods, services and so on) in a cluster. This feature lets those resources be retrieved in smaller pages rather than requesting them all from the API server at once.
• ReadWriteOncePod PersistentVolume Access Mode: Introduces the ReadWriteOncePod access mode for PVs and PVCs. If you create a pod with a PVC that uses the ReadWriteOncePod access mode, this feature guarantees it is the only pod in the entire cluster that can read from or write to that PVC.
• Kubernetes Component Health SLIs: This feature adds SLIs for core Kubernetes components such as the API server and kubelet. These metrics help track the health and performance of the Kubernetes cluster.
• CRD Validation Expression Language: Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) let you extend Kubernetes with custom resources. This feature introduces an expression language for validating CRD objects, enabling more complex and flexible validation rules for custom resources.
• Introducing nodeExpandSecret in the CSI PV source: CSI Node Expand Secret allows an optional secret field to be sent by the CSI driver as part of the NodeExpandVolumeRequest. This allows node volume expansion to be carried out underneath the storage system.
• Track pods in the ready state in the job status: This feature adds information about the number of ready nodes (Job). It gives better visibility into node status and helps identify any issue that may be keeping a node from becoming ready.
• Kubelet Resource Metrics Endpoint: This feature exposes an endpoint on which the kubelet reports resource usage metrics such as CPU and memory consumption. It is useful for tracking resource consumption and cluster health.

Why choose the HiTechCloud VKS solution?

Equipped with comprehensive Kubernetes management features, VKS significantly reduces the administrative workload for server administrators. Reasons you might choose a managed Kubernetes service in the cloud include:

Simplify system management tasks

HiTechCloud takes full responsibility for deployment, infrastructure management and virtualization, covering the management stack from the Master Node through to the Kubernetes clusters, the control plane and the nodes.

Optimize Kubernetes operations

By integrating operational systems and distributing CNI, CSI and NLB/ALB, VKS automates the heavy lifting of cluster management and operations.

High compatibility with Kubernetes

By adhering to open-source Kubernetes standards, VKS ensures high compatibility with other Kubernetes tools and services. You can easily integrate VKS into your existing systems, or move your Workload Cluster to another cloud provider or even an on-premises environment if needed, and vice versa.

Scalability

VKS fits enterprise requirements at every scale. You can readily scale or adjust your VKS plan to match your organization's data management needs.

Free management

The VKS Kubernetes management layer is free. Node costs are calculated on the number of node groups in use. VKS also provides node group autoscaling, which optimizes spend by automatically scaling nodes in the cluster up or down according to actual workload demand. This can reduce your cloud bill significantly, because you pay only for the resources you need.

Integrates easily with other HiTechCloud services and applications

Within the same ecosystem, you can fully integrate your VKS system with other HiTechCloud services and applications, such as LoadBalancer, Volume, and the vMonitor Platform, among others. This makes it easier to develop and deploy complex applications on your management platform.

VKS inherits the full set of capabilities of upstream Kubernetes while remaining adaptable to the needs of Vietnamese businesses and organizations. With Kubernetes Engine available in both the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City regions and a technical team providing 24/7 support entirely in Vietnamese, HiTechCloud can meet your requirements cost-effectively and quickly.

Conclusion

With its extensive feature set, VKS built on Kubernetes v1.29 gives you powerful tooling that substantially reduces the burden of managing Kubernetes while maintaining application performance and operational speed.

Whether you are developing, testing, or deploying applications, VKS provides a comprehensive, reliable platform that simplifies your business's improvement and digital transformation journey. Embrace the future of container application management with Kubernetes 1.29 on VKS today. Sign up to try the service atHERE!

As a provider that always leads in adopting the latest software engineering advances, HiTechCloud is committed to delivering stable, reliable, cost-effective cloud computing services for businesses. Contact HiTechCloud for a free consultation on digital transformation solutions for your business!