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Simone Morellato
Simone Morellato

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Sveltos Quick Start

In this post, we’ll walk through how to set up Sveltos, create a vCluster, and register it with Sveltos. By the end, you’ll have a working setup where you can manage a vCluster just like any other cluster in your fleet.

Prerequisites

  1. Install sveltosctl CLI 
curl -L https://github.com/projectsveltos/sveltosctl/releases/latest/download/sveltosctl-darwin-amd64 -o sveltosctl chmod +x sveltosctl sudo mv sveltosctl /usr/local/bin/
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This tool will help us generate manifests for cluster registration and interact with Sveltos.

  1. Install Helm (if not already installed) Follow Helm installation docs.

Step 1: Deploy Sveltos

Install Sveltos in the management cluster:

helm repo update && helm upgrade --install sveltos projectsveltos/projectsveltos --namespace projectsveltos --create-namespace
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Verify deployment:

helm list -n projectsveltos kubectl get pods -n projectsveltos
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At this point, Sveltos CRDs and the controller should be active in your cluster.

Step 2: Deploy the Dashboard (Optional)

For visualization and management through UI:

helm install sveltos-dashboard projectsveltos/sveltos-dashboard -n projectsveltos helm list -n projectsveltos kubectl port-forward service/dashboard -n projectsveltos 8080:80
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Access the dashboard at: http://localhost:8080/login

Create an admin service account and token:

kubectl create sa platform-admin -n default kubectl create clusterrolebinding platform-admin-access --clusterrole cluster-admin --serviceaccount default:platform-admin kubectl create token platform-admin -n default --duration=24h
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Use the token to log into the dashboard.

Step 3: Create a vCluster

Create a new virtual cluster:

vcluster create my-vcluster --namespace my-team
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Disconnect once created:

vcluster disconnect
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Step 4: Register vCluster with Sveltos

Here’s where the integration happens.

  1. Generate a SveltosCluster manifest for the vCluster: 
sveltosctl register cluster --namespace=monitoring --cluster=vcluster --pullmode --labels=environment=production,tier=backend > sveltoscluster_registration.yaml
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This creates the YAML that describes your vCluster as a managed entity in Sveltos.

  1. Connect to the vCluster: 
vcluster connect my-vcluster --namespace my-team
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  1. Apply the registration YAML inside the vCluster: 
kubectl apply -f sveltoscluster_registration.yaml
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✅ And that’s it! 🎉 Your vCluster is now registered with Sveltos.

What’s Next?

With your vCluster registered, you can now:

  • Apply ClusterProfiles to define policies and workloads.
  • Use drift detection to ensure your vCluster stays compliant.
  • Manage add-ons (like monitoring stacks) consistently across environments.

Instead of treating vClusters as temporary or “disposable,” you’ve elevated them to first-class citizens in your multi-cluster strategy.

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