Opensource Kubernetes support
In your documentation you are stating support for Opensource Kubernetes, VMware VKS has the option to deploy upstream conformant kubernetes clusters as a service. Is Pega Platform supported on upstream conformant clusters provisioned by VMware VKS or is your statement that PEGA only support opensource kubernetes on something else? I can see that others are asking similar question, for me it seems to be some contradictions between the documentation and the answers are around VMware VKS/TKGx/vSphere Tanzu/TKGm. Could you please clarify what you support we can expect?
Regards,
Christian
Updated: 7 Mar 2025 5:26 EST
Pegasystems Inc.
GB
@Grimsrud as I have not had a response from our SME's I will provide you with details I found via our AI documentation search.
References: Platform Support Guide Meeting requirements and prerequisites
Based on Pega's official documentation, there are several supported Kubernetes environments for deploying Pega Platform:
- Open-source Kubernetes (upstream conformant)
- Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (EKS)
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
- VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition (TKGI) - but this was deprecated for all releases in February 2024
The confusion you're experiencing seems to stem from the distinction between the deprecated TKGI and the VMware VKS (formerly known as TKGs - Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service) that you mentioned.
@Grimsrud as I have not had a response from our SME's I will provide you with details I found via our AI documentation search.
References: Platform Support Guide Meeting requirements and prerequisites
Based on Pega's official documentation, there are several supported Kubernetes environments for deploying Pega Platform:
- Open-source Kubernetes (upstream conformant)
- Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (EKS)
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
- VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition (TKGI) - but this was deprecated for all releases in February 2024
The confusion you're experiencing seems to stem from the distinction between the deprecated TKGI and the VMware VKS (formerly known as TKGs - Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service) that you mentioned.
While TKGI is no longer recommended for new deployments, Pega does explicitly support "Open-source Kubernetes" as specified in the Platform Support Guide. Since VMware VKS offers "upstream conformant kubernetes as a service," it would technically fall under this supported category. Upstream conformant Kubernetes refers to distributions that are certified by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) to meet the Kubernetes conformance standards.
In other words, if your VMware VKS implementation is providing certified upstream conformant Kubernetes (which according to your email, it does), then it should be supported under Pega's stated support for open-source Kubernetes, regardless of the underlying VMware infrastructure.
I hope this helps clarify the documentation. I will wait for further SME input.
Broadcom
SE
Thank you for confirming that Pega platform is supported on upstream conformant kubernetes. Information from CNCF on which distributions and versions is publicly available at https://www.cncf.io/training/certification/software-conformance/
The test results of each distributions/version can as well be seen at https://github.com/cncf/k8s-conformance
Confusion is not around VMware´s legacy offerings, but I fully understand that both partners and customers have a challenge to grasp all of the changes that has been implemented in Broadcom´s product sets during the last 18 months.
TKGi - Cloud Foundry opinionated Kubernetes distribution is still updated, latest update Feb 2025.
VKS - vSphere 8 introduced vSphere Kubernetes Service which includes vSphere Kubernetes Release formerly known as Tanzu Kubernetes release.
VKS runs the supervisor service which provides kubernetes api and container support to ESXi hypervisor, it makes you able to declarative provision containers pods, vitual machines, infrastructure services and workload clusters using kubernetes api.
vSphere Kubernetes release is a fully upstream conformant kubernetes service deployed and managed by VKS, latest release of VKr is 1.32, it support deployments of workload clusters based on the latest Kubernetes minor release, 1.30 - 1.32
Thank you for confirming that Pega platform is supported on upstream conformant kubernetes. Information from CNCF on which distributions and versions is publicly available at https://www.cncf.io/training/certification/software-conformance/
The test results of each distributions/version can as well be seen at https://github.com/cncf/k8s-conformance
Confusion is not around VMware´s legacy offerings, but I fully understand that both partners and customers have a challenge to grasp all of the changes that has been implemented in Broadcom´s product sets during the last 18 months.
TKGi - Cloud Foundry opinionated Kubernetes distribution is still updated, latest update Feb 2025.
VKS - vSphere 8 introduced vSphere Kubernetes Service which includes vSphere Kubernetes Release formerly known as Tanzu Kubernetes release.
VKS runs the supervisor service which provides kubernetes api and container support to ESXi hypervisor, it makes you able to declarative provision containers pods, vitual machines, infrastructure services and workload clusters using kubernetes api.
vSphere Kubernetes release is a fully upstream conformant kubernetes service deployed and managed by VKS, latest release of VKr is 1.32, it support deployments of workload clusters based on the latest Kubernetes minor release, 1.30 - 1.32
Hence I believe that Pega Platform should be fully supported on vSphere Kubernetes release, could you please confirm?
For more information around Broadcoms offerings please read https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2025/03/04/vmware-vsphere-kubernetes-service-3-3-is-now-ga/
Christian
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Hi @Grimsrud,
The support we offer is not just based around the conformity of Kubernetes, but also the combinations of technology that we validate with every release and have the ability to reproduce in house in the event of an issue. Different distributions of Kubernetes can have differences in capabilities, and from experience we have found that this can impact our ability to support them effectively.
We can only provide support for Kubernetes distributions documented on our website. We do not list support for vSphere Kubernetes releases because we do not validate it and have no ability to reproduce issues on it in the event a support incident is raised with our teams.
Thanks,
Dave