vcluster

Flexible Tenancy For Kubernetes and AI Infra

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What is vCluster?

vCluster creates fully functional virtual Kubernetes clusters that run inside namespaces of a host cluster. Each virtual cluster has its own API server, runs on shared or dedicated infrastructure, and gives you flexible tenancy options—from simple namespaces to fully dedicated clusters.

40M+ virtual clusters deployed by companies like Adobe, CoreWeave, Atlan, and NVIDIA.

🚀 Quick Start

# Install vCluster CLI
brew install loft-sh/tap/vcluster

# Create a virtual cluster
vcluster create my-vcluster --namespace team-x

# Use kubectl as usual - you're now in your virtual cluster!
kubectl get namespaces

Prerequisites: A running Kubernetes cluster and kubectl configured.

👉 Full Quickstart Guide

🎮 Try Without Installing

No Kubernetes cluster? Try vCluster instantly in your browser:

🆕 What's New

👉 Full Changelog

🎯 Use Cases

🏗️ Architectures

vCluster offers multiple deployment architectures. Each builds on the previous, offering progressively more isolation.

Architecture Comparison

👉 Full Architecture Guide

Minimal Configuration

🔹 Shared Nodes — Maximum density, minimum cost

Virtual clusters share the host cluster's nodes. Workloads run as regular pods in a namespace.

sync:
  fromHost:
    nodes:
      enabled: false  # Uses pseudo nodes

🔹 Dedicated Nodes — Isolated compute on labeled node pools

Virtual clusters get their own set of labeled host nodes. Workloads are isolated but still managed by the host.

sync:
  fromHost:
    nodes:
      enabled: true
      selector:
        labels:
          tenant: my-tenant

🔹 Private Nodes ^v0.27+ — Full CNI/CSI isolation

External nodes join the virtual cluster directly with their own CNI, CSI, and networking stack. Complete workload isolation from the host cluster.

privateNodes:
  enabled: true
controlPlane:
  service:
    spec:
      type: NodePort

🔹 vCluster Standalone ^v0.29+ — No host cluster required

Run vCluster without any host cluster. Deploy the control plane directly on bare metal or VMs. The highest level of isolation—vCluster becomes the cluster.

controlPlane:
  standalone:
    enabled: true
    joinNode:
      enabled: true
privateNodes:
  enabled: true

⚡ Auto Nodes ^v0.28+ — Karpenter-powered dynamic autoscaling

Automatically provision and deprovision private nodes based on workload demand. Works across public cloud, private cloud, hybrid, and bare metal environments.

autoNodes:
  enabled: true
  nodeProvider: <provider>
privateNodes:
  enabled: true

✨ Key Features

🏢 Trusted By

Also used by: NVIDIA, ABBYY, Lintasarta, Precisely, Shipwire, Trade Connectors, and many more.

👉 View All Case Studies

📚 Learn More

👉 YouTube Channel • Blog

Custom e2e-next Linters

The project uses custom golangci-lint plugins from e2e-framework that enforce correctness patterns in Ginkgo test code:

These linters run automatically as part of just lint and just lint-e2e. The custom binary is auto-rebuilt when .custom-gcl.yml changes.

Quick commands

# Run custom linters against e2e-next (with autofix)
just lint-e2e

# Rebuild custom golangci-lint binary explicitly
just build-linters

Suppressing a finding

Use //nolint:<linter-name> with a reason:

ctx, err = cluster.Create(...)(...) //nolint:defercleanupcluster // destroyed in SynchronizedAfterSuite

GoLand / IntelliJ setup

GoLand (2025.1+) has built-in golangci-lint support, but it must be pointed at the custom-built binary - the system golangci-lint doesn't know about our plugins.

1. Build the custom binary once: just build-linters
2. In GoLand: Settings > Go > Linters
3. In the Executable dropdown, click + > Browse and select the absolute path to <project-root>/tools/golangci-lint
4. Leave "Use config" unchecked - GoLand will auto-discover .golangci.yml

Findings from the custom linters will appear inline in the editor and in the Problems tool window.

Troubleshooting: If you see "unknown linter" errors, you're probably running the system binary instead of the custom one. Verify the executable path in Settings > Go > Linters.

After updating linter versions in .custom-gcl.yml, re-run just build-linters and restart the GoLand inspection (or reopen the file).

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Check out our Contributing Guide to get started.

🔗 Links

📜 License

vCluster is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.