Detailed Introduction
vCluster, developed by Loft Labs, enables the creation of fully functional virtual Kubernetes clusters (vclusters) inside a namespace of an existing Kubernetes host cluster. Each vcluster runs its own API server and control plane, providing strong isolation and flexibility for multi-tenant environments while significantly reducing the cost and overhead of provisioning separate physical clusters.
Main Features
- Fast creation and teardown of virtual clusters inside the host cluster, enabling seconds-scale provisioning.
- Independent control plane per vcluster with isolated CRD management to avoid conflicts and versioning issues.
- Support for multiple backing stores (embedded SQLite, embedded etcd, or external databases) and configurable network isolation.
- Compatible with major cloud and edge environments (EKS, GKE, AKS, OpenShift, K3s, etc.).
Use Cases
- Development & testing: provide teams with isolated, self-service test clusters.
- Multi-tenant platforms: build self-service platform engineering (IDP) and tenant isolation with fine-grained RBAC and quotas.
- Cost and resource optimization: share host cluster resources to scale quickly and reduce infra costs.
Technical Features
- Runs natively on Kubernetes with a lightweight control plane hosted inside a single pod per vcluster.
- Offers CLI and Helm Chart installation methods for easy CI/CD and platform integration.
- Comprehensive documentation and quickstart guides available on the project website; released under Apache-2.0 license.