Creating your first cluster

What this is

How to create a Kubernetes cluster on the ByteDC portal. It is five steps and the cluster provisions within a short wait.

Before you start

Three things need to be true:

1. Kubernetes is unlocked on your account. If the page shows a message saying Kubernetes is not available on your current account level, it is gated. Use Contact Sales to unlock it, or see Requesting evaluation access to trial it first.

2. You have an order or an evaluation environment. Either confirm an order as described in Placing your first order, start to finish, or have evaluation access in place.

3. You have decided on a name. Any name works. Keep it short and meaningful, because you will be reading it in lists later.

Screenshot needed: the account level restriction message with Contact Sales to unlock.

Steps

Step 1. Go to the Kubernetes home screen

Open Kubernetes under Compute in the sidebar.

Screenshot needed: Kubernetes home screen.

Step 2. Choose Activate Cluster

This starts the creation flow.

Screenshot needed: Activate Cluster control.

Step 3. Name the cluster

Enter a name. There are no special naming rules to work around, so use something you will recognise, such as the name of the project it serves.

Screenshot needed: cluster name entry.

Step 4. Choose the region

Select the region. Cambodia Primary is the only region available today, so this step is a confirmation rather than a decision. Additional regions are on the roadmap.

Screenshot needed: region selection showing Cambodia Primary.

Step 5. Continue

Choose Continue. The cluster appears in your list with the name you gave it, a type of shared, and a status of activating.

Screenshot needed: cluster list showing status activating.

Step 6. Wait for provisioning to finish

Provisioning completes within a short wait. Refresh if the status does not update by itself.

What you should see when it works

Your cluster is listed with the name you chose. Its status has moved on from activating.

Two things look alarming but are correct at this point:

• Consumption shows zero. Nothing is deployed yet, so nothing is consuming.

• Workloads are empty. Same reason. The cluster exists but it is not running your application.

Screenshot needed: provisioned cluster showing zero consumption and empty workloads.

An empty cluster is the expected end state of this guide. Putting an application on it is the next guide.

Common problems

The page says Kubernetes is not available on my account level. The service is gated rather than broken. Use Contact Sales to unlock, or request evaluation access.

The status stays on activating. Refresh the page first, because the status display does not always update on its own. If it genuinely does not progress after a reasonable wait, raise it with ByteDC support and quote the cluster name.

I cannot see any resources in the cluster. If you have just created it, there are none, which is correct. If you expected to see existing resources, this is usually a namespace problem: without a valid namespace binding the view is blocked and shows nothing at all. An incorrect namespace behaves the same way. Confirm the namespace assigned to you with ByteDC.

I created the wrong cluster. Delete it. Deletion is self service and consumption ends when it is gone. See Deleting a cluster and stopping charges.