Plan your deployment topology:

Network VM Network Subnet IP Address Pool Gateway
AVI Controller EGDE-UPLINK-PG 172.16.0.0/16 172.16.0.63 172.16.0.1
Management Network EGDE-UPLINK-PG 172.16.0.0/16 172.16.0.192 - 172.16.0.223 172.16.0.1

  • Download and import the OVA using govc if you want to use the cli

    {
  "DiskProvisioning": "flat",
  "IPAllocationPolicy": "dhcpPolicy",
  "IPProtocol": "IPv4",
  "PropertyMapping": [
    {
      "Key": "avi.mgmt-ip.CONTROLLER",
      "Value": "172.16.0.63"          <----- CHANGE THIS
    },
    {
      "Key": "avi.mgmt-mask.CONTROLLER",
    "Value": "255.255.0.0"        <----- CHANGE THIS
    },
    {
      "Key": "avi.default-gw.CONTROLLER",
      "Value": "172.16.0.1"           <----- CHANGE THIS
    },
    {
      "Key": "avi.sysadmin-public-key.CONTROLLER",
      "Value": ""
    }
  ],
  "NetworkMapping": [
    {
      "Name": "Management",
      "Network": "EDGE-UPLINK-PG"   <----- CHANGE THIS
    }
  ],
  "MarkAsTemplate": false,
  "PowerOn": true,
  "InjectOvfEnv": false,
  "WaitForIP": false,
  "Name": "avi-controller"          <----- CHANGE THIS
}

    Store the file as avi.json

    govc import.ova -options=avi.json controller-20.1.2-9171.ova

  • Once the VM is running in vCenter, access the AVI Controller VM IP in the browser https://172.16.0.43

  • Create the Administrator Account

  • Configure the system settings (DNS/NTP & Backup passphrase)

  • Optionally configure the Email/SMTP

  • Select vCenter as the Orchestrator Integration

  • Specify the vCenter details with Write permissions. Skip SDN Integration

  • Select the datacenter

  • Select the Management network and define the IP Pool

  • Select NO in tenant settings

  • That’s the initial setup

  • Click on Templates in the top left beside Applications

  • Go into IPAM/DNS Profiles and create the following:
    • IPAM Profile
      • Name: k8s-ipam-profile
      • Type: Avi Vantage IPAM
      • Allocate IP in VRF is Checked
      • Avi Vantage IPAM Configuration
        • Cloud for Usable Network: Default-Cloud
        • Usable Network: EDGE-UPLINK-PG
    • DNS Profile
      • Name: k8s-dns-profile
      • Type: Avi Vantage DNS
      • Avi Vantage DNS Configuration
        • Default Record TTL for all domains: 30
        • Domain Name:
          • avi.k8s1.pks.lab.int

  • Next associate the DNS and IPAM profiles to the Default-Cloud, which is under Infrastructure > Clouds

  • Follow this to run the helm charts on the k8s cluster
    • https://avinetworks.github.io/avi-helm-charts/docs/AKO/

  • helm repo add ako https://avinetworks.github.io/avi-helm-charts/charts/stable/ako

  • Download and modify the ako values.yml from here

  • helm install ako/ako --generate-name --version 1.2.1 -f values.yaml -n avi-system

  • Deploy a test workload on the k8s cluster
    • k run test-app --image=rjain/sample-k8s-app --port=8080
    • k expose pod test --port 80 --target-port 8080 --type=LoadBalancer
  • If everything is working, then you should see an external IP assigned to the svc, when you run k get svc

That’s all!!