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About the Compatibility Matrix

This topic describes the Replicated compatibility matrix, including use cases, billing, limitations, and more.

Overview​

The Replicated compatibility matrix quickly provisions ephemeral clusters of different Kubernetes distributions and versions, such as OpenShift, EKS, and Replicated kURL.

You can use the compatibility matrix to get kubectl access to running clusters within minutes or less. This allows you to more easily test your code in a range of different environments before releasing to customers.

Example use cases for the compatiblity matrix include:

  • Run tests before releasing a new version of your application to validate compatibility with supported Kubernetes distributions
  • Get access to a cluster to develop on and quickly test changes
  • Reproduce a reported issue on a customer-representative environment for troubleshooting

You can use the compatibility matrix with the replicated CLI or the Replicated vendor portal. For more information about how to use the compatibility matrix, see Using the Compatibility Matrix.

Supported Clusters​

The compatibility matrix can create clusters on virtual machines (VMs), such as kind, k3s, and Red Hat OpenShift OKD, and also create cloud-managed clusters, such as EKS and GKE:

  • Cloud-based Kubernetes distributions are run in a Replicated managed and controlled cloud account to optimize and deliver a clusters quickly and reliably. The Replicated account has control planes ready and adds a node group when you request it, making the cluster available much faster than if you try to create your own cluster with your own cloud account.

  • VMs run on Replicated bare metal servers located in several data centers, including data centers physically in the European Union.

To view an up-to-date list of the available cluster distributions, including the supported Kubernetes versions, instance types, and maximum nodes for each distribution, run replicated cluster versions.

For detailed information about the available cluster distributions, see Supported Compatibility Matrix Cluster Types (Beta).

Billing and Credits​

Clusters created with the compatiblity matrix are billed by the minute. Per-minute billing begins when the cluster reaches a running status and ends when the cluster is deleted. The compatibility matrix marks a cluster as running when a working kubeconfig for the cluster is accessible.

You are billed only for the time that the cluster is in a running status. You are not billed for the time that it takes the compatibility matrix to create and tear down clusters, including when the cluster is in an assigned status.

To create clusters with the compatibility matrix, you must have credits in your vendor portal account. To request credits, log in to the vendor portal and go to Compatibility Matrix > Request more credits.

Quotas and Capacity​

By default, the compatibility matrix sets quotas for the capacity that can be used concurrently by each vendor portal team. These quotas are designed to ensure that Replicated maintains a minimum amount of capacity for provisioning both VM and cloud-based clusters.

By default, the quota for cloud-based cluster distributions (AKS, GKE, EKS) is three clusters running concurrently.

VM-based cluster distributions (such as kind, OpenShift, and Replicated embedded cluster) have the following default quotas:

  • 32 vCPUs
  • 128 GiB memory
  • 800 GiB disk size

You can request increased quotas at any time with no additional cost. To view your team's current quota and capacity usage, or to request a quota increase, go to Compatibility Matrix > Settings in the vendor portal:

Compatibility matrix settings page

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Cluster Status​

Clusters created with the compatibility matrix can have the following statuses:

  • assigned: The cluster resources were requested and the compatiblity matrix is provisioning the cluster. You are not billed for the time that a cluster spends in the assigned status.

  • running: A working kubeconfig for the cluster is accessible. Billing begins when the cluster reaches a running status.

    Additionally, clusters are verified prior to transitioning to a running status. Verification includes checking that the cluster is healthy and running with the correct number of nodes, as well as passing sonobuoy tests in --quick mode.

  • terminated: The cluster is deleted. Billing ends when the cluster status is changed from running to terminated.

  • error: An error occured when attempting to provision the cluster.

You can view the status of clusters using the replicated cluster ls command. For more information, see cluster ls.

Cluster Add-ons​

The Replicated compatibility matrix enables you to extend your cluster with add-ons, to make use of by your application, such as an AWS S3 object store. This allows you to more easily provision dependencies required by your application.

For more information about how to use the add-ons, see Compatibility Matrix Cluster Add-ons.

Limitations​

The compatibility matrix has the following limitations:

  • Clusters cannot be resized. Create another cluster if you want to make changes, such as add another node.
  • On cloud clusters, node groups are not available for every distribution. For distribution-specific details, see Supported Compatibility Matrix Cluster Types.
  • Multi-node support is not available for every distribution. For distribution-specific details, see Supported Compatibility Matrix Cluster Types.
  • There is no support for IPv6.
  • The cluster upgrade feature is available only for kURL distributions. See cluster upgrade.
  • Cloud clusters do not allow for the configuration of CNI, CSI, CRI, Ingress, or other plugins, add-ons, services, and interfaces.
  • The node operating systems for clusters created with the compatibility matrix cannot be configured nor replaced with different operating systems.
  • The Kubernetes scheduler for clusters created with the compatibility matrix cannot be replaced with a different scheduler.
  • Each team has a quota limit on the amount of resources that can be used simultaneously. This limit can be raised by messaging your account representative.

For additional distribution-specific limitations, see Supported Compatibility Matrix Cluster Types.