Karmada 1.0: Multi-Cloud Kubernetes Orchestration

Introduction

Karmada 1.0, released on September 15, 2022, reaches General Availability as a multi-cloud, multi-cluster Kubernetes orchestration platform. This release enables centralized management of Kubernetes clusters across different cloud providers and on-premises environments.

This release is most relevant in day‑2 operations—when you’re upgrading, scaling, or troubleshooting in real clusters. The goal is the same: fewer surprises and more predictable behavior under load.

Multi-Cloud Orchestration

• Cluster federation enables managing multiple Kubernetes clusters as a single unified cluster.
• Resource propagation automatically distributes workloads across clusters based on policies.
• Multi-cloud support works seamlessly across AWS, GCP, Azure, and on-premises environments.
• Centralized control provides a single control plane for managing distributed clusters.

Policy-Based Management

1. Propagation policies define how resources are distributed across clusters.
2. Override policies enable cluster-specific customizations and configurations.
3. Replica scheduling automatically distributes replicas across clusters for high availability.
4. Failover policies ensure workloads are rescheduled during cluster failures.

Kubernetes-Native Experience

• Native APIs extend Kubernetes APIs to work across multiple clusters.
• Compatibility ensures existing Kubernetes applications work without modification.
• Tooling supports standard Kubernetes tools like kubectl and Helm.
• RBAC integration provides fine-grained access control across clusters.

Observability & Operations

• Multi-cluster monitoring provides unified observability across all managed clusters.
• Health monitoring tracks cluster and workload health across the federation.
• Event aggregation collects events from all clusters for centralized analysis.
• Metrics integration exposes federation metrics for Prometheus and Grafana.

Getting Started

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/karmada-io/karmada/releases/download/v1.0.0/install.yaml

Join a cluster:

karmadactl join member-cluster --cluster-kubeconfig=/path/to/member-cluster-kubeconfig

Summary

Karmada 1.0 transforms multi-cluster Kubernetes management, providing teams with a unified platform for orchestrating workloads across distributed environments.