Control & security for operators
Centralized policies and data protection can be applied to Kubernetes clusters in any environment.
Consistency & speed for DevOps
Use templates and/or GitOps for consistent and faster cluster deployments including needed guardrails.
Flexibility & autonomy for developers
Choice and self-service access to clusters increases developer productivity and unlocks innovation.
Key Capabilities
Policies via CLI
Policies via console
Unified policy engine simplifies Kubernetes management
Expand control with templating and resource grouping by clusters, namespaces, and provisioners.
Improve efficiency with cascading policies at organization, cluster group (cluster), or workspace (namespace) levels.
Increase security with out-of-the-box security policies and data-protection, including restore to different clusters.
Plans & features Solution briefSimplified Cluster Lifecycle Management
Create, update, upgrade, and delete Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters in many environments and Amazon EKS clusters in AWS (preview).
Multi-cluster management of attached clusters
Attach any conformant Kubernetes clusters running in other environments—either on-prem or in public clouds—for central management.
Unified and centralized policy management
Utilize a robust policy engine with out-of-the-box access policies, image registry policies, network traffic policies, and quota policies.
Data Protection & business continuity
Create and schedule backups and restore to the same or different cluster, in different clouds if you so choose.
VMware portfolio and open source integrations
Open/extensible approach so users can leverage the tools (Tanzu, third party, open source, in-house) of their choice.
Baseline observability and diagnostics
Gain global observability of the health of clusters and workloads across clouds through integration with Aria Operations for Applications.
Security for distributed applications
Easily deploy infrastructure and enable routing across environments with always-on mTLS using Tanzu Service Mesh.
Cluster inspection
Cluster conformance and Center for Internet Security (CIS) Benchmark Inspection available for configuration and security issues.
Identity and access management
Implement centralized authentication and authorization and federated identity from multiple sources, such as AD, LDAP, and SAML.
One control plane, your preferred Kubernetes, any or all clouds
Manage your clusters consistently across clouds through cluster attach and centralized policy management. Create clusters targeting on-premises locations, vSphere, VMware Cloud, or cloud providers.
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Use Cases
Take control of your Kubernetes clusters
Attach existing CNCF-conformant clusters across multiple cloud environments for centralized policy management. Efficiently provision and lifecycle manage Tanzu Kubernetes Grid and Amazon EKS clusters. Ensure visibility across cloud, on-premises, and edge to address security risks. Configure clusters via GitOps for increased consistency.
Centrally manage cluster policies
Out-of-the-box policies with centralized management increase control and security of Kubernetes clusters. Resource hierarchy enforces inheritance across cluster groups or collections of namespaces and baseline observability helps teams review cluster health and adapt quickly.
Provide self-serve cluster access to multiple teams
Offer a reliable path to production for Development and DevOps teams so they can iterate quickly and avoid wrestling with infrastructure. Data protection capabilities guarantee no work is lost including alternate site recovery (infrastructure agnostic) and application mobility (no lock-ins).
Future proof your infrastructure management
Extend the value of your Kubernetes control plane through integrations to Aria Automation, Aria Operations for Applications (offering observability), Tanzu Service Mesh, and also support of Terraform Provider and GitOps capabilities enabled by FluxCD.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is VMware Tanzu Mission Control?
VMware Tanzu Mission Control is a centralized management hub with a robust policy engine that simplifies multi-cloud and fleet Kubernetes management.
Platform operators can reduce complexity through centralized management, increase consistency through configuration management, and offer a better developer experience with self-service through Tanzu Mission Control.
What are the key capabilities of Tanzu Mission Control?
The key capabilities of Tanzu Mission Control include:
- Simplified Cluster Lifecycle Management. Create, update, upgrade, and delete Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters in many environments and Amazon EKS clusters in AWS (preview).
- Multi-cluster management of attached clusters. Attach any conformant Kubernetes clusters running in other environments—either on-prem or in public clouds—for central management.
- Unified and centralized policy management. Utilize a robust policy engine with out-of-the-box access policies, image registry policies, network traffic policies, and quota policies.
- Data Protection & business continuity. Create and schedule backups and restore to the same or different cluster, in different clouds if you so choose.
- Integrations with the VMware portfolio and open source. Open/extensible approach so users can leverage the tools (Tanzu, third party, open source, in-house) of their choice.
- Baseline observability and diagnostics. Gain global observability of the health of clusters and workloads across clouds through integration with Aria Operations for Applications.
- Security for distributed applications. Easily deploy infrastructure and enable routing across environments with always-on mTLS using Tanzu Service Mesh.
- Cluster inspection. Cluster conformance and Center for Internet Security (CIS) Benchmark Inspection available for configuration and security issues.
- Identity and access management. Implement centralized authentication and authorization and federated identity from multiple sources, such as AD, LDAP, and SAML.
* VMware makes no guarantee that services announced in preview or beta will become available at a future date. The information in this webpage is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract.
What are the benefits of Tanzu Mission Control?
Tanzu Mission Control benefits both the applications teams and operations teams by
- increasing developer agility and productivity through enabling them with self-service access to Kubernetes clusters with guardrails;
- enhancing operational efficiency by enabling operators to centrally observe and manage multiple clusters across disparate teams and environments at scale; and
- strengthening security and compliance by allowing operators to consistently apply security policies across environments and do regular cluster inspection for potential risks.
Who uses Tanzu Mission Control?
Tanzu Mission Control benefits three distinct user groups: operators, DevOps teams and developers.
The infrastructure and platform teams use Tanzu Mission Control to enable developers and technical teams with self-service access to Kubernetes and at the same time, centrally operate and manage the Kubernetes clusters and modern apps running on them with efficiency, consistency, and security.
The application teams use Tanzu Mission Control to better manage and maintain applications by easily deploying services and workloads across clusters, better understanding the health of applications and quickly troubleshooting issues.
Can I provision clusters directly in Tanzu Mission Control?
Yes. Tanzu Mission Control allows you to provision Tanzu Kubernetes Grid and Amazon EKS clusters directly from Tanzu Mission Control and perform lifecycle management of these provisioned clusters via UI, API, or CLI. Today, Tanzu Mission Control supports provisioning, scaling, upgrading, and deleting Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters on vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, VMware Cloud on AWS, Azure VMware Solution, Google Cloud VMware Engine, and Oracle Cloud VMware Solution. With the recent public preview release of EKS LCM, you can also manage the full lifecycle of Amazon EKS clusters, directly from Tanzu Mission Control.
Public Preview of Lifecycle Management for Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service* clusters from Tanzu Mission Control became available on October 11, 2022.
Support for other managed Kubernetes providers are planned for the future.
* VMware makes no guarantee that services announced in preview or beta will become available at a future date. The information in this webpage is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract.
Can I test drive Tanzu Mission Control?
Yes, you can enroll in our Hands-On Lab and complete four beginner modules to better understand the product.
What Kubernetes clusters can be attached to Tanzu Mission Control?
You can attach CNCF conformant Kubernetes clusters to Tanzu Mission Control no matter where they are running: on vSphere, in any public clouds, or through other Kubernetes vendors.
Will there be a documented API that a customer could use for automation purposes?
Yes. A key design principle of Tanzu Mission Control is extensibility into organizations’ existing workflows and toolkits. Tanzu Mission Control provides this through a documented API, with a CLI and UI for ease of use.
Is Tanzu Mission Control available on-premises?
Tanzu Mission Control was built with a SaaS-first approach, and currently there is no on-premises deployment of Tanzu Mission Control. In early November 2022, the VMware team announced they are working on a new initiative (via a private beta program with selected customers) to design and offer private, self-managed deployments of Tanzu Mission Control giving users full control over their network infrastructure connectivity. This space will be updated with new information as it becomes available.
* VMware makes no guarantee that services announced in preview or beta will become available at a future date. The information in this webpage is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract.
Does Tanzu Mission Control integrate with and/or leverage open source tools?
We use open source technologies to build core functionalities of Tanzu Mission Control. For example, Project Sonobuoy is behind the cluster conformance inspection functionality, and Project Velero is leveraged to build the data protection function, and we use Open Policy Agent Gatekeeper for policy enforcement.
How does Tanzu Mission Control integrate with other VMware products?
Today, Tanzu Mission Control integrates with Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, Tanzu Service Mesh, Aria Operations for Applications, and Aria Automation. We are working on adding more integrations with other VMware products.
How can I purchase Tanzu Mission Control?
Talk to a Tanzu Expert for further details on the three commercial versions of Tanzu Mission Control:
- Tanzu Mission Control Essentials was made specifically for VMware Cloud offerings such as VMware Cloud on AWS and VMware Cloud on Dell, and can only be purchased/accessed via VMware Cloud offerings.
- Tanzu Mission Control Standard can be purchased via the Tanzu Standard edition.
- Tanzu Mission Control Advanced can be purchased either standalone or via Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations.
This feature comparison chart shows which features are included in each version.
Talk to a Tanzu Expert
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