index.html.md.erb

---
title: Pivotal Container Service (PKS)
owner: PKS
---

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Pivotal Container Service (PKS) enables operators to provision, operate, and manage enterprise-grade Kubernetes clusters using BOSH and Pivotal Ops Manager.

## <a id='overview'></a>Overview

PKS uses the [On-Demand Broker](https://docs.pivotal.io/svc-sdk/odb/index.html) to deploy [Cloud Foundry Container Runtime](https://docs-kubo.cfapps.io/), a BOSH release that offers a uniform way to instantiate, deploy, and manage highly available Kubernetes clusters on a cloud platform using BOSH.

After operators install the PKS tile on the Ops Manager Installation Dashboard, developers can provision Kubernetes clusters using the PKS Command Line Interface (PKS CLI), and run container-based workloads on the clusters with the Kubernetes CLI, [kubectl](installing-kubectl-cli.html).

PKS is available as part of [Pivotal Cloud Foundry](https://docs.pivotal.io) or as a stand-alone product.

##<a id='pks-kubernetes'></a> What PKS Adds to Kubernetes

The following table details the features that PKS adds to the Kubernetes platform.

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Feature</th>
    <th>Included in K8s</th>
    <th>Included in PKS</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Single tenant ingress</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Secure multi-tenant ingress</td>
    <td></td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Stateful sets of pods</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Multi-container pods</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Rolling upgrades to pods</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Rolling upgrades to cluster infrastructure</td>
    <td></td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Pod scaling and high availability</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Cluster provisioning and scaling</td>
    <td></td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Monitoring and recovery of cluster VMs and processes</td>
    <td></td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Persistent disks</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Secure container registry</td>
    <td></td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Embedded, hardened operating system</td>
    <td></td>
    <td align="center">&check;</td>
  </tr>
</table>

## <a id='features'></a>Features

PKS has the following features:

* **Kubernetes compatibility**: Constant compatibility with current stable release of Kubernetes

* **Production-ready**: Highly available from applications to infrastructure, with no single points of failure

* **BOSH advantages**: Built-in health checks, scaling, auto-healing and rolling upgrades

* **Fully automated operations**: Fully automated deploy, scale, patch, and upgrade experience

* **Multi-cloud**: Consistent operational experience across multiple clouds

* **GCP APIs access**: The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Service Broker gives applications access to the Google Cloud APIs, and Google Container Engine (GKE) consistency enables the transfer of workloads from or to GCP

On vSphere, PKS supports deploying and running Kubernetes clusters in air-gapped environments.

##<a id='components'></a> PKS Components

The PKS control plane contains the following components:

* An [On-Demand Broker](https://docs.pivotal.io/svc-sdk/odb/) that deploys [Cloud Foundry Container Runtime](https://docs-kubo.cfapps.io) (CFCR), an open-source project that provides a solution for deploying and managing [Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io/docs/home/) clusters using [BOSH](https://bosh.io/docs).
* A Service Adapter
* The PKS API

For more information about the PKS control plane, see [PKS Cluster Management](control-plane.html).

For a detailed list of components and supported versions by a particular PKS release, see the [PKS Release Notes](release-notes.html).

## <a id='concepts'></a>PKS Concepts

For conceptual information about PKS, see [PKS Concepts](concepts.html).

##<a id='prerequisites'></a> PKS Prerequisites

For information about the resource requirements for installing PKS, see the topic that corresponds to your cloud provider:

* [vSphere Prerequisites and Resource Requirements](vsphere-requirements.html)
* [vSphere with NSX-T Version Requirements](vsphere-nsxt-requirements.html) and [Hardware Requirements for PKS on vSphere with NSX-T](vsphere-nsxt-rpd-mpd.html)
* [GCP Prerequisites and Resource Requirements](gcp-requirements.html)
* [AWS Prerequisites and Resource Requirements](aws-requirements.html)
* [Azure Prerequisites and Resource Requirements](azure-requirements.html)


##<a id='preparing'></a> Preparing to Install PKS

To install PKS, you must deploy one of the following versions of Ops Manager:

* Ops Manager v2.3.1 or later
* Ops Manager v2.4.x

You use Ops Manager to install and configure PKS.

If you are installing PKS to vSphere, you can also configure integration with NSX-T and Harbor.

Consult the following table for compatibility information:

<table>
<tr>
<th>IaaS</th>
<th>Ops Manager v2.3.1+ or v2.4.x</th>
<th>NSX-T</th>
<th>Harbor</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>vSphere</td>
<td>Required</td>
<td>Available</td>
<td>Available</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>GCP</td>
<td>Required</td>
<td>Not Available</td>
<td>Available</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>AWS</td>
<td>Required</td>
<td>Not Available</td>
<td>Available</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Azure</td>
<td>Required</td>
<td>Not Available</td>
<td>Not Available</td>
</tr>
</table>

For more information about compatibility and component versions, see the [PKS Release Notes](release-notes.html).

For information about preparing your environment before installing PKS, see the topic that corresponds to your cloud provider:

* [vSphere](vsphere-index.html)
* [vSphere with NSX-T Integration](vsphere-nsxt-index.html)
* [GCP](gcp-index.html)
* [AWS](aws-index.html)
* [Azure](azure-index.html)

## <a id='installing'></a>Installing PKS

For information about installing PKS, see _Installing PKS_ for your IaaS:

* [vSphere](installing-pks-vsphere.html)
* [vSphere with NSX-T Integration](installing-nsx-t.html)
* [Google Cloud Platform (GCP)](installing-pks-gcp.html)
* [Amazon Web Services (AWS)](installing-pks-aws.html)
* [Microsoft Azure (Azure)](installing-pks-azure.html)

## <a id='upgrading'></a>Upgrading PKS

For information about upgrading the PKS tile and PKS-deployed Kubernetes clusters, see [Upgrading PKS Overview](upgrading.html).

## <a id='managing'></a>Managing PKS

For information about configuring authentication, creating users, and managing your PKS deployment, see [Managing PKS](managing.html).

## <a id='using'></a>Using PKS

For information about using the PKS CLI to create and manage Kubernetes clusters, see [Using PKS](using.html).

## <a id='backup'></a>Backing Up and Restoring PKS

For information about using BOSH Backup and Restore (BBR) to back up and restore PKS, see [Backing Up and Restoring PKS](backup-and-restore.html).

## <a id='security'></a>PKS Security

For information about security in PKS, see [PKS Security](security.html).

## <a id='troubleshooting'></a>Diagnosing and Troubleshooting PKS

For information about diagnosing and troubleshooting issues installing or using PKS, see [Diagnosing and Troubleshooting PKS](troubleshoot.html).