Self-Hosted Palette VerteX with Management Appliance
This is a Tech Preview feature and is subject to change. Upgrades from a Tech Preview deployment may not be available. Do not use this feature in production workloads.
The VerteX Management Appliance is downloadable as an ISO file and is a solution for installing Palette VerteX on your infrastructure. The ISO file contains all the necessary components needed for Palette to function. The ISO file is used to boot the nodes, which are then clustered to form a Palette management cluster.
Once Palette VerteX has been installed, you can download pack bundles and upload them to the internal Zot registry or an external registry. These pack bundles are used to create your cluster profiles. You will then be able to deploy clusters in your environment.
Third Party Packs
There is an additional option to download and install the Third Party packs that provide complementary functionality to Palette VerteX. These packs are not required for Palette VerteX to function, but they do provide additional features and capabilities as described in the following table.
| Feature | Included with Palette Third Party Pack | Included with Palette Third Party Conformance Pack |
|---|---|---|
| Backup and Restore | ✅ | ❌ |
| Configuration Security | ✅ | ❌ |
| Penetration Testing | ✅ | ❌ |
| Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) scanning | ✅ | ❌ |
| Conformance Testing | ❌ | ✅ |
Architecture
The ISO file is built with the Operating System (OS), Kubernetes distribution, Container Network Interface (CNI), and Container Storage Interface (CSI). A Zot registry is also included in the Appliance Framework ISO. Zot is a lightweight, OCI-compliant container image registry that is used to store the Palette packs needed to create cluster profiles.
This solution is designed to be immutable, secure, and compliant with industry standards, such as the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). The following table displays the infrastructure profile for the Palette VerteX appliance.
| Layer | Component | Version | FIPS-compliant |
|---|---|---|---|
| OS | Ubuntu: Immutable Kairos | 22.04 | ✅ |
| Kubernetes | Palette eXtended Kubernetes Edge (PXK-E) | 1.32.3 | ✅ |
| CNI | Calico | 3.29.2 | ✅ |
| CSI | Piraeus | 2.8.1 | ✅ |
| Registry | Zot | 0.1.67 | ✅ |
Supported Platforms
The VerteX Management Appliance can be used on the following infrastructure platforms:
- VMware vSphere
- Bare Metal
- Machine as a Service (MAAS)