Announcements

• Ksctl v2.3 Release – Smarter Cost Optimization with Dynamic Region Switching
• Ksctl v2.2.1 Release
• Ksctl v2 Release

Ksctl v2.3 Release – Smarter Cost Optimization with Dynamic Region Switching

🚀 Ksctl v2.3: Smarter Cost Optimization with Dynamic Region Switching

We are thrilled to announce the release of Ksctl v2.3! This update introduces Dynamic Region Switching, an intelligent cost-optimization feature that helps you minimize infrastructure expenses by selecting the most cost-effective region for your Kubernetes clusters—without changing your instance type.

🌟 What’s New in Ksctl v2.3?

📌 Dynamic Region Switching for Cost Optimization

Ksctl can now automatically switch regions to optimize costs while maintaining the same instance type. This feature ensures that your clusters run in the most cost-effective region without manual intervention.

• 🚀 Automatically identifies and switches to one of the top 5 best-priced regions
• 🛠️ Optional setting: Keep your cluster in the current region if preferred
• 💰 Reduces infrastructure costs by dynamically adapting to pricing changes across regions

This feature ensures you get maximum cost efficiency while maintaining performance and reliability.

This Feature work with the ksctl cluster create command.

🔧 Fixes and Improvements

• 🌍 Expanded AWS Support – European regions are now available after fixing the pricing API
• ⚡ Upgraded Compilation – Ksctl CLI is now built with Go v1.24 for better performance and stability

🔄 How to Upgrade to Ksctl v2.3

To upgrade your Ksctl CLI to the latest version, simply run:

ksctl self-update

This ensures you’re using the latest version with all the new features and improvements. 🚀

With Ksctl v2.3, managing Kubernetes just got more efficient and cost-effective! Upgrade today and take advantage of smart region switching to optimize your cloud expenses.

👉 Try Ksctl v2.3 now

Ksctl v2.2.1 Release

Announcing Ksctl v2.2.1: Cluster efficency at whole new level 🚀

We are excited to announce the release of Ksctl v2.2.1! This release brings a host of bugfixes and new features to transform your ksctl experience.

🆕 What’s New in Ksctl v2.2.1?

Now Instance types are categorized based on the workload

No need to know which instancetype falls under which category. Just select the category and ksctl will take care of the rest.

Here is the new categorization of instance types wrt to the cluster type you have selected:

• Self managed
  • Controlplane: ComputeIntensive
  • Etcd: MemoryIntensive
  • Loadbabalancer: GeneralPurpose
  • WorkerNode: User defined (ComputeIntensive | MemoryIntensive | GeneralPurpose | Burstable)
• Managed
  • Controlplane: Managed so no option
  • WorkerNode: User defined (ComputeIntensive | MemoryIntensive | GeneralPurpose | Burstable)

All these will help increase the performance and also reduce the cost of the cluster.

Moved to ksctl/[email protected] core

it has new security fixes and bug fixes

Ksctl v2 Release

Announcing Ksctl v2: A New Era of Effortless Kubernetes Management

We’re thrilled to announce the release of Ksctl v2! This major update is designed to simplify your Kubernetes journey—whether you’re a seasoned operator or just starting out. With v2, we’ve reimagined the way you interact with your clusters, taking away the pain of endless command-line flags and help lookups, and putting a smooth, intuitive experience at your fingertips.

🤔 Why Ksctl v2?

If you’ve ever found yourself repeatedly typing ksctl create --help just to recall the right flag, you’re not alone. Ksctl v2 was born out of our commitment to make Kubernetes cluster provisioning as frictionless as possible. Here’s what we aimed to solve with this release:

• Simplified User Experience: Now, you simply specify the resource and the associated action, and Ksctl takes care of the rest—whether it’s listing VM types, regions, Kubernetes versions, or even providing cost insights on cloud resources.
• Lowering the Entry Barrier: We know that new users often struggle with the complexities of Kubernetes.
  • Ksctl v2 is designed to be developer-friendly by offering clear defaults and guided choices Currently we help to sort out suitable cloud provider instance_type, and made sure that architecture x86 is used for maximum compatibility. Though we are working on adding support for arm architecture as well. And also in future we will be adding comparision feature for cloud providers like AWS vs Azure vs GCP, arm vs x86, AWS vs Azure (From Cost, Your Application Requirement based recommendations to Sustainability). So that you can focus on utilizing amazing Kubernetes technology, not configuring, 🫡
• Unified Tooling: Expanding beyond just a cluster provisioning tool, Ksctl now incorporates enhanced capabilities for cluster management, and add-on support—all streamlined under one roof.

🆕 What’s New in Ksctl v2?

This release brings a host of improvements and new features to transform your Kubernetes management experience:

Redesign of Ksctl core: provisioner and cluster management components

🆕 New UX & CLI Improvements

v2.0.0	v1.3.1

Before you need to remember what exactly is the vm_type, region sku, version, .. etc. Now you just need to specify the cloud provider and the rest will be taken care by ksctl. just choosing from the select options, It also shows the cost of instance_type with the block storage. A great step towards making the tool more user-friendly. 🎉

Enhanced Cloud Credential Management

• Flexible Credentials: Cloud providers will now receive credentials directly from the client. This change empowers you to choose your credential source while ensuring providers get them securely via context variables. For now all credentials will be stored in your local system. for which you need to check out $ ksctl configure ... command.

Advanced Cluster Management

• New Cluster-Management Controller: We’ve introduced a controller for managing clusters, allowing you to deploy it even on clusters not created with Ksctl. Initially focused on Ksctl-created clusters, this functionality is poised to become universally applicable.
• Self-Managed Clusters: The old ha keyword is replaced with selfmanaged to clearly indicate the type of cluster you’re operating.

Networking & Node Operations

• Cilium eBPF CNI with Hubble UI: Cilium now comes with the hubble UI enabled by default, enhancing your cluster’s observability.
• Safer Node Deletion: A node drain step is now performed before any node deletion, ensuring smoother operations.

Robust State Management & Addons

• Improved State Document: We’ve migrated versioning for components like Aks, Eks, Kind, HAProxy, and Etcd to a new field, ensuring better consistency and smoother migrations.

• New Addons System: Customize your cluster with our new addons framework. Simply specify the addons you want (e.g., switching CNI from “none” to “cilium”) in your configuration, and let Ksctl handle the rest.

  Here’s a snippet of under-the-hood configuration on how ksctl helps in creating Cilium 🐝 enabled cluster:

  {
    "cluster_name": "test-e2e-local-cilium",
    "kubernetes_version": "1.32.0",
    "cloud_provider": "local",
    "storage_type": "store-local",
    "cluster_type": "managed",
    "desired_no_of_managed_nodes": 2,
    "addons": [
      {
        "label": "kind",
        "name": "none",
        "cni": true
      },
      {
        "label": "ksctl",
        "name": "cilium",
        "cni": true
      }
    ]
  }
  

New Tools & CLI Improvements

• Two New Kubernetes Controllers: Meet ksctl/ka and ksctl/kcm! These controllers manage the application stack and cluster management addons respectively.
• Streamlined CLI Operations:
  • Self-Update Command: Keeping your CLI up-to-date is now a breeze.
  • Improved Cluster Connection: When you run $ ksctl cluster connect, your kubeconfig is automatically merged into ~/.kube/config and the current context is set accordingly.
  • Bug Fixes & Enhancements: From loading cloud credentials to scaling self-managed clusters, we’ve addressed several key issues to enhance reliability.

✨ New CLI Commands

⚠️ Important Compatibility Notice

With this release, we’re making significant changes that break backward compatibility:

• Module Transition: We are transitioning to the module name github.com/ksctl/ksctl/v2.
• Cloud Provider Update: The civo cloud provider has been completely removed.

Please ensure you update your references and workflows accordingly to take full advantage of Ksctl v2’s capabilities.

In Conclusion

Ksctl v2 is more than just an update—it’s a rethinking of the Kubernetes management experience. Our goal is to empower Developers with a tool that handles the complexity behind the scenes, letting you focus on deploying and managing clusters with ease and help you all create amazing software. Whether you’re provisioning your first cluster or managing a fleet of production environments, Ksctl v2 is here to streamline your operations.

Ready to dive in? Check out the full changelog and get started with Ksctl v2 today!

Happy clustering!

The Ksctl Team