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Volcengine Kubernetes Engine

Getting started

Using VCI in the VKE console

This topic describes how to quickly deploy applications by using VCI in the VKE console. This helps you quickly understand and use VCI.

Background

This topic takes the quick deployment of an Nginx application in a VPC-CNI cluster as an example to introduce the procedure for using VCI. For the method of using VCI in a Flannel cluster, see Using VCI in Flannel clusters.

Step 1: Create a VKE cluster

The following content describes how to create a VPC-CNI cluster without ECS nodes by using a VKE cluster template. This helps you quickly use VCI.

In the top navigation bar, select the region closest to your business.

In the left navigation bar, click Cluster. On the page that appears, click Create cluster.

In the Create cluster dialog box, click Create now in the Custom managed clusters section.

On the Create cluster page, configure the cluster based on the on-screen prompts.

This quick start uses the parameter settings shown in the table below. For unmentioned parameters, keep their default settings. For more information, see Creating managed clusters.

Parameter	Description	Example	Screenshot
Basic configuration
Name	Specify a name for the cluster.	vci-cluster
Kubernetes version	Select the version of the Kubernetes cluster to deploy. warning The latest Kubernetes version supported by VKE may not support VCI. For details, see the detailed description of each version in Kubernetes version release notes.	Select the latest Kubernetes version supported by VCI.
Networking
VPC	Select the VPC to which the cluster belongs. Select the created VPC as described in VCI preparations.	demo-vpc (192.168.0.0/16)
Network model	Configure pod networking (CNI) solution for the cluster.	VPC-CNI
Control plane subnets	Select subnets in the VPC.	demo-vpc-subnetA and demo-vpc-subnetB
Pod subnets	Select the VPC subnet used to allocate IP addresses for pods deployed in the cluster.	demo-vpc-subnetA and demo-vpc-subnetB
Public NAT for internet endpoint	After this feature is enabled, use a NAT gateway to provide public access for nodes and applications within the cluster. If the VPC of cluster has a NAT gateway, VKE will use that gateway. If the VPC of cluster does not have a NAT gateway, VKE will create a NAT gateway and automatically generate SNAT rules. The newly created NAT gateway uses the Pay-by-CU billing mode. For billing details, see NAT Gateway billing.	Enable
Internet access to API Server	After you enable Internet access to API Server, VKE automatically creates an EIP of the BGP (Multipath) type and associates it with a CLB instance. This enables the cluster to be accessed over the public network.	Enable
Operation and maintenance configuration
Container observability	This feature is enabled by default. Enabling it allows you to monitor the metrics of basic cluster resources, including nodes, kubelet, and kube-state-metrics, and control plane services, including kube-apiserver, kube-scheduler, and etcd.	Close

In the lower-right corner of the page, click Next: Node pool configuration.

For this example, keep the default configuration, which indicates that Create later is selected for the Node pool parameter. In this way, only virtual nodes are created in the cluster, and VCI is used to deploy add-ons in the cluster.

In the lower-right corner of the page, click Next: Addon configuration. Add-ons include all functional add-ons and necessary system add-ons supported by the cluster.

You need to install the vci-virtual-kubelet add-on in VCI scenarios. Configure other add-ons based on your business requirements.

Click Next: Configuration confirmation in the lower-right corner of the page. After confirming the cluster configuration information and reading the terms of service, scroll to the bottom of the page, select I have read and agree to Volcengine Kubernetes Engine Specific Terms of Service, and click Confirm in the lower-right corner of the page to create the cluster.

It will take 15 to 20 minutes to create a cluster. You can click Cluster list to proceed with other configurations, or stay on this page to view the creation progress.

Step 2: Deploy an application

After you create a cluster, you can deploy an application by using a Deployment.

In the left navigation bar of the VKE console, click Cluster.

On the Cluster page, find the cluster created in Step 1 and click the cluster name.

In the left navigation bar of the cluster management page, click Workload > Deployment.

On the Deployment page, click Create Deployment.

On the Create Deployment page, specify the parameters of the Deployment by following the wizard.

This quick start uses the parameter settings shown in the table below. For unmentioned parameters, keep their default settings. For parameter details, see Creating Deployments.

Basic Information

Parameter	Description	Example
Name	Enter the name of the workload.	demo-vci-deployment
Namespace	Select a namespace for the workload.	default
Number of instances	Enter the number of instances for the workload.	1
Computing power type	Select infrastructure resources where the workload is deployed. Valid values:	VCI

Container configuration

Parameter	Description	Example
Basic Information
Container name	Enter a name for the container.	demo-vci-container
Container image	Enter an image address without an image tag, or click Choose your own image to select an image that has already been uploaded to a CR instance as described in Preparations.	doc-cn-beijing.cr.volces.com/vke/nginx-demo
Image tag	Select the version of the image. If you do not select a version, the latest version is pulled by default. warning If the NGINX image tag is not latest, you must select a specific image tag. Otherwise, the workload cannot be created.	v1.0
Container port
Port	Configure the port that the application in the container uses to connect to services outside the container.	Protocol: TCP Port number: 80 Port name: demo-port

Advanced settings

Parameter	Description	Example
VCI specification configuration
Instance family type	Select the method of using the VCI instance family. The characteristics, scenarios, and unit prices vary based on different instance families. For details, see VCI specifications and Pay-as-you-go.	Default instance family
Number of instances	The number of VCI Pods in the workload.	1

Click Confirm in the lower-right corner of the page to create the Deployment.

On the Deployment page, click the Deployment name to go to the details page. Then, click the List of instances tab to view the running status of the Pods for the Deployment. If Running is displayed in the Status column, it indicates that the Deployment runs as expected.

Step 3: Access the application

After you deploy the application, you can access the application on the Service tab to check whether the application is deployed.

On the Deployment details page, click the Access method tab.

On the Access method tab, click the Service tab, and then click Create Service.

On the Create Service page, configure service information. After you complete the configuration, click Confirm in the lower-right corner of the page.

This quick start uses the parameter settings shown in the table below. For unmentioned parameters, keep their default settings. For detailed parameter settings, see Creating CLB services using the console.

Parameter	Description	Example
Basic Information
Name	Specify a name for the service.	demo-vci-service
Configurations for access
Access method	The access type of the service.	LoadBalancer
Port mapping	After you enable the feature, the ENI of pods are specified as the backend servers of the load balancer. Note that the CLB is not able to handle too many backend servers. So you need to make sure the number of servers is acceptable to the CLB in the topology. For details about the limitations, see Constraints and limits of CLB.	Enable
Load balancer	Configure a load balancer for the service.	Select Public NAT for internet endpoint and Automatically create, and specify the Name and Subnet parameters of the Load Balancer. Keep the default configurations of other parameters.
Port mapping	Create the mapping between the service port and the container port.	Name: test Service level port: 80

After you create the service, copy the address in the External endpoint column on the Service tab of the Access method tab.

Enter the external endpoint address in the browser address bar to go to the Nginx welcome page.

Step 4: (Optional) Monitor the application

After the application is deployed, you can use cloud-native observability capabilities to monitor the running status and resource usage of the application, such as CPU and memory usage, to facilitate operations and maintenance. For related descriptions, see Monitoring VCI with VMP.

Release resources

After you get started with VCI, if you do not need to use applications that are deployed through VCI, refer to the guidance in Managing workloads to delete the deployments. If you do not need to use the VKE cluster, refer to the guidance in Deleting clusters to delete the cluster and its associated resources. If you need to continue to use the VKE cluster and the applications deployed in the cluster through VCI, make sure that your Volcano Engine account balance is not zero when coupons are excluded and not less than CNY 100 when coupons are included.

If you continue to use the VKE cluster and the applications deployed in the cluster by using VCI, the following types of fees will be incurred. For detailed billing information, see Product billing.

Cluster management fees: The fees are charged by VKE.

VCI fees: The fees are charged by VCI.

Basic cloud resource fees: The fees for services used in the cluster, such as NAT Gateway, Load Balancer, EIP, and EBS, and other Volcano Engine cloud services, are billed separately by the respective cloud services.

Last updated: 2026.09.24 15:22:31