Module 3.5: Cluster API (CAPI)

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Toolkit Track | Complexity: [COMPLEX] | Time: ~50 minutes

Overview

It was 2 AM when the Slack alert fired: “Production cluster unreachable.” A platform engineer at a mid-sized fintech had been manually upgrading their 50 Kubernetes clusters, one kubeadm upgrade at a time. Cluster 37 got a botched etcd migration—wrong flags, no rollback plan. The blast radius? Payment processing for 200,000 users, down for four hours. The post-mortem was brutal: “We treat clusters like pets. We need cattle.” That team adopted Cluster API. They never had another manual upgrade incident.

Cluster API (CAPI) brings the declarative, reconciliation-driven model of Kubernetes to Kubernetes itself. You define your clusters as YAML, apply them to a management cluster, and CAPI handles provisioning, scaling, upgrading, and deleting workload clusters across any infrastructure—AWS, Azure, GCP, vSphere, bare metal, even Docker on your laptop.

What You’ll Learn:

CAPI architecture: management clusters, workload clusters, providers
Core resources: Cluster, Machine, MachineDeployment, MachineSet
ClusterClass for templated, repeatable cluster creation
Hands-on with Docker provider (CAPD) for local testing
Infrastructure provider landscape and GitOps integration

Prerequisites:

Kubernetes Fundamentals
kubeadm cluster setup (understanding of cluster bootstrapping)
Familiarity with Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)

What You’ll Be Able to Do

After completing this module, you will be able to:

Deploy Cluster API management clusters and provision target workload clusters declaratively
Configure infrastructure providers (AWS, Azure, vSphere) for automated Kubernetes cluster lifecycle
Implement cluster upgrades, scaling, and machine health checks using Cluster API resources
Evaluate Cluster API’s declarative approach against Terraform for Kubernetes cluster fleet management

Why This Module Matters

Managing one Kubernetes cluster is hard enough. Managing 10 is a full-time job. Managing 50+ without automation is a recipe for outages, configuration drift, and burnout. Cluster API treats clusters as disposable, reproducible infrastructure—the same way Deployments treat Pods. If a cluster drifts, reconcile it. If you need 20 more, declare them.

Did You Know?

Cluster API was started by the Kubernetes SIG Cluster Lifecycle team in 2018—the same group responsible for kubeadm. They saw teams reinventing cluster provisioning and wanted a universal, declarative solution.

CAPI manages over 15,000 production clusters at companies like Deutsche Telekom, Giantswarm, and SUSE. It is a graduated component of the Kubernetes ecosystem with providers for every major cloud and bare-metal platform.

The Docker provider (CAPD) creates real multi-node Kubernetes clusters using Docker containers as “machines.” This means you can test full cluster lifecycle operations—create, scale, upgrade, delete—on your laptop without spending a cent on cloud resources.

ClusterClass, introduced in CAPI v1beta1, lets you define a cluster “template” once and stamp out hundreds of consistent clusters. Think of it as a Helm chart, but for entire Kubernetes clusters.

CAPI Architecture

The central idea: one Kubernetes cluster (the management cluster) runs CAPI controllers that provision and manage other Kubernetes clusters (the workload clusters).

CLUSTER API ARCHITECTURE
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   MANAGEMENT CLUSTER                          │
│                                                               │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │                  CAPI CORE CONTROLLERS                  │  │
│  │                                                         │  │
│  │  Cluster Controller    Machine Controller               │  │
│  │  MachineSet Controller MachineDeployment Controller     │  │
│  │  ClusterClass Controller                                │  │
│  └──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘  │
│                             │                                  │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌───────▼────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐  │
│  │  Bootstrap   │  │ Infrastructure │  │  Control Plane   │  │
│  │  Provider    │  │   Provider     │  │    Provider      │  │
│  │  (CABPK)    │  │ (CAPA/CAPZ/..) │  │    (KCP)         │  │
│  │             │  │               │  │                  │  │
│  │ Generates   │  │ Creates VMs/  │  │ Manages etcd +   │  │
│  │ cloud-init  │  │ networks/LBs  │  │ control plane    │  │
│  └──────────────┘  └───────────────┘  └──────────────────┘  │
│                             │                                  │
└─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┘
                              │ provisions & manages
              ┌───────────────┼────────────────┐
              │               │                │
              ▼               ▼                ▼
     ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
     │  Workload    │ │  Workload    │ │  Workload    │
     │  Cluster A   │ │  Cluster B   │ │  Cluster C   │
     │  (prod-east) │ │  (prod-west) │ │  (staging)   │
     │              │ │              │ │              │
     │  CP: 3 nodes │ │  CP: 3 nodes │ │  CP: 1 node  │
     │  W:  50 nodes│ │  W:  30 nodes│ │  W:  5 nodes │
     └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘

Provider Types

Provider Type	Purpose	Examples
Infrastructure	Creates machines, networks, load balancers	CAPA (AWS), CAPZ (Azure), CAPG (GCP), CAPV (vSphere), CAPD (Docker)
Bootstrap	Generates node boot scripts (cloud-init)	CABPK (kubeadm), Talos, MicroK8s
Control Plane	Manages control plane nodes and etcd	KubeadmControlPlane (KCP), Talos, k0s

The beauty is composability: mix any infrastructure provider with any bootstrap provider. Want kubeadm-bootstrapped clusters on AWS? CAPA + CABPK. Want Talos Linux on bare metal? CAPM3 + Talos bootstrap.

Core Resources

CAPI introduces several CRDs that model the cluster lifecycle declaratively.

CAPI RESOURCE HIERARCHY
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  Cluster                          (top-level, owns everything)
    ├── InfrastructureCluster      (provider-specific: AWSCluster, DockerCluster)
    ├── KubeadmControlPlane (KCP)  (manages control plane Machines)
    │     └── Machine              (one per control plane node)
    │           └── InfraMachine   (AWSMachine, DockerMachine)
    └── MachineDeployment          (manages worker nodes, like Deployment)
          └── MachineSet           (like ReplicaSet)
                └── Machine        (one per worker node)
                      └── InfraMachine

Cluster

The root resource. References the infrastructure-specific cluster object and control plane provider. It defines the cluster network CIDRs and links to a KubeadmControlPlane (control plane) and an infrastructure-specific cluster resource like AWSCluster or DockerCluster.

MachineDeployment

Think of it exactly like a Kubernetes Deployment, but for cluster nodes instead of Pods. It manages MachineSets, which manage Machines, which map to actual VMs or containers. Each Machine references a bootstrap config (how to install K8s) and an infrastructure machine template (what VM specs to use).

Scaling workers? Change replicas: 5 to replicas: 10 on the MachineDeployment. CAPI reconciles the difference—creating new Machines, joining them to the cluster automatically.

ClusterClass: Templated Clusters

Creating individual Cluster, MachineDeployment, and KubeadmControlPlane objects for every cluster is verbose. ClusterClass solves this by defining a reusable template. A ClusterClass references templates for the control plane, infrastructure, and worker machine deployments. Once defined, you stamp out clusters with minimal YAML:

apiVersion: cluster.x-k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Cluster
metadata:
  name: team-payments-prod
spec:
  topology:
    class: standard-production
    version: v1.31.0
    controlPlane:
      replicas: 3
    workers:
      machineDeployments:
        - class: default-worker
          name: worker-pool
          replicas: 10

That is it. Dozens of underlying resources are created from one concise definition.

Infrastructure Providers

Provider	Code	Infrastructure	Maturity
AWS	CAPA	EC2, ELB, VPC	Stable (v2+)
Azure	CAPZ	VMs, VMSS, AKS	Stable (v1+)
GCP	CAPG	GCE, GKE	Stable
vSphere	CAPV	vSphere VMs	Stable
Metal3	CAPM3	Bare-metal via Ironic	Stable
Docker	CAPD	Docker containers	Development/testing only
OpenStack	CAPO	OpenStack VMs	Stable
Hetzner	CAPH	Hetzner Cloud + bare-metal	Community

Cross-reference: For lightweight distributions that CAPI can bootstrap, see K3s, Talos, and k0s. For understanding kubeadm (the default bootstrap provider), see the CKA track.

Hands-On: CAPI with Docker Provider (CAPD)

No cloud account needed. We use Docker containers as “machines” to experience the full cluster lifecycle locally.

Prerequisites

# Install clusterctl (CAPI CLI)
curl -L https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/releases/latest/download/clusterctl-$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')-amd64 -o clusterctl
chmod +x clusterctl
sudo mv clusterctl /usr/local/bin/

# Verify
clusterctl version

# You also need: Docker, kind, kubectl

Step 1: Create a Management Cluster

# Create a kind cluster to serve as management cluster
kind create cluster --name capi-management

# Initialize CAPI with Docker infrastructure provider
clusterctl init --infrastructure docker

# Watch providers come up
k get pods -A --watch
# Wait until all pods in capi-system, capd-system, capi-kubeadm-* are Running

Step 2: Create a Workload Cluster

# Generate workload cluster manifest using Docker provider
clusterctl generate cluster my-workload \
  --flavor development \
  --kubernetes-version v1.31.0 \
  --control-plane-machine-count 1 \
  --worker-machine-count 2 \
  > my-workload-cluster.yaml

# Review what will be created
k apply -f my-workload-cluster.yaml --dry-run=client

# Apply it
k apply -f my-workload-cluster.yaml

Step 3: Watch the Cluster Come to Life

# Watch cluster provisioning (this is the fun part)
clusterctl describe cluster my-workload

# Watch machines being created
k get machines -w

# Check cluster status
k get cluster my-workload -o yaml | grep -A 5 status

Step 4: Access the Workload Cluster

# Get the kubeconfig for the workload cluster
clusterctl get kubeconfig my-workload > my-workload.kubeconfig

# Use it
k --kubeconfig my-workload.kubeconfig get nodes
# You should see 1 control-plane + 2 worker nodes

# Install a CNI (workload clusters need one)
k --kubeconfig my-workload.kubeconfig apply -f \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/projectcalico/calico/v3.28.0/manifests/calico.yaml

Step 5: Scale Workers

# Scale from 2 to 4 workers
k patch machinedeployment my-workload-md-0 \
  --type merge \
  -p '{"spec":{"replicas": 4}}'

# Watch new machines appear
k get machines -w

Step 6: Clean Up

# Delete the workload cluster
k delete cluster my-workload

# CAPI handles teardown: drains nodes, deletes machines, cleans up infra
k get machines -w  # Watch them disappear

# Delete the management cluster
kind delete cluster --name capi-management

Success Criteria: You created a workload cluster, accessed it, scaled workers, and deleted it—all declaratively from a management cluster.

Cluster Lifecycle Operations

Operation	How	What Happens
Create	`kubectl apply -f cluster.yaml`	CAPI provisions infrastructure, bootstraps nodes, forms cluster
Scale workers	Patch MachineDeployment replicas	New Machines created, joined to cluster
Scale control plane	Patch KubeadmControlPlane replicas (1 to 3)	New CP nodes added, etcd membership updated
Upgrade	Patch version on KCP + MachineDeployment	Rolling replacement: new node up, old node drained and removed
Delete	`kubectl delete cluster <name>`	Nodes drained, machines deleted, infrastructure cleaned up
Repair	Automatic reconciliation	If a Machine fails health checks, CAPI replaces it

The upgrade strategy deserves emphasis: CAPI does immutable infrastructure upgrades. It does not run kubeadm upgrade on existing nodes. Instead, it creates a new node at the target version, waits for it to be healthy, then drains and removes the old node. This is safer and more predictable than in-place upgrades.

GitOps Integration with ArgoCD

CAPI resources are just Kubernetes objects. This makes GitOps integration natural.

Store your cluster definitions in Git, point ArgoCD at the management cluster, and every cluster change goes through pull request review.

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: cluster-fleet
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/your-org/cluster-fleet
    targetRevision: main
    path: clusters
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc  # management cluster
    namespace: default
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: false    # IMPORTANT: never auto-delete clusters
      selfHeal: true

With this setup, adding a new cluster means committing a YAML file. Upgrading a fleet means bumping the version in Git. Every change is auditable, reviewable, and reversible.

Cross-reference: See ArgoCD and Flux for GitOps fundamentals.

CAPI vs Terraform vs Crossplane

Dimension	Cluster API	Terraform	Crossplane
Model	Kubernetes-native CRDs	HCL declarative	Kubernetes-native CRDs
Reconciliation	Continuous (controller loop)	One-shot (`apply`)	Continuous (controller loop)
Scope	Kubernetes clusters only	Any infrastructure	Any cloud resource
State	Kubernetes etcd	Terraform state file	Kubernetes etcd
Drift detection	Automatic, continuous	Manual (`plan`)	Automatic, continuous
Cluster upgrades	Built-in rolling upgrades	Manual scripting	Not cluster-aware
Multi-cluster	First-class (fleet management)	Possible but manual	Can provision clusters but not manage lifecycle
Best for	Managing Kubernetes clusters at scale	General infrastructure	Cloud resources as K8s APIs

When to use what:

CAPI: You manage multiple Kubernetes clusters and want declarative lifecycle management with rolling upgrades, health checks, and remediation.
Terraform: You need to provision the base infrastructure (VPCs, IAM, DNS) that CAPI clusters run on. Many teams use Terraform for foundations + CAPI for clusters.
Crossplane: You want to expose cloud resources (databases, queues, storage) as Kubernetes APIs for developers. Crossplane and CAPI complement each other well.

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Why It’s Wrong	What To Do Instead
Running workloads on the management cluster	If the management cluster goes down, you lose the ability to manage all workload clusters	Keep the management cluster dedicated; run workloads on workload clusters only
No backup of management cluster	Losing the management cluster means losing cluster definitions and state	Back up etcd and CAPI resources regularly; consider Velero or clusterctl move
Skipping CNI installation on workload clusters	CAPI provisions nodes but does not install a CNI; Pods will stay Pending	Always install a CNI (Calico, Cilium) as a post-create step or via ClusterResourceSet
Upgrading multiple minor versions at once	CAPI follows Kubernetes skew policy; jumping versions can break clusters	Upgrade one minor version at a time (e.g., 1.30 to 1.31, not 1.29 to 1.31)
Using CAPD (Docker provider) in production	CAPD is for development and testing only; Docker “machines” are not production-grade	Use a real infrastructure provider (CAPA, CAPZ, CAPV) for production
Ignoring MachineHealthChecks	Without health checks, failed nodes sit broken indefinitely	Define MachineHealthCheck resources to auto-replace unhealthy nodes
Setting `prune: true` in ArgoCD for clusters	ArgoCD could delete cluster resources if they disappear from Git	Always set `prune: false` for cluster fleet ArgoCD Applications

Quiz

Test your understanding of Cluster API concepts.

Q1: What is the role of the management cluster in CAPI?

Show Answer

The management cluster runs CAPI controllers (core, infrastructure, bootstrap, control plane providers) that provision and manage workload clusters. It is the “cluster that manages clusters.” It stores the desired state of all workload clusters as Kubernetes resources in its own etcd.

Q2: How does CAPI handle Kubernetes version upgrades differently from kubeadm upgrade?

Show Answer

CAPI uses an immutable infrastructure approach: it creates a new Machine at the target Kubernetes version, waits for it to become healthy, then cordons, drains, and deletes the old Machine. This is a rolling replacement, not an in-place upgrade. kubeadm upgrade modifies the existing node in place, which carries more risk of leaving the node in a broken state.

Q3: What are the three types of CAPI providers and what does each do?

Show Answer

Infrastructure Provider - Creates the actual compute resources (VMs, networks, load balancers) on the target platform (AWS, Azure, vSphere, Docker, etc.).
Bootstrap Provider - Generates the configuration (typically cloud-init scripts) that turns a bare machine into a Kubernetes node. The default is CABPK (kubeadm bootstrap).
Control Plane Provider - Manages the lifecycle of control plane nodes, including etcd membership. The default is KubeadmControlPlane (KCP).

Q4: What problem does ClusterClass solve, and how?

Show Answer

ClusterClass solves the problem of verbose, repetitive cluster definitions. Without it, creating a cluster requires defining Cluster, KubeadmControlPlane, MachineDeployment, and all their infrastructure-specific counterparts individually. ClusterClass lets you define a reusable template once, then create clusters by referencing the class with only the parameters that differ (name, version, replica counts). It is analogous to a class/instance relationship in object-oriented programming.

Hands-On Exercise

Scenario: Your team manages three environments (dev, staging, prod) and wants to standardize cluster creation with CAPI.

Tasks:

Set up a management cluster using kind and initialize CAPI with the Docker provider
Create a workload cluster named dev-cluster with 1 control plane node and 1 worker
Verify the cluster is healthy and install a CNI
Scale the worker pool to 3 nodes
Create a second cluster named staging-cluster with the same configuration
Delete the dev-cluster and verify all resources are cleaned up

Success Criteria:

Management cluster running with CAPI controllers
dev-cluster provisioned and accessible via kubeconfig
Workers scaled from 1 to 3 (verified with kubectl get machines)
staging-cluster running alongside (two workload clusters managed simultaneously)
dev-cluster deleted cleanly (no orphaned Machines)

Bonus Challenge: Write a ClusterClass that encapsulates your cluster template, then create both clusters using spec.topology.class references instead of individual resources.

Current Landscape

CAPI is the standard for declarative Kubernetes lifecycle management
Rancher and Gardener are alternative fleet management tools with their own provisioning models
EKS Anywhere, AKS Arc, and GKE On-Prem use CAPI under the hood for hybrid deployments

Best Practices

Dedicate the management cluster — no application workloads, high availability
Use ClusterClass — avoid copy-paste cluster definitions; template everything
Define MachineHealthChecks — auto-replace nodes that fail health checks
GitOps your fleet — store all cluster definitions in Git
Back up the management cluster — use Velero or clusterctl move

Module 3.5: Cluster API (CAPI)

Overview

What You’ll Be Able to Do

Why This Module Matters

CAPI Architecture

Provider Types

Core Resources

Cluster

MachineDeployment

ClusterClass: Templated Clusters

Infrastructure Providers

Hands-On: CAPI with Docker Provider (CAPD)

Prerequisites

Step 1: Create a Management Cluster

Step 2: Create a Workload Cluster

Step 3: Watch the Cluster Come to Life

Step 4: Access the Workload Cluster

Step 5: Scale Workers

Step 6: Clean Up

Cluster Lifecycle Operations

GitOps Integration with ArgoCD

CAPI vs Terraform vs Crossplane

Common Mistakes

Quiz

Hands-On Exercise

Current Landscape

Best Practices

Further Reading