Overview
| Enterprise | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Available in these plans | Free | Dev | Prod | Scale |
| Machine Management | ||||
A Machine is a provisioned server — physical or virtual — managed by vCluster Platform through a node provider. Machines abstract the provisioning details so that platform administrators can offer self-service access to compute resources. Users request Machines either indirectly through virtual cluster auto-nodes, or directly when they need standalone servers outside the virtual cluster lifecycle.
Each Machine is backed by a node provider that handles the actual provisioning — creating VMs, provisioning bare metal servers, or running Terraform scripts.
How machines are created
Machines are created in two ways:
- Auto nodes: When a virtual cluster is configured with private nodes and auto nodes, the platform automatically creates scalable pools of Machines. Karpenter decides when nodes are needed, and the platform provisions them through the configured node provider. The Machine joins the virtual cluster as a worker node.
- Manual: Machines can also be created independently, without being connected to a virtual cluster. This is useful for provisioning servers that are managed outside of the virtual cluster lifecycle.
In both cases, the node provider determines how the Machine is provisioned — what OS image is installed, what user data is applied, and how the server is configured.
Configuration
Machines inherit configuration from the node type they are provisioned from. This includes resource specifications, provider-specific properties, and provisioning settings like OS images and SSH keys.
The following resources can be referenced by name in node type or Machine properties to configure provisioning: