vates-capi

A Cluster API infrastructure provider for Xen Orchestra. Manages the full lifecycle of VMs on XenServer / XCP-ng pools as Kubernetes worker and control plane nodes.

Quick start

Prerequisites: A management cluster (Kind, k3s, etc.), clusterctl, Xen Orchestra access (VM template UUID, pool UUID, network name).

# 1. Install CAPI with ClusterClass support
CLUSTER_TOPOLOGY=true clusterctl init --bootstrap kubeadm --control-plane kubeadm

# 2. Deploy the vates provider
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/vatesfr/cluster-api-provider-vates/releases/latest/download/install.yaml

# 3. Create the XO credentials secret
kubectl create secret generic xo-credentials -n capi-system \
  --from-literal=url="https://<your-xoa>" \
  --from-literal=token="<your-xo-token>" \
  --from-literal=insecure="true"

Template requirements

All templates must have cloud-init support enabled and Xen guest tools installed and running.

Two ClusterClass variants are provided:

• prefilled — for templates that already have kubelet, kubeadm, containerd, kube-vip, and Cilium images pre-installed. Edit examples/machinetemplates/prefilled/.
• from-scratch — for minimal templates (just containerd + Xen guest tools). The ClusterClass handles installing everything via preKubeadmCommands. Edit examples/machinetemplates/from-scratch/.

Edit the matching VatesMachineTemplate files to set your templateID, poolID, and network name, then apply:

# 4. Deploy ClusterClass + machine templates
kubectl apply -k examples/clusterclass/
kubectl apply -k examples/machinetemplates/prefilled/

# 5. Create a cluster
kubectl apply -f examples/example-cluster/capi-cluster.yaml

Development

make -f Makefile.dev build    # Build controller image
make -f Makefile.dev push     # Load into Kind
make -f Makefile.dev restart  # Restart the controller pod

Project structure

├── api/                           # CRD types (+kubebuilder markers)
├── cmd/                           # Manager entry point
├── internal/
│   ├── controller/                # Reconciliation logic
│   └── kubevip/                   # kube-vip static pod injection
├── config/
│   ├── crd/                       # Generated CRDs (DO NOT EDIT)
│   ├── manager/                   # Manager Deployment
│   ├── rbac/                      # Generated RBAC (DO NOT EDIT)
├── examples/                      # Example manifests
│   ├── clusterclass/              # ClusterClass + templates
│   ├── clusterctl/                # Template for clusterctl generate
│   ├── machinetemplates/          # VatesMachineTemplate (edit per env)
│   ├── example-cluster/           # Complete cluster example
│   └── standalone/                # Standalone VatesMachine tests
├── dist/                          # Generated release artifacts
│   ├── install.yaml               # kubectl apply bundle
│   ├── infrastructure-components.yaml  # clusterctl bundle
│   ├── cluster-template.yaml      # clusterctl template
│   └── chart/                     # Helm chart

Release artifacts

# Generate dist/ from the current source
make release-manifests IMG=ghcr.io/vatesfr/cluster-api-provider-vates:latest

License

Copyright 2026.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.