Glossary

Traffic-isolated forwarding path for transmission of network traffic in the SUSE Virtualization cluster.

Group of integrated virtual machines that run on top of a SUSE Virtualization cluster.

You can create RKE2 and K3s guest clusters using the SUSE Virtualization and SUSE Rancher Prime interfaces. Creating guest clusters involves pulling images from either the internet or a private registry.

Guest clusters form the main infrastructure for running container workloads. Certain versions of SUSE Virtualization and SUSE Rancher Prime allow you to deploy container workloads directly to SUSE Virtualization clusters (with some limitations).

Virtual machine that uses SUSE Virtualization cluster resources to run container workloads.

Guest nodes are managed through a control plane that controls pod-related activity and maintains the desired cluster state.

Group of integrated physical servers (hosts) on which the SUSE Virtualization hypervisor is installed. These servers collectively manage compute, memory, and storage resources to provide an environment for running virtual machines.

A three-node cluster is required to fully realize the multi-node features of SUSE Virtualization, particularly high availability. The latest versions allow you to create clusters with two management nodes and one witness node (and optionally, one or more worker nodes). You can also create single-node clusters that support most features (excluding high availability, multi-replica support, and live migration).

SUSE Virtualization clusters can be imported into and managed by SUSE Rancher Prime. Within this context, an imported SUSE Virtualization cluster is known as a "managed cluster" or "downstream user cluster" (often abbreviated to "downstream cluster"). The term refers to any Kubernetes cluster that is connected to a SUSE Rancher Prime server.

Certain versions of SUSE Virtualization and SUSE Rancher Prime allow you to deploy container workloads directly to SUSE Virtualization clusters (with some limitations). When this experimental feature is enabled, container workloads seamlessly interact with virtual machine workloads.

Specialized operating system and software stack that runs on a single physical server.

Installation image that contains the core operating system components and all required container images, which are preloaded during installation.

Physical server on which the SUSE Virtualization hypervisor is installed.

Each node that joins a SUSE Virtualization cluster must be assigned a role that determines the functions the node can perform within the cluster. All SUSE Virtualization nodes process data but not all can store data.

Component that enables a Rancher-managed SUSE Virtualization cluster to function as a native cloud backend for guest Kubernetes clusters. The Harvester Cloud Provider integrates the Kubernetes cloud controller manager (CCM) and container storage interface (CSI) driver, allowing guest clusters to dynamically request and manage SUSE Virtualization-native resources (load balancer and storage) without manual intervention.

Driver that provides a standard container storage interface (CSI) for guest Kubernetes clusters, allowing container workloads to use the storage solution integrated with the underlying SUSE Virtualization cluster. This component enables hotplugging of volumes to the virtual machines to provide native storage performance.

Driver that SUSE Rancher Prime uses to provision virtual machines in a SUSE Virtualization cluster, and to launch and manage guest Kubernetes clusters on top of those virtual machines.

Process of moving a running virtual machine to another node within the same SUSE Virtualization cluster without interrupting the guest operating system and causing workload downtime. Live migration can occur only when the prerequisites are met and when the affected virtual machines are live-migratable.

Cluster network that is automatically created during SUSE Virtualization cluster deployment and is always enabled on all hosts. SUSE Virtualization uses mgmt for intra-cluster communications and cluster management tasks.

Installation image that contains only the core SUSE Virtualization operating system components, allowing the installer to boot and then install the operating system on a disk. After installation is completed, the operating system pulls all required container images from the internet.

Definition of how a set of cluster nodes with uniform network specifications connects to a specific cluster network.

Virtual network representing a virtual layer 2 switch that encapsulates and forwards traffic between virtual machines. Overlay networks support advanced software-defined networking (SDN) capabilities such as virtual private clouds (VPCs) and subnets for virtual machine workloads.

Network for isolating Longhorn replication traffic from intra-cluster traffic on mgmt and other cluster-wide workloads.

Virtual network that provides a virtual machine with a single network interface that can carry traffic for multiple, overlapping VLAN ID ranges simultaneously. When a virtual machine is attached to a VLAN trunk network, the guest operating system and applications are allowed to send and receive packets tagged with any of the VLAN IDs within the specified range.

Network for isolating virtual machine migration traffic from intra-cluster traffic on mgmt and other cluster-wide workloads.

Virtual network linked to a specific cluster network that enables communication between virtual machines and the external network.

Non-computing node used solely to maintain cluster consensus. It ensures the system can reach a majority decision (quorum) on cluster updates even if a management node becomes unavailable or a network failure occurs.

Witness nodes do not run workloads and store data. Each SUSE Virtualization cluster can have only one witness node.