System Requirements for KOTS Apps
This page describes the system requirements for executing and installing KOTS applications. The requirements for command-line-interfaces (such as the Vendor CLI and the KOTS CLI) are described separately, and are not subject to these requirements.
Kubernetes Version Compatibility
Each release of KOTS maintains compatability with the current Kubernetes version, and the 2 most recent versions. This includes support against all patch releases of the corrersponding Kubernetes version.
| KOTS Version | Release Date | Kubernetes Compatibility |
|---|---|---|
| 1.11 | 2020-01-22 | 1.17, 1.16, and 1.15 |
| 1.12 | 2020-02-04 | 1.17, 1.16, and 1.15 |
| 1.13 | 2020-02-27 | 1.17, 1.16, and 1.15 |
| 1.14 | 2020-03-31 | 1.17, 1.16, and 1.15 |
| 1.15 | 2020-05-01 | 1.18, 1.17, and 1.16 |
| 1.16 | 2020-06-01 | 1.18, 1.17, and 1.16 |
| 1.17 | 2020-07-14 | 1.18, 1.17, and 1.16 |
| 1.18 | 2020-08-10 | 1.18, 1.17, and 1.16 |
| 1.19 | 2020-09-11 | 1.18, 1.17, and 1.16 |
| 1.20 | 2020-10-09 | 1.19, 1.18, and 1.17 |
Existing Cluster Installation Requirements
Existing cluster compatibility is primarily determined through the version of Kubernetes the cluster is running. Unless otherwise noted on this page, cluster infrastructure having compatibility for a supported version of Kubernetes will be compatible with KOTS. This excludes any specific and additional requirements imposed by software vendor.
In additional to a valid Kubernetes version, KOTS requires an existing storage class to be available in the cluster.
Root access on nodes or workstations is not required for installations to existing clusters. To perform an install, the user executing kubectl kots install will need either
Cluster RBAC
Unless the requireMinimalRBACPrivileges attribute is included and set to true in the application.yaml, KOTS will require:
- Existing namespace, and an RBAC binding that allows the
kubectl-ing user to create workloads, ClusterRoles, and ClusterRoleBindings - cluster-admin permissions to create namespaces and assign RBAC roles across the cluster
With the requireMinimalRBACPrivileges included and set to true, KOTS will not require the ability to create ClusterRoles and ClusterRoleBindings.
In this mode, KOTS will use a namespace-scoped Role and RoleBinding
Embedded Cluster Installation Requirements
KOTS leverages kURL to embed a new Kubernetes cluster into existing machines. As such, any embedded installation includes additional system requirements (see kURL System Requirements).
Root access is required for embedded cluster installations.