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Preparing Air-gap NDK

High-Level Process

Warning

NKP supports NDK v2.0.0 at the time of writing this lab with CSI version 3.3.8.

We will use NDK v2.0.0 with NKP v2.16.1 for this lab.

CSI version 3.3.8 is necessary for Nutanix Files replication and protection.

  1. Download NDK v2.0.0 binaries that are available in Nutanix Support Nutanix Portal
  2. Upload NDK containers to an internal Harbor registry
  3. Enable NDK to trust internal Harbor registry. See here
  4. Install NDK v2.0.0

Setup Harbor Internal Registry

Follow instructions in Harbor Installation to setup internal Harbor registry for storing NDK v2.0.0 containers.

  1. Login to Harbor
  2. Create a project called nkp in Harbor

Prepare for NDK Installation

Download NDK Binaries

  1. Login to Nutanix Portal using your credentials

  2. Go to Downloads > Nutanix Data Services for Kubernetes (NDK)

  3. Scroll and choose Nutanix Data Services for Kubernetes ( Version: 2.0.0 )

  4. Open new VSCode window on your jumphost VM

  5. In VSCode Explorer pane, click on existing $HOME folder

  6. Click on New Folder name it: ndk

  7. On VSCode Explorer plane, click the $HOME/ndk folder

  8. On VSCode menu, select Terminal > New Terminal

  9. Browse to ndk directory

    cd $HOME/ndk

  10. Download the NDK binaries bundle from the link you copied earlier

    Paste the download URL within double quotes
    curl -o ndk-2.0.0.tar "_paste_download_URL_here"

    $HOME/ndk $ curl -o ndk-2.0.0.tar "https://download.nutanix.com/downloads/ndk/2.0.0/ndk-2.0.0.tar?Expires=XXXXXXXXX__"

  11. Extract the NDK binaries

    tar -xvf ndk-${NDK_VERSION}.tar
cd ndk-${NDK_VERSION}

    tar -xvf ndk-2.0.0.tar
cd ndk-2.0.0
    NDK Binaries Directory Contents 
    ~/ndk/ndk-2.0.0$ tree

├── ndk-2.0.0
│   ├── chart
│   │   ├── Chart.yaml                                      # NDK chart

│   │   ├── crds
│   │   │   └── scheduler.nutanix.com_jobschedulers.yaml    # NDK CRDs

│   │   ├── templates

        │   │   └── values.yaml                             # NDK chart values

│   └── ndk-2.0.0.tar                                       # NDK container images

  12. Source the .env file to import environment variables

    source $HOME/ndk/.env

  13. Load NDK container images to local Docker instance

    docker load -i ndk-${NDK_VERSION}.tar

    Loaded image: ndk/manager:2.0.0
Loaded image: ndk/infra-manager:2.0.0
Loaded image: ndk/job-scheduler:2.0.0
Loaded image: ndk/kube-rbac-proxy:v0.19.0
Loaded image: ndk/kubectl:1.32.3

  14. In VSC, under the newly created ndk folder, click on New File and create file with the following name:

    .env

  15. Add (append) the following environment variables and save it

    export NDK_VERSION=_your_ndk_version # (1)! 
export KUBE_RBAC_PROXY_VERSION=_your_kube_kube_rbac_proxy_version # (2)! 
export KUBECTL_VERSION=_your_kubectl_version # (3)! 
export IMAGE_REGISTRY=_your_harbor_registy_url/nkp
    1. Get NDK tag version information from docker load -i ndk-${NDK_VERSION}.tar command output
    2. Get KUBE_RBAC_PROXY_VERSION tag version information from docker load -i ndk-${NDK_VERSION}.tar command output
    3. Get KUBECTL_VERSION tag version information from docker load -i ndk-${NDK_VERSION}.tar command output
    export NDK_VERSION=2.0.0
export KUBE_RBAC_PROXY_VERSION=v0.19.0
export KUBECTL_VERSION=1.32.3
export IMAGE_REGISTRY=harbor.apj-cxrules.win/nkp

  16. Load NDK container images and upload to internal Harbor registry

    docker login ${IMAGE_REGISTRY} 

for img in ndk/manager:${NDK_VERSION} \
ndk/infra-manager:${NDK_VERSION} \
ndk/job-scheduler:${NDK_VERSION} \
ndk/kube-rbac-proxy:${KUBE_RBAC_PROXY_VERSION} 
ndk/kubectl:${KUBECTL_VERSION}; \
do docker tag $img ${IMAGE_REGISTRY}/${img}; \
docker push ${IMAGE_REGISTRY}/${img}; \
done

    docker login harbor.example.com/nkp

for img in ndk/manager:2.0.0 ndk/infra-manager:2.0.0 ndk/job-scheduler:2.0.0 ndk/kube-rbac-proxy:v0.17.0 ndk/bitnami-kubectl:1.30.3; do docker tag ndk/bitnami-kubectl:1.30.3 harbor.example.com/nkp/ndk/bitnami-kubectl:1.30.3; docker push harbor.example.com/nkp/ndk/bitnami-kubectl:1.30.3;done

Install NDK on Primary NKP Cluster

  1. Login to VSCode Terminal

  2. Set you NKP cluster KUBECONFIG

    export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/nkp/_nkp_primary_cluster_name.conf

    export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/nkp/nkpprimary.conf

  3. Test connection to nkpprimary cluster 

    kubectl get nodes -owide

    $ kubectl get nodes

NAME                                STATUS   ROLES           AGE    VERSION
nkpprimary-md-0-vd5kr-ff8r8-hq764   Ready    <none>          3d4h   v1.32.3
nkpprimary-md-0-vd5kr-ff8r8-jjpvx   Ready    <none>          3d4h   v1.32.3
nkpprimary-md-0-vd5kr-ff8r8-md28h   Ready    <none>          3d4h   v1.32.3
nkpprimary-md-0-vd5kr-ff8r8-xvmf6   Ready    <none>          3d4h   v1.32.3
nkpprimary-xnnk5-6pnr8              Ready    control-plane   3d4h   v1.32.3
nkpprimary-xnnk5-87slh              Ready    control-plane   3d4h   v1.32.3
nkpprimary-xnnk5-fjdd4              Ready    control-plane   3d4h   v1.32.3

  4. Install NDK

    helm upgrade -n ntnx-system --install ndk chart/ \
--set manager.repository="$IMAGE_REGISTRY/ndk/manager" \
--set manager.tag=${NDK_VERSION} \
--set infraManager.repository="$IMAGE_REGISTRY/ndk/infra-manager" \
--set infraManager.tag=${NDK_VERSION} \
--set kubeRbacProxy.repository="$IMAGE_REGISTRY/ndk/kube-rbac-proxy" \
--set kubeRbacProxy.tag=${KUBE_RBAC_PROXY_VERSION} \
--set bitnamiKubectl.repository="$IMAGE_REGISTRY/ndk/bitnami-kubectl" \
--set bitnamiKubectl.tag=${KUBECTL_VERSION} \
--set jobScheduler.repository="$IMAGE_REGISTRY/ndk/job-scheduler" \
--set jobScheduler.tag=${NDK_VERSION} \
--set config.secret.name=nutanix-csi-credentials \
--set tls.server.enable=false

    helm upgrade -n ntnx-system --install ndk chart/ \
--set manager.repository="harbor.example.com/nkp/ndk/manager" \
--set manager.tag=2.0.0 \
--set infraManager.repository="harbor.example.com/nkp/ndk/infra-manager" \
--set infraManager.tag=2.0.0 \
--set kubeRbacProxy.repository="harbor.example.com/nkp/ndk/kube-rbac-proxy" \
--set kubeRbacProxy.tag=v0.17.0 \
--set bitnamiKubectl.repository="harbor.example.com/nkp/ndk/bitnami-kubectl" \
--set bitnamiKubectl.tag=1.30.3 \
--set jobScheduler.repository="harbor.example.com/nkp/ndk/job-scheduler" \
--set jobScheduler.tag=2.0.0 \
--set config.secret.name=nutanix-csi-credentials \
--set tls.server.enable=false

    Release "ndk" does not exist. Installing it now.
NAME: ndk
LAST DEPLOYED: Mon Jul  7 06:33:28 2025
NAMESPACE: ntnx-system
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None

  5. Check if all NDK custom resources are running (4 of 4 containers should be running inside the ndk-controller-manger pod)

    kubens ntnx-system
k get all -l app.kubernetes.io/name=ndk

    Active namespace is "ntnx-system".

$ k get all -l app.kubernetes.io/name=ndk

NAME                                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/ndk-controller-manager-57fd7fc56b-gg5nl   4/4     Running   0          19m

NAME                                             TYPE           CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP    PORT(S)          AGE
service/ndk-controller-manager-metrics-service   ClusterIP      10.109.134.126   <none>         8443/TCP         19m
service/ndk-intercom-service                     LoadBalancer   10.99.216.62     10.122.7.212   2021:30258/TCP   19m
service/ndk-scheduler-webhook-service            ClusterIP      10.96.174.148    <none>         9444/TCP         19m
service/ndk-webhook-service                      ClusterIP      10.107.189.171   <none>         443/TCP          19m

NAME                                     READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
deployment.apps/ndk-controller-manager   1/1     1            1           19m

NAME                                                DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE
replicaset.apps/ndk-controller-manager-57fd7fc56b   1         1         1       19m

NDK in air-gap enviroment is now install.

Proceed to the configuring NDK here.