Autonomous cluster control plane in a virtualized computing system

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions to be executed in a computing device to cause the computing device to carry out a method of creating an autonomous cluster of hosts in a virtualized computing system, comprising:

• enabling, by a virtualization management server executing a cross cluster control plane (xCCP), an infravisor in a seed host of the hosts, the infravisor a component of a hypervisor executing on the seed host;
• running, by the infravisor, a cluster control plane (CCP) pod on the seed host, the CCP pod executing a CCP, the CCP pod being a virtual machine (VM) and including a kernel, a container engine, which is configured to execute the CCP as one or more containers, and an agent, which is configured to cooperate with the infravisor;
• providing, by the infravisor, a CCP configuration to the agent of the CCP pod;
• applying, by an initialization script of the CCP pod executed by the kernel of the CCP pod, the CCP configuration to the CCP to create the autonomous cluster having the seed host as a single node thereof, the initialization script using first data of the CCP configuration to start services of the CCP pod in the one or more containers and second data of the CCP configuration for configuring the services to establish the CCP as a control plane for the autonomous cluster;
• and
• extending the autonomous cluster with remaining hosts of the hosts other than the seed host as additional nodes thereof, the CCP applying a cluster personality to each of the remaining hosts derived from the seed host.

A virtualized computing system, comprising:

• an autonomous cluster of hosts, each of the hosts having a hardware platform;
• a virtualization management server executing a cross cluster control plane (xCCP);
• and
• a seed host of the hosts including a hypervisor executing on the hardware platform of the seed host, the hypervisor having an infravisor enabled by the xCCP, the infravisor configured to run a cluster control plane (CCP) pod on the seed host, the CCP pod executing a CCP for the autonomous cluster, the infravisor configured to provide a CCP configuration to the CCP pod, the CCP pod being a virtual machine (VM) and including a kernel, a container engine, which is configured to execute the CCP as one or more containers, and an agent, which is configured to cooperate with the infravisor;
• wherein the CCP pod includes an initialization script executed by the kernel of the CCP pod and configured to apply the CCP configuration to the CCP to create the autonomous cluster, the initialization script using first data of the CCP configuration to start services of the CCP pod in the one or more containers and second data of the CCP configuration for configuring the services to establish the CCP as a control plane for the autonomous cluster;
• and
• wherein the CCP applies a cluster personality to each remaining host of the hosts other than the seed host, the cluster personality derived from the seed host.