Guest: Lukas Gentele (LinkedIn)
Company: vCluster Labs
Show Name: An Eye on AI
Topics: Kubernetes, Cloud Native

Behind every vCluster innovation — from Private Nodes to Auto Nodes — lies a quietly powerful component: the control plane. It’s the layer that makes vCluster more than just a “cluster in a cluster.” And soon, it will become the foundation for vCluster Standalone, a new way to deploy Kubernetes without any prerequisites.

From Containers to Complete Clusters

Lukas Gentele, Founder and CEO of vCluster Labs, explains that vCluster’s control plane has always run as a container inside a Kubernetes environment. “We assume you already have some kind of cluster — whether that’s Minikube, Docker Desktop, EKS, or OpenShift — and we run our control plane inside that,” he says. This model made it easy to get started but required an existing Kubernetes environment.

That’s about to change. “Some of our customers asked, ‘Can you run a full-blown cluster without any prerequisites?’” Gentele recalls. The answer is vCluster Standalone, set to debut in October. It allows users to spin up Kubernetes directly on bare metal or virtual machines, much like lightweight distributions such as K3s or RKE2. The result: complete flexibility, no host cluster required.

Why the Syncer No Longer Fits

Another major shift is how workloads are managed within this new model. Traditionally, vCluster relied on a “syncer” — a mechanism that mirrored pods from the virtual cluster to the host cluster for scheduling. That worked well when vCluster shared host resources. But with Private Nodes, this step became unnecessary.

“When you have your own nodes, there’s no need to sync pods anymore,” Gentele explains. “Instead, you can disable the syncer entirely and let your scheduler — or a specialized one like Volcano or Run:AI — handle everything.”

This approach brings native scheduling flexibility to vCluster, allowing direct control over compute resources. It’s especially valuable for AI workloads that demand GPU orchestration or job-level scheduling precision.

A New Layer of Flexibility

By decoupling from the host cluster and offering native scheduling support, vCluster’s control plane is positioning itself as a true bridge between virtualized and physical Kubernetes deployments. Teams can start with vCluster inside a containerized setup, then scale to standalone mode as needs grow — all while keeping the same familiar control plane architecture.

Gentele sums it up as a natural evolution: “We’re not just making Kubernetes more flexible — we’re making it accessible in any form, from shared clusters to full standalone environments.”

Takeaway

The upcoming vCluster Standalone marks a pivotal shift. It turns vCluster into a fully self-contained Kubernetes distribution while retaining its roots in portability and modular design. By giving users the option to disable syncing and adopt advanced schedulers, vCluster Labs is opening the door to a new class of Kubernetes deployments — ones optimized for both simplicity and specialization.