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Harvester

Harvester — Virtual Machines and Containers in One Cluster What it is Harvester is an open-source hyperconverged platform. It brings together two pieces that usually live apart: Kubernetes for containers and KVM for virtual machines. Instead of running a VM farm next to a Kubernetes cluster, both workloads run on the same nodes with one control plane. For administrators this reduces duplicated infrastructure and makes mixed setups easier to run.

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Harvester — Virtual Machines and Containers in One Cluster

What it is

Harvester is an open-source hyperconverged platform. It brings together two pieces that usually live apart: Kubernetes for containers and KVM for virtual machines. Instead of running a VM farm next to a Kubernetes cluster, both workloads run on the same nodes with one control plane. For administrators this reduces duplicated infrastructure and makes mixed setups easier to run.

How it works

The system uses KubeVirt to expose KVM inside Kubernetes. Storage comes from Longhorn, a distributed block layer. Networking relies on standard CNI plugins with VLAN or overlay options. From the outside it behaves like any other Kubernetes cluster. The difference is that you can create VMs with the same tools you use for pods. Management happens through a built-in dashboard, Rancher, or simply kubectl. Nodes can be added gradually and the whole thing runs on ordinary x86 servers with virtualization support.

Technical profile

Area	Details
Base platform	Kubernetes + KubeVirt + Longhorn
Hypervisor	KVM
Storage	Longhorn (replicated block volumes)
Networking	CNI plugins, VLANs, overlays
Management	Web UI, Rancher integration, kubectl
Hardware	x86_64 with VT-x/AMD-V
License	Apache 2.0

Installation guide

1. Prepare servers with virtualization extensions enabled.
2. Boot the Harvester ISO on the first machine.
3. Assign IP addresses, storage disks, and select the role (management or worker).
4. Add more nodes by repeating the process.
5. Log into the web UI to check cluster health.
6. Optionally hook it into Rancher for multi-cluster management.

Usage scenarios

– Replacing small VMware or Proxmox clusters with a Kubernetes-native stack.
– Edge locations where both VM and container workloads must run on the same hardware.
– Development labs where teams need to test pods and VMs side by side.
– Hybrid rollouts where legacy services stay in VMs while new ones run as containers.

Limitations

– Still younger than vSphere or OpenStack, so some enterprise features are missing.
– Hardware compatibility depends on Linux and KVM drivers — testing is required.
– The mindset is Kubernetes-first, which can be challenging for teams used to classic hypervisors.

Comparison snapshot

Tool	Strengths	Best fit
Harvester	Unified VM + container management, open source	Kubernetes-focused environments
VMware vSphere	Mature features, enterprise support	Large corporate datacenters
Proxmox VE	Simple, stable, strong community	Labs and SMBs
OpenStack	Very broad stack, scalable	Service providers, telcos

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