UpCloud Kubernetes (UKS)

UpCloud Managed Kubernetes (UKS) is UpCloud’s managed Kubernetes service, hosted in UpCloud’s European and global zones. UpCloud runs the control plane; Ankra provisions the cluster, then manages everything on top - node pools, Kubernetes upgrades, addons, stacks, GitOps, and AI-assisted operations. This page covers UKS specifically. For the shared concepts across all managed providers - live options, discovery/import, and day-2 API patterns - see Managed Kubernetes.

Why UKS with Ankra

Live pricing and options - zones, Kubernetes versions, and node plans are fetched live with your UpCloud token, with a monthly cost summary as you build the cluster.
Development and production control-plane plans - choose the UKS control-plane plan that fits the workload.
Full day-2 from the CLI, portal, or API - add and scale node pools, upgrade Kubernetes, and manage addons and stacks the same way as any Ankra cluster.

Prerequisites

An UpCloud API credential (API access for an UpCloud subaccount), stored in Ankra. See UpCloud API Credentials. GitOps is optional: connect a repository at creation and Ankra commits the cluster’s stack definitions to Git.

Creating a UKS cluster

Portal
CLI
API

Create Cluster

Go to Clusters → Create Cluster and pick UpCloud’s Cloud Managed action.

Credential & Zone

Select the UpCloud credential and a zone (for example de-fra1). Zones load live from UpCloud.

Node Pools

Define one or more worker pools: name, node plan (with live pricing), count, labels, and taints.

Kubernetes

Pick a Kubernetes version or keep the default, and select the control-plane plan (development or production).

GitOps (optional) & Create

Optionally connect a Git repository, then create. Ankra runs UpCloud preflight checks, provisions the cluster, retrieves the kubeconfig, and installs the Ankra Agent.

ankra cluster managed create \
  --provider uks \
  --name my-uks-cluster \
  --credential-id <upcloud-credential-id> \
  --location de-fra1 \
  --node-pool-name workers \
  --node-pool-size K8S-2xCPU-4GB \
  --node-pool-count 2

The control-plane plan is set from the portal or the API.

curl -X POST https://platform.ankra.app/org/clusters/managed/uks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ANKRA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "my-uks-cluster",
    "credential_id": "<upcloud-credential-id>",
    "location": "de-fra1",
    "node_pools": [
      {"name": "workers", "size": "K8S-2xCPU-4GB", "count": 2}
    ],
    "cluster_plan": "production"
  }'

UKS options

Field	Description
`cluster_plan`	Control-plane plan (`development` or `production`)
`gpu_plan.storage_size`	Storage size for GPU node pools

Verify

The create progress view follows the control plane, the node pools, kubeconfig retrieval and the Ankra Agent install. The cluster shows Online once the agent has connected. Then point kubectl at it through Ankra - this needs a Cluster Access grant - and check that every node is Ready:

ankra cluster kubeconfig add <cluster-name> --use
kubectl get nodes

See Accessing Clusters with kubectl.

Day-2 operations

Node pools, upgrades, and deletion work from the CLI, portal, or API. The CLI examples use --provider uks:

# scale a pool to a fixed count
ankra cluster managed node-pool scale <cluster_id> workers --provider uks --count 5

# upgrade the cluster
ankra cluster managed upgrade <cluster_id> --provider uks --version 1.33

# delete the cluster
ankra cluster managed delete <cluster_id> --provider uks

Ankra does not manage node-pool autoscaling on UKS: a pool you scale through Ankra is set to a fixed count, and Ankra never changes that count on its own. To autoscale a pool, run UpCloud’s Cluster Autoscaler in the cluster and mark the pool as externally managed so nothing in Ankra can override the count the autoscaler reaches. See Managed Kubernetes - day-2 operations for the shared mechanics.

Importing an existing UKS cluster

Already running UKS? Discover clusters at UpCloud and adopt them into Ankra without touching them. Discovery and import run from the portal, the CLI (ankra cluster managed discover|import --provider uks) or the API - see Managed Kubernetes - importing existing clusters.

Get Started

Concepts

Create and Run Clusters

Ship Your App

Stacks and Add-ons

Observe and Troubleshoot

Ankra AI

Connect Tools

Source Control

Security and Access

Cost and Backups

Organisation and Account

Reference

Why UKS with Ankra

Prerequisites

Creating a UKS cluster

UKS options

Verify

Day-2 operations

Importing an existing UKS cluster

​Why UKS with Ankra

​Prerequisites

​Creating a UKS cluster

​UKS options

​Verify

​Day-2 operations

​Importing an existing UKS cluster

​Related

Why UKS with Ankra

Prerequisites

Creating a UKS cluster

UKS options

Verify

Day-2 operations

Importing an existing UKS cluster

Related