Quick Facts
- VKS 3.6 adds support for Kubernetes 1.35 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 for cluster nodes
- Broadcom offers 24-month extended support per Kubernetes version with overlapping version support
- VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service achieves Certified Kubernetes AI Conformant Platform status
Broadcom announced VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service 3.6 at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026 in Amsterdam. The release adds support for Kubernetes version 1.35 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 as a supported operating system for VKS cluster nodes.
The platform joins Photon OS 5, Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04, and Windows Server 2022 in the supported operating systems list. Broadcom provides 24-month extended support per Kubernetes version with overlapping version support, allowing organizations to upgrade teams on individual timelines without fleet-wide upgrades.
VKS 3.6 introduces declarative TuneD profiles that enable kernel and sysctl tuning for databases and high-throughput applications. The builtin-vks-v3.6.0 profile includes vm.max_map_count = 262144 for Elasticsearch and SonarQube compatibility and kernel.pid_max >= 4194304 to prevent PID exhaustion on dense nodes.
For Linux nodes, the release adds support for the nftables backend for kube-proxy, delivering improved performance and scalability. The platform also expands upgrade readiness checks to identify configuration conflicts before upgrades begin.
VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service received Certified Kubernetes AI Conformant Platform status. “This milestone reinforces our commitment to open standards and helps customers innovate freely, knowing their AI platforms are built on a consistent, interoperable foundation,” said Dilpreet Bindra, Senior Director of Engineering at VMware Cloud Foundation Division.
Broadcom announced new partnerships with F5, Kong, and Tigera. F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services brings enterprise traffic management to VKS environments. Kong Konnect provides API gateway functionality for microservices and AI workloads. Tigera Calico Enterprise delivers security and observability across Kubernetes clusters.
The company remains one of the top five long-term contributors to Cloud Native Computing Foundation projects. Broadcom contributed Velero to the CNCF Sandbox, transitioning the project to vendor-neutral, community-driven governance.
“We’re not just users of Kubernetes, we’re builders and we make Kubernetes easier to run, not harder,” Bindra said. Chris Aniszczyk, CTO of Cloud & Infrastructure at the Linux Foundation, noted that Broadcom’s “ongoing investment helps keep Kubernetes vendor-neutral and production-ready at scale.”
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