Skip to main content
Windows workers let you attach customer-owned Windows Server machines to a managed cluster. This page covers native Windows Server workers for managed clusters. It does not cover imported clusters, Docker Desktop, Windows-only Kubernetes clusters, or running Linux workloads as Windows containers. Windows workers require a managed cluster created with Linux and Windows workers support. Choose this option in the managed-cluster create flow.

​
Supported launch path

Akua supports Windows workers only when all of the following are true:
  • The machine runs Windows Server 2022 amd64.
  • The cluster was created with Linux and Windows workers support.
  • The cluster has a Linux control plane and at least one Ready Linux worker for Linux workloads and system capacity.
  • The Windows worker can reach the managed control plane and the other workers over the required network paths.
Windows support is a cluster capability, not a package compatibility guarantee. Linux-only packages still need Linux worker capacity in the same cluster. A package can run on Windows only when the package publishes Windows-compatible images, commands, probes, volumes, and Kubernetes placement rules.

​
Unsupported at launch

The following configurations are not supported for the current Windows worker launch:
  • Windows ARM64 workers.
  • Windows Server 2019 or Windows Server 2025 workers.
  • Windows-only managed clusters.
  • Managed clusters created for Linux workers only.
  • Air-gapped or offline worker bootstrap.
  • Linux container images running as native Windows workloads.

​
Prerequisites

  • Administrator PowerShell access on the Windows Server.
  • Windows Containers feature enabled, or permission to enable it and reboot before joining.
  • Outbound access from the worker to the Akua control plane and bootstrap artifacts.
  • Konnectivity TCP 8132 reachability from the worker to the control plane path.
  • UDP 4789 reachability between workers.
  • Kubelet TCP 10250 reachability where your cluster topology requires it.
  • Pod and service CIDR reachability for the cluster network.

​
Add a Windows worker

1

Create or select a cluster with Windows worker support

In the managed-cluster create flow, choose Linux and Windows workers. If you already have a cluster, verify that it was created with this worker support option.
2

Open the worker bootstrap step

Open the cluster worker page or the install wizard compute step, then select Windows Server as the worker platform.
3

Copy the PowerShell command

Copy the generated PowerShell bootstrap command. The command is tied to a short-lived bootstrap token.
4

Run the command as administrator

Run the command in an elevated PowerShell session on the Windows Server.
5

Verify the worker

Wait for the worker to appear as Ready in the dashboard.
The bootstrap token is short-lived. If the token expires before the worker joins, generate a new worker bootstrap command from the dashboard.

​
Workload placement

In mixed operating system clusters, packages must state where workloads run. If a package is Linux-only, add or keep Linux capacity in the same cluster. Adding a Windows worker does not move Linux workloads onto Windows.

Add workers

Attach compute capacity to a managed cluster.

Clusters

Understand managed and imported clusters.