Podplane Architecture

Podplane aims to make container infrastructure easy, and uses a unique Kubernetes-based platform architecture to achieve this goal.

What Makes Podplane Different?

Podplane is easy to use and operate because it combines three sibling projects into a new type of Kubernetes-based container platform:

• Cluster state is stored in object storage via Netsy, not on disk via etcd.
• Auto-scaling & provisioning is faster with Nstance.
• OIDC & RBAC is simplified with Easy OIDC (or you can BYO existing OIDC servers)

Podplane itself consists of three key components:

1. podplane CLI: a CLI for deploying and managing clusters, written in Go.
2. vmconfig: a minimal configuration system designed for Debian-based Linux VMs, written in Bash.
3. components: a collection of Helm charts used to seed the Kubernetes cluster state.

Podplane, Netsy, Nstance, and Easy OIDC are Open Source projects created by Nadrama.

Platform Layers

A Podplane cluster consists of three platform layers:

1. Infrastructure Layer: gets VMs scheduled. This is largely infrastructure-as-code (OpenTofu/Terraform) + Nstance.

2. Virtual Machine (VM) Layer: gets Pods scheduled on a VM. This is essentially Netsy + core Kubernetes + containerd.

3. Container Layer: delivers a working Developer Platform for devs. This is where Podplane components run atop Kubernetes, e.g. CNI or ingress.

Component Overview

Infrastructure & VM Layer

┌────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐
│Podplane CLI├───▶│OpenTofu / TF │
└────────────┘    └──────┬───────┘
                         │ 
┌────────────────────────▼─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Provider (AWS / Google Cloud / Proxmox)             │
│                                                                  │
│     ┌───────────────────────┐   ┌──────────────────┐             │
│     │  nstance-server (VM)  │◀──│  Auto-Scaling    │             │
│     └──▲─────┬──────────────┘   │  Groups (ASGs)   │             │
│        │     │ manages          └──────────────────┘             │
│     ┌──┼─────▼─────────────────────────────┐  ┌───────────────┐  │
│     │  │       VM Instances                │  │ Object Storage│  │
│     │ ┌┴──────────────┐ ┌────────────────┐ │  └──▲────▲────▲──┘  │
│     │ │ nstance-agent │ │ fluent-bit     ├─┼─────┘    │    │     │
│     │ ├───────────────┤ ├────────────────┤ │          │    │     │
│     │ │ kube2iam      │ │ distribution   ├─┼──────────┘    │     │
│     │ ├───────────────┤ ├────────────────┤ │               │     │
│     │ │ kubelet       │ │ netsy          ├─┼───────────────┘     │
│     │ ├───────────────┤ ├────────────────┤ │                     │
│     │ │ containerd    │ │ kube-scheduler │ │                     │
│     │ ├───────────────┤ ├────────────────┤ │                     │
│     │ │ runc          │ │ kube-ctrl-mgr  │ │                     │
│     │ ├───────────────┤ ├────────────────┤ │  ┌───────────────┐  │
│     │ │ cni-plugins   │ │ kube-apiserver │ │  │   Easy OIDC   │  │
│     │ └───────────────┘ └──▲──────────┬──┘ │  │     server    │  │
│     └──────────────────────┼──────────│────┘  └───▲────────▲──┘  │
│                            │          └───────────┘        │     │
└────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼─────┘
                             │      ┌─────────────────┐      │
                             └──────│   Developers    ├──────┘
                                    │   (kubectl)     │    login
                                    └─────────────────┘

The sequence of how these all fit together is:

1. Podplane CLI generates infrastructure-as-code configuration files

2. If you don’t have an existing OIDC server, the CLI can deploy an Easy OIDC server for you.

3. OpenTofu/Terraform deploys infrastructure (on AWS/Google Cloud)

4. Podplane bootstraps cluster state using configuration generated by components

5. Nstance auto-scales cluster VMs using the Podplane userdata script

6. Each VM userdata script downloads the relevant packages, and runs the vmconfig package entrypoint to configure the VM.

7. Control Plane nodes run Netsy as an etcd-alternative, and all standard Kubernetes components such as kube-apiserver

8. Developers use podplane login to authenticate with your cluster

9. Developers can use podplane deploy to easily deploy apps using templates

   • When using the deploy command, the CLI will prompt to automatically podplane install required components like cert-manager and Traefik if not already present

Learn More

For detailed information about each layer, see:

• Infrastructure - how Podplane provisions and manages cloud infrastructure.
• VM Configuration - how VMs are configured and what runs on them.
• Components - the component system, including core components and addon installation.