Deployment Cell Amenities¶
Overview¶
Deployment cell amenities are additional infrastructure components (Helm charts) that can be installed and managed on your deployment cell to enhance functionality and provide essential services. Omnistrate provides both managed amenities and support for custom amenities to meet your specific infrastructure requirements.
This guide demonstrates how to manage deployment cell amenities using the Omnistrate command-line tool.
Prerequisites¶
Before managing deployment cell amenities, ensure you have:
- Omnistrate CTL installed (installation guide)
- Valid credentials for the Omnistrate platform
- Appropriate permissions to manage deployment cell
- Access to your target environment (e.g., PROD, STAGING)
Deployment cell support two types of amenities:
Managed Amenities¶
Pre-configured Helm charts maintained by Omnistrate that are automatically available for installation. These amenities are:
- Fully managed: Omnistrate handles chart configuration, updates, and maintenance
- Cloud-optimized: Configured with best practices for each cloud provider
- Production-ready: Tested and validated for enterprise use
Common managed amenities include:
- Observability Prometheus: Monitoring and metrics collection
- Kubernetes Dashboard: Web-based Kubernetes cluster management interface
- External DNS: Automatic DNS record management for Kubernetes services
- Cert Manager: Automatic SSL certificate provisioning and renewal
- Nginx Ingress Controller: HTTP/HTTPS traffic routing and load balancing
Each cloud provider has additional managed amenities.
Custom Amenities¶
-
Helm charts that you configure and manage yourself. Custom amenities require you to provide:
-
Chart repository information (name and URL)
- Specific chart version
- Custom Helm values for configuration
-
Authentication credentials (if needed)
-
Plain Kubernetes Manifests that you can deploy and manage on your deployment cell.
Managing Deployment Cell Configuration Templates¶
Configuration templates define which amenities are available for a deployment cell on each cloud provider.
Note
By default Omnistrate uses a Configuration Template per cloud provider. If you need to define different templates per Environment please reach out to [email protected]
Generate Configuration Template¶
Create a template with all available amenities for a specific cloud provider:
When prompted, select your login method and provide credentials.
Using Schema Validation¶
To simplify the definition of this specification file Omnistrate provide a JSON schema that can be used for validation. You can use the JSON schema in IDEs that use the YAML Language Server (eg: VSCode / NeoVim).
# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://api.omnistrate.cloud/2022-09-01-00/schema/deployment-cell-amenities-spec-schema.json
For IntelliJ replace the top line with the following line to set up the yaml schema
# $schema: https://api.omnistrate.cloud/2022-09-01-00/schema/deployment-cell-amenities-spec-schema.json
Review Template Structure¶
The generated template contains two main sections:
# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://api.omnistrate.cloud/2022-09-01-00/schema/deployment-cell-amenities-spec-schema.json
managedAmenities:
- name: EFS CSI Driver
description: EFS CSI Driver
type: Helm
- name: AWS Load Balancer Controller
description: AWS Load Balancer Controller
type: Helm
- name: Cluster Autoscaler
description: Cluster Autoscaler
type: Helm
# ... additional managed amenities
customAmenities:
- name: EBS CSI Driver
description: EBS CSI Driver
type: Helm
properties:
ChartName: "aws-ebs-csi-driver"
ChartVersion: "2.28.1"
ChartRepoName: "aws-ebs-csi-driver"
ChartRepoURL: "https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/aws-ebs-csi-driver"
CredentialsProvider:
Type: "none"
DefaultNamespace: "kube-system"
ChartValues:
image:
repository: "public.ecr.aws/ebs-csi-driver/aws-ebs-csi-driver"
tag: "v1.27.0"
controller:
replicaCount: 2
resources:
requests:
cpu: "10m"
memory: "40Mi"
affinity:
nodeAffinity:
requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
nodeSelectorTerms:
- matchExpressions:
- key: omnistrate.com/control-plane
operator: Exists
tolerations:
- key: CriticalAddonsOnly
value: "true"
effect: NoSchedule
Warning
Omnistrate creates a system node pool that is independent of the service plan node pool. To allow Operators and Controllers to run on the system node pool, affinity rules and tolerations must be defined as shown in the example and explained in the Affinity rules and tolerations section.
Helm Chart Amenities¶
When defining custom Helm amenities, include these properties:
| Property | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
ChartName | Name of the Helm chart | Yes |
ChartVersion | Specific version of the chart | Yes |
ChartRepoName | Repository name identifier | Yes |
ChartRepoURL | Repository URL | Yes |
CredentialsProvider | Authentication configuration | No |
DefaultNamespace | Kubernetes namespace for deployment | No |
ChartValues | Custom Helm values to override defaults | No |
ReleaseName | Optional custom release name for Helm chart. This setting is useful in case you need to install multiple versions of the same chart | No |
Kubernetes Manifest Amenities¶
The KubernetesManifest amenity type allows you to deploy custom Kubernetes manifests to deployment cells. This is useful for deploying Secrets, ConfigMaps, or any other Kubernetes resources that are not covered by Helm chart amenities.
When defining Kubernetes manifest amenities, include these properties:
| Property | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
manifests | array | Yes | List of manifest entries to deploy |
Each entry in the manifests array must have exactly one of the following:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
def | object | Inline Kubernetes manifest definition |
file | string | Path to a YAML file containing the manifest |
Example: Inline ConfigMap
customAmenities:
- name: app-config
description: Application configuration
type: KubernetesManifest
properties:
manifests:
- def:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
name: app-config
namespace: default
data:
DATABASE_HOST: postgres.default.svc.cluster.local
LOG_LEVEL: info
Example: Inline Secret
customAmenities:
- name: app-secrets
description: Application secrets
type: KubernetesManifest
properties:
manifests:
- def:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: app-secrets
namespace: default
type: Opaque
stringData:
API_KEY: my-api-key
Example: File References
customAmenities:
- name: external-manifests
description: Manifests from files
type: KubernetesManifest
properties:
manifests:
- file: ./manifests/configmap.yaml
- file: ./manifests/secret.yaml
File paths are resolved relative to the configuration file location.
Example: Mixed Inline and File References
customAmenities:
- name: mixed-manifests
description: Mixed inline and file manifests
type: KubernetesManifest
properties:
manifests:
- file: ./secret.yaml
- def:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
name: runtime-config
namespace: default
data:
FEATURE_FLAG: "true"
Validation
The CLI validates KubernetesManifest amenities before sending them to the server:
- The
manifestsarray cannot be empty - Each entry must have either
fileordef, but not both - File references must point to valid, readable YAML files
- YAML content must be valid and parseable
Note
File references (file) are converted to inline definitions (def) by the CLI before being sent to the server API. The server only receives inline def entries, regardless of how they were specified in the configuration.
Affinity rules and tolerations¶
Omnistrate creates a system node pool that is independent of the service plan node pool. To allow Operators and Controllers to run on the system node pool, affinity rules and tolerations must be defined.
Affinity rules to prevent from running on service nodes:
affinity:
nodeAffinity:
requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
nodeSelectorTerms:
- matchExpressions:
- key: omnistrate.com/control-plane
operator: Exists
Toleration to allow to run on system nodes:
Update Configuration Template¶
After customizing your template, apply it to your organization:
View Current Configuration Template¶
Check the current configuration template for your organization:
For JSON output:
Managing Individual Deployment Cell Amenities¶
Check Deployment Cell Status¶
View the current amenities and status of a specific deployment cell:
For JSON output:
Replace hc-xxxxxxx with your actual deployment cell ID.
Update Deployment Cell Amenities¶
You have two options for updating amenities on a deployment cell:
Option 1: Update with Configuration File¶
Create a custom configuration file:
# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://api.omnistrate.cloud/2022-09-01-00/schema/deployment-cell-amenities-spec-schema.json
managedAmenities:
- name: Observability Prometheus
description: Observability Prometheus
type: Helm
- name: Kubernetes Dashboard
description: Kubernetes Dashboard
type: Helm
- name: External DNS
description: External DNS
type: Helm
customAmenities:
- name: Custom Chart
description: Custom application chart
type: Helm
properties:
ChartName: "my-custom-chart"
ChartVersion: "1.0.0"
ChartRepoURL: "https://my-repo.example.com"
Apply the configuration:
Option 2: Sync with Template¶
Automatically sync the deployment cell with your organization's template:
This command syncs the deployment cell's amenities with the configuration template defined for its environment.
Apply Pending Changes¶
After updating the configuration, apply the changes to trigger actual deployment:
This command:
- Applies any pending amenity additions or removals
- Triggers the deployment/undeployment of Helm charts
- Updates the deployment cell to match the desired configuration
Change Application
Configuration updates create pending changes that must be explicitly applied using the apply-pending-changes command. This two-step process provides control and allows you to review changes before deployment.