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Packages💣

Big Bang includes many different packages that provide services to the ecosystem. Each of these packages is deployed by a Helm chart located in a repository under Big Bang’s Packages Group. The packages are broken up into several categories listed below. Sometimes packages are tightly coupled and grouped together in a stack. When using a stack, all packages in the stack will be deployed.

Technical Oversight Committee (TOC)💣

The Big Bang TOC supports users and contributors of the Big Bang ecosystem. If you would like to add, modify, or remove packages in Big Bang, we encourage you to attend the TOC to discuss your ideas. You can find details in the TOC repository.

Dependency Tree💣

Several of Big Bang’s packages have dependencies on other packages. A Dependency exists if the package would have a significant (or total) loss in functionality if the dependency was not present.

flowchart LR
  subgraph Core
    direction BT

    subgraph L[Logging]
      subgraph EFK[Default]
        Kibana & Fluentbit --> Elastic
      end
      subgraph PLG[Alternative]
      style PLG stroke-dasharray: 10 10
        Promtail[Promtail*] --> Loki[Loki*]
      end
    end

    subgraph M[Monitoring]
      Grafana --> Prometheus
      Grafana -.-> Loki
    end

    subgraph PE[Policy Enforcement]
      subgraph CA[Default]
      direction BT
        ClusterAuditor --> OPA[OPA Gatekeeper]
      end
      subgraph KyvernoStack[Alternative]
      style KyvernoStack stroke-dasharray: 10 10
      direction BT
        KyvernoReporter[Kyverno Reporter*] --> Kyverno[Kyverno*]
      end
    end

    subgraph RS[Runtime Security]
      subgraph TL[Default]
        Twistlock[Prisma Cloud Compute]
      end
    end

    subgraph DT[Distributed Tracing]
      subgraph J[Default]
        Jaeger ----> Elastic
      end
      subgraph T[Alternative]
      style T stroke-dasharray: 10 10
        Tempo[Tempo*] -.-> Grafana
      end
    end

    subgraph SM[Service Mesh]
      Jaeger --> Istio
      Tempo -.-> Istio
      Kiali --> Jaeger & Istio & Prometheus
    end
  end
flowchart LR
  subgraph AddOns
    subgraph AppUtils[Application Utilities]
      MinIO
    end

    subgraph ClusterUtils[Cluster Utilities]
    direction BT
      ArgoCD
      Metrics[Metrics Server]
      Velero
    end

    subgraph "Security"
    direction BT
      Anchore
      Authservice --> I[Istio]
      Keycloak
      Vault[Vault*]
    end

    subgraph "Collaboration"
    direction BT
      Mattermost
    end

    subgraph "Developer Tools"
    direction BT
      GLRunners[GitLab Runners] --> GitLab
      Nexus[Nexus Repository]
      Sonarqube
    end
  end

Footnotes:

  • Pages marked with * are in Beta testing
  • Dotted lines in Core indicate a package that is not enabled by default
  • The following were left off the chart to keep it simple
  • Most packages depend on Istio for encrypted traffic and ingress to interfaces.
  • Some packages have operators that are deployed prior to the package and manage the package’s state.

Core💣

Core packages make up the foundation of Big Bang. At least one of the supported stacks listed in each category must be enabled to be considered a Big Bang cluster. These packages are designed to provide administrative support for other packages.

Service Mesh💣

A service mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer for making service-to-service communication safe, fast, and reliable. It provides fine-grained control and enforcement of network routing into, out of, and within the cluster. It can also supply end-to-end traffic encryption, authentication, and authorization.

Default Stack Package Function Repositories
X Istio Istio Operator Operator istio-operator
X Istio Istio Control Plane istio-controlplane
X Istio Kiali Management Console kiali

Logging💣

A logging stack is a set of scalable tools that can aggregate logs from cluster services and provide real-time queries and analysis. Logging is typically comprised of three components: a forwarder, storage, and a visualizer.

Default Stack Package Function Repositories
X EFK Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) Operator Operator eck-operator
X EFK Elasticsearch / Kibana Storage & Visualization policy
X EFK Fluentbit Forwarder fluentbit
PLG Loki BETA Storage loki
PLG Promtail BETA Forwarder promtail

PLG stack uses Grafana, deployed in monitoring, for visualization.

Policy Enforcement💣

Policy Enforcement is the ability to validate Kubernetes resources against compliance, security, and best-practice policies. If a resource violates a policy, the enforcement tool can deny access to the cluster, dynamically modify the resource to force compliance, or simply record the violation in an audit report. Usually, a reporting tool accompanies the engine to help with analyzing and visualizing policy violations.

Default Stack Package Function Repositories
X Gatekeeper OPA Gatekeeper Engine & Policies policy
X Gatekeeper Cluster Auditor Reporting cluster-auditor
Kyverno Kyverno BETA Engine kyverno
Kyverno Kyverno Policies BETA Policies kyverno-policies
Kyverno Kyverno Reporter BETA Reporting kyverno-reporter

Monitoring💣

A monitoring stack is used to collect, visualize, and alert on time-series metrics from cluster resources. Metrics are quantitative measurements that provide insight into the cluster. Some examples of metrics include memory utilization, disk utilization, network latency, number of web queries, or number of database transactions.

Default Stack Package Function Repositories
X Monitoring Prometheus Collection & Alerting monitoring
X Monitoring Grafana Visualization monitoring

Distributed Tracing💣

Distributed tracing is a method of tracking application transactions as they flows through cluster services. It is a diagnosing technique to help characterize and troubleshoot problems from the user’s perspective.

Default Package Repositories
X Jaeger jaeger
Tempo BETA tempo

Product:

Runtime Security💣

Runtime security is the active protection of containers running in the cluster. This type of tool includes scanning for vulnerabilities, checking compliance, detecting threats, and preventing intrusions. Many of these tools also include forensics and incident response features.

Default Package Repositories
X Prisma Cloud Compute (AKA Twistlock) License Required twistlock

Addons💣

Addons can be used to extend Big Bang with additional services. All of the addons listed here are supported by the Big Bang team and integrated into the product. There may be additional community supported Big Bang packages that are not listed here. These packages are disabled in Big Bang by default.

Storage Utilities💣

Storage utilities include packages that provide services to store and retrieve temporal or persistent data in the cluster. This category includes databases, object storage, and data caching. It is generally advantageous to use cloud based offerings instead of these to take advantage of scalability, availability, and resiliency (e.g. backup and restore). However, for non-critical or on-prem deployments, these utilities offer a simpler and lower cost solution.

Stack Package Function Repository
MinIO MinIO Operator Operator minio-operator
MinIO MinIO S3 Object Storage minio

Cluster Utilities💣

Cluster utilities add functionality to Kubernetes clusters rather than applications. Examples include resource utilization, cluster backup and restore, continuos deployment, or load balancers.

Package Function Repository
ArgoCD Continuous Deployment argocd
Metrics Server Monitors pod CPU & memory utilization metrics-server
Velero Cluster Backup & Restore velero

Security💣

Security packages add additional security features for protecting services or data from unauthorized access or exploitation. This includes things like identity providers (IdP), identity brokers, authentication (AuthN), authorization (AuthZ), single sign-on (SSO), security scanning, intrusion detection/prevention, and sensitive data protection.

Package Function Repository
Anchore Vulnerability Scanner anchore-enterprise
Authservice Istio extension for Single Sign-On (SSO) authservice
Keycloak IdP, Identity Broker, AuthN/Z keycloak
Vault BETA Sensitive Data Access Control vault

Collaboration💣

Collaboration tools provide environments to help teams work together online. Chatting, video conferencing, file sharing, and whiteboards are all examples of collaboration tools.

Stack Package Function Repository
Mattermost Mattermost Operator Operator mattermost-operator
Mattermost Mattermost Chat mattermost

Developer Tools💣

Developer tools include packages that a programmer would use to plan, author, test, debug, or control code. This includes repositories, bug / feature tracking, pipelines, code analysis, automated tests, and development environments.

Stack Package Function Repository
GitLab GitLab Code repository, issue tracking, release planning, security and compliance scanning, pipelines, artifact repository, wiki gitLab
GitLab GitLab Runner Executor for GitLab pipelines gitlab-runner
Nexus Nexus Repository Artifact repository nexus
Sonarqube Sonarqube Static code analysis sonarqube

Further Information💣

You can find some additional details about features supported by each package by visiting this document.

Last update: 2022-08-18 by Micah Nagel