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

• 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
	EFK	Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) Operator	Operator	eck-operator
	EFK	Elasticsearch / Kibana	Storage & Visualization	policy
	EFK	Fluentbit	Forwarder	fluentbit
X	PLG	Loki	Storage	loki
X	PLG	Promtail	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
	Gatekeeper	OPA Gatekeeper	Engine & Policies	policy
	Gatekeeper	Cluster Auditor	Reporting	cluster-auditor
X	Kyverno	Kyverno	Engine	kyverno
X	Kyverno	Kyverno Policies	Policies	kyverno-policies
X	Kyverno	Kyverno Reporter	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
	Jaeger	jaeger
X	Tempo	tempo

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
	Prisma Cloud Compute (AKA Twistlock)	twistlock
X	Neuvector	neuvector

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	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 Manager	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.

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Last update: 2024-03-27 by Michael Martin