Benefits of Using Cluster Plans
Cluster plans offer several benefits, including configurability, scope and change propagation using Wayfinder stages, and change management through cluster plan versioning.
Configurability
Cluster plans encapsulate various Cloud Provider configurations, allowing you to customise each plan to meet the specific requirements of different workspaces.
A workspace is an area where teams can provision and manage applications, environments, clusters, and cloud resources. For instance, a workspace might be designated for a development team or the data analytics team.
Scope and Change Propagation
Cluster plans are assigned to specific Wayfinder stages and workspaces.
A [stage]/wayfinder/admin/stages/stages-overview is used to isolate and test resources at the infrastructure level. By assigning a stage to a cluster plan, you restrict its availability to that particular stage, such as platform-engineering, development, or production.
We recommend placing new and untested cluster plans in a "platform" stage. Once fully validated, promote the cluster plan to a broader scope, like the "development" stage, allowing developers to use it for self-service clusters. This ensures accurate and reliable change propagation.
For more details, refer to the section outlining five different propagation scenarios, each tailored to different requirements.
Change managment with Cluster Plan Versioning
Each cluster plan version encapsulates a specific set of specifications, outlining advanced cloud provider settings, the cluster network configuration, and various package specifications for bootstrapping the cluster with software or services. When you need to make changes, such as upgrading a package to a new version, you save those changes as a new cluster plan version. This allows you to test the updates in an isolated stage without disrupting any users before making the updates available to those who need them.