Orchestration in the context of Platform Engineering refers to the coordinated automation and management of infrastructure, platform, and application components throughout their entire lifecycle. It is a fundamental concept that bridges the gap between declarative specifications (what should be deployed) and actual execution (how it is deployed).
## The Role of Orchestration in Platform Engineering
Platform Engineering has emerged as a discipline to improve developer experience and reduce cognitive load on development teams ([CNCF Platforms White Paper](https://tag-app-delivery.cncf.io/whitepapers/platforms/)). Orchestration is the central mechanism that enables this vision:
1.**Automation of Complex Workflows**: Orchestration coordinates multiple steps and dependencies automatically
2.**Consistency and Reproducibility**: Guaranteed, repeatable deployments across different environments
3.**Self-Service Capabilities**: Developers can independently orchestrate resources and deployments
4.**Governance and Compliance**: Centralized control over policies and best practices
### What Does Orchestration Do?
Orchestration systems perform the following tasks:
- **Workflow Coordination**: Coordination of complex, multi-step deployment processes
- **Dependency Management**: Resolution and management of dependencies between components
- **State Management**: Continuous monitoring and reconciliation between desired and actual state
- **Resource Provisioning**: Automatic provisioning of infrastructure and services
- **Configuration Management**: Management of configurations across different environments
- **Health Monitoring**: Monitoring the health of deployed resources
## Three Layers of Orchestration
In modern Platform Engineering, we distinguish three fundamental layers of orchestration:
**In IPCEI-CIS**: Application orchestration uses Forgejo pipelines for CI/CD and ArgoCD for GitOps-based deployment.
More details: [Application Orchestration →](application/)
## GitOps as Orchestration Paradigm
A central approach in modern platform orchestration solutions is **GitOps**. GitOps uses Git repositories as the single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and applications:
- **Declarative Approach**: The desired state is defined in Git
- **Automatic Synchronization**: Controllers monitor Git and reconcile the live state
- **Audit Trail**: All changes are traceable in Git history
- **Rollback Capability**: Easy rollback through Git revert
### Continuous Reconciliation
An important concept is **continuous reconciliation**:
1. The orchestrator monitors both the source (Git) and the target (e.g., Kubernetes cluster)
3. Health checks validate that the desired state has been achieved
4. Drift detection warns of unexpected changes
## Orchestration Tools in IPCEI-CIS
Within the IPCEI-CIS platform, we utilize the [CNOE (Cloud Native Operational Excellence)](https://cnoe.io/) stack concept with the following orchestration components:
### ArgoCD
- **Continuous Delivery** for Kubernetes based on GitOps
- Synchronizes Kubernetes manifests from Git repositories
- Supports Helm Charts, Kustomize, Jsonnet, and plain YAML
- Multi-cluster deployment capabilities
- Application Sets for parameterized deployments
**Role in IPCEI-CIS**: ArgoCD is the central component for GitOps-based deployment management. After the initial bootstrapping phase, ArgoCD takes over the technical coordination of all components.
### Forgejo
- **Git Repository Management** and source control
- **CI/CD Pipelines** via Forgejo Actions (GitHub Actions compatible)
**Role in IPCEI-CIS**: Forgejo serves as the Git repository host and CI/CD engine. It was initially planned as a developer portal (similar to Backstage's role in other stacks) but this aspect was not fully realized before project completion.
**Note on Backstage**: In typical CNOE implementations, Backstage serves as the developer portal providing golden paths through software templates. IPCEI-CIS initially planned to use Forgejo for this purpose but the project concluded before full implementation.
### Terraform
- **Infrastructure-as-Code** provisioning
- Multi-cloud resource management
- State management for infrastructure
- Integration with Forgejo pipelines for automated deployment
**Role in IPCEI-CIS**: Terraform handles infrastructure provisioning at the infrastructure orchestration layer, integrated into automated workflows via Forgejo pipelines.
### CNOE Stacks Concept
- **Modular Platform Components** bundled as stacks
- Reusable, composable platform building blocks
- Version-controlled stack definitions
- GitOps-based stack deployment via ArgoCD
**Role in IPCEI-CIS**: The stacks concept from CNOE provides the structural foundation for platform orchestration, enabling modular deployment and management of platform components.
## The Orchestration Workflow
A typical orchestration workflow in the IPCEI-CIS platform:
1.**Platform as a Product**: Treat the platform as a product with focus on user experience
2.**Self-Service First**: Enable developers to use services autonomously
3.**Documentation**: Comprehensive documentation of golden paths
4.**Feedback Loops**: Continuous improvement through user feedback
5.**Thin Platform Layer**: Use managed services where possible instead of building everything
6.**Progressive Disclosure**: Offer different abstraction levels
7.**Focus on Common Problems**: Solve recurring problems centrally
8.**Treat Glue as Valuable**: Integration of different tools is valuable
9.**Clear Mission**: Define clear goals and responsibilities
## Avoiding Anti-Patterns
Common mistakes in platform orchestration ([How to fail at Platform Engineering](https://www.cncf.io/blog/2024/03/08/how-to-fail-at-platform-engineering/)):
- **Product Misfit**: Building platform without involving developers
- **Overly Complex Design**: Too many features and unnecessary complexity
- **Swiss Knife Syndrome**: Trying to solve all problems with one tool
- **Insufficient Documentation**: Missing or outdated documentation
- **Siloed Development**: Platform and development teams working in isolation
- **Stagnant Platform**: Platform not continuously evolved
