Overview

HCL Link offers a Helm chart that facilitates its deployment on Kubernetes. This approach, known as Cloud Native Link, signifies the installation of the HCL Link product within a Kubernetes cluster.

Cloud Native Link deployments consist of various interconnected Kubernetes objects, such as pods and persistent volumes. These objects are managed by the Kubernetes engine, also referred to as the control plane.

Kubernetes is an open-source platform designed for container orchestration. It automates the deployment, scaling, and management of applications packaged within containers. When running applications on Kubernetes, you define the application's components—like containers, storage, and network configurations—using declarative YAML files. Kubernetes then takes on the responsibility of deploying these components as "pods" across a cluster of machines (nodes). This ensures high availability and efficient use of resources. Kubernetes provides several key features, including:

  • Self-healing: Automatically restarts failed containers or nodes.

  • Automatic rollouts and rollbacks: Enables controlled updates and easy reversion to previous versions.

  • Service discovery: Allows different parts of your application to find and communicate with each other.

These features make Kubernetes a robust platform for modern cloud-native applications.

A Helm chart is essentially a package manager for Kubernetes. Similar to how APT or YUM manage software packages on Linux distributions, Helm charts describe a related set of Kubernetes resources. They are collections of files that define how to deploy, upgrade, and manage complex applications on a Kubernetes cluster. Helm charts allow you to specify an application's configuration, dependencies, and resources in a templated format. This standardization simplifies the deployment and management of applications consistently across various environments.