IBM Multicloud Manager Architecture

IBM Multicloud Manager consists of several components, which are used in commands to access and manage your clusters. Learn more about the components.

IBM Multicloud Manager controller

IBM Multicloud Manager controller is a central controller that runs in an IBM Cloud Private 3.1.2 cluster. The IBM Multicloud Manager controller aggregates information from multiple clusters by using an asynchronous work request model. With a graph database, the IBM Multicloud Manager controller maintains the state of clusters and applications that run on it. IBM Multicloud Manager controller also uses etcd, a distributed key value store, to store the state of work requests and results from multiple clusters and provides a set of REST APIs for the various functions that it supports.

IBM Multicloud Manager Klusterlet

IBM Multicloud Manager Klusterlet is the agent that is responsible for a single Kubernetes cluster. IBM Multicloud Manager Klusterlet initiates a connection to the IBM Multicloud Manager controller, receives work requests, then returns the results. The IBM Multicloud Manager Klusterlet uses a unidirectional communication pattern, where the connections are always initiated by the IBM Multicloud Manager Klusterlet and sent to the IBM Multicloud Manager controller. The IBM Multicloud Manager Klusterlet connects to various services within the cluster for operations, including the Kuberenetes API service, the Helm client and Tiller service, and Weave for topology.

IBM Multicloud Manager CLI

IBM Multicloud Manager CLI is the command line tool for IBM Multicloud Manager. The CLI provides access to the IBM Multicloud Manager server functions. With the CLI, you can get clusters, pods, or other cluster resources, you can deploy Helm charts, and you can initiate policy checks.

IBM Multicloud Manager console

The IBM Multicloud Manager console is integrated with the IBM Cloud Private management console, which runs on the central management cluster. A separate IBM Multicloud Manager console API layer uses GraphQL to provide a flexible query layer on the IBM Multicloud Manager controller REST APIs.

IBM Multicloud Manager hub-cluster and managed-cluster

After you install IBM Multicloud Manager on an IBM Cloud Private cluster, that cluster becomes the IBM Multicloud Manager hub-cluster.

After you set up your hub-cluster, you can install the IBM Multicloud Manager Klusterlet on each IBM Cloud Private cluster that you want to manage with IBM Multicloud Manager. Those clusters with IBM Multicloud Manager Klusterlet installed are referred to as managed-clusters. You can also install IBM Multicloud Manager Klusterlet on your hub-cluster.

See IBM Multicloud Manager getting started for more introduction information.