Resources

This section describes the Telecom Network Automation resources.

Orchestration cluster

An Orchestration cluster is a GKE-based control plane cluster that governs workloads deployed through Telecom Network Automation. An Orchestration cluster uses Config Controller as the foundation.

Blueprints

A blueprint (BP) is a collection of Kubernetes resources in the form of YAML files that contain the configurations required to automate the deployment of the required infrastructure.

Telecom Network Automation provides a Blueprint Library, which contains key blueprints. This Blueprint Library is also known as the Public Catalog. This guide uses the terms Blueprint Library and Public Catalog interchangeably. Blueprints in the Public Catalog are referred to as *Public Blueprints.

You can import any Public Blueprint into your Telecom Network Automation project and customize them according to your business needs. These Blueprints are referred to as the private catalog.

The lifecycle of a Blueprint is as follows:

  • When imported, the blueprint starts in the DRAFT state after creation. All edits are made to the blueprint in DRAFT state.

  • When the edits are ready for review, you can propose the blueprint and update the state to PROPOSED. You can't edit a blueprint in the PROPOSED state.

  • After you approve a proposed blueprint, the blueprint updates to the APPROVED state. A new revision is committed.

  • You can use the latest committed revision to create a deployment on the Orchestration or Workload cluster.

  • Edits to an APPROVED blueprint returns the state to DRAFT. The last committed revision of a blueprint represents the latest APPROVED state.

The deployment level of a blueprint specifies where to apply the blueprint. The following list describes the available blueprint levels:

  • Hydration: You cannot use blueprints at the hydration level to create a deployment. You cannot manually initiate deployment of these blueprints on orchestration or workload clusters. These blueprints stay in your private catalog that the Telecom Network Automation automation configures and deploys.

  • Single-deployment: You can modify blueprints at the single-deployment level in your private catalog and use them to create a deployment on an Orchestration cluster by the user with approval.

  • Multi-deployment: You can modify blueprints at the multi-deployment level in your private catalog and use them to create a deployment on an Orchestration cluster, which creates further hydration-level deployments.

Deployments

A deployment is an actuated blueprint that you apply on an Orchestration cluster or a Workload cluster. A deployment begins in the DRAFT state. All edits are made in this state. A deployment opened for editing after applying is in DRAFT state, while the previous revision is the current applied version.

An APPLIED state represents the contents of the deployment applied to an Orchestration or Workload cluster. A revision is created when a deployment is APPLIED. This revision represents the latest view of APPLIED on the cluster until you modify and apply the deployment, which creates a new revision.

A deployment in the DELETING state is marked for deletion. You can query the deletion through the ComputeDeploymentStatus API. No updates are allowed to a deployment in the DELETING state.

The Deployment Admin works with the deployments and is responsible for making the appropriate changes. In contrast to Blueprints, Deployments only have a few select editable files and fields the user edits according to specification.