CAST AI Components Hosted On Customers' Clusters

Connect existing cluster procedure installs several CAST AI components into a cluster.
This is done in phases to provide different levels of experience:

Phase 1 - is meant to provide visibility around connected clusters without the possibility of tuning it; one can think of Phase 1 as operating in read-only mode.
Phase 2 - enables all the functionality of the CAST AI platform mostly around clusters optimization; CAST AI platform instructs clusters and Cloud Providers to re-arrange used resources to reach the most optimal state.

Phase 1 Component - CAST AI Kubernetes Agent

CAST AI Agent is the first component installed when a new cluster is connected.
The agent runs as a Pod in a CAST AI dedicated namespace:

» kubectl get pods -n castai-agent
NAME                                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
castai-agent-7f9d7ff65b-8qm7p                1/1     Running   0          78m
castai-agent-cpvpa-56f749fb-n2wzp            1/1     Running   0          22d

CAST AI Kubernetes Agent is responsible for sending cluster state data (snapshots) to the main system
Cluster Proportional Vertical Autoscaler is responsible for tuning allocated resources for castai-agent Pods based on a predefined formula

Phase 2 Autoscaling Components

CAST AI Cluster Controller, Evictor, and Spot Handler (installed as DaemonSet, not as a regular Deployment) components are installed when a connected cluster is promoted to Phase 2, which enables cost savings by managing the customer's cluster:

❯ k get pods -n castai-agent
NAME                                             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
castai-agent-7f9d7ff65b-8qm7p                    1/1     Running   0          80m
castai-agent-7f9d7ff65b-kf2zp                    1/1     Running   0          5h7m
castai-agent-cpvpa-56f749fb-n2wzp                1/1     Running   0          22d
castai-cluster-controller-757997ff6c-r6x25       1/1     Running   0          27d
castai-cluster-controller-757997ff6c-xw54g       1/1     Running   0          27d
castai-evictor-5684748495-kl2q4                  1/1     Running   0          22d
castai-kvisor-787c5dd946-gmzs5                   1/1     Running   0          6d18h
castai-spot-handler-44shj                        1/1     Running   0          43m

Cluster controller is responsible for executing actions it receives from the central platform (like for example, accepting a newly created node to the cluster, etc.)
Evictor is responsible for removing pods from underutilized nodes to be able to decrease the overall amount of cluster nodes
Spot Handler is responsible for scheduled event monitoring (provided by Instance Metadata Service) and delivering them to the central platform

Phase 2 Security Components - Kvisor

kvisor is responsible for image vulnerability scanning, Kubernetes YAML manifests linting, and CIS security recommendations.

User and Roles

The CAST AI platform includes the following roles out of the box:

Owner - Full access to clusters, billing, and organization management.
Member - Full access to clusters, view-only access to billing.
Analyst - Full access to cost monitoring, view-only access to clusters and billing.
Viewer - view-only access to clusters and billing.