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Architecture

Kubeadm is the preferred architecture path for Clouder-managed Kubernetes clusters.

Clouder uses Kubeadm to bootstrap and operate production-grade clusters across supported cloud providers while keeping full control of runtime behavior, node configuration, and platform services.

Why Kubeadm Is Preferred​

  • Full control over kubelet and container runtime settings required by advanced runtime workflows.
  • Reliable support for checkpoint/restore setup and low-level node customization.
  • Reproducible cloud bootstrap for networking, storage, and ingress integrations.
  • Consistent day-0/day-1 operations through clouder kubeadm commands.

Scope​

This section documents the architecture capabilities built around the Kubeadm-first model:

  • User persistent storage design.
  • Secrets and environment variable injection.
  • Checkpoint and restore (CRIU).
  • Bring your own container (BYOC).
  • Bring your own node (BYON).

For end-to-end provisioning and operations, see the Kubeadm CLI guide at /cli/kubeadm.

System View​

Why This Architecture​

Datalayer is designed for long-running, data-intensive agent workflows that require more than prompt orchestration:

  • Code-first plans to reduce token usage and model round-trips.
  • Explicit guardrails by identity, permissions, and tool approvals.
  • Durable execution with recovery, checkpointing, and runtime ownership.
  • Continuous observability and evaluation across quality, latency, and cost.
  • Portable specifications that are not locked to one model or provider.

Clouder operationalizes these requirements on Kubernetes.

Clouder Responsibilities​

At the Cloud-to-Plane boundary, Clouder provides:

  • Cluster provisioning and lifecycle for Kubeadm-based deployments.
  • Cloud-specific bootstrap for storage and load balancing.
  • Reproducible setup and deployment through CLI and Terraform workflows.
  • Service rollout orchestration for core Datalayer components.

Runtime Plane Composition​

A typical deployment includes:

  • System services: ingress, cert-manager, observability, messaging, storage integrations.
  • Core services: IAM, operator, runtimes, library, spacer, ai-agents, manager, status, scheduler, and related components.
  • Kubernetes runtimes where data-analysis agents execute with policy and control-plane constraints.

Cloud Integrations​

Clouder currently supports Azure and AWS for Kubeadm infrastructure.

Azure​

  • VM and network provisioning with Azure contexts.
  • Storage bootstrap with Azure Disk CSI and Azure File CSI.
  • Ingress/load balancer integration through Azure networking resources.

AWS​

  • VM and network provisioning with AWS contexts.
  • Storage bootstrap with AWS EBS CSI (gp3 default StorageClass).
  • Load balancer bootstrap via AWS Load Balancer Controller.

Execution Lifecycle​

Operational Principles​

  • Keep policy ownership in your platform, not hidden provider defaults.
  • Treat cloud bootstrap as part of runtime reliability, not a post-step.
  • Prefer reproducible infrastructure and deployment paths.
  • Validate continuously with observability and evals before and after changes.

Continue with the Setup Guide to provision infrastructure and deploy services.