Deployment

6 min read

This declares one Deployment to be managed by Orkestra.

Minimal example — static values only:

onCreate:
  deployments:
    - image: nginx:1.25
      replicas: "3"
      port: "8080"
      resources:
        profile: burst      # Use orkestra's burst resource configuration

Full example — dynamic values from the CR:

onCreate:
  deployments:
    - name: "{{ .metadata.name }}-app"
      image: "{{ .spec.image }}"
      replicas: "{{ .spec.replicas }}"
      port: "{{ .spec.port }}"
      namespace: "{{ .metadata.namespace }}"
      labels:
        app: "{{ .metadata.name }}"
        managed-by: orkestra
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: 100m
          memory: 128Mi
        limits:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 512Mi

Lifecycle

Declare this resource under onCreate for an idempotent, one-time create: Orkestra creates it on the first reconcile and leaves it untouched afterward. Set reconcile: true on the same entry to also apply it as drift correction on every subsequent reconcile. This is a shorthand for declaring the identical entry under onReconcile as well — there’s no need to do both.

Declare a resource under onDelete to run explicit cleanup before the CR’s finalizer is removed. Most resources need no onDelete entry — they are garbage-collected automatically through owner references when the CR itself is deleted.


Fields

name

Type: string

Name — Deployment and primary container name. Supports template expressions. Default when omitted: “{{ .metadata.name }}-deployment”


image

Type: string

Image — container image. Required (must be declared here or resolvable from CR). Static: “nginx:1.25”. Dynamic: “{{ .spec.image }}”.


imagePullSecrets

Type: list

ImagePullSecrets is an optional list of references to secrets in the same namespace to use for pulling any of the images used by this PodSpec. If specified, these secrets will be passed to individual puller implementations for them to use.


replicas

Type: string

Replicas — number of pod replicas as a string. Static: “3”. Dynamic: “{{ .spec.replicas }}”. Default: “1”.


port

Type: string

Port — primary container port as a string. Static: “8080”. Dynamic: “{{ .spec.port }}”. Omit to expose no port.


protocol

Type: string

Protocol — network protocol for the container port. Accepted values: TCP (default), UDP, SCTP. Omit to use TCP.


namespace

Type: string

Namespace — target namespace for the Deployment. Default when omitted: “{{ .metadata.namespace }}” (same namespace as the CR).


labels

Type: map

Labels — applied to the Deployment ObjectMeta and the pod template. Label values support template expressions. Orkestra always adds: managed-by=orkestra, orkestra-owner=<cr-name>


annotations

Type: map

Annotations — applied to the Deployment ObjectMeta only. Annotation values support template expressions.


resources

Type: object

Resources — CPU and memory requests/limits for the primary container. Set resources.profile for a named preset, or resources.requests/limits for explicit values. Profile and explicit values are mutually exclusive.

resources:
  profile: burst
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 100m
    memory: 128Mi
  limits:
    cpu: 500m
    memory: 512Mi

env

Type: list

Env — environment variables for the primary container, in Kubernetes-native list format. Each entry has a name and either a value or a valueFrom source. If omitted, no environment variables are added.

env:
  - name: LOG_LEVEL
    value: info
  - name: API_KEY
    valueFrom:
      secretKeyRef:
        name: myapp-secrets
        key: api-key

envFrom

Type: object

EnvFrom — bulk-load environment variables from Secrets and/or ConfigMaps into the primary container, in addition to any individual entries in env. Each secretRef/configMapRef entry names an existing Secret or ConfigMap; every key in it becomes an environment variable.

envFrom:
  secretRef:
    - name: myapp-secrets
  configMapRef:
    - name: myapp-config

nodeSelector

Type: map

NodeSelector is a selector which must be true for the pod to fit on a node. Selector which must match a node’s labels for the pod to be scheduled on that node. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/assign-pod-node/


serviceAccountName

Type: string

ServiceAccountName is the name of the ServiceAccount to use to run this pod. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-service-account/


reconcile

Type: boolean

Reconcile: true — also apply this declaration as drift correction on every reconcile. Equivalent to declaring the same entry under both onCreate and onReconcile. When false (default), only runs on onCreate (idempotent create).


when

Type: list

Conditions declares the set of runtime predicates that must all evaluate to true for this resource template to be applied during reconciliation.

Each condition inspects a field on the live Custom Resource using dot-notation (e.g. “spec.enabled”, “metadata.labels.tier”) and compares it against a value using the chosen operator. All conditions in the list are AND‑ed together.

If any condition fails, the resource is skipped for that reconcile cycle. This is not an error — it simply means “do not create/update this resource right now”. This enables expressive, data‑driven orchestration such as:

when:
  - field: spec.exposePublicly
    equals: "true"
  - field: spec.environment
    prefix: "prod"

Conditions allow templates to be selectively activated based on the CR’s state, enabling dynamic topologies, feature flags, environment‑specific behavior, and conditional provisioning without writing Go code.


forEach

Type: object

ForEach declares dynamic expansion over a list field. When set, one source declaration becomes N declarations — one per list element. .item and .<as> are available in template expressions within this declaration.

forEach:
  field: spec.regions
  as: region
# then, elsewhere in this same declaration:
#   name: "{{ .metadata.name }}-{{ .region }}"

anyOf

Type: list

AnyOf holds OR conditions — at least one must pass for this resource to be created. Works alongside the existing Conditions (when:) field which uses AND semantics.

anyOf:
  - field: spec.tier
    equals: pro
  - field: spec.tier
    equals: enterprise

workingDirectory

Type: string

WorkingDirectory sets the container’s working directory (container.WorkingDir). Useful for Git-backed pipelines where build/test commands must run inside a checked-out repository path.


probes

Type: object

Probes — startup, liveness, and readiness probe configuration.

probes:
  liveness:
    type: http
    path: /healthz
    profile: standard
  readiness:
    type: tcp
    profile: fast

securityContext

Type: object

SecurityContext — container-level security settings. Set securityContext.profile for a named preset (baseline, restricted, hardened) or declare individual fields. Profile and explicit fields are mutually exclusive.

securityContext:
  profile: restricted
securityContext:
  runAsNonRoot: true
  readOnlyRootFilesystem: true

podSecurity

Type: object

PodSecurity — pod-level security settings applied to the pod spec. Set podSecurity.profile for a named preset or declare individual fields.

podSecurity:
  profile: baseline
podSecurity:
  runAsNonRoot: true
  fsGroup: 1000

rollingUpdate

Type: object

RollingUpdate — rolling update strategy for this Deployment. Set rollingUpdate.profile for a named preset (safe, fast, blue-green), or declare maxSurge/maxUnavailable explicitly. Profile and explicit fields are mutually exclusive.

rollingUpdate:
  profile: safe
rollingUpdate:
  maxSurge: "1"
  maxUnavailable: "0"

volumes

Type: list

Volumes — pod volumes available for mounting into the container. Supports configMap, secret, emptyDir, persistentVolumeClaim, and hostPath sources. Volume names support template expressions.

volumes:
  - name: config
    configMap:
      name: myapp-config
  - name: cache
    emptyDir: {}

volumeMounts

Type: list

VolumeMounts — mounts for the primary container. Each entry references a volume declared in volumes: by name.

volumeMounts:
  - name: config
    mountPath: /etc/myapp
  - name: cache
    mountPath: /var/cache/myapp

sleep

Type: string

Sleep injects an artificial delay into the reconcile of this resource. Useful for autoscale testing, latency simulation, and chaos engineering. Accepts extended duration units (s, m, h, d, w, mo, y).


autoscale

Type: object

Autoscale declares workload autoscaling behaviour for this Deployment. When set, the reconciler evaluates scale-up and scale-down conditions on every reconcile and patches spec.replicas when conditions pass and cooldown has elapsed. No goroutine — the resync period is the evaluation tick.

autoscale:
  min: 2
  max: 10
  cooldown: 2m
  scaleUp:
    conditions:
      when:
        - field: "{{ promAboveThreshold \"cpu_usage\" 80 }}"
          equals: "true"
    increment: 1
  scaleDown:
    conditions:
      when:
        - field: "{{ promBelowThreshold \"cpu_usage\" 20 }}"
          equals: "true"
    decrement: 1

Quick reference

YAML keyType
namestring
imagestring
imagePullSecretslist
replicasstring
portstring
protocolstring
namespacestring
labelsmap
annotationsmap
resourcesobject
envlist
envFromobject
nodeSelectormap
serviceAccountNamestring
reconcileboolean
whenlist
forEachobject
anyOflist
workingDirectorystring
probesobject
securityContextobject
podSecurityobject
rollingUpdateobject
volumeslist
volumeMountslist
sleepstring
autoscaleobject