ACK Edge clusters include a set of built-in components grouped by function. This page lists all components, their types, and what they do — so you can decide which optional components to install and when to upgrade.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure that you have:
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An ACK Edge cluster. For more information, see Create a cluster.
Manage components
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Log on to the Container Service Management Console. In the left navigation pane, click Clusters.
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On the Clusters page, click the cluster name. In the left navigation pane, click Add-ons.
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On the Add-ons page, search for the component. On the component card, install, uninstall, upgrade, or modify control plane parameters.
Component types
ACK Edge supports two component types:
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System components: Installed automatically when you create an ACK Edge cluster. Cannot be uninstalled. Upgrade promptly after a new version is released.
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Optional components: Extend cluster functionality. Install them at cluster creation or afterward. Can be installed, uninstalled, or reconfigured as needed. Upgrade promptly after a new version is released.
Core components
| Component | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Kube API Server | System | Acts as the bus and ingress gateway for the Kubernetes cluster. |
| Kube Controller Manager | System | Manages internal resources in the Kubernetes cluster. |
| kube-scheduler | System | Schedules Pods to nodes based on resource availability and scheduling requirements. |
| Cloud Controller Manager | System | Integrates Kubernetes with Alibaba Cloud products such as CLB and VPC. |
| edge-controller-manager | System | Manages the lifecycle of edge nodes. |
| edge-cloud-provider-manager | System | Integrates with Alibaba Cloud edge products such as ELB (ENS Server Load Balancer). |
| yurt-app-manager | System | Provides edge unit management, including node pool and YurtAppSet operations. |
| edge-hub | System | Proxies traffic between node components and the cloud kube-apiserver. Supports Edge and Cloud modes. |
Application management
| Component | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| OpenKruise | Optional | Manages application containers and sidecar containers, and distributes images efficiently. |
| migrate-controller | Optional | Migrates Kubernetes applications. Built on the open-source Velero project. |
Logs and monitoring
| Component | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| alicloud-monitor-controller | System | Integrates the cluster with Cloud Monitor. |
| metrics-server | System | A monitoring collection and offline component that ACK modified and enhanced based on community open-source monitoring components. Exposes metrics via the Metrics API and enables Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA). |
| ack-node-problem-detector | Optional | Detects node anomalies and integrates with third-party monitoring platforms. |
| logtail-ds | Optional | Collects container logs and ships them to Simple Log Service (SLS). |
| ack-onepilot | Optional | Connects Java and Go applications in ACK to Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS) and Microservices Engine (MSE). |
| ags-metrics-collector | Optional | Monitors node resource usage in gene computing workflows. |
| ack-arms-prometheus | Optional | Monitors the cluster using Alibaba Cloud Prometheus. |
| ack-arms-cmonitor | Optional | Collects eBPF-based application metrics for ARMS Application Monitoring in ACK clusters. |
Storage
| Component | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| csi-plugin | Optional | Handles volume mount and unmount operations. Installed by default when you select the CSI plug-in at cluster creation. |
| csi-provisioner | Optional | Provisions volumes automatically. Installed by default when you select the CSI plug-in at cluster creation. |
| storage-operator | Optional | Manages the lifecycle of storage components. |
| node-resource-manager | Optional | Automates management of node computing and storage resources, including LVM storage. |
Network
| Component | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CoreDNS | System | Provides DNS-based service discovery, following Kubernetes DNS specifications. |
| Flannel | System | A Container Network Interface (CNI) plug-in that uses Alibaba Cloud VPC mode for intra-cluster networking. Installed by default when you select Flannel at cluster creation. |
| terway-edge | System | Provides Underlay container networking using Terway Edge as a CNI plug-in. |
| ALB Ingress Controller | Optional | Manages Ingress traffic using Alibaba Cloud Application Load Balancer (ALB). Compatible with Nginx Ingress, handles complex business routing, and offers automatic certificate discovery. Supports HTTP, HTTPS, and QUIC protocols, meeting the demand for extreme elasticity and large-scale Layer 7 traffic processing in cloud-native application scenarios. In ACK Edge, only supports Pods in the cloud node pool. |
Security
| Component | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| aliyun-acr-credential-helper | System | Enables passwordless pulls of private images from ACR Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. |
| gatekeeper | Optional | Enforces Open Policy Agent (OPA) policies in the cluster, including namespace label management. |
| security-inspector | Optional | Runs security inspections on the cluster. |
| policy-template-controller | Optional | Manages policy templates in the cluster. |
Auto scaling
| Component | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ack-kubernetes-cronhpa-controller | Optional | Scales out resources on a scheduled basis using CronHPA. |
Others
| Component | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ack-koordinator (ack-slo-manager) | Optional | Enforces differentiated Service Level Objective (SLO) policies to improve resource utilization while maintaining application quality. |
| aliyun-acr-acceleration-suite | Optional | Loads ACR images on demand to accelerate container startup. |
| raven-agent-ds | Optional | Enables O&M communication across network domains. |
| edge-tunnel (Replaced by Raven in version 1.26) | Optional | Establishes a reverse tunnel for cross-network communication. Replaced by raven-agent-ds in version 1.26. |