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Deploy and register a data plane

Enterprise Tier

A data plane is the layer that provisions and manages gateways inside a Kubernetes cluster the customer controls. Adding a data plane is how capacity is placed in a new region, cloud, or environment. This guide provisions a data plane from the management plane, installs the credential it uses to connect, deploys it, and confirms it has registered.

A data plane connects to the management plane using a data plane credential, which authenticates its calls back to the management plane for configuration, lookup, telemetry, and status. The connection is outbound only: the data plane reaches out to the management plane, and no inbound connection into the cluster is required. Once connected, the data plane receives the desired configuration for any gateways assigned to it and reconciles them.

Persona: Platform operator or platform engineer with access to both the Admin Dashboard and the target Kubernetes cluster.

Estimated time: 30--60 minutes, depending on cluster readiness.

Outcomes​

By the end of this guide:

  • A data plane is provisioned and visible in the management plane.
  • Its data plane credential is installed in the target cluster.
  • The data plane is deployed, has connected to the management plane, and is available to provision gateways on.

Prerequisites​

  • Administrator access to the Admin Dashboard, with data-plane operations permissions.
  • A Kubernetes cluster to host the data plane, in any cloud or on-premises, meeting the platform requirements in Prerequisites.
  • Familiarity with the data plane installation procedure in Data plane installation.

Step 1: Provision the data plane​

  1. In the Admin Dashboard, provision a data plane, giving it a name and any labels that describe where it runs, such as region, environment, or team.

A newly provisioned data plane exists in the management plane before any software is deployed. At this stage it is a record awaiting a deployment to connect to it.

Step 2: Install the data plane credential​

  1. When the data plane is provisioned, the management plane produces a data plane credential and presents it for download.
  2. Install the credential in the target cluster, where the deployed data plane will read it to authenticate back to the management plane.

The credential identifies the customer and the data plane it belongs to. Credentials support rotation, so a credential can be replaced without recreating the data plane.

Step 3: Deploy the data plane to the cluster​

  1. Deploy the data plane components into the Kubernetes cluster, following Data plane installation.
  2. Confirm the deployment can reach the management plane over its single outbound connection.

Step 4: Confirm the data plane has registered​

  1. Confirm the data plane connects and appears as reachable in the management plane. The management plane uses the data plane's regular check-in as a health signal, so a connected data plane shows as available and one that stops checking in is flagged as unreachable.
  2. Confirm the data plane is now selectable when provisioning a gateway.

Once registered, the data plane receives the desired state for any gateway assigned to it and materialises the runtime for each. Running several data planes from one management plane is described in Run multiple platform instances.

What to do next​

Where to go next

Manage multiple gateways on a data plane

Review and assign the gateways this data plane provisions and manages.

Run multiple platform instances

Operate several data planes from a single management plane.