What is Karmada?

Karmada: Open, Multi-Cloud, Multi-Cluster Kubernetes Orchestration

Karmada (Kubernetes Armada) is a Kubernetes management system that enables you to run your cloud-native applications across multiple Kubernetes clusters and clouds, with no changes to your applications. By speaking Kubernetes-native APIs and providing advanced scheduling capabilities, Karmada enables truly open, multi-cloud Kubernetes.

Karmada aims to provide turnkey automation for multi-cluster application management in multi-cloud and hybrid cloud scenarios, with key features such as centralized multi-cloud management, high availability, failure recovery, and traffic scheduling.

Karmada is an incubation project of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Why Karmada:

  • K8s Native API Compatible

    • Zero change upgrade, from single-cluster to multi-cluster
    • Seamless integration of existing K8s tool chain

  • Out of the Box

    • Built-in policy sets for scenarios, including: Active-active, Remote DR, Geo Redundant, etc.
    • Cross-cluster applications auto-scaling, failover and load-balancing on multi-cluster.

  • Avoid Vendor Lock-in

    • Integration with mainstream cloud providers
    • Automatic allocation, migration across clusters
    • Not tied to proprietary vendor orchestration

  • Centralized Management

    • Location agnostic cluster management
    • Support clusters in Public cloud, on-prem or edge

  • Fruitful Multi-Cluster Scheduling Policies

    • Cluster Affinity, Multi Cluster Splitting/Rebalancing,
    • Multi-Dimension HA: Region/AZ/Cluster/Provider

  • Open and Neutral

    • Jointly initiated by Internet, finance, manufacturing, teleco, cloud providers, etc.
    • Target for open governance with CNCF

Notice: this project is developed in continuation of Kubernetes Federation v1 and v2. Some basic concepts are inherited from these two versions.

What’s Next

Here are some recommended next steps: