CDK8S Plone

TypeScript and Python library for deploying Plone CMS to Kubernetes using CDK8S

Overview

cdk8s-plone provides CDK8S constructs for deploying Plone CMS on Kubernetes. Define your infrastructure using TypeScript or Python and generate Kubernetes manifests automatically.

Key Features:

• 🚀 Supports Volto (React frontend) and Blicca (formerly Classic UI)
• 📦 High availability with configurable replicas
• ⚡ Optional Varnish HTTP caching via kube-httpcache (PloneHttpcache) or cloud-vinyl VinylCache operator (PloneVinylCache)
• 🔧 Fine-grained resource and probe configuration
• 🌍 Multi-language support (TypeScript/JavaScript and Python)
• ✅ Type-safe infrastructure as code

Quick Start

Installation

TypeScript/JavaScript:

npm install @bluedynamics/cdk8s-plone

Python:

pip install cdk8s-plone

Basic Example

import { App, Chart } from 'cdk8s';
import { Plone, PloneVariant } from '@bluedynamics/cdk8s-plone';

const app = new App();
const chart = new Chart(app, 'PloneDeployment');

new Plone(chart, 'my-plone', {
  variant: PloneVariant.VOLTO,
  backend: {
    image: 'plone/plone-backend:6.1.3',
    replicas: 3,
  },
  frontend: {
    image: 'plone/plone-frontend:16.0.0',
    replicas: 2,
  },
});

app.synth();

Generate Kubernetes manifests:

cdk8s synth
kubectl apply -f dist/

Documentation

📚 Full documentation: https://bluedynamics.github.io/cdk8s-plone/

• Quick Start Tutorial
• Configuration Reference
• Architecture Overview
• Complete API Documentation

Examples

Complete working examples are available in the examples/ directory:

• Volto - Production-ready Plone 6 deployment with the React single-page frontend:

  • Volto frontend (React) + REST API backend
  • PostgreSQL with RelStorage (plain PostgreSQL or CloudNativePG)
  • Varnish HTTP caching with kube-httpcache
  • Ingress support (Traefik/Kong) with TLS

• Blicca - Plone deployment with server-side rendering (formerly Classic UI):

  • Blicca (backend renders the UI, no separate frontend)
  • PostgreSQL with RelStorage (plain PostgreSQL or CloudNativePG)
  • Varnish HTTP caching with kube-httpcache
  • Ingress support (Traefik/Kong) with TLS
  • Simpler architecture (no separate frontend)

Prometheus Metrics

Enable Prometheus ServiceMonitor for metrics collection (requires Prometheus Operator):

new Plone(chart, 'my-plone', {
  backend: {
    servicemonitor: true,
    metricsPath: '/metrics',  // optional, defaults to '/metrics'
  },
  frontend: {
    servicemonitor: true,
    metricsPort: 9090,  // optional, defaults to service port
  },
});

Note: You must instrument your Plone backend/frontend to expose metrics at the configured endpoint. For Volto/Node.js frontends, consider using prom-client or express-prometheus-middleware.

Requirements

• kubectl - Install kubectl
• Node.js 16+ (for TypeScript/JavaScript) - Install Node.js
• Python 3.8+ (for Python) - Install Python
• Kubernetes cluster (local or cloud)

For detailed setup instructions, see Setup Prerequisites.

Development

This project uses Projen for project management.

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run tests
npm test

# Build
npm run build

# Update project configuration
# Edit .projenrc.ts, then run:
npx projen

For detailed development instructions, see CONTRIBUTING.md (if available).

Resources

• CDK8S Documentation
• Plone CMS
• kube-httpcache (for HTTP caching)
• CloudNativePG (for PostgreSQL management)

License

Apache 2.0

Maintainers

Maintained by Blue Dynamics Alliance

Author: Jens W. Klein (jk@kleinundpartner.at)