Feature Set Reference

This page lists every feature available in each Feature Set, why you would enable it, and the features it depends on. Use it to decide what to turn on and to understand what gets pulled in automatically.

Prerequisites auto-enable. When you enable a feature, every feature in its Prerequisites column is enabled for you if not already present. The chain is transitive — a prerequisite’s own prerequisites are pulled in too.


Opscenter Core (Required)

Core platform capabilities. Must be installed before any other Feature Set.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Kube UI Server (Required)The core Server that renders the UI of this particular cluster
License Proxyserver (Recommended)Fetches and serves AppsCode product licenses. Required by KubeDB, KubeStash, Panopticon, KubeVault, Scanner.
FluxCD (Recommended)GitOps engine for declaratively syncing manifests from Git. All features are actually deployed in the cluster via flux HelmRelease.
OpenShift AdapterAdapts the platform to OpenShift. Enable only on OpenShift clusters.
Opscenter Features (Required)Internal configurator that renders feature definitions. Platform-managed.

Note: If you are an ArgoCD user, AppsCode provides a way to convert the flux HelmRelease to an Argo Application via a custom operator called FargoCD. This is configurable in the selfhost page.


Backup & Recovery

Scheduled backup and recovery for Kubernetes applications and databases.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Stash 2.0 (Recommended)Backup and restore of apps and databases via KubeStash. The current backup engine.License Proxyserver
Stash Presets (Recommended)Ready-made backup storage and retention policy configurations.
StashLegacy backup operator (Stash 1.0). Enable only to keep existing Stash 1.0 setups working.License Proxyserver
Stash OpscenterUI and Grafana monitoring for Stash.Stash, Panopticon, Grafana Operator

Databases

Production-grade database management powered by KubeDB.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
KubeDB (Recommended)Operator to provision and manage production databases (MongoDB, Postgres, MySQL, Redis, Kafka, etc.).License Proxyserver
KubeDB Opscenter (Recommended)UI and monitoring dashboards for KubeDB.KubeDB, Panopticon, Grafana Operator
KubeDB UI Presets (Recommended)Default presets for the database creation forms.
Prepare ClusterPre-pulls images and prepares nodes for KubeDB.

Observability

Cluster monitoring, metrics, and dashboards.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Monitoring Operator (Recommended)Foundation operator that wires up cluster monitoring. Prerequisite for most observability features.
Kube Prometheus Stack (Recommended)Prometheus, Grafana, and alerting bundle for Kubernetes-native monitoring.Monitoring Operator
Grafana Operator (Recommended)Manage Grafana dashboards as Kubernetes resources.Monitoring Operator
Panopticon (Recommended)Generates metrics from any Kubernetes resource (generic kube-state-metrics).License Proxyserver
Kubernetes Metrics ServerContainer CPU/memory metrics for kubectl top and built-in autoscaling.
Prometheus Metrics Adapter (Recommended)Exposes Prometheus metrics to the Kubernetes custom-metrics API.Kube Prometheus Stack
Kubernetes Grafana Dashboards (Recommended)Prebuilt Kubernetes Grafana dashboards.Grafana Operator
AppsCode OTEL Stack (Recommended)OpenTelemetry collectors and pipelines for traces, metrics, and logs.Monitoring Operator
Thanos Operator (Recommended)Long-term, highly available Prometheus storage and global querying.
Prometheus Label Proxy (Recommended)Enforces label-based tenant isolation on Prometheus queries.Thanos Operator, Gateway API, Service Catalog
Tenant Operator (Recommended)Isolates monitoring resources and access per tenant.Prometheus Label Proxy, Thanos Operator
Inbox Agent / Server / UI (ALPHA)Cluster event inbox components.

Cost Management

Measure and allocate infrastructure and container costs.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Keda (Recommended)Event-driven autoscaling of workloads.
Keda HTTP Addon (Recommended)Scale workloads based on HTTP traffic.Keda
Opencost (ALPHA)Measure and allocate infrastructure and container costs.Kube Prometheus Stack, Monitoring Operator
OpenCost Grafana DashboardsCost visualization dashboards.Opencost, Grafana Operator

Security

TLS certificates, runtime security, and image scanning.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Scanner (Recommended)Scans image vulnerabilities and generates security reports.License Proxyserver, Grafana Operator
Cert ManagerX.509 certificate issuance and renewal.Gateway API
CA Cert CSI DriverCSI driver that adds CA certificates to the OS trusted certificate issuersCert Manager
FalcoContainer-native runtime threat detection.
Falco UI ServerUI for Falco runtime alerts.Falco, Grafana Operator

Secret Management

Secure secret storage, syncing, and distribution.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
External SecretsSync secrets from external managers (AWS/GCP/Azure/Vault) into Kubernetes Secrets.
KubevaultOperator to run and manage HashiCorp Vault.License Proxyserver
Kubevault OpscenterUI and monitoring for KubeVault.Kubevault, Grafana Operator
Config SyncerSync ConfigMaps and Secrets across namespaces and clusters.License Proxyserver
ReloaderRoll workloads automatically on ConfigMap/Secret changes.
Sealed SecretsOne-way encrypted Secrets safe to store in Git.
Vault Secrets OperatorConsume Vault secrets natively as Kubernetes Secrets.
Secrets Store CSI DriverMount secrets from external stores as CSI volumes.
Azure Key Vault providerAzure Key Vault backend for the CSI driver.Secrets Store CSI Driver
AWS providerAWS Secrets Manager / SSM Parameter Store backend for the CSI driver.Secrets Store CSI Driver
Google Secret Manager providerGoogle Secret Manager backend for the CSI driver.Secrets Store CSI Driver
HashiCorp Vault providerHashiCorp Vault backend for the CSI driver.Secrets Store CSI Driver
Virtual Secrets (ALPHA)Virtual Secrets server for not to actually keep the secrets in k8s level.
Virtual Secrets provider (ALPHA)Virtual Secrets backend for the CSI driver.Virtual Secrets, Secrets Store CSI Driver

Policy Management

Platform-level policy enforcement.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
GatekeeperOPA-based policy controller.
Gatekeeper TemplatesOPA Gatekeeper policy template library.Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper ConstraintsOPA Gatekeeper policy constraint library.Gatekeeper, Gatekeeper Templates
GateKeeper Policy Grafana DashboardsPolicy compliance dashboards.Gatekeeper, Grafana Operator
KyvernoKubernetes-native policy management.
Kyverno PoliciesPod Security Standards implemented as Kyverno policies.Kyverno

Storage Addons

Additional storage drivers and integrations.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
NFS CSI driverAccess NFS servers as Kubernetes volumes.
LonghornCloud-native distributed block storage.
CSI Volume SnapshotterSnapshot controller and validation webhook for CSI volumes.
TopoLVMLocal LVM-backed CSI storage.

Networking Addons

Networking plugins and extensions.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Kubernetes Gateway API (Recommended)Installs the Gateway API CRDs and controller.
External DNS OperatorManage external DNS records for Services and Ingresses.
Voyager IngressHAProxy-based ingress controller.
Voyager GatewayEnvoy-based gateway distro by AppsCode.

Opscenter Tools

DevOps tooling and management utilities.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Supervisor (Recommended)Day-2 operations — upgrade recommendations and maintenance windows.
Sidekick (Recommended)Run a one-off container as a pod (sidecar-as-a-pod).
Operator Shard Manager (Recommended)Scale operators by sharding responsibility across instances.

Cluster Management

Cluster provisioning and management tools (Cluster API core).

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
CAPI CatalogCatalog of Cluster API cluster templates.
CAPI Ops ManagerDay-2 operations for Cluster API clusters.
Cluster PresetsPreset configurations for cluster provisioning. Work with cloud NodePools

Cluster API AWS (CAPA)

Lifecycle management for clusters running on AWS.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
AWS Credential Manager (Recommended)Manage AWS credentials used by CAPA.
AWS EBS CSI Driver (Recommended)EBS-backed storage for provisioned clusters.
AWS Load Balancer Controller (Recommended)Provision AWS load balancers for EKS clusters.
AWS VPC Peering Operator (Recommended)Manage AWS VPC peering connections.
Cluster Autoscaler (Recommended)Node autoscaling for Cluster API clusters.

Cluster API GCP (CAPG)

Lifecycle management for clusters running on GCP.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
GCP Credential Manager (Recommended)Manage GCP credentials used by CAPG.

Cluster API Azure (CAPZ)

Lifecycle management for clusters running on Azure.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Azure Credential Manager (Recommended)Manage Azure credentials used by CAPZ.

Crossplane

Control-plane framework for infrastructure as code.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Crossplane (Recommended)The cloud-native control plane for provisioning infrastructure via Kubernetes APIs.
KubeDB AWS ProviderProvision KubeDB databases on AWS through Crossplane.Crossplane
KubeDB Azure ProviderProvision KubeDB databases on Azure through Crossplane.Crossplane
KubeDB GCP ProviderProvision KubeDB databases on GCP through Crossplane.Crossplane

Multicluster Hub

Central hub for managing a fleet of clusters.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Multicluster Hub (Recommended)Core hub components. Foundation for all other hub features.
Managed ServiceAccount Manager (Recommended)Manage service accounts on spoke clusters.Multicluster Hub
Cluster Auth Manager (Recommended)Authentication and authorization across the fleet.Multicluster Hub, Managed ServiceAccount Manager
Cluster Profile Manager (Recommended)Manage cluster profiles across the fleet.Multicluster Hub, Cluster Auth Manager
Cluster Proxy Manager (Recommended)Proxy traffic to spoke clusters.Multicluster Hub, Cluster Profile Manager
Cluster Gateway Manager (Recommended)API gateway for reaching spoke clusters.Multicluster Hub, Cluster Profile Manager, Managed ServiceAccount Manager, Cluster Proxy Manager
FluxCD Manager (Recommended)GitOps delivery across the fleet.Multicluster Hub, Cluster Profile Manager
License Proxyserver Manager (Recommended)Distribute AppsCode licenses to spoke clusters.Multicluster Hub, Cluster Profile Manager
Hub Cluster Robot (Recommended)Automation account for hub-driven operations.Multicluster Hub, Cluster Auth Manager

Multicluster Spoke

Connect this cluster as a spoke to an existing hub.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Multicluster Spoke (Recommended)Register this cluster as a spoke of a Multicluster Hub.

Kubernetes Native Service

Components for Kubernetes-native service patterns.

FeatureWhy enablePrerequisites
Service Catalog (Recommended)Exposes the Databases with gateway. Controls all the gw component provisioning for all modes including client orgsCert Manager, KubeDB
Service Gateway Presets (Recommended)A preset that holds the root ‘ace’ gateway configurationsCert Manager, External DNS Operator
Service Connector BackendBackend for the service connector.
Service ProviderService provider component.