HSF FAQs
The Harness Solutions Factory (HSF) FAQ covers common questions about how HSF works, what it deploys, and how to customize or manage it within your Harness account.
Use this guide to better understand setup requirements, supported versions, and how HSF fits into your existing Harness environment.
HSF Overview
What HSF is and how it works
What is HSF and how it works
HSF provides Terraform templates for managing the Harness Platform. It creates all resources needed to deploy the Harness Solutions Factory, along with example and best practice templates for platform usage. HSF leverages three key Harness components: Code Repository for code storage, Infrastructure as Code Management for Terraform administration, and Internal Developer Portal to host automated workflows.
Is HSF part of my PS package?
HSF is provided as a no-additional cost solution delivered as part of an existing Professional Services Package.
What modules do I need for HSF?
HSF leverages Harness Internal Developer Portal and Infrastructure as Code Management. You do not need to purchase additional modules specifically for HSF. If you do not have IDP or IaCM licensed, we will provide you a limited license in order to use HSF and manage Harness entities. Restrictions may apply.
If you do not want to leverage Harness Internal Developer Portal there is an option to run a headless version called Hub.
Deployment & setup
What is needed and what gets created
What is required to get HSF deployed?
Before HSF can be deployed, confirm the following:
- IaCM is required. Depending on your architecture and the operating mode you choose, you may also need IDP and Harness Code Repository. If your account isn't licensed for the modules you need, Harness can provide a limited license covering HSF usage for managing Harness entities.
- You have an account with admin-level permissions, or can coordinate with someone who does to generate a temporary Personal Access Token (PAT). This token is used to create account-level resources during deployment and can be deleted afterward.
- No account-level OPA policies are in place that would block pipeline execution.
Go to Harness Solutions Factory (HSF) Overview to choose your onboarding path.
What is created in the deployment of HSF?
Workspaces, connectors, a full pipeline, environments, user groups and RBAC are created in your account. The codebase can also be cloned into your account.
Customization & maintenance
Manage and extend your HSF setup
Can I create my own templates?
Yes, you can add customization to the base project setup within the code itself. Once HSF is set up and built, when you need to do a standard update, you can reapply to everything, and it will revert to the ideal state because of the idempotent nature of Terraform.
Can I maintain the codebase?
Yes. To maintain the HSF codebase, you must choose the option to clone the codebase into your account during deployment.
Once cloned, all code is fully replicated and must be stored and executed from a Harness Code Repository.
Usage & integration
Ways to operate and extend HSF
Is there a way to run HSF not through the GUI?
Yes. You can pass the form data through the API to trigger the IDP workflow directly, or use the Terraform code itself to provision resources outside the GUI. HSF provides a GUI experience because it is designed as a self-service marketplace where application developers can get access to the resources they need, shifting provisioning left and reducing the reliance on platform teams.
What versions of Terraform and OpenTofu does HSF support?
Harness Solutions Factory supports integration with all OpenTofu versions
Due to licensing and legal limitations all legacy Terraform versions under the MPL license are supported (up to 1.5.x), any BSL versions (from 1.6.0) are not supported.
Can HSF manage cloud resources, not just Harness entities?
Yes. Because HSF is built on OpenTofu and IaCM, it can provision any resource that has a Terraform provider, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP. However, you will need a paid enterprise license for IDP and IaCM if provisioning non-Harness entities.