Cluster Orchestrator Components

Compare Harness Cluster Orchestrator with AWS Karpenter and discover unique advantages

Cluster Orchestrator deploys several Kubernetes resources to manage and optimize your cluster infrastructure. This document provides a comprehensive overview of all components installed during deployment.

Cluster Orchestrator installation creates a comprehensive set of infrastructure components across both AWS and Kubernetes environments:

Roles

AWS

Resource	Name	Description
IAM Role	harness-ccm-<cluster>-node	IAM role for EKS worker nodes with CCM-required policies
Access Entry	-	Newer EKS "Access Entries" system to bind IAM role into Kubernetes (system:nodes)
Instance Profile	harness-ccm-<cluster>-inst-prof	Allows EC2 nodes to assume the node IAM role
OIDC Provider	-	Enables IRSA (IAM Roles for Service Accounts) for secure AWS IAM usage
IAM Policy Update	-	Adds extra describe/EC2 permissions required for CCM
Resource Tagging	harness.io/<cluster>	Marks infrastructure (SGs, Subnets, AMIs) for CCM resource discovery

Harness

Resource	Name	Description
Service Account	-	Created via API to represent the cluster orchestrator
API Key + Token	-	Issued and stored in K8s as a secret for cluster-to-Harness communication
Cluster Registration	-	Registers your EKS cluster with Harness CACM

Components

Core Resources

Resource Type	Name	Description
Namespace	kube-system	Default namespace where CCM orchestrator is installed
Secret	harness-api-key	Stores Harness API token for cluster components

Cluster Orchestrator Components

Component Type	Name	Description
Deployment	cluster-orch-operator (harness-ccm)	Main controller managing CCM orchestration inside cluster. Limits: CPU: 1, Memory: 1Gi
Deployment	cluster-telemetry-collector (kube-system)	Collects cluster cost/usage data and sends it to Harness. Limits: CPU: 1, Memory: 1Gi
Service	cluster-orch-operator	Cluster Orchestrator operator service
DaemonSet	cluster-orch-interrupt-listener	Listens for spot preemption events and reports to Harness

Service Accounts & RBAC

Each of these components gets a ServiceAccount, ClusterRole, and ClusterRoleBinding:

Service Account	Purpose
ccm-cluster-orchestrator-operator	Permissions for the orchestrator operator deployment
ccm-cluster-orchestrator-metrics	Handles metrics collection for observability
ccm-cluster-orchestrator-interruption	Manages pod eviction/node interruption handling

Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)

CRD Name	Purpose
nodepools.karpenter.sh	Defines node pools for Karpenter provisioning
nodeclaims.karpenter.sh	Manages node claims for Karpenter
ec2nodeclasses.karpenter.k8s.aws	Defines EC2 node class templates for Karpenter provisioning
workloaddistributionrules.ccm.harness.io	Harness CACM custom CRD to control workload placement and distribution