Quick Start

This tutorial will guide you through deploying your first Plone instance using cdk8s-plone.

Prerequisites

Before you start, ensure you have:

  • Node.js 16+ and npm installed

  • kubectl configured to access your Kubernetes cluster

  • Basic familiarity with Kubernetes and TypeScript

  • A Kubernetes cluster (local or remote)

For detailed prerequisites, see Setup Prerequisites.

Step 1: Create a CDK8S Project

Create a new CDK8S TypeScript project:

# Create project directory
mkdir my-plone-deployment
cd my-plone-deployment

# Initialize CDK8S project
cdk8s init typescript-app

This creates a basic CDK8S project structure.

Step 2: Install cdk8s-plone

Install the cdk8s-plone library:

npm install @bluedynamics/cdk8s-plone

The library is also available for Python via PyPI:

pip install cdk8s-plone

Step 3: Create a Basic Plone Deployment

Edit main.ts with the following code:

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();

This creates:

  • A Plone backend with 3 replicas

  • A Volto frontend with 2 replicas

  • All necessary Kubernetes services and deployments

Step 4: Generate Kubernetes Manifests

Generate the Kubernetes manifests:

cdk8s synth

This creates YAML files in the dist/ directory containing all Kubernetes resources.

Step 5: Deploy to Kubernetes

Apply the generated manifests to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f dist/

Check the deployment status:

kubectl get pods
kubectl get services

Step 6: Access Your Plone Site

Once all pods are running, access your Plone site:

# Port-forward to the frontend service
kubectl port-forward service/my-plone-frontend 3000:3000

# Open in browser
open http://localhost:3000

Adding HTTP Caching (Optional)

For production deployments, add Varnish HTTP caching:

import { PloneHttpcache } from '@bluedynamics/cdk8s-plone';

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

new PloneHttpcache(chart, 'cache', {
  plone: plone,
  existingSecret: 'varnish-secret',
  replicas: 2,
});

This adds a Varnish caching layer with cluster-wide cache invalidation using kube-httpcache.

Next Steps

Now that you have a basic Plone deployment:

Troubleshooting

Pods not starting?

  • Check pod logs: kubectl logs <pod-name>

  • Verify images are accessible: kubectl describe pod <pod-name>

Can’t access the site?

  • Ensure port-forward is running

  • Check service endpoints: kubectl get endpoints

For more help, see the Troubleshooting guide.

Complete example: See the cdk8s-plone-example repository for a full working example.