image:astra-architecture-diagram-v7.png["A conceptual image that describes the Astra Control architecture and its  components"]


== Astra Control components

* *Kubernetes clusters*: Kubernetes is a portable, extensible, open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services, that facilitates both declarative configuration and automation. Astra provides management services for applications hosted in a Kubernetes cluster.

* *Astra Control Provisioner*: As a fully supported storage provisioner and orchestrator maintained by NetApp that contains Astra Trident CSI functionality along with extended storage management capabilities, Astra Control Provisioner enables you to create storage volumes for containerized applications managed by Docker and Kubernetes. When deployed with Astra Control Center, Astra Control Provisioner includes a configured ONTAP storage backend.

* *Storage backend*:
** Astra Control Service uses the following storage backends:
*** https://www.netapp.com/cloud-services/cloud-volumes-service-for-google-cloud/[NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud^] or Google Persistent Disk as the storage backend for GKE clusters
*** https://www.netapp.com/cloud-services/azure-netapp-files/[Azure NetApp Files^] or Azure Managed Disks as the storage backend for AKS clusters.
*** https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/[Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)^] or https://docs.aws.amazon.com/fsx/[Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP^] as backend storage options for EKS clusters.
+
** Astra Control Center uses the following storage backends:


*** ONTAP AFF, FAS, and ASA. As a storage software and hardware platform, ONTAP provides core storage services, support for multiple storage access protocols, and storage management functionality, such as snapshots and mirroring.
//*** SolidFire storage backend. When you use a SolidFire storage backend, Astra Control Center doesn't report statistics and storage backend status as it does with other storage backends.
*** Cloud Volumes ONTAP



// ASTRADOC-410* *Cloud Insights*:  A NetApp cloud infrastructure monitoring tool, Cloud Insights enables you to monitor performance and utilization for your Kubernetes clusters managed by Astra Control Center. Cloud Insights correlates storage usage to workloads. When you enable the Cloud Insights connection in Astra Control Center, telemetry information shows in Astra Control Center UI pages.

== Astra Control interfaces

You can complete tasks using different interfaces:

* *Web user interface (UI)*: Both Astra Control Service and Astra Control Center use the same web-based UI where you can manage, migrate and protect apps. Use the UI also to manage user accounts and configuration settings.

* *API*: Both Astra Control Service and Astra Control Center use the same Astra Control API. Using the API, you can perform the same tasks that you would using the UI.

Astra Control Center also enables you to manage, migrate, and protect Kubernetes clusters running within VM environments.

== For more information

* https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/astra/index.html[Astra Control Service documentation^]
* https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/astra-control-center/index.html[Astra Control Center documentation^]
* https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/astra-automation[Use the Astra Control API^]
// ASTRADOC-410 * https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/cloudinsights/[Cloud Insights documentation^]
* https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap/index.html[ONTAP documentation^]