Application Manager setup

The Application Manager is a backend microservice in FlowX.AI that:

✅ Manages FlowX applications, versions, manifests, and configurations.
✅ Acts as a proxy for front-end resource requests.

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Infrastructure prerequisites

Before you start setting up the Application Manager service, ensure the following infrastructure components are in place:

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Dependencies

The Application Manager relies on other FlowX services and components to function properly:

• Database configuration: For storing application details, manifests, and configurations.
• Authorization & Access Management: For securing access to resources and managing roles.
• Kafka Event Bus: For enabling event-driven operations.
• Resource Proxy: To forward resource-related requests to appropriate services.

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Core configuration environment variables

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Basic service configuration

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Database configuration

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PostgreSQL configuration

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MongoDB configuration

The Application Manager requires MongoDB to store runtime build information. Use the following environment variables for configuration:

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Redis configuration

If caching is required, configure Redis using the following environment variables:

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Kafka configuration

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Kafka connection and security variables

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Kafka producer configuration

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OAuth authentication variables (when using SASL_PLAINTEXT)

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Kafka consumer configuration

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Kafka consumer threads configuration

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Topic naming convention and pattern creation

The Application Manager uses a sophisticated topic naming convention that follows a structured pattern. This ensures consistency across environments and makes topics easily identifiable.

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Topic naming components

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Topic pattern creation

Topics are constructed using the following pattern:

{prefix} + service + {separator/dot} + action + {separator/dot} + detail + {suffix}

For example, a typical topic might look like:

ai.flowx.dev.application-version.export.v1

Where:

• ai.flowx.dev. is the prefix (package + environment)
• application-version is the service
• export is the action
• .v1 is the suffix (version)

For more complex topics, additional components are added:

ai.flowx.dev.application-version.resources-usages.sub-res-validation.response.v1

Where:

• resources-usages represents the resource type
• sub-res-validation represents the operation type
• response indicates it’s a response message

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Kafka topic configuration

Application resource topics

Build resource topics

Process topics

Other topics

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Authentication configuration

Refer to the dedicated section for configuring user roles and access rights:

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File storage configuration

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Monitoring and health check configuration

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Resource proxy configuration

The Resource Proxy module forwards resource-related requests to appropriate services, handling CRUD operations on the manifest. It requires proper configuration of proxy endpoints:

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Scheduler configuration

The Application Manager scheduler supports retrying failed deployments and master election for better coordination of tasks across instances:

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Retry failed deployments

Configures a cron job to retry updating builds in the runtime database every minute when previous attempts have failed.

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Master election

Enables master election for improved scheduling coordination when multiple instances of the Application Manager are running, ensuring that scheduled tasks are only executed once.

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Configuring logging

To control the logging levels for the Application Manager, use the following environment variables:

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Data model overview

The Application Manager stores application data using a relational database schema, with key entities such as application, application_version, and application_manifest. Below are descriptions of primary entities:

• Application - Defines an application with its details like name, type, and metadata.
• Application Branch - Represents branches for versioning within an application.
• Application Version - Keeps track of each version of an application, including committed and WIP statuses.
• Application Manifest - Contains the list of resources associated with a specific application version.

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Ingress configuration

Configure ingress to control external access to Application Manager:

ingress:
  enabled: true
  public:
    enabled: false
  admin:
    enabled: true
    hostname: "{{ .Values.flowx.ingress.admin }}"
    path: /appmanager(/|$)(.*)
    annotations:
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /$2
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-headers: DNT,Keep-Alive,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range,Authorization,flowx-platform