UCP architecture

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Universal Control Plane is a containerized application that runs on Docker Enterprise Edition, extending its functionality to simplify the deployment, configuration, and monitoring of your applications at scale.

UCP also secures Docker with role-based access control so that only authorized users can make changes and deploy applications to your Docker cluster.

Once Universal Control Plane (UCP) instance is deployed, developers and IT operations no longer interact with Docker Engine directly, but interact with UCP instead. Since UCP exposes the standard Docker API, this is all done transparently, so that you can use the tools you already know and love, like the Docker CLI client and Docker Compose.

Under the hood

Docker UCP leverages the clustering and orchestration functionality provided by Docker.

A swarm is a collection of nodes that are in the same Docker cluster. Nodes in a Docker swarm operate in one of two modes: Manager or Worker. If nodes are not already running in a swarm when installing UCP, nodes will be configured to run in swarm mode.

When you deploy UCP, it starts running a globally scheduled service called ucp-agent. This service monitors the node where it’s running and starts and stops UCP services, based on whether the node is a manager or a worker node.

If the node is a:

  • Manager: the ucp-agent service automatically starts serving all UCP components, including the UCP web UI and data stores used by UCP. The ucp-agent accomplishes this by deploying several containers on the node. By promoting a node to manager, UCP automatically becomes highly available and fault tolerant.
  • Worker: on worker nodes, the ucp-agent service starts serving a proxy service that ensures only authorized users and other UCP services can run Docker commands in that node. The ucp-agent deploys a subset of containers on worker nodes.

UCP internal components

The core component of UCP is a globally-scheduled service called ucp-agent. When you install UCP on a node, or join a node to a swarm that’s being managed by UCP, the ucp-agent service starts running on that node.

Once this service is running, it deploys containers with other UCP components, and it ensures they keep running. The UCP components that are deployed on a node depend on whether the node is a manager or a worker.

OS-specific component names

Some UCP component names depend on the node’s operating system. For example, on Windows, the ucp-agent component is named ucp-agent-win. Learn about architecture-specific images.

Internally, UCP uses the following components:

  • Calico 3.0.1
  • Kubernetes 1.8.11

UCP components in manager nodes

Manager nodes run all UCP services, including the web UI and data stores that persist the state of UCP. These are the UCP services running on manager nodes:

UCP component Description
k8s_calico-kube-controllers A cluster-scoped Kubernetes controller used to coordinate Calico networking. Runs on one manager node only.
k8s_calico-node The Calico node agent, which coordinates networking fabric according to the cluster-wide Calico configuration. Part of the calico-node daemonset. Runs on all nodes. Configure the CNI plugin by using the --cni-installer-url flag. If this flag isn’t set, UCP uses Calico as the default CNI plugin.
k8s_install-cni_calico-node A container that’s responsible for installing the Calico CNI plugin binaries and configuration on each host. Part of the calico-node daemonset. Runs on all nodes.
k8s_POD_calico-node Pause container for the calico-node pod.
k8s_POD_calico-kube-controllers Pause container for the calico-kube-controllers pod.
k8s_POD_compose Pause container for the compose pod.
k8s_POD_kube-dns Pause container for the kube-dns pod.
k8s_ucp-dnsmasq-nanny A dnsmasq instance used in the Kubernetes DNS Service. Part of the kube-dns deployment. Runs on one manager node only.
k8s_ucp-kube-compose A custom Kubernetes resource component that’s responsible for translating Compose files into Kubernetes constructs. Part of the compose deployment. Runs on one manager node only.
k8s_ucp-kube-dns The main Kubernetes DNS Service, used by pods to resolve service names. Part of the kube-dns deployment. Runs on one manager node only. Provides service discovery for Kubernetes services and pods. A set of three containers deployed via Kubernetes as a single pod.
k8s_ucp-kubedns-sidecar Health checking and metrics daemon of the Kubernetes DNS Service. Part of the kube-dns deployment. Runs on one manager node only.
ucp-agent Monitors the node and ensures the right UCP services are running.
ucp-auth-api The centralized service for identity and authentication used by UCP and DTR.
ucp-auth-store Stores authentication configurations and data for users, organizations, and teams.
ucp-auth-worker Performs scheduled LDAP synchronizations and cleans authentication and authorization data.
ucp-client-root-ca A certificate authority to sign client bundles.
ucp-cluster-root-ca A certificate authority used for TLS communication between UCP components.
ucp-controller The UCP web server.
ucp-dsinfo Docker system information collection script to assist with troubleshooting.
ucp-interlock Monitors swarm workloads configured to use Layer 7 routing. Only runs when you enable Layer 7 routing.
ucp-interlock-proxy A service that provides load balancing and proxying for swarm workloads. Only runs when you enable Layer 7 routing.
ucp-kube-apiserver A master component that serves the Kubernetes API. It persists its state in etcd directly, and all other components communicate with API server directly.
ucp-kube-controller-manager A master component that manages the desired state of controllers and other Kubernetes objects. It monitors the API server and performs background tasks when needed.
ucp-kubelet The Kubernetes node agent running on every node, which is responsible for running Kubernetes pods, reporting the health of the node, and monitoring resource usage.
ucp-kube-proxy The networking proxy running on every node, which enables pods to contact Kubernetes services and other pods, via cluster IP addresses.
ucp-kube-scheduler A master component that handles scheduling of pods. It communicates with the API server only to obtain workloads that need to be scheduled.
ucp-kv Used to store the UCP configurations. Don’t use it in your applications, since it’s for internal use only. Also used by Kubernetes components.
ucp-metrics Used to collect and process metrics for a node, like the disk space available.
ucp-proxy A TLS proxy. It allows secure access to the local Docker Engine to UCP components.
ucp-reconcile When ucp-agent detects that the node is not running the right UCP components, it starts the ucp-reconcile container to converge the node to its desired state. It is expected for the ucp-reconcile container to remain in an exited state when the node is healthy.
ucp-swarm-manager Used to provide backwards-compatibility with Docker Swarm.

UCP components in worker nodes

Worker nodes are the ones where you run your applications. These are the UCP services running on worker nodes:

UCP component Description
k8s_calico-node The Calico node agent, which coordinates networking fabric according to the cluster-wide Calico configuration. Part of the calico-node daemonset. Runs on all nodes.
k8s_install-cni_calico-node A container that’s responsible for installing the Calico CNI plugin binaries and configuration on each host. Part of the calico-node daemonset. Runs on all nodes.
k8s_POD_calico-node “Pause” container for the Calico-node pod. By default, this container is hidden, but you can see it by running docker ps -a.
ucp-agent Monitors the node and ensures the right UCP services are running
ucp-interlock-extension Helper service that reconfigures the ucp-interlock-proxy service based on the swarm workloads that are running.
ucp-interlock-proxy A service that provides load balancing and proxying for swarm workloads. Only runs when you enable Layer 7 routing.
ucp-dsinfo Docker system information collection script to assist with troubleshooting
ucp-kubelet The kubernetes node agent running on every node, which is responsible for running Kubernetes pods, reporting the health of the node, and monitoring resource usage
ucp-kube-proxy The networking proxy running on every node, which enables pods to contact Kubernetes services and other pods, via cluster IP addresses
ucp-reconcile When ucp-agent detects that the node is not running the right UCP components, it starts the ucp-reconcile container to converge the node to its desired state. It is expected for the ucp-reconcile container to remain in an exited state when the node is healthy.
ucp-proxy A TLS proxy. It allows secure access to the local Docker Engine to UCP components

Pause containers

Every pod in Kubernetes has a pause container, which is an “empty” container that bootstraps the pod to establish all of the namespaces. Pause containers hold the cgroups, reservations, and namespaces of a pod before its individual containers are created. The pause container’s image is always present, so the allocation of the pod’s resources is instantaneous.

By default, pause containers are hidden, but you can see them by running docker ps -a.

docker ps -a | grep -I pause

8c9707885bf6        dockereng/ucp-pause:3.0.0-6d332d3        "/pause"                 47 hours ago        Up 47 hours                                                                                               k8s_POD_calico-kube-controllers-559f6948dc-5c84l_kube-system_d00e5130-1bf4-11e8-b426-0242ac110011_0
258da23abbf5        dockereng/ucp-pause:3.0.0-6d332d3        "/pause"                 47 hours ago        Up 47 hours                                                                                               k8s_POD_kube-dns-6d46d84946-tqpzr_kube-system_d63acec6-1bf4-11e8-b426-0242ac110011_0
2e27b5d31a06        dockereng/ucp-pause:3.0.0-6d332d3        "/pause"                 47 hours ago        Up 47 hours                                                                                               k8s_POD_compose-698cf787f9-dxs29_kube-system_d5866b3c-1bf4-11e8-b426-0242ac110011_0
5d96dff73458        dockereng/ucp-pause:3.0.0-6d332d3        "/pause"                 47 hours ago        Up 47 hours                                                                                               k8s_POD_calico-node-4fjgv_kube-system_d043a0ea-1bf4-11e8-b426-0242ac110011_0

Volumes used by UCP

Docker UCP uses these named volumes to persist data in all nodes where it runs:

Volume name Description
ucp-auth-api-certs Certificate and keys for the authentication and authorization service
ucp-auth-store-certs Certificate and keys for the authentication and authorization store
ucp-auth-store-data Data of the authentication and authorization store, replicated across managers
ucp-auth-worker-certs Certificate and keys for authentication worker
ucp-auth-worker-data Data of the authentication worker
ucp-client-root-ca Root key material for the UCP root CA that issues client certificates
ucp-cluster-root-ca Root key material for the UCP root CA that issues certificates for swarm members
ucp-controller-client-certs Certificate and keys used by the UCP web server to communicate with other UCP components
ucp-controller-server-certs Certificate and keys for the UCP web server running in the node
ucp-kv UCP configuration data, replicated across managers
ucp-kv-certs Certificates and keys for the key-value store
ucp-metrics-data Monitoring data gathered by UCP
ucp-metrics-inventory Configuration file used by the ucp-metrics service
ucp-node-certs Certificate and keys for node communication

You can customize the volume driver used for these volumes, by creating the volumes before installing UCP. During the installation, UCP checks which volumes don’t exist in the node, and creates them using the default volume driver.

By default, the data for these volumes can be found at /var/lib/docker/volumes/<volume-name>/_data.

Configurations use by UCP

Configuration name Description
com.docker.interlock.extension Configuration for the Interlock extension service that monitors and configures the proxy service
com.docker.interlock.proxy Configuration for the service responsible for handling user requests and routing them
com.docker.license The Docker EE license
com.docker.ucp.config The UCP controller configuration. Most of the settings available on the UCP UI are stored here
com.docker.ucp.interlock.conf Configuration for the core Interlock service

How you interact with UCP

There are two ways to interact with UCP: the web UI or the CLI.

You can use the UCP web UI to manage your swarm, grant and revoke user permissions, deploy, configure, manage, and monitor your applications.

UCP also exposes the standard Docker API, so you can continue using existing tools like the Docker CLI client. Since UCP secures your cluster with role-based access control, you need to configure your Docker CLI client and other client tools to authenticate your requests using client certificates that you can download from your UCP profile page.

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