Configure a Platform Federation

A JFrog Platform Federation automatically syncs Project, Access, and Lifecycle entities across all its member sites. Platform Federation maintains a uniform workspace without manual updates by Platform Admins.

Plan the Platform Federation

Use this general procedure to plan your Platform Federation. This is not a strict sequence of steps, but a checklist of considerations.

1. Identify Multisite Scenarios: Review your existing subscription topology to identify JPD sites to include in the Platform Federation. Consider the purpose of each site in your SDLC, its geographical location, and the teams it supports.

   • Identify pain points: Do current collaboration or recovery scenarios generate frequent manual updates between sites?

   • Opportunities created by Platform Federation sync: Have you hesitated to implement cross-site collaboration or stage-based Lifecycle processes due to management overhead? Would deployment of new sites benefit your organization?

   Summarize the primary benefits to your organization from the Platform Federation's uniform workspace.
   Which features are immediately important to you?
   What multisite processes can be built on the basis of the Platform Federation?
   Which JPD sites are prime candidates for addition to the Platform Federation?

2. Platform Federation Topology is always a mesh of peers. Because Platform Federation syncs many entities on multiple sites to create a single "wall-to-wall" workspace, star or other hierarchical topologies are not supported. This simplifies Platform Federation planning and implementation. You may encounter the following special needs as you plan your Platform Federation configuration:

   • Multiple Platform Federations: The JPD you use to define and monitor the Platform Federation must run the Mission Control service. In most JFrog SaaS subscriptions Mission Control only runs on a single JPD. If your SaaS subscription includes another JPD that runs Mission Control, you can define more than one Platform Federation in the subscription. Consult with your JFrog Customer Success representative. Each JPD site can be a member of only one Platform Federation at a time.

   • JPDs from different subscriptions can be members of a single Platform Federation. You must define a Circle of Trust that includes all JPDs of the Platform Federation. See Prepare Sites to Join the Platform Federation.

3. Other Federated Services can be deployed to complement or extend Platform Federation. For example, these federation services sync entities not currently synced by Platform Federation, and continue to operate normally on sites that are added to a Platform Federation:

   • Federated repositories
   • Curation Federation

   Access Federations sync entities that are also synced by Platform Federation. To avoid conflicting updates, it is recommended to define JFrog Platform Federation and Access Federation on mutually exclusive groups of sites. For example, use an Access Federation to replicate Access settings to Edge Nodes outside the Platform Federation. In particular:

   • A Platform Federation cannot contain multiple sites in the same Access Federation - Platform Federation syncs Access entities across its sites, and cannot coexist with updates initiated by the Access Federation service.

   • A Platform Federation member site that is also part of an Access Federation can send and receive updated Access entities to/from other sites in the Access Federation that are not part of its Platform Federation.

   Consult with your JFrog Customer Success representative during planning.

Prepare Sites to Join the Platform Federation

Before you define the Platform Federation, verify that:

• Candidate JPDs meet Platform Federation requirements.
• At least one JPD is your subscription's Main site, running Mission Control. You will configure the Platform Federation on this site.
• All candidate JPDs share a Circle of Trust.

To prepare sites to join the Platform Federation:

1. Choose the sites in your subscription that you want to add to the Platform Federation.

   • Sites must be part of an Enterprise+ subscription
   • Currently only SaaS sites can be included in a Platform Federation.
   • Select only full-service JPD sites. Edge Nodes are not supported.
   • Select no more than one site of each Access Federation in your subscription.

2. Identify the Main site of the Platform Federation: The Main site of the Platform Federation is the JPD on which you create and manage the Platform Federation. The Main site JPD must run the Mission Control service. Log in to a JPD in your subscription and go to Administration > Topology > JPD Services.

   • If there is no JPD Services option in the Topology menu, then Mission Control does not run on this JPD. Repeat this step with another JPD in your subscription.
   • If there is a JPD Services page, go to Topology > Grid. This verifies that Mission Control is running, and you can define the Platform Federation on this JPD. This is the Main site JPD.

3. Review candidate JPDs: On the Main site JPD, go to Administration > Topology > JPD Services. The table lists JPDs that were registered in this JPD. JPDs from this JFrog SaaS subscription are ready to be added to the Platform Federation. JFrog automatically configures a Circle of Trust for all JPDs in the subscription.

4. To include JPDs from a different subscription in the Platform Federation:

   • In JPD Services register the JPD using its pairing token.
   • Contact your JFrog Customer Success representative to establish the Circle of Trust between the Main site and any JPDs from another subscription.

Configure a Platform Federation

Use this procedure to define a new Platform Federation, or to modify an existing Platform Federation.

You can use Grid service API endpoints to perform this procedure. You must be a Platform Admin to perform this procedure.

To configure a Platform Federation using the Platform Administration interface:

1. Verify that all sites of the Platform Federation are live and connected.

2. Log in to the Main site you used to Prepare the Platform Federation sites.

3. Go to Administration > Topology > Grid.

   • To define a new Platform Federation, click Create Grid. The Grid Definition pane appears.
   • To modify an existing Platform Federation, click Edit Grid. The Edit Grid pane shows the current Platform Federation configuration.

4. In the Member Sites tab, do the following:

   • Enter a name in the Grid Name field, such as Grid_CI or Test Sites.
   • Enter a brief description of the Platform Federation that indicates the management purpose of the Platform Federation, or the shared function of the sites you include in this Platform Federation.
   • The Select Sites area lists JPDs that are registered in this JPD and fulfill the criteria to join a Platform Federation. Select the sites that you want to include in the Platform Federation. A site can be a member of only one Platform Federation at a time.

   When you first define the Platform Federation, JFrog generates a unique Grid Key identifier. You cannot modify this value. The Main site on which you define the Platform Federation is always included in the Platform Federation, and cannot be removed.

   When you edit an existing Platform Federation, you can modify the Name and Description fields, and add or remove sites from the Platform Federation.

5. Click Next. The Review and Create tab lists the sites you added to the Platform Federation. It also lists the Global Entities that will be synced by Platform Federation and no longer maintained locally on each site. Check the settings you defined.

6. To create the Platform Federation with these settings, click Create Grid.

   The Grid service checks each site for:

   • Health & Network connectivity
   • Membership in the Circle of Trust
   • Enterprise+ Subscription with Platform Federation entitlement
   • Conflicts with Access Federation

   Platform Federation creation continues only if all selected sites meet these qualifications.

   The Grid service creates the Platform Federation and configures the mesh topology on each site. The Grid service then copies Global Entities between sites so they are identical on all sites. The most recent version of each entity is used (Last Write Wins). Older versions are overwritten during sync, and cannot be restored. See How Platform Federation Syncs Global Entities.

7. After initial sync the Grid table displays the member sites of the Platform Federation and their current status.

   If you removed sites from an existing Platform Federation, those sites no longer appear in the table. The Global Entities synced by Platform Federation are not erased or rolled back, but Platform Federation no longer updates them on these sites.

How Platform Federation Syncs Global Entities

The entities that Platform Federation syncs across its member sites are called Global Entities.

• Initial Sync: When the Platform Federation is defined, or when sites are added to the Platform Federation, all member sites compare Global Entity values. The most recent value of each Global Entity is copied to all sites of the Platform Federation (Last Write Wins).

• Ad Hoc Sync: When a change is made to a Global Entity on a member site, this new value is copied to all sites of the Platform Federation.

Both Initial and Ad Hoc syncs overwrite previous values of Global Entities. Older values are not saved, and cannot be restored.

• When a site is removed from the Platform Federation, it continues to operate based on the most recent values of its Global Entities. The site no longer participates in Platform Federation synchronization: other Platform Federation sites no longer send updates to this site, and it does not publish local changes to its Entities over the Platform Federation.

• The Grid service does not query or modify sites that are not in the Platform Federation.