Skip to content

Clarify mapping between build modules and deployed services #3086

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
Senthil455 wants to merge 1 commit into
base: master
Choose a base branch
from
+36 −0
Open

Clarify mapping between build modules and deployed services #3086

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
36 changes: 36 additions & 0 deletions docs/architecture.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -12,6 +12,42 @@ HTTP(s) traffic, Nomulus uses a custom proxy to handle raw TCP traffic required
for EPP (Port 700). This proxy can run as a GKE sidecar or a standalone cluster.
For more information on the proxy, see [the proxy setup guide](proxy-setup.md).

### Build Modules vs Deployed Services

Nomulus has two overlapping naming conventions that commonly cause confusion:

**Build modules** are the Gradle subprojects (directories in the repository) that
you compile and produce Docker images from:

| Build Module | Directory | Produces |
|---|---|---|
| `core` | `core/` | Nomulus uber-jar (`nomulus.jar`) containing all registry business logic, servlets, actions, and routing. |
| `jetty` | `jetty/` | The **single** `nomulus` Docker image. This is the main deployment artifact that all four HTTP services run. |
| `proxy` | `proxy/` | A separate `proxy` Docker image for the EPP TCP-to-HTTP proxy. |
| `console-webapp` | `console-webapp/` | Angular-based registrar console frontend (static assets bundled into the `jetty` image). |
| `services/{backend,bsa,default,pubapi,tools}` | `services/` | Legacy App Engine stubs. These directories are intentionally empty and configured purely through the root `build.gradle`. |

**Deployed services** are what actually run in Kubernetes / Cloud Run:

| Service Name | Runs in Kubernetes | Docker Image | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| `frontend` | `jetty/kubernetes/nomulus-frontend.yaml` | `nomulus` (from `jetty/`) | Registrar-facing EPP command traffic. Most critical workload. Also runs the `proxy` as a sidecar for EPP on port 700. |
| `backend` | `jetty/kubernetes/nomulus-backend.yaml` | `nomulus` (from `jetty/`) | Background cron, async tasks (RDE, DNS, TMDB, BSA, ICANN reports), BEAM pipelines, and the `nomulus` admin CLI tool. |
| `console` | `jetty/kubernetes/nomulus-console.yaml` | `nomulus` (from `jetty/`) | Registrar self-service web console (Angular frontend). Startup probe at `/ready/console`. |
| `pubapi` | `jetty/kubernetes/nomulus-pubapi.yaml` | `nomulus` (from `jetty/`) | Public API — primarily RDAP and domain availability checks. Startup probe at `/ready/pubapi`. |
| `proxy` | `proxy/kubernetes/proxy-deployment-*.yaml` | `proxy` (from `proxy/`) | Standalone EPP TCP proxy clusters (or sidecar in `frontend`). |

The critical point: **All four HTTP services (`frontend`, `backend`, `console`,
`pubapi`) run the same `nomulus` Docker image** built from the `jetty/` module.
They are differentiated only by the environment argument passed to the container
and by the URL routing rules in the GKE Gateway, not by different binaries.

The `services/` subdirectories (`backend`, `bsa`, `default`, `pubapi`, `tools`)
are legacy App Engine service definitions from an earlier architecture. They
contain no logic and have empty `src/` directories. They exist as Gradle
subprojects in `settings.gradle` for compatibility but are **not** used in
Kubernetes/Cloud Run deployments.

### Workloads

Nomulus contains four Kubernetes
Expand Down
Loading