Workspaces

Workspaces provide a virtual space for you and your teams to collaborate, organize project-based work, manage access to environments and resources, and track team activities.

You can create Workspaces to group related Designs and Environments, define domains of responsibility for your teams, and streamline resource management.

Key Features 🔗

• Resource Sharing: Workspaces allow for seamless resource sharing among team members, fostering collaboration.
• Logical Grouping: Within Workspaces, you can group related components such as environments and infrastructure designs.
• Flexibility: Workspaces support various resources like Kubernetes, Prometheus, Jaeger, Nginx, and more.
• Simplified Management: Managing and deploying resources is made easy within Workspaces.
• Access Control: Workspaces allow you to control access to resources by granting permissions to users and teams.

Workspace Relationships and Restrictions 🔗

• Access to Workspaces may be granted to one or more teams.
• As a point of collaboration to facilitate work, Workspaces may have zero or more Environments associated.
• A Workspace is closely associated with Teams. Teams are groups of users with varying permissions, and they are at the center of resource access and management within a Workspace.
• One or more teams can be assigned access to a workspace.

After creating a Workspace, one of your next steps is to assign team access, create or transfer designs into the Workspace, and allocate resources that to Workspace by associating it with one or more Environments, therein making the Environment’s connections available to users of the Workspace.

Like a shared drive (or shared collection of files), Workspaces are your Google Drive, while Designs are your Google Docs.

Key Workspace Components 🔗

Environments 🔗

• Environments are a central part of a workspace. They serve as a logical grouping for managing connections. A connection, in this context, can be either managed or discovered. Examples of connections include Kubernetes clusters, Prometheus instances, Jaeger traces, Nginx servers, and more.
• One or more environments can be assigned to a workspace.
• Same environment can be assigned to multiple workspaces.

Designs 🔗

• Infrastructure Designs are essential for creating reusable deployment templates. Users belonging to teams with access to a workspace can utilize these designs to deploy resources in the Kubernetes clusters associated with that workspace.
• Like a shared drive (or shared collection of files), Workspaces are your Google Drive, while Designs are your Google Docs.
• One or more designs can be assigned to a workspace.

Teams 🔗

• A Workspace is closely associated with Teams. Teams are groups of users with varying permissions, and they are at the center of resource access and management within a Workspace.
• One or more teams can be assigned to a workspace.
• Same team can be assigned to multiple workspaces.

Connections 🔗

• Connections refer to various resources that can be either managed or unmanaged, but are discovered and made accessible for use. Examples of Connections include Kubernetes clusters, Prometheus instances, Jaeger services, Nginx deployments, and more. These Connections serve as a fundamental part of Workspaces, as users can deploy infrastructure designs within the context of these Connections.
• Connections can be assigned to one or more environments.
• Same connection can be assigned to multiple environments.

Best Practices 🔗

To make the most of Workspaces, here are some best practices:

• Clearly define permissions in the form of team assignment to ensure proper access control.
• Use Infrastructure Designs to standardize resource deployments.
• Regularly review and update your Workspace’s resources and configurations.

Workspaces enhance collaboration within your teams, providing a structured environment for sharing and managing resources. By following best practices and understanding the core components of Workspaces, you can maximize the benefits of this feature.

Example: Orbital Labs Workspace Setup 🔗

The following illustrates how Five and Maya set up workspaces at Orbital Labs to segment access across infrastructure and development workflows. See Meet Five and the Cast for the full seed inventory.

Workspace Inventory 🔗

Creating orbital-staging 🔗

Five creates the orbital-staging workspace to give the Development team a shared environment for feature-branch testing — without handing them the keys to production.

Steps Five follows:

1. Navigate to Workspaces and click Create Workspace
2. Name the workspace orbital-staging
3. Save — the workspace is created with no team access and no environments assigned

Maya then assigns team access:

1. Open the orbital-staging workspace settings
2. Add the Infrastructure team — enabling Zara and Five to manage environment connections
3. Add the Development team — enabling Rex and Jordan to deploy designs and use connections

Related Reading

• Environments
• Managing Environments
• Managing Workspaces
• Spaces
• Workspaces