How OpenYurt Enables Large‑Scale Edge Computing for Longyuan Power

OpenYurt Overview

OpenYurt is the industry’s first non‑intrusive cloud‑native edge computing platform that provides seamless "cloud‑edge‑device" integration, enabling rapid delivery, operation, and management of massive edge workloads across heterogeneous compute resources. It is already used in cloud platforms, cloud gaming, AI, and IoT.

CNStack (Cloud‑Native Technology Hub) Overview

CNStack is Alibaba Cloud’s best‑practice carrier for cloud‑native technologies. It centralizes infrastructure management across multi‑cloud and hybrid‑cloud environments, offering unified orchestration, high performance, high availability, and security compliance for modern applications.

Case Study Architecture

Longyuan Power operates over 700 server nodes distributed across dozens of provinces and needed a unified, highly available cloud‑native platform to manage three‑tier servers (headquarters‑province‑station). The solution combines CNStack with OpenYurt v0.7.0.

The cluster consists of a central site hosting core Kubernetes components (CoreDNS, kube‑controller‑manager, API server) and OpenYurt components such as Yurt‑Controller‑Manager and Tunnel‑Server. Hundreds of edge nodes run native components plus OpenYurt edge components, including Local‑DNS, Tunnel‑Agent, and the crucial Yurthub proxy.

Offline Edge Autonomy

Yurthub proxies all API‑server requests from edge nodes. When the network to the central site is disrupted, Yurthub switches traffic to a local cache, keeping edge workloads running and preventing pod eviction even if the node is marked NotReady. Once connectivity is restored, cached data synchronizes and normal operation resumes.

Programmable Resource Access Control

Yurthub includes a programmable data‑filter framework that lets users transparently transform cloud‑side responses, supporting custom service topology routing and adaptive cloud‑edge link behavior.

Reverse Operations (Tunnel)

The OpenYurt Tunnel component establishes long‑lived connections from the cloud to edge sites, enabling cloud‑side kubectl commands (logs, exec, etc.) even when edge IPs are invisible to the cloud. This capability also powers log collection and monitoring across isolated VPCs.

Edge‑Cloud Network Optimization Suite

Introduced in OpenYurt v1.2, the Pool‑Coordinator component caches node‑pool‑level resources (e.g., endpoints, endpoint slices) on the edge, reducing list/watch traffic and alleviating bandwidth constraints between cloud and edge.

Conclusion

Deploying OpenYurt within CNStack has powered Longyuan Power’s edge fleet for nearly a year, earning the 2022 Best Cloud‑Native Industry Practice award and demonstrating stable, high‑performance edge operations at scale.