Technology Architecture Components Infrastructure Storage

Storage componentens

Altinn 3 uses different types of storage components.

Cosmos DB

Azure Cosmos DB is a fully managed NoSQL database for modern app development. Single-digit millisecond response times, and automatic and instant scalability, guarantee speed at any scale. Business continuity is assured with SLA-backed availability and enterprise-grade security.

Altinn 3 uses Cosmos DB to store metadata about data in Altinn.

applications: applications
dataElements: data elements
instanceEvents: instance events
instances: instance information
leases: used by Azure Functions
texts: Applications texts

Azure CosmosDB is configured with one Write Region and one read region. This for redundancy.

Azure CosmosDB provides automatic backup of the database. This is in additon to our custom backup.

We use autoscale to adjust the number of assigned RU.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is used at a relational database for Altinn Platform Events and for Altinn Repository.

Azure Blob storage

All data stored in Altinn Platform Storage for Apps are stored in a Azure Blob storage. This include formdata and all binary attachments.

The data is georeplicated between Norway East and Norway West

Azure Disks

The Kubernetes Cluster uses disks for volumes

We use Azure Disk for storage in Kubernetes Cluster

Azure Container Registries

Azure Container Registry is a managed, private Docker registry service based on the open-source Docker Registry 2.0. Create and maintain Azure container registries to store and manage your private Docker container images and related artifacts.

In Altinn 3 each org has their own Azure Container Registry where the images build of their applications are stored.

In addition the platform itself has their own container registry

Azure Key Vaults

Azure Key Vault is a cloud service for securely storing and accessing secrets. A secret is anything that you want to tightly control access to, such as API keys, passwords, certificates, or cryptographic keys. Key Vault service supports two types of containers: vaults and managed HSM pools. Vaults support storing software and HSM-backed keys, secrets, and certificates.

Every organization cluster has two keyvaults. One is target for secrets for applications. Secrets are added by the app developers as self services.

The other is targetet for secrets needed to be shared with Altinn Platform. Access token to storage accounts is one example

Azure Queue Storage

Azure Queue Storage provides cloud messaging between application components. In designing applications for scale, application components are often decoupled so they can scale independently. Queue Storage delivers asynchronous messaging between application components, whether they are running in the cloud, on the desktop, on an on-premises server, or on a mobile device. Queue Storage also supports managing asynchronous tasks and building process work flows.

In Altinn we use Azure Queue Storage for events processing and delegation.