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Temporal

Workflow orchestration platform for durable execution.

Overview

Property Value
Namespace temporal
Type HelmRelease
Layer Application (Layer 5)
Dependencies PostgreSQL Cluster
Access http://temporal.local

Purpose

Temporal provides durable execution for microservices, ensuring workflows complete even through failures, restarts, and deployments.

Features

  • Durable Execution - Workflows survive failures
  • Automatic Retries - Configurable retry policies
  • Long-running Workflows - Days, weeks, months
  • Versioning - Safe workflow updates
  • Visibility - Search and filter workflows
  • Multi-language SDKs - Go, Java, Python, TypeScript, PHP

Architecture

graph TB
    subgraph Temporal
        FE[Frontend Service]
        HIST[History Service]
        MATCH[Matching Service]
        WORK[Worker Service]
    end

    subgraph Storage
        PG[(PostgreSQL)]
        VIS[(Visibility DB)]
    end

    subgraph Applications
        WRK[Workers]
        CLI[Clients]
    end

    CLI -->|start workflow| FE
    WRK -->|poll tasks| FE
    FE --> MATCH
    MATCH --> HIST
    HIST --> PG
    FE --> VIS

Access

Web UI

http://temporal.local

kubectl port-forward -n temporal svc/temporal-web 8090:8080

gRPC Endpoint

temporal-frontend.temporal:7233

Databases

Database Purpose
temporal Workflow state and history
temporal_visibility Search and filtering

Use Cases

Use Case Why Temporal
Order Processing Multi-step, long-running
Data Pipelines Retry on failure
User Onboarding Days-long workflows
Batch Jobs Reliable execution
Saga Pattern Distributed transactions

Configuration

Key environment variables:

Variable Description
DB Database type (postgresql)
POSTGRES_SEEDS PostgreSQL host
DYNAMIC_CONFIG_FILE_PATH Dynamic config

Worker Example

// Go worker
c, _ := client.Dial(client.Options{
    HostPort: "temporal-frontend.temporal:7233",
})
w := worker.New(c, "my-task-queue", worker.Options{})
w.RegisterWorkflow(MyWorkflow)
w.RegisterActivity(MyActivity)
w.Run(worker.InterruptCh())

Verification

# Check pods
kubectl get pods -n temporal

# Check services
kubectl get svc -n temporal

# Check frontend
kubectl logs -n temporal deploy/temporal-frontend

Troubleshooting

UI not loading

# Check web service
kubectl get pods -n temporal -l app.kubernetes.io/component=web

# Check logs
kubectl logs -n temporal -l app.kubernetes.io/component=web

Workers not connecting

  1. Verify frontend service is running
  2. Check network policies
  3. Verify worker configuration
# Check frontend logs
kubectl logs -n temporal deploy/temporal-frontend

Workflows stuck

# Check history service
kubectl logs -n temporal deploy/temporal-history

# Check matching service
kubectl logs -n temporal deploy/temporal-matching