// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// * scalability_and_performance/telco_core_ref_design_specs/telco-core-rds.adoc

:_mod-docs-content-type: REFERENCE
[id="telco-hub-gitops-operator-and-ztp-plugins_{context}"]
= GitOps Operator and {ztp}

[role="_abstract"]
New in this release::
* No reference design updates in this release

Description::
GitOps Operator and {ztp} provide a GitOps-based infrastructure for managing cluster deployment and configuration.
Cluster definitions and configurations are maintained as a declarative state in Git.
You can apply `ClusterInstance` custom resources (CRs) to the hub cluster where the `SiteConfig` Operator renders them as installation CRs.
In earlier releases, a {ztp} plugin supported the generation of installation CRs from `SiteConfig` CRs.
This plugin is now deprecated.
A separate {ztp} plugin is available to enable automatic wrapping of configuration CRs into policies based on the `PolicyGenerator` or the `PolicyGenTemplate` CRs.
+
You can deploy and manage multiple versions of {product-title} on managed clusters by using the baseline reference configuration CRs.
You can use custom CRs alongside the baseline CRs.
To maintain multiple per-version policies simultaneously, use Git to manage the versions of the source and policy CRs by using the `PolicyGenerator` or the `PolicyGenTemplate` CRs.


Limits and requirements::
* To ensure consistent and complete cleanup of managed clusters and their associated resources during cluster or node deletion, you must configure ArgoCD to use background deletion mode.

Engineering considerations::
* To avoid confusion or unintentional overwrite when updating content, use unique and distinguishable names for custom CRs in the `source-crs` directory and extra manifests.
* Keep reference source CRs in a separate directory from custom CRs.
This facilitates easy update of reference CRs as required.
* To help with multiple versions, keep all source CRs and policy creation CRs in versioned Git repositories to ensure consistent generation of policies for each {product-title} version.
