Diego
Runtime software
DevOps software
Containerization software
- Features
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What is Diego
Diego is the container orchestration and runtime subsystem used by Cloud Foundry to schedule, run, and manage application containers across a cluster. It targets platform engineering teams operating Cloud Foundry-based application platforms and supports staging, running, health management, and placement of app instances. Diego integrates with Cloud Foundry components (such as the Cloud Controller and routing) and uses a cell-based architecture to execute workloads on distributed hosts. It is typically deployed as part of a Cloud Foundry distribution rather than as a standalone container runtime.
Tight Cloud Foundry integration
Diego is designed to work with Cloud Foundry’s control plane, including app lifecycle operations such as staging and running. This reduces the amount of custom glue code required compared with assembling separate runtime and orchestration components. It also aligns operational concepts (apps, processes, routes) with the platform’s native abstractions. For teams standardized on Cloud Foundry, this integration simplifies day-to-day platform operations.
Cluster scheduling and placement
Diego includes scheduling and placement logic to distribute application instances across available hosts (cells). It continuously reconciles desired state versus actual state and restarts workloads when instances fail. This provides a consistent mechanism for running many app instances without manually managing host-level placement. The approach is oriented to application platform workloads rather than general-purpose container orchestration.
Operational health management
Diego monitors running workloads and supports health checks and lifecycle management for app instances. It automates restarts and rescheduling to maintain availability when cells or containers fail. This reduces the operational burden compared with managing containers directly on individual hosts. The health model is integrated with Cloud Foundry’s application lifecycle and routing behavior.
Primarily Cloud Foundry scoped
Diego is not typically adopted as a standalone container runtime or orchestrator outside Cloud Foundry deployments. Organizations not using Cloud Foundry may find the architecture and APIs less applicable than more general container runtime stacks. This can limit portability of operational practices to non-Cloud Foundry environments. As a result, it is most relevant when Cloud Foundry is the strategic platform.
Less ecosystem breadth
Compared with widely adopted container runtime and orchestration ecosystems, Diego has a narrower set of third-party integrations and community tooling. Many operational extensions are implemented through Cloud Foundry-specific components and conventions. This can increase reliance on Cloud Foundry distributions or platform teams for integrations. It may also constrain choices for observability, policy, and runtime add-ons depending on the distribution.
Complex multi-component operations
Running Diego in production involves multiple cooperating components (e.g., cells, schedulers, and supporting services) and requires careful configuration and upgrades. Troubleshooting often spans Cloud Foundry control plane interactions as well as host-level container execution. This can raise the operational learning curve for teams new to Cloud Foundry internals. Many organizations mitigate this by using a supported Cloud Foundry distribution.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Open-source / free Free tier/trial: Permanently free (open-source, Apache 2.0 licensed project as part of Cloud Foundry) Example costs: None (no paid plans listed on official Cloud Foundry/Diego documentation) Discount options: Not applicable
Seller details
Cloud Foundry Foundation
San Francisco, California, United States
2011
Open Source
https://www.cloudfoundry.org/
https://x.com/cloudfoundry
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloud-foundry-foundation
