Clone Stacks Between Clusters & Organisations

Learn how to clone stacks from one cluster to another — including across organisations — for consistent deployments across environments

Cloning stacks allows you to replicate your infrastructure configurations across multiple clusters — even across different organisations. Cloned stacks are created as drafts, giving you the opportunity to review and customize them before deployment.

AI Prompts

Use these prompts with the AI Assistant (Cmd+J) to clone stacks with natural language.

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Overview

Stack cloning is useful when you want to:

Use Case	Example
Promote configurations	Clone a tested stack from staging to production
Standardize environments	Replicate your monitoring stack across all clusters
Create templates	Use a well-configured stack as a starting point for new clusters
Disaster recovery	Quickly replicate infrastructure to a backup cluster
Cross-org sharing	Clone a stack from a development org to a client or production org

Security Note: Encrypted values (secrets) are not transferred during cloning for security reasons. You’ll need to reconfigure them in the target cluster. This includes passwords, API keys, and any values encrypted with SOPS.

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Prerequisites

• At least two clusters imported into Ankra (can be in different organisations)
• A deployed stack in the source cluster that you want to clone
• Access to both the source and target clusters
• For cross-org cloning: membership in both the source and target organisations

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Clone Using the Dashboard

1. Navigate to Source Stack

   Go to your source cluster and navigate to Stacks. Find the stack you want to clone.

2. Open Clone Dialog

   Click the menu icon (three dots) on the stack card and select Clone to Cluster.

3. Select Target Cluster

   In the dialog that appears:

   1. If you belong to multiple organisations, select the target organisation from the dropdown. The cluster list updates to show clusters in that organisation.
   2. Choose the destination cluster from the cluster dropdown
   3. Optionally modify the stack name
   4. Choose whether to include addon configurations
4. Review Warnings

   If your stack contains encrypted values, you’ll see a warning. These values will need to be reconfigured after cloning.

   For cross-organisation clones, an additional banner explains that you’ll be switched to the target organisation after cloning. Credentials and secrets may need to be reconfigured for the new organisation context.

5. Clone the Stack

   Click Clone Stack. You’ll be redirected to the draft in the target cluster. If you cloned to a different organisation, Ankra automatically switches your active organisation.

6. Configure and Deploy

   In the target cluster:

   1. Review the cloned configuration
   2. Add any missing secrets or encrypted values
   3. Adjust cluster-specific settings if needed
   4. Click Deploy when ready

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Clone Using the CLI

The Ankra CLI provides a clone command for scripting and automation.

Basic Usage

# Select the source cluster first
ankra cluster select my-source-cluster

# Clone a stack to another cluster
ankra cluster stacks clone monitoring-stack --to production-cluster

Command Options

Flag	Short	Description
--to	-t	Target cluster name or ID (required)
--name	-n	Custom name for the cloned stack
--org		Target organisation name or ID (for cross-org cloning)
--include-config		Include addon configurations (default: true)

Examples

Clone with a custom name:

ankra cluster stacks clone my-stack --to production --name my-stack-prod

Clone to a cluster in another organisation:

ankra cluster stacks clone my-stack --to client-cluster --org client-org

Clone without addon configurations:

ankra cluster stacks clone my-stack --to production --include-config=false

Clone using cluster IDs:

ankra cluster stacks clone monitoring-stack --to 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

CLI Output

Cloning stack 'monitoring-stack' to cluster 'production'...

Stack cloned successfully!
  Draft ID:    a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890
  Stack Name:  monitoring-stack
  Addons:      3
  Manifests:   2

Warnings:
  - Addon 'grafana' had encrypted configuration that needs to be reconfigured.

The stack has been created as a draft. Open the Ankra dashboard to review and deploy.

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What Gets Cloned

Component	Cloned	Notes
Stack name & description	Yes	Can be renamed during clone
Stack variables	Yes	Transferred as-is
Manifests	Yes	YAML content (encrypted values cleared)
Addons	Yes	Chart references and versions
Addon configurations	Optional	Use --include-config flag
Encrypted secrets	No	Must be reconfigured
Deployment state	No	Created as draft
Resource positions	No	Auto-layouted in target
Dependencies	Yes	Parent relationships preserved by name

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Cloning Between Organisations

Ankra supports cloning stacks to clusters that belong to a different organisation. This is useful for sharing configurations with clients, replicating setups from a template org to a production org, or migrating workloads.

How it works

1. You must be a member of both the source and target organisations.
2. In the clone dialog, an Organisation dropdown appears when you belong to more than one org. Select the target organisation to see its clusters.
3. With the CLI, pass the --org flag to specify the target organisation.
4. After a cross-org clone, the dashboard switches your active organisation to the target automatically.

What to keep in mind

Credentials and secrets don’t transfer across organisations. Each organisation has its own SOPS keys, registry credentials, and secrets. After a cross-org clone you must reconfigure:

• Encrypted values in manifests and addon configs
• Registry credentials if images are in private registries
• Any organisation-specific variables referenced by the stack

Organisation variables are scoped to each org. If the cloned stack references variables (e.g. ${ORG_DOMAIN}), make sure equivalent variables exist in the target organisation or override them at the cluster/stack level.

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Handling Encrypted Values

When you clone a stack that contains encrypted values:

1. Manifests: Encrypted fields are replaced with placeholder values
2. Addon configurations: Values containing encrypted paths are cleared
3. Warnings: You’ll see specific warnings about which resources need attention

Re-encrypting Secrets After Clone

After cloning, you’ll need to re-encrypt secrets for the target cluster:

1. Open the cloned draft in the target cluster
2. Navigate to each manifest or addon that had encrypted values
3. Enter the new secret values
4. Use the SOPS button to encrypt them with the target cluster’s key
5. Save and deploy

Each cluster has its own SOPS encryption key. Values encrypted in one cluster cannot be decrypted in another - this is by design for security.

Automating Secret Configuration

For automated deployments, consider:

• Using external secrets management (e.g., Vault, AWS Secrets Manager)
• Storing secrets in environment-specific configuration
• Using Kubernetes ExternalSecrets operator

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Common Workflows

Staging to Production Promotion

# Test in staging first
ankra cluster select staging
ankra cluster stacks list

# Clone to production when ready
ankra cluster stacks clone my-app-stack --to production

# Switch to production and configure secrets
ankra cluster select production
# ... configure in dashboard

Standardizing Multiple Clusters

Clone your standard monitoring stack to all clusters:

ankra cluster select template-cluster

for cluster in dev staging production; do
  ankra cluster stacks clone observability --to $cluster --name observability
  echo "Cloned to $cluster"
done

Creating a Backup Configuration

# Clone critical stacks to a DR cluster
ankra cluster select primary
ankra cluster stacks clone core-services --to dr-cluster
ankra cluster stacks clone monitoring --to dr-cluster
ankra cluster stacks clone ingress --to dr-cluster

Sharing a Stack with Another Organisation

Clone a well-tested stack to a client or partner organisation:

# From your template org, clone to the client's cluster
ankra cluster select template-cluster
ankra cluster stacks clone saas-platform --to client-production --org acme-corp

# The client can then review the draft and add their secrets

In the dashboard, select the target organisation from the dropdown in the clone dialog. After cloning, Ankra switches you to the target org automatically.

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Troubleshooting

Clone Failed: Stack Not Found

Ensure the source stack is deployed (not just a draft) and you have the correct stack name:

ankra cluster stacks list

Clone Failed: Access Denied

Verify you have access to both the source and target clusters. You must be a member of both clusters’ organizations.

Clone Failed: Target Cluster Unavailable

The clone operation only creates a draft in the database - it doesn’t require the target cluster to be online. Check your network connection to the Ankra API.

Missing Resources After Clone

If addons or manifests are missing:

1. Check if the source stack had resources in a deleting or deleted state
2. Verify the clone included addon configurations (--include-config=true)
3. Check the warnings for any resources that couldn’t be cloned

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AI Prompts

Press Cmd+J to open the AI Assistant and use these prompts:

Clone Stack

Clone the monitoring stack to my production cluster

Duplicate and Modify

Clone the ingress stack from staging to production and rename it to prod-ingress

Replicate to Multiple Clusters

Help me clone my observability stack to all my clusters

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Next Steps

Stack Templates

Create reusable templates for common stack configurations.

SOPS Encryption

Learn how to encrypt secrets in your stacks.

GitOps Sync

Sync your stack configurations to a Git repository.

Ankra CLI

Learn more CLI commands for stack management.