initial high-level cortex docs

Author: auhlig

docs/architecture/cortex.md

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+---
+title: Cortex initial placement and scheduling
+---
+
+# Cortex
+
+Cortex is a modular and extensible service for initial placement and scheduling in cloud-native environments covering workloads such as compute, storage, network, and other scheduling domains.  
+It improves resource utilization and operational performance by making smart placement decisions based on the current state of the environment and defined constraints and objectives.
+
+## Features
+
+- **Modular and versatile design**: Cortex consists of a minimal core framework that can be extended with various plugins to support different data sources and scheduling algorithms. This provides flexibility in adapting to various cloud environments and requirements.
+- **Centralized knowledge database**: Cortex provides a holistic knowledge database that stores enriched data from various sources, enabling efficient retrieval and processing of information for scheduling decisions.
+- **Unified placement and scheduling**: Cortex combines initial placement and continuous scheduling into a single service.
+- **Cross-domain support**: Cortex supports a wide range of workloads from various scheduling domains, including compute, storage, and network. The architecture allows handling the domains independently or in a unified manner.
+- **Performance and scalability**: Cortex is designed to minimize the resource footprint and maximize its performance using alghorithmic and heuristic approaches. It is battle-tested in large-scale, produciton environmments.
+
+## High-level Architecture
+
+This section presents the conceptual workflow on a high-level.
+
+
+```mermaid
+graph LR
+  External["Kubernetes\nCinder\nManila\nNeutron\nNova\n..."] --> Retrieval["Retrieval and enrichment"]
+
+  subgraph Cortex
+    direction LR
+    Retrieval -->|features| DB[(Knowledge Database)]
+
+    Scheduler["Scheduler"]
+    DB <-->|x | Scheduler
+    
+    IniPlacement["Initial Placement"]
+    DB <--> IniPlacement
+
+    API["API"]
+    DB <--> API
+  end
+
+  External <-->|receive placement request\nreturn placement suggestion| IniPlacement
+  External <-->|trigger migration| Scheduler
+  API <--> User["User / Dashboard"]
+```

docs/architecture/index.md

@@ -12,5 +12,4 @@ CobaltCore is built on top of OpenStack and IronCore, leveraging their capabilit
 - [**OpenStack**](./openstack): The various OpenStack services that provide compute, storage, and networking capabilities to the CobaltCore environment.
 - **Greenhouse**: The monitoring and management tool that provides insights into the health and performance of the CobaltCore environment.
 - [**HA Service**](./cluster#ha-service): The high availability service that ensures critical workloads remain operational even in the event of failures.
-- **Cortex**: Smart placement service for VMs and storage in an OpenStack cloud environment.
-
+- [**Cortex**](./cortex): Smart initial placement and scheduling service for compute, storage, and network in cloud-native cloud environments.