Create a Deployment

An Astro Deployment is an Airflow environment that is powered by Astro Runtime. It runs all core Airflow components, including the Airflow webserver, scheduler, and workers, plus additional tooling for reliability and observability.

There are multiple ways to create an Astro Deployment:

Manually, using the Astro UI. This is the most basic way to create a Deployment and is the focus of this document. You can create a Deployment in the UI using either:
- Quick Start: (Default) Rapid creation with predefined templates for the most common Deployment types.
- Advanced configuration: Full control over Deployment details.
Programmatically, using astro deployment create.
Programmatically, using a Deployment template file. See Manage Deployments as code.
Programmatically, using Astro Terraform Provider.

When using the Astro UI, you can select either a quick start template for simplicity or switch to advanced configuration for advanced configuration.

Execution mode

To create a Deployment, you can specify Hosted or Remote execution mode in the advanced configuration of the Deployment. Read below for a summary of the two modes and see Execution mode for more information.

Hosted execution

Hosted execution mode is Astronomer-Hosted execution and orchestration for hands-off infrastructure management. Hosted is the default execution that offers a convenient, secure, and stable way to run Airflow workloads without having to manage workers in your environment.

Remote Execution

This is feature is only available if you are on the Enterprise tier or above. See Astro Plans and Pricing.

Remote Execution mode is available on dedicated clusters to run tasks in your hardware or private clouds with only outbound connections to Astro’s Orchestration Plane. Sensitive data stays local, ideal for regulated or multi-regional deployments. Choose this option if:

You need to run Airflow tasks in on-prem or edge environments without exposing inbound connections.
Data locality and sovereignty are critical, ensuring sensitive or compliance-bound data stays in your environment.
You want to avoid inbound firewall changes, simplifying network security by using only outbound connections.
Your workloads require runtime flexibility, allowing execution on Kubernetes, bare metal, or other infrastructure.
Strong isolation of secrets, data, and logs is a priority.
You need scalability for high-throughput workflows, large-memory tasks, or GPU-accelerated AI workloads.

Cluster type

To create a Deployment, you must choose a cluster type to host the Deployment:

A standard cluster is the default cluster type and the quickest way to get an Airflow environment up and running on Astro. A standard cluster is a multi-tenant cluster managed by Astronomer where each Deployment exists in its own dedicated Kubernetes namespace. To run a Deployment in a standard cluster, you select a cloud provider and region when you create the Deployment. Then, Astro automatically creates your Deployment in an existing standard cluster based on your configuration.
A dedicated cluster is a single-tenant Kubernetes cluster that’s used exclusively by your team. Choose this option if:
- You need private networking support between Astro and your cloud or on-premise data services.
- You want to use a specific cloud provider or region that is not supported on standard clusters.
- You need to run Airflow environments in separate clusters for business or security reasons.
  
  Note that due to expanded resource usage, dedicated clusters cost more than standard clusters. If no dedicated clusters are available to select, see Create a Dedicated cluster to create a new one.

If your Organization has the Enforce Dedicated Clusters policy enabled, the Standard Cluster option isn’t available when creating a Deployment. See Enforce dedicated clusters for new Deployments.

After you create a Deployment, you can deploy Dags to it using the Astro CLI on your local machine or a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) tool. All Dags and tasks on Astro are executed within a Deployment.

Every Deployment is hosted on an Astro cluster with its own dedicated resources that you can customize to fine-tune your resource usage. To restrict communication between Deployments, resources for each Deployment are isolated within a corresponding Kubernetes namespace. See Deployment network isolation.

If you’re migrating to Astro from OSS Airflow or another Astronomer product, and you currently use an older version of Airflow, you can still create Deployments with the corresponding version of Astro Runtime even if it is deprecated according to the Astro Runtime maintenance policy. This allows you to migrate your Dags to Astro without needing to make any code changes and then immediately upgrade to a new version of Airflow. Note that after you migrate your Dags, Astronomer recommends upgrading to a supported version of Astro Runtime as soon as you can.

See Run a deprecated Astro Runtime version.

Prerequisites

A Workspace

Create a Deployment

In the Astro UI, go to Deployments

Open the Deployments section of the Astro UI and click + Deployment. Enter a unique Deployment Name.

Select a Deployment Template or switch to advanced configuration

The Quick Start panel appears by default and requires you to select from three templated options:

Development: Low-cost and secure environment for experimentation and rapid iteration.
Pre-Production: Scalable and reliable validation environment for production readiness.
Production: Highly available and reliable environment for business-critical workloads.

To use a template, select the most appropriate card and complete the required fields. For advanced resource or execution configuration, select Switch to advanced configuration.

Switching from advanced configuration back to quick start resets all custom settings after confirmation.

(Optional) Configure Wake Schedules for Development Mode Deployments

When you select the Development template or enable Development Mode, you can define schedules to control when the Deployment is available for task execution. Set timezone, days of the week, and start/end times.

Choose cluster type

Select a Cluster Type.

For Standard Cluster, choose a cloud provider and region.
For Dedicated Cluster, select a cluster from the dropdown or create a new one if required.

(Optional) Configure advanced resources and execution settings

For advanced use cases, you can further customize details such as execution mode, executor type, and worker resources by switching to advanced configuration. If you don’t have specific requirements, the default options are suitable for most workflows.

For a complete list of available options and resource settings, see Deployment resources.

Create the Deployment

Click Create Deployment. The status displays as Creating until healthy and the Airflow UI becomes available for use.

For more information about possible Deployment health statuses, see Deployment health.

Next steps

There are multiple ways to create an Astro Deployment:

Manually, using the Astro UI. This is the most basic way to create a Deployment and is the focus of this document. You can create a Deployment in the UI using either:
- Quick Start: (Default) Rapid creation with predefined templates for the most common Deployment types.
- Advanced configuration: Full control over Deployment details.
Programmatically, using astro deployment create.
Programmatically, using a Deployment template file. See Manage Deployments as code.
Programmatically, using Astro Terraform Provider.

When using the Astro UI, you can select either a quick start template for simplicity or switch to advanced configuration for advanced configuration.

Execution mode

Hosted execution

Remote Execution

This is feature is only available if you are on the Enterprise tier or above. See Astro Plans and Pricing.

You need to run Airflow tasks in on-prem or edge environments without exposing inbound connections.
Data locality and sovereignty are critical, ensuring sensitive or compliance-bound data stays in your environment.
You want to avoid inbound firewall changes, simplifying network security by using only outbound connections.
Your workloads require runtime flexibility, allowing execution on Kubernetes, bare metal, or other infrastructure.
Strong isolation of secrets, data, and logs is a priority.
You need scalability for high-throughput workflows, large-memory tasks, or GPU-accelerated AI workloads.

Cluster type

To create a Deployment, you must choose a cluster type to host the Deployment:

A standard cluster is the default cluster type and the quickest way to get an Airflow environment up and running on Astro. A standard cluster is a multi-tenant cluster managed by Astronomer where each Deployment exists in its own dedicated Kubernetes namespace. To run a Deployment in a standard cluster, you select a cloud provider and region when you create the Deployment. Then, Astro automatically creates your Deployment in an existing standard cluster based on your configuration.
A dedicated cluster is a single-tenant Kubernetes cluster that’s used exclusively by your team. Choose this option if:
- You need private networking support between Astro and your cloud or on-premise data services.
- You want to use a specific cloud provider or region that is not supported on standard clusters.
- You need to run Airflow environments in separate clusters for business or security reasons.
  
  Note that due to expanded resource usage, dedicated clusters cost more than standard clusters. If no dedicated clusters are available to select, see Create a Dedicated cluster to create a new one.

See Run a deprecated Astro Runtime version.

Prerequisites

A Workspace

Create a Deployment

In the Astro UI, go to Deployments

Open the Deployments section of the Astro UI and click + Deployment. Enter a unique Deployment Name.

Select a Deployment Template or switch to advanced configuration

The Quick Start panel appears by default and requires you to select from three templated options:

Development: Low-cost and secure environment for experimentation and rapid iteration.
Pre-Production: Scalable and reliable validation environment for production readiness.
Production: Highly available and reliable environment for business-critical workloads.

To use a template, select the most appropriate card and complete the required fields. For advanced resource or execution configuration, select Switch to advanced configuration.

Switching from advanced configuration back to quick start resets all custom settings after confirmation.

(Optional) Configure Wake Schedules for Development Mode Deployments

Choose cluster type

Select a Cluster Type.

For Standard Cluster, choose a cloud provider and region.
For Dedicated Cluster, select a cluster from the dropdown or create a new one if required.

(Optional) Configure advanced resources and execution settings

For a complete list of available options and resource settings, see Deployment resources.

Create the Deployment

Click Create Deployment. The status displays as Creating until healthy and the Airflow UI becomes available for use.

For more information about possible Deployment health statuses, see Deployment health.