In 2017 Weaveworks, a Kubernetes-focused startup introduced the concept of ‘GitOps‘. GitOps is a set of best practices for application deployment and management that leverage cloud-native tools and cloud services.
It’s not simply just a tool then what exactly is GitOps? That’s what we are going to cover in this very blog.
Here is what is going to be covered in this post:
- What is GitOps?
- Key benefits of GitOps
- How does GitOps work?
- Push-based vs. Pull-based Deployments
- Conclusion
What is GitOps?
GitOps is a technique for implementing Continuous Deployment in cloud-native applications. It utilizes Git as a single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and apps. With Git at the heart of your delivery pipelines, developers utilize familiar tools to generate pull requests to expedite and simplify application deployments as well as Kubernetes operations duties.
The core concept of GitOps is to have a Git repository that always contains declarative descriptions of the infrastructure that is currently desired in the production environment, as well as an automated process to match the described state in the repository. If you want to deploy a new application or update an existing one, all you have to do is update the repository; the automated process will handle the rest. It’s like having cruise control for managing your production applications.
Source: Weaveworks
Key benefits of GitOps
When changes are made to Git, automated delivery pipelines push updates to your infrastructure. But the concept of GitOps extends beyond that – GitOps employs tools to compare the actual production state of your whole application with what’s under source control, and then it notifies you when your cluster does not match the real world.
By using GitOps best practices, you may create a “source of truth” for both your infrastructure and application code, allowing development teams to boost velocity and system dependability.
The advantages of using GitOps best practices are numerous and include:
Fast Deployment
To be fair, almost every Continuous Deployment technology promises to make deploying faster and more frequent. GitOps is distinguished by the fact that you do not need to switch tools when deploying your application. In any case, everything happens in the version control system you use to develop the application.
Easy and Fast Error Recovery
Your production environment has failed! GitOps provides a complete history of how your environment has changed over time. This makes error recovery as simple as running git revert and watching your environment restore itself.
Easier Credential Management
GitOps enables you to manage deployments entirely from within your environment. Your environment only requires access to your repository and image registry for this purpose. That’s all. You are not required to grant your developers direct access to the environment.
Self-documenting Deployments
Have you ever SSH’d into a server and wondered what was happening? Every change to any environment in GitOps must go through the repository. You can always check out the master branch to get a detailed description of what is deployed where, as well as a complete history of every change made to the system. And you get a free audit trail of any changes to your system!
Shared Knowledge in Teams
When you use Git to store complete descriptions of your deployed infrastructure, everyone on your team can see how it evolves over time. With excellent commit messages, anyone can easily reproduce the thought process of changing infrastructure and find examples of how to set up new systems.
How does GitOps work?
The deployment process in GitOps is organized around code repositories as the central element. There are at least two repositories: one for the application and one for the environment configuration. The application repository contains the application’s source code, as well as the deployment, manifests used to deploy the application. The environment configuration repository contains all deployment manifests for a deployment environment’s currently desired infrastructure. It specifies which applications and infrastructure services (message broker, service mesh, monitoring tool) should run in the deployment environment and with what configuration and version.
Push-based vs. Pull-based Deployments
The deployment strategy for GitOps can be implemented in two ways: push-based deployments and pull-based deployments. The difference between the two deployment types is how the deployment environment is ensured to resemble the desired infrastructure. Pull-based approaches should be preferred whenever possible because they are considered to be more secure and thus better practises for implementing GitOps.
Push-based Deployments:
Popular CI/CD tools, such as Jenkins, CircleCI, and Travis CI, use the push-based deployment strategy. The application’s source code, as well as the Kubernetes YAML files required to deploy the app, are stored in the application repository. When the application code is updated, the build pipeline is triggered, which creates the container images and then updates the environment configuration repository with new deployment descriptors.
The deployment pipeline is triggered by changes to the environment configuration repository. This pipeline is in charge of applying to the infrastructure all manifests stored in the environment configuration repository. It is essential to provide credentials to the deployment environment when using this approach. As a result, god-mode is enabled in the pipeline. When running automated provisioning of cloud infrastructure, a Push-based deployment is unavoidable in some cases. In such cases, it is strongly advised to use the cloud provider’s fine-granular configurable authorization system for more restrictive deployment permissions.
Pull-based Deployments:
The pull-based deployment method employs the same ideas as the push-based alternative, but the deployment pipeline is different. Traditional CI/CD pipelines are initiated by an external event, such as the addition of new code to an application repository. The operator is introduced with the pull-based deployment strategy. It assumes the function of the pipeline by comparing the expected state in the environment repository to the actual state in the deployed infrastructure on a continual basis. When discrepancies are discovered, the operator modifies the infrastructure to match the environment repository. In addition, the image registry may be watched to locate new image versions to deploy.
Conclusion
GitOps, like any new technical phrase, isn’t formally defined in the same manner by everyone in the field. GitOps ideas may be applied to various forms of infrastructure automation, including VMs and containers, and can be extremely beneficial for teams managing Kubernetes-based infrastructure.
While many tools and approaches promise quicker deployment and seamless administration of code and infrastructure, GitOps stands out by emphasizing the developer experience. Infrastructure management with GitOps takes place in the same version control system as application development, allowing teams to interact more centrally while taking advantage of Git’s built-in features.
Related/References
- KCNA Certification Exam (Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate)
- Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA): Step-by-Step Activity Guide (Hands-on Lab)
- Containers for Beginners: What, Why and Types
- Kubernetes for Beginners – A Complete Beginners Guide
- Kubernetes Architecture | An Introduction to Kubernetes Components
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