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Use GitOps to Achieve Continuous Deployment of Applications

KubeSphere introduces a philosophy for implementing continuous deployment of cloud-native applications – GitOps. The core idea of GitOps is to have a Git repository where the declarative infrastructure and applications of the application system are stored and version-controlled. GitOps combined with Kubernetes can use an automated delivery pipeline to apply changes to any number of specified clusters, thus solving the consistency problem of cross-cloud deployment.

This document walks you through the process of deploying an application using a continuous deployment.

Prerequisites

  • DevOps must have been installed and enabled.

  • A workspace, a DevOps project, and a user (e.g. project-regular) have been created, and the user has been invited to the DevOps project with the operator role. See Role and Member Management.

Import a Code Repository

  1. Log in to the KubeSphere web console as the project-regular user.

  2. Click Workspace Management and enter your DevOps project.

  3. In the left navigation pane, click Code Repositories.

  4. On the right side of the code repositories page, click Add.

  5. In the Import Code Repository dialog, enter a code repository name, such as open-podcasts, and click Select a code repository. You can also set an alias and add a description for the code repository.

  6. In the Select Code Repository dialog, click Git, enter the repository address in the Code Repository URL area, such as https://github.com/kubesphere-sigs/open-podcasts, and click OK.

    Note

    The repository imported here is a public repository, so no credentials are needed. If you are adding a private repository, you need to create credentials. For more information on how to add credentials, see Credential Management.

Create Continuous Deployment

  1. In the left navigation pane, click Continuous Deployments.

  2. On the right side of the Continuous Deployments page, click Create.

  3. On the Basic Information tab, enter a continuous deployment name, such as open-podcasts. In the Deployment Location area, select the cluster and project for continuous deployment. Click Next.

  4. On the Code Repository Settings tab, select the code repository created in the previous step, set the branch or tag of the code repository, and the path of the Kustomization manifest file. Click Next.

    ParameterDescription

    Revision

    The commit ID, branch, or tag of the Git repository. For example, master, v1.2.0, 0a1b2c3, or HEAD.

    Manifest File Path

    Set the path of the manifest file. For example, config/default.

  5. On the Sync Settings tab, in the Sync Strategy area, select Auto Sync or Manual Sync as needed.

    • Auto Sync: Automatically trigger application synchronization when a difference is detected between the manifest in the Git repository and the real-time state of the deployment resources, according to the sync options. The specific parameters are shown in the table below.

      ParameterDescription

      Prune resources

      If selected, resources that do not exist in Git will be deleted during automatic sync. If not selected, resources in the cluster will not be deleted when automatic sync is triggered.

      Self-heal

      If selected, when there is a deviation between the defined state in Git and the deployed resources, the defined state in Git will be enforced. If not selected, automatic sync will not be triggered when changes are made to the deployed resources.

    • Manual Sync: Manually trigger application synchronization according to the sync options.

  6. In the Sync Settings area, set the sync options as needed.

    ParameterDescription

    Skip schema validation

    Skip kubectl validation. When executing kubectl apply, add the --validate=false flag.

    Auto create project

    Automatically create a project for application resources if the project does not exist.

    Prune last

    Clean up resources after all other resources have been deployed and are in a healthy state.

    Apply out of sync only

    Only sync resources in the out-of-sync state.

  7. In the Prune Propagation Policy area, select the dependency cleanup policy as needed.

    ParameterDescription

    foreground

    Delete dependent resources first, then delete the main resource.

    background

    Delete the main resource first, then delete the dependent resources.

    orphan

    Delete the main resource, leaving the dependent resource as an orphan.

  8. In the Replace Resource area, select whether existing resources need to be replaced.

    Note

    If checked, the kubectl replace/create command will be executed to sync resources. If unchecked, the kubectl apply command will be used to sync resources.

  9. Click Create. The created continuous deployment will be displayed in the list.

View the Created Continuous Deployment

  1. On the Continuous Deployments page, view the created continuous deployment information. The parameters are shown in the table below.

    ParameterDescription

    Name

    The name of the continuous deployment.

    Health Status

    The health status of the continuous deployment, which includes:

    • Healthy: The resources are healthy.

    • Degraded: The resources have been degraded.

    • Progressing: The resources are being synchronized. This state is returned by default.

    • Suspended: The resources have been paused and are waiting to be resumed.

    • Unknown: The health status of the resources is unknown.

    • Missing: The resources are missing.

    Sync Status

    The sync status of the continuous deployment, which includes:

    • Synced: The resource sync has been completed.

    • Out of Sync: The actual running status of the resources is inconsistent with the expected status.

    • Unknown: The sync status of the resources is unknown.

    Deployment Location

    The cluster and project where the resources are deployed.

    Update Time

    The time when the resources are updated.

  2. Click more on the right side of the continuous deployment, and you can perform the following operations:

    • Edit Information: Edit the alias and description of the continuous deployment.

    • Edit YAML: Edit the YAML file of the continuous deployment.

    • Sync: Trigger resource synchronization.

    • Delete: Delete the continuous deployment.

    Warning

    Deleting the continuous deployment will also delete the resources associated with it. Please proceed with caution.

  3. Click the created continuous deployment to enter the detail page and view the sync status and results.

Access the Created Application

  1. Enter the project to which the continuous deployment belongs, and in the left navigation pane, click Application Workloads > Services.

  2. On the Services page, find the deployed application and click more on the right side, then select Edit External Access.

  3. Select NodePort in the Access Mode, and click OK.

  4. On the service list page, view the exposed port in the External Access column, and access the application through {Node IP}:{NodePort}.

    Note

    Before accessing the service, please ensure that the port is open in the security group.

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