Designing a Deployment Pipeline using GitOps Principles

Introduction

• Focus on designing a deployment pipeline using GitOps principles.
• Follow-up to a previous video on designing a CI/CD pipeline.

Overview of CI/CD Pipeline

• Simple CI/CD pipeline:
  • Processes application code through source, build, test, and release stages.
  • Outputs a container image stored in a registry.
• Application versioning: Example given as version 1.0.

Need for Continuous Deployment Pipeline

• Purpose: To deploy application images to different environments.

Setting up GitOps Pipeline

1. Configuration Repository

   • Create a second repository for configurations (e.g., Docker compose files, Kubernetes manifests).
   • Example: Kubernetes deployment using image from CI/CD pipeline.

2. Environments for Deployment

   • Set up test/QA environment.
   • Deployment models: Push model (e.g., kubectl apply) and Pull model (using operators).

Pipeline Triggering

• Deployment pipeline triggered automatically by the CI/CD pipeline.
• Application version updates (e.g., v1.0 to v1.1) reflected in configuration repository.

Observability Tools

• Importance of monitoring applications:
  • Use tools like Prometheus for metrics and Grafana for visualization.

Promoting Deployments

• Transition from test/QA to staging and production environments.
• Staging as a simulation of production.
• Deployment triggers can be automatic or manual.

Pull Model and Operators

• Operators like Argo CD pull configurations and synchronize with clusters.
• Automatic and manual synchronization options explained.
• Reference to Argo CD setup video.

Canary Deployments

• Load balancer role in traffic management.
• Gradual traffic shift from old to new application versions.
• Use of Argo Rollouts for managing rollouts in Kubernetes:
  • Rollout object manages pod deployment for version updates.

Conclusion

• Acknowledgement of the complexity of deployment pipelines compared to CI/CD pipelines.
• Encouragement to ask questions and explore linked videos on Argo CD and rollouts.