May 2021 Summaries

Argo Rollouts, a Kubernetes controller from the Argo project, has launched its 1.0 version, introducing advanced deployment methods such as blue/green and canary deployments, along with a dedicated graphical user interface (GUI) that complements the existing command-line interface for monitoring rollouts. This version simplifies the integration process by allowing users to keep Rollout-specific information in a custom CRD while maintaining compatibility with existing Kubernetes Deployment objects, enabling the use of various Kubernetes tools. Additionally, the release includes an official container image with the CLI for seamless integration with container-based pipelines, and it introduces Ambassador Edge Stack as a new traffic routing option for canary releases, demonstrating Argo Rollouts' capability to manage traffic without a full service mesh. These updates aim to enhance the user experience and facilitate more efficient deployment strategies within Kubernetes environments.

In a blog post, the author discusses their journey from identifying a product gap at their previous company, Electric Cloud, to developing a plugin that gained popularity among customers and colleagues. This experience led them to join Codefresh, where they quickly began solving customer issues by creating a new plugin to streamline the management of CI/CD pipelines. Initially starting with a simple freestyle step using tools like the Codefresh CLI and yq for YAML processing, they later transformed this into a more robust typed step, making it easier for users to integrate into their workflows. The author highlights the ease of developing and sharing plugins through Codefresh's marketplace and expresses intentions to further refine their work by exploring different programming languages and step templating. They emphasize the simplicity of the process and encourage others to engage with the platform, drawing on their positive experience and future plans to create more sophisticated tools like an AWS CDK wrapper.

Komodor is a unique Kubernetes troubleshooting tool designed specifically for developers, providing a smart dashboard that integrates with various tools to offer a comprehensive view of cluster changes and events. Unlike traditional metric solutions aimed at operators, Komodor focuses on developer-relevant insights, capturing all types of changes in a Kubernetes cluster, including deployments, feature flags, and ad-hoc commands, through an event timeline. By offering real-time updates via a hybrid cloud-managed web UI, Komodor enables users to install an agent in their cluster for secure, outgoing-only communication. It supports multiple Kubernetes components and integrates with external providers to present a unified event timeline, helping identify issues across related services. Komodor also offers annotation capabilities for enhanced context, linking infrastructure changes with code changes and providing a cohesive view of service dependencies, ultimately reducing incident response times by facilitating better collaboration between developers and operators.

In August 2020, Amazon introduced Bottlerocket OS, an open source Linux distribution tailored for container workloads, featuring built-in security enhancements and support for transactional updates to facilitate automated OS maintenance. Codefresh, a platform designed for container and Kubernetes deployments, now supports Bottlerocket on Amazon's EKS, enabling rapid and scalable software deployment. Codefresh's pipeline-centric architecture simplifies software lifecycle management by using container-based steps, eliminating the need for manual build node maintenance. With Bottlerocket, users can create an EKS cluster that benefits from enhanced security and reduced operational costs, and the Codefresh Runner can be installed to transform Kubernetes clusters into efficient runtime environments. This setup allows for the seamless execution of pipelines with potential for automatic scaling, and users can opt to mix clusters running on Amazon Linux 2 and Bottlerocket, facilitating a gradual transition to the new OS. The integration aims to streamline cluster management and enhance security, while maintaining compatibility with existing infrastructure.

Argo CD has gained significant popularity as a top CI/CD tool, particularly through its use of GitOps, which facilitates faster, safer, and more scalable continuous delivery. GitOps utilizes git, infrastructure as code, and a closed reconciliation loop to enhance productivity by removing guesswork from deployments. To simplify the adoption of Argo CD and GitOps, Codefresh engineers developed Argo CD Autopilot, a command-line tool designed to streamline the setup of Argo CD on Kubernetes clusters, manage applications across environments, and simplify disaster recovery. Users can create and promote changes across environments easily, manage rollouts across regions, and leverage a straightforward, GitOps-powered approach. The tool supports bootstrapping Argo CD installations, linking them to git repositories, and managing Kubernetes applications with a focus on accessibility, similar to how Henry Ford made cars accessible. The project is actively developed, with encouragement for user contributions and feedback, aiming to shift focus from tool-building to efficient code releases.

Secret management is crucial in application deployment, and Codefresh has enhanced its capabilities by introducing native integration with Hashicorp Vault, complementing its existing support for Kubernetes and custom secrets. This new integration allows for a more secure and intuitive process, offering various authentication methods beyond the traditional token and app/role options. Users can easily configure their Vault instance, whether on the public cloud or behind a firewall, and access secrets within pipelines or the Codefresh UI using a unified approach. This advancement enables mixing and matching secrets from multiple sources seamlessly, with comprehensive details available in the Vault documentation.