February 2020 Summaries

Ravi Lachhman shares his experience comparing the deployment capabilities of Spinnaker and Harness, specifically in deploying an Nginx image into an Amazon EKS cluster. He documents his attempt to install Spinnaker using various resources, including Armory's documentation, but encounters challenges that prevent him from completing the deployment within a reasonable timeframe. Lachhman notes the complexity of setting up Spinnaker, especially in getting the system account to work, which ultimately led him to abandon the effort. In contrast, he successfully deploys the Nginx image using Harness within just five minutes, demonstrating the efficiency and ease of use of Harness in continuous delivery tasks. Lachhman concludes by encouraging others to try Harness's community edition for a similar streamlined deployment experience.

Deploying applications to Kubernetes involves understanding essential steps such as containerization, managing container images, and using Kubernetes pods and services for orchestration and performance optimization. Containers package applications with their dependencies and runtime environments, offering portability across different infrastructures, unlike virtual machines. Container images serve as templates stored in repositories like Docker Hub, and tools like Docker and Buildah assist in building lightweight containers. Kubernetes orchestrates these containers by grouping them into pods, the smallest deployable unit, which can contain single or multiple containers. Pods are managed on nodes and can be addressed using Kubernetes services, with various deployment patterns like sidecar and DaemonSet optimizing resource use. Performance is ensured through health checks for container readiness and liveness, and it is crucial to allocate sufficient CPU and memory resources to prevent performance slowdowns. Looking ahead, the evolution of technology will see user-friendly platforms built on Kubernetes, facilitating rapid code development and deployment.

Harness, a company experiencing significant growth with a 400% increase in annual recurring revenue in FY '20, has expanded its services in the Asia Pacific region and introduced new features to enhance user experience and automation capabilities. Key developments include a new Serverless Dashboard for AWS Lambda that provides detailed metrics on serverless deployments, improved visibility for Git Sync errors, and updates to the API that allow for automated record creation and access to audit trail events for compliance purposes. Additionally, the company has improved workflow configuration with a new wizard, introduced support for Openshift 4+ and Helm 3, and is offering certification courses through HarnessU. Harness is actively engaging with its community through upcoming events and webinars while encouraging users to share unique tips for using their platform.

The blog post emphasizes the concept of the "Unleashed Developer," who excels in software delivery by transcending traditional CI/CD limitations, fostering innovation, and improving code quality. It highlights the growing opportunities in the rapidly evolving technology industry, as exemplified by the projected 21% growth rate for software developer jobs over the next decade, compared to the average growth rate for all occupations. The post offers practical tips for improving software coding, such as understanding the source code, enhancing code readability, managing code complexity, and effectively navigating dependencies. It underscores the importance of loving one's craft to naturally improve and differentiate oneself in the field. Additionally, it touches on the role of DevOps in aligning people, processes, and technology to address the challenges of software delivery in enterprises, aiming to support modern software development through ongoing learning content.

Implementing a Continuous Delivery solution like Harness can greatly facilitate IT audits by serving as a programmatic system of record for releases and deployments, thus reducing due-diligence periods and enabling quicker remediation of findings. IT audits, which can vary from capability assessments to compliance-based reviews, are essential for ensuring effective control measures and fulfilling regulatory mandates, such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and FISMA. Whether driven by regulatory requirements or business decisions, audits require organizations to provide proof of compliance through compensating controls, which can be a time-consuming process. Harness aids in this by creating an audit trail that simplifies the documentation and verification of deployment processes. The platform's API Explorer allows users to programmatically access and generate audit trails, streamlining the preparation and execution of audits. By leveraging such tools, organizations can maintain compliance with less stress and more efficiency, potentially transforming the traditionally daunting audit experience into a more manageable task.

Ravi Lachhman discusses the importance of logging in software engineering, emphasizing that as systems grow more distributed and complex, effective log management becomes crucial for monitoring system health and performance. Logs, which capture event outputs from systems, require careful engineering consideration, including decisions on verbosity and logging architecture. The article highlights the challenges of logging, such as the sheer volume of logs generated and the impact on system resources, and introduces Fluentd as a solution for achieving a consistent logging format. By integrating Fluentd with Harness ECS Delegate and leveraging AWS Firelens, log routing and aggregation are optimized, enhancing the ability to monitor and respond to system events. The piece underscores the value of using tools like Harness to transform logs into actionable insights and improve the confidence in system deployments.

Feature flags, while useful, are not ideal for managing API versioning, particularly when dealing with significant upgrades like moving from version 1 to version 2. In such scenarios, maintaining both versions becomes necessary, and using feature flags to control different versions can lead to complicated, unmaintainable code. Instead, creating a separate microservice for the new version allows for cleaner code management and avoids dependencies on the older version, though this approach requires discipline in maintaining microservices. The Split Feature Data Platform provides a solution by allowing developers to manage feature flags effectively, enabling faster and safer deployments without compromising existing functionality, and supports feature experiments like A/B testing to optimize development processes.

Harness simplifies the deployment of Helm V3, a package manager for Kubernetes, by removing the need for Tiller, thus easing integration with Kubernetes clusters like Amazon EKS. The platform enhances operational efficiency and reduces complexity, enabling users to streamline their deployment processes. Users can set up their first Helm V3 deployment by installing a Harness Delegate and creating necessary configurations, such as applications, services, and workflows, within the Harness platform. The guide explains how to integrate the Helm Repository and set up a Kubernetes environment for deployment, detailing the use of Helm charts and environments to manage deployments effectively. Harness also supports continuous integration by allowing the creation of workflows and pipelines, ultimately facilitating a seamless deployment experience with Helm V3 in Kubernetes environments. Through ongoing platform integration and community interaction, Harness ensures that the adoption and use of technologies remain straightforward, encouraging user engagement and innovation.