The Evolution of Configuration Management
Improper structures are the main reason behind safety incidents in Kubernetes -orchestrated or other container environments. Without the right configuration, applications can run into problems ranging from incompatibilities and conflicts to performance glitches, security vulnerabilities, and operational failures. Configuration management is an important part of maintaining the desired, stable state of computers in the software development life cycle.
Configuration Management Legacy
Back then, when it came to managing changes in IT resources, the IT team’s focus was primarily on the server level, to see if any changes in the hardware would cause problems in the remaining layer. Each server was configured manually with excellent care and leisure time. Virtual machines brought greater flexibility and efficiency to this process.
Infrastructure Code (IaC) is a large step for configuration management where the entire hardware is defined as a code. IaC tools such as cloud-based platforms, Chef, Puppet, and Ansible played a key role in simplifying and scaling infrastructure management. They helped speed up infrastructure provisioning and reduced costs by improving resource utilization.
Over the years, cloud-based platforms, and containers, in particular, have revolutionized the way infrastructure is provisioned. With the adoption of a major cloud and the transformation of Git into the current version control system, GitOps has emerged as the latest twist in the evolution of architecture management. GitOps goes far beyond IaC when it comes to coding everything. ‘Everything’ here includes infrastructure, networking, data, and applications.
Kubernetes and the declarative approach to infrastructure
Like programming, there are two approaches to providing infrastructure – notification and compulsory.
A compelling approach requires you to specify the appropriate steps to be taken to provide or modify the infrastructure. It provides the experience to use the infrastructure. It provides the experience to use the infrastructure. On the other hand, the notification approach is more apt for the modern cloud-native approach defined by Kubernetes. You only need to define the desired state of the system and leave its functionality to a site like Kubernetes. Kubernetes Infrastructure facilitates both automation and notification configuration.
The Shift From DevOps to GitOps
GitOps, conceived in 2017, is a modern functional framework for managing Kubernetes clusters and delivering Git-focused applications. It gets the best bits of DevOps such as CI / CD tool, a collaboration between Dev and Ops, automation of processes and uses them in the software delivery pipeline using Git as a source of authenticity.
DevOps ensured collaboration between development and operational teams and brought about cultural change in the field of information technology. But, less than expected, companies adopted the features of continuous integration and continuous distribution but did not move towards continuous deployment.
This is where GitOps takes things to the next level. With the GitOps approach, teams not only define but also manage the sorting and modification of their infrastructure from within a Git repository. Making changes to the infrastructure is as easy as creating a drag request now – you can catch typos, make regular reviews, or change the pledge if necessary. Using Git, developers can now generate code, and operating system engineers can use this code automatically in production.
Using Flux & Helm for GitOps-driven configuration management
Kubernetes allows you to integrate a variety of tools to automate the planning, sorting, and monitoring of containers. One such tool is Helm, which has become very popular in the GitOps ecosystem.
Helm is a powerful package manager for Kubernetes that facilitates the definition, installation, and deployment of the most repetitive applications and services used in a variety of situations. Helm Charts add great value to the continuous distribution environment by providing an organized packaging design for managing multiple YAML files with duplicate and hardcode values.
Configuration Management: IaC vs. GitOps
In short, Helm helps you keep things simple when you measure and manage complex outputs. But it must be linked to the essential Git repositories defined by the K8s cluster and application specifications. Flux makes it easy.
Flux is a collection of open-source GitOps agents that act as a bridge between Git repositories and Kubernetes clusters. Helm chart is a notification sorting automation tool that maintains code consistency by automating output when code changes are introduced. Flux syncs these changes from Git to Kubernetes clusters.
It does this with custom resources called HelmRelease, which triggers the helm operator, and syncs changes to the chart code. Not to mention, Flux comes with extensive drift detection functions as well as other interesting features.
For a long time, architecture management was about hardware and infrastructure, but since then we have come a long way. With the introduction of GitOps and the tools that make it easier, developers and platform engineers have plenty of choices to design the infrastructure they want – in an announcement way.
Weave GitOps utilizes Flux and Helm and empowers effective configuration management workflows from jit repositories in all ways Kubernetes produces clusters. One feature that distinguishes Weave GitOps is its ability to deliver reliable applications. Adds reliable utility delivery policy as code to GitOps, Security and compliance, application regression, and implementation of coding standards from source to production. It is a combination of secure GitOps pipelines and continuous security testing through coded policies that enable security best practices and high-security standards throughout the software development life cycle. GitOps is also the way to do configuration management for modern cloud-native systems and Weave GitOps makes this approach not only simple but also secure.
