??Everything about the Epistemology of GitOps ??????????

1. Need for a New Operational Model ??:

As consumer demand for always-on apps available on any device grows, so does the complexity and sophistication of software development and delivery. Traditional, monolithic programmers are being deconstructed into cloud services produced and managed by a dispersed workforce working from all over the world. Operations teams require a new paradigm to support the increased frequency of deployment across various services and geographies, all while lowering risk, boosting uptime, and remaining safe. GitOps is an operational framework that combines DevOps best practices from application development to infrastructure automation, such as version control, collaboration, compliance, and CI/CD.?

While GitOps methods may be applied to any software environment, Kubernetes is especially well-suited owing to its use of declarative infrastructure specs stored alongside application code in a Git repository. By storing your system definition in Git, your engineers will be able to manage both application and infrastructure changes using standard Git-based tooling and processes. You have the ability to automate changes for reduced risk, reproduce past states, evaluate a full audit trail, manage compliance, and more by keeping the complete state of your cluster under source control.?

2. What is GitOps??

GitOps is an operational framework that combines DevOps best practices from application development to infrastructure automation, such as version control, collaboration, compliance, and CI/CD. Furthermore, GitOps is a method of managing infrastructure as code (IaC), which is gaining popularity. Infrastructure as code is nothing new, and there are several popular technologies available, including Terraform, Pulumi, Ansible, and many others. IaC signifies that your infrastructure's configuration is stored in a file, most commonly a YAML file. The advantage is that you may use this file as frequently as you like. This allows for quick and reproducible deployments. GitOps is a subset of Infrastructure as Code. The core notion is that your code, configuration, and the resources it uses should all be defined and saved in a version-controlled source control repository. Your CI/CD solution will respond and take the appropriate action whenever you push a change to the repository.

Rollbacks can also be started simply by reverting to a prior version in your repository. Of course, the repository does not have to be Git, but GitOps sounds a lot better than Source Control Ops, and most people use Git anyway. With the advent of Kubernetes and cloud environments, we are seeing an increasing number of issues as code, such as network as code, configuration as code, and security as code. This enables developers to have everything written in code. All of these configuration files are also more complicated. This is where GitOps enters the picture. GitOps typically use a separate Git repository containing all of your configuration files. This already provides developers with a single source of truth, as well as the ability to construct pipelines that publish these configuration files. As a result, you should always be aware of which version of your setup is in use in a given scenario. Furthermore, because the modifications are distributed via a pipeline, the developers no longer require access to the infrastructure, resulting in better security.?

3. Deployment Modes:?

GitOps knows two different deployment modes:?

1. pull-based deployments?
2. push-based deployments?

The push-based deployment option, as the name implies, pushes your modifications into the defined environment. Most developers use this method by default since that is exactly what a CD pipeline does.? A pull-based deployment, on the other hand, involves an agent or operator operating in your environment. This agent checks a configured Git repository and branch for changes and, if any, pulls and executes them. The benefit of this method is that your environment may restrict all incoming traffic while just allowing outgoing traffic on port 443. Azure Arc employs a pull-based strategy, which I will discuss in further detail in a subsequent piece in this series.?

4. Implementation:?

Implementing GitOps principles will advance your software delivery processes. When handled using GitOps best practices, declarative, immutable, and continually reconciled infrastructure provides several benefits. I've helped many development teams build and improve their GitOps workflows over the years. In this blog, I'll discuss four techniques for organizing code in pipelines.?

The "Ops" portion of "GitOps" stands for configuration code, often known as Infrastructure as Code (IaC). To function, software relies on the resources maintained by this code. Managing this setting in Git repositories has several advantages. The structure of this code is frequently an afterthought, resulting in extensive rewriting in the future.?

5. Practical aspect:?

GitOps does not consist of a single product, plugin, or platform. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this topic, since the ideal manner for teams to implement GitOps will differ depending on the team's individual needs and goals. Using a separate GitOps repository for all team members to exchange settings and code, automating the deployment of code changes, and setting up alerts to notify the team when changes occur are some ideas on how to get started with GitOps.?

6. Core Components of GitOps:?

DevOps **GitOps** = IaC + MRs + CI/CD?

1. IaC: A Git repository serves as the single source of truth for infrastructure specifications in GitOps. A Git repository is a.git folder in a project that maintains all changes made to files in a project over time. Git is an open source version control system that monitors code management changes. The concept of storing all infrastructure settings as code is known as infrastructure as code (IaC). The actual desired state may or may not be coded (e.g., number of replicas or pods).?

2. MRs:? For all infrastructure modifications, GitOps use merge requests (MRs) as the change mechanism. The MR is where teams may communicate through reviews and comments, as well as where official approvals are given. A merge commits to your main (or trunk) branch while also acting as an audit log.?

3. CI/CD: GitOps uses a Git workflow with continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CI/CD) to automate infrastructure improvements. When new code is integrated, the CI/CD pipeline updates the environment. GitOps automation overwrites any configuration drift, such as human modifications or mistakes, so that the environment converges on the desired state stated in Git. GitLab manages and implements GitOps automation via CI/CD pipelines, although other types of automation, such as defines operators, can also be utilized.?

7. Key components of a GitOps workflow:?

A GitOps process consists of four major components: a Git repository, a continuous delivery (CD) pipeline, an application deployment mechanism, and a monitoring system. The value of GitOps lies in the fact that the same procedures that are used to add features to a service or application can also be used to set up and provide the environments in which the software operates. Many of the benefits of GitOps are driven by this uniform understanding of workflows and tooling throughout the enterprise.?

• The Git repository is the authoritative source of application settings and code. The CD pipeline is in charge of developing, testing, and delivering the application. The application resources in the target environment are managed by the deployment tool. The monitoring system tracks the performance of the application and offers input to the development team.?
• For the new functionality, a ticket is created in the product issue tracker.?
• To supply the infrastructure required to enable the new functionality, a matching ticket is created in the platform operations issue tracker.?
• In each repository, a branch is generated to work on the feature and infrastructure improvements.?
• Each branch's code is committed.?
• For each branch, a pull request is produced in order to do code review and testing.?
• The pipeline for CI/CD pull requests conducts automated tests and checks against the branch. To help cooperation and troubleshooting, sophisticated tooling will display the findings within the PR.?
• The public relations department acts as the focal point for peer and stakeholder involvement. Reviewers provide feedback on both the overall strategy and particular lines of code.?
• The code is refined until it fulfils the guidelines for merging. This usually signifies that all automatic checks have passed, all comments have been addressed, and any necessary approvals have been added.?
• The Git merge with the main branch initiates the CI/CD deployment pipeline, which allows for the execution of an extra set of automated tests.?
• The infrastructure pipeline sets up and configures the environment, whereas the product pipeline runs the application code.?

8. GitOps Working:?

GitOps ideas may be applied to various forms of infrastructure automation, including VMs and containers, and can be extremely beneficial for teams managing Kubernetes-based infrastructure. While many tools and approaches promise quicker deployment and seamless administration of code and infrastructure, GitOps stands out by emphasizing the developer experience. Infrastructure management in GitOps occurs in the same version control system as application development, allowing teams to interact more centrally while taking advantage of Git's built-in features.?

9. GitOps delivery output :?

• A conventional application development workflow?
• Enhanced security for defining application requirements in advance?
• Improved dependability using Git's visibility and version control?
• Consistency in any cluster, cloud, or on-premise environment?

10. Difference between GitOps and DevOps??

There are some fundamental distinctions between GitOps and DevOps. For example, GitOps depends largely on automation and technology to manage and release code changes, whereas DevOps emphasizes team communication and cooperation.

Furthermore, GitOps is commonly used in combination with containerization technologies such as Kubernetes, whereas DevOps may be applied to any type of application. GitOps is a subset of DevOps that focuses on managing infrastructure and application code deployments using git repositories. The primary distinction between the two is that the git repository is the source of truth for the deployment state in GitOps, whereas the application or server configuration files are in DevOps.?

11. Benefits of GitOps:?

GitOps has several advantages, including increased efficiency and security, lower costs, and quicker deployments. Organizations may use GitOps to manage their whole infrastructure and application development lifecycle with a single, unified tool. This enables for more team communication and coordination, resulting in fewer mistakes and faster issue resolution. Furthermore, GitOps enables enterprises to use the most recent DevOps methods and tools, such as containerization and microservices.?

1. Tighter Collaboration: Using pull requests as a focal point of communication allows teams around the business to collaborate in a quick, automated, and asynchronous manner. Because best practices are recorded as code, they may be readily shared and consumed across the enterprise.?
2. ?Increased Deployment Frequency: With automated application deployment and environment provisioning, you may do many small, regular deployments rather than huge, risky deployments on occasion. Smaller modifications are easier to reason about and roll back when troubleshooting. Furthermore, releasing improvements to your consumers sooner results in happier users, more useful feedback, and, ultimately, better products.?
3. ?Reduced Mean Time to Recovery: The ability to roll back to the last known good configuration when issues arise is a key advantage of the maintaining environment state in version control. This can significantly shorten your mean time to recovery (MTTR) since you can address issues fast during an event by rolling back, and then troubleshoot once your system is working regularly.?
4. ?Improved Post-Incident Response: The purpose of a battle is simply to get everything working and within acceptable bounds. There isn't usually enough time to document enough specifics about what went wrong to correct it. A GitOps system described as code, on the other hand, may be duplicated at any version. The faulty production version can be replicated after an incident in a test environment to do forensics and root cause analysis.?
5. ?Greater Reliability and Uptime: Infrastructure that is manually setup might be fragile and unstable. Human error is considerably reduced with GitOps automation, allowing your infrastructure uptime to remain consistent and allowing your IT Ops staff to sleep at night.?
6. ?Simplified Compliance and Auditing: Too frequently, firms must choose between moving quickly and being compliant. Compliance and approvals may be automated, distributed, and carried out asynchronously with GitOps, allowing the pace of innovation to remain constant. Auditing using manual instruments is excruciatingly uncomfortable. Pulling data from numerous sources and attempting to standardise it takes a long time. Having all operations in Git provides a one-stop shop for audit records of every change, making auditing simple.?
7. ?Enhanced Security: Using Git's sophisticated permission architecture, you can easily give, cancel, and monitor rights for each environment. Aside from read/write access, the Git merge request procedure adds the option to provide proposal access. Many users can be given the capacity to suggest modifications while keeping the pool of persons who can actually implement such changes small.?

12. GitOps deployment process has many advantages:?

1. IaC files have been checked into your version control system.?
2. Run automated tests on the configuration files, such as checking the YAML files for validity.?
3. Enforce pull requests for modifications to improve the quality of your configuration files while also sharing information.?
4. For your deployment, use CD pipelines. As a result, you will know what version of the configuration is installed in your environment, and quick rollbacks will be possible in the event of a problem.?
5. Your only source of truth is the Git repository.?
6. Because just the CD pipeline needs access to your surroundings, you will have more security.?

13. Disadvantages of GitOps:

1. There are certain drawbacks to consider, like with every tool or feature:?
2. You will be responsible for additional Git repositories.?

1. When employing the pull strategy, the code may be less flexible. For example, instead of altering variables during the deployment like in a CD pipeline, you will require configuration files for each environment.?
2. There is no solution for secret management, and you will have to rely on an external tool for your secrets and passwords, such as Azure Key Vault.?

14. GitOps Tools and Technologies:

There is a wide variety of tools available if you want to use the push deployment model for your configuration:?

• Terraform?
• Pulumi?
• Ansible?
• Chef?
• Azure CLI?

Since the pull model is a newer way of deploying your configurations (and applications), there are fewer tools available currently. The most used ones are:?

• Flux (Flux is used in Azure Arc and will be used to deploy applications in a later post)?
• ArgoCD?

15. OpenShift GitOps:??

GitOps is a continuous delivery (CD) solution that uses Git as the single source of truth for all settings, including infrastructure, platform, and application configurations. Argo CD is the declarative GitOps engine that supports GitOps processes over multicluster OpenShift and Kubernetes infrastructure in OpenShift GitOps. Version 1.6 of OpenShift GitOps is now generally available. This version includes Argo CD 2.4 and is our first multi-arch release, including compatibility for IBM Power and Z. OpenShift GitOps v1.6 is now available via OperatorHub in the OpenShift Container Platform. OpenShift GitOps may be deployed and used using the web portal or the command line interface.?

?16. Conclusion ?:?

GitOps extends the DevOps concept to your configuration files. This allows developers to save all configuration information in code files such as YAML files, which increases security because developers no longer need to access the infrastructure directly. GitOps is an operational methodology for infrastructure automation that utilizes DevOps best practices from application development. The environment specification is saved in a Git repository as the single source of truth using Infrastructure-as-Code. The pull request workflow is used for collaboration and compliance, whereas CI/CD automation not only distributes the application code but also configures and provisions the underlying infrastructures in which it functions. Adopting GitOps best practices means that developers and operations engineers may manage software upgrades using familiar Git tools. Automation, in conjunction with asynchronous collaboration at scale, accelerates the pace of invention, reducing lead times and increasing deployment frequency. This improved ability enables organizations to develop and retain a competitive edge by responding to consumer and market needs. GitOps improves communication across development, operations, security, and other business stakeholders, whether teams are in the same office or scattered around the world.?

Cite this Work as ????: Dipesh Singla, Research Scholar, ACM & IEEE Member, “Everything about the Epistemology of GitOps”, Published On 10/08/2022, [email protected], Medium: https://medium.com/@dipeshsingla668, LinkedIn: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/dipesh-singla/, ORCID: https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0002-3762-1228.

Kind Regards and Thanks???? ????,

Dipesh Singla ??

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Dated: 10/08/22 ??