gitops-lab

GitOps Playground (K8S, Terraform, Argo CD, Helm, Github Workflows etc.)

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Repository Structure

dir name
apps	Holds sample applications code
flux	holds argocd application manifests
helm-charts	holds various helm charts
host	holds applications run on my host machine
raw-manifests	holds various k8s resources
scripts	holds various scripts
terraform	holds terraform files

TODO: add more explanation here.

Local Clusters

TODO	local-management	local-staging	local-production	host
runs on	wsl 2 ubuntu	wsl 2 ubuntu	wsl 2 ubuntu	windows docker
Minikube	✅	✅	✅	-
Terraform	✅	✅	✅	-
Helm	✅	✅	✅	-
reverse-proxy	-	-	-	✅
grafana	-	-	-	✅
environments	-	stag-1, stag-2	prod-bluegreen, prod-canary	-
Cert Manager	✅	✅	✅	-
Istio	✅	✅	✅	-
MetalLB	✅	✅	✅	-
K8SDashboard	✅	✅	✅	-
ArgoCD	✅	-	-	-
Argo Rollouts	-	-	✅	-
Argo Workflows	-	✅	-	-
Flux	✅	-	-	-
ARC Runners	-	✅	✅	-
Harbor	-	✅	-	-
minIO	-	✅	-	-
Prometheus	-	✅	✅	-
Loki	-	✅	✅	-
Tempo	-	✅	✅	-
Vault(hashicorp)	-	🔲	🔲	-
Velero	-	🔲	🔲	-
NVidia Triton	-	✅	-	-
Sample Dotnet App	-	✅	✅	-
Sample Game App	-	✅	-	-
Sample AI App	-	✅	-	-
Ollama	-	✅	-	-
Sample LLM+MCP	-	🔲	-	-

Cloud Clusters

TODO	EKS	AKS	GKE	DOKS
CLI	✅ (aws)	✅ (az)	✅ (gcloud)	🔲 doctl
VPC	✅	✅	✅	🔲
Cluster	✅	✅	✅	🔲
Istio	🔲	🔲	🔲	🔲
K8SDashboard	🔲	🔲	🔲	🔲
ArgoCD	-	-	-	🔲
Multiplayer Game App	-	-	-	🔲
AI App	-	-	-	🔲

Helm Charts

TODO
Generic dotnet core webapi app	✅
Generic static website (nginx)	✅
Generic nodejs app	✅
Generic python/flask app	✅
GPU test app	✅
sample-game	✅
sample-ai	✅

Terraform Modules

TODO
arc-runners	✅
argocd	✅
argo-rollouts	✅
argo-workflows	✅
cert-manager	✅
flux	✅
istio	✅
metalLB	✅
postgresql	✅
redis	✅

Goals

Automate and Manage Infrastructure

• ✅ Install Argo CD (on local-cluster)
• ❌ Argo CD Image Updater (awaiting namespace support)
  • ✅ Install Flux for automated image updates (on local-cluster)
• ✅ Install Argo Rollouts (on local-cluster)
• ✅ Install Argo Workflows (on local-cluster)
• ✅ Create/Configure app of apps/root app for applications in Argo CD
• ✅ Create/Configure app of apps/root app for workflow templates in Argo CD
• ✅ Create/Configure app of apps/root app for wsl applications in Argo CD
• ✅ Create/Configure application set manifest for a sample app
• ✅ Create/Configure a generic .NET app Helm chart and use it for a service in the sample app
• ✅ Configure multi-staging environments usable by all apps
• ✅ Create/Configure Github Arc Runners

Build a Comprehensive CI/CD Pipeline

• ✅ Manage application deployments via Argo CD and Helm

• ✅ Automate database migrations with Argo hooks

• 🔲 Define and implement rollback mechanisms

• 🔲 Address and test conflicting database migration scenarios

• ❌ Configure Argo Workflows for orchestrating CI/CD pipeline (it seems arc runners will be enough)

• Use GitHub Workflows for CI tasks

  • ✅ Unit Tests (on github runners)
  • ✅ Integration Tests (on github runners)
  • ✅ Fitness Tests (on github runners)
  • ✅ BA Tests (on arc runners)

• ✅ Create a Staging CI/CD Pipeline

• 🔲 Create a Production CI/CD Pipeline

Enhanced Observability

• ✅ Monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana

Advanced Deployment Strategies

• ✅ Canary production deployment setup
• ✅ Blue/Green production deployment setup

Load Testing

• ✅ Perform load testing for performance validation

Gaming

• ✅ Install Colyseus Server on the Kubernetes cluster to manage and deploy multiplayer game servers.
• ✅ Deploy a Phaser 3 game that uses the Colyseus client to interact with the Colyseus server for proper testing and demonstration of multiplayer functionality.

AI/ML Support

• ✅ GPU support for AI/ML training and inference pipelines
• 🔲 Create a sample AI/ML application that demonstrates both training and inference pipelines using GPU support. (use/integrate https://github.com/xuebinqin/DIS )
  • ✅ inference
  • 🔲 Install and configure a local Docker image registry (Harbor) to manage and store large Docker images efficiently.
  • 🔲 training

Blockchain

• 🔲 Deploy a stateful Avalanche Node on the cloud using Kubernetes StatefulSets.
• 🔲 Deploy a stable Avalanche CLI environment on the cloud, accessible via SSH for managing Avalanche Subnets and network operations.

Demonstrations and Scenarios

ArgoCD Overview

ArgoCD App View

Database Migration Demo

Long Running DB Migration Job

Blue-Green Deployment

Canary Deployment

Arc Runners

Hello Argo Workflows

GPU Support

Monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana

Multiplayer (pVp) Game (Colysues + Phaser)

Sample AI/ML App (pytorch - on GPU)

Harbor

MinIO

Developer Workflow

Follow these steps to update your application and database with minimal effort.

Adding new migration

dotnet ef migrations add <MigrationName> --project ./mySampleApp1.weatherForecast.Infra --startup-project ./mySampleApp1.weatherForecast.API

Automated DB Migration Pipeline Flow

Note on Database Migrations in Kubernetes

Handling database migrations in Kubernetes was initially challenging due to the lack of built-in mechanisms to enforce dependency order between deployments. To address this, I now use Argo CD hooks to run migrations before application pods are updated, ensuring the database schema is always in sync with the application.

While the solution works effectively, some limitations remain. For example, migrations are triggered with every resource update in the application, which can be time-consuming due to the need to rebuild the solution for each run. Despite this, the process is idempotent, ensuring database integrity without causing conflicts.

A potential improvement would be for EF Core migration bundles to support targeting specific migrations without requiring a full build. This would streamline the process and reduce delays, making it a valuable feature for future updates.

More Info

• Intro
• Kubernetes notes
• Minikube notes
• Terraform notes
• Helm notes
• Argo CD notes
• Argo Rollouts notes
• Argo Workflows notes
• Github Actions notes
• Flux notes
• Local env setup notes
• AKS setup notes
• EKS setup notes
• GKE setup notes
• DOKS setup notes
• Monitoring notes
• Infra testing notes
• DAPR notes
• DDD + EF Core Code First notes
• BDD notes
• AI/ML Workloads notes
• Blockchain notes
• Colyseus notes