# Kubernetes in production —
an end-to-end example
- Previous training modules focused on individual topics
(e.g. RBAC, network policies, CRDs, Helm...)
- We will now show how to put everything together to deploy apps in production
(dealing with typical challenges like: multiple apps, multiple teams, multiple clusters...)
- Our first challenge will be to pick and choose which components to use
(among the vast [Cloud Native Landscape](https://landscape.cncf.io/))
- We'll start with a basic Kubernetes cluster (on cloud or on premises)
- We'll and enhance it by adding features one at a time
---
## The cast
There are 3 teams in our company:
- **_⚙️OPS_** is the platform engineering team
- they're responsible for building and configuring Kubernetes clusters
- the **_🎸ROCKY_** team develops and manages the **_🎸ROCKY_** app
- that app manages a collection of _rock & pop_ albums
- it's deployed with plain YAML manifests
- the **_🎬MOVY_** team develops and manages the **_🎬MOVY_** app
- that app manages a collection of _movie soundtrack_ albums
- it's deployed with Helm charts
---
## Code and team organization
- **_🎸ROCKY_** and **_🎬MOVY_** reside in separate git repositories
- Each team can write code, build package, and deploy their applications:
- independently
(= without having to worry about what's happening in the other repo)
- autonomously
(= without having to synchronize or obtain privileges from another team)
---
## Cluster organization
The **_⚙️OPS_** team manages 2 Kubernetes clusters:
- **_☁️CLOUDY_**: managed cluster from a public cloud provider
- **_🤘METAL_**: custom-built cluster installed on bare Linux servers
Let's see the differences between these clusters.
---
## **_☁️CLOUDY_** cluster
- Managed cluster from a public cloud provider ("Kubernetes-as-a-Service")
- HA control plane deployed and managed by the cloud provider
- Two worker nodes (potentially with cluster autoscaling)
- Usually comes pre-installed with some basic features
(e.g. metrics-server, CNI, CSI, sometimes an ingress controller)
- Requires extra components to be production-ready
(e.g. Flux or other gitops pipeline, observability...)
- Example: [Scaleway Kapsule][kapsule] (but many other KaaS options are available)
[kapsule]: https://www.scaleway.com/en/kubernetes-kapsule/
---
## **_🤘METAL_** cluster
- Custom-built cluster installed on bare Linux servers
- HA control plane deployed and managed by the **_⚙️OPS_** team
- 3 nodes
- in our example, the nodes will run both the control plane and our apps
- it is more typical to use dedicated control plane nodes
(example: 3 control plane nodes + at least 3 worker nodes)
- Comes with even less pre-installed components than **_☁️CLOUDY_**
(requiring more work from our **_⚙️OPS_** team)
- Example: we'll use [k0s] (but many other distros are available)
[k0s]: https://k0sproject.io/
---
## **_⚗️TEST_** and **_🏭PROD_**
- The **_⚙️OPS_** team creates 2 environments for each dev team
(**_⚗️TEST_** and **_🏭PROD_**)
- These environments exist on both clusters
(meaning 2 apps × 2 clusters × 2 envs = 8 envs total)
- The setup for each env and cluster should follow DRY principles
(to ensure configurations are consistent and minimize maintenance)
- Each cluster and each env has its own lifecycle
(= it should be possible to deploy, add an extra components/feature...
on one env without impacting the other)
---
### Multi-tenancy
Both **_🎸ROCKY_** and **_🎬MOVY_** teams should use **dedicated _"tenants"_** on each cluster/env
- the **_🎸ROCKY_** team should be able to deploy, upgrade and configure its app within its dedicated **namespace** without anybody else involved
- and the same for **_🎬MOVY_**
- neither team's deployments might interfere with the other, maintaining a clean and conflict-free environment
---
## Application overview
- Both dev teams are working on an app to manage music albums
- This app is mostly based on a `Spring` framework demo called spring-music
- This lab uses a dedicated fork [container.training-spring-music](https://github.com/Musk8teers/container.training-spring-music):
- with 2 branches dedicated to the **_🎸ROCKY_** and **_🎬MOVY_** teams
- The app architecture consists of 2 tiers:
- a `Java/Spring` Web app
- a `PostgreSQL` database
---
### 📂 specific file: application.yaml
This is where we configure the application to connect to the `PostgreSQL` database.
.lab[
🔍 Location: [/src/main/resources/application.yml](https://github.com/Musk8teers/container.training-spring-music/blob/main/src/main/resources/application.yml)
]
`PROFILE=postgres` env var is set in [docker-compose.yaml](https://github.com/Musk8teers/container.training-spring-music/blob/main/docker-compose.yml) file, for example…
---
### 📂 specific file: AlbumRepositoryPopulator.java
This is where the album collection is initially loaded from the file [`album.json`](https://github.com/Musk8teers/container.training-spring-music/blob/main/src/main/resources/albums.json)
.lab[
🔍 Location: [`/src/main/java/org/cloudfoundry/samples/music/repositories/AlbumRepositoryPopulator.java`](https://github.com/Musk8teers/container.training-spring-music/blob/main/src/main/java/org/cloudfoundry/samples/music/repositories/AlbumRepositoryPopulator.java)
]
---
## 🚚 How to deploy?
The **_⚙️OPS_** team offers 2 deployment strategies that dev teams can use autonomously:
- **_🎸ROCKY_** uses a `Flux` _GitOps_ workflow based on regular Kubernetes `YAML` resources
- **_🎬MOVY_** uses a `Flux` _GitOps_ workflow based on `Helm` charts
---
## 🍱 What features?
The **_⚙️OPS_** team aims to provide clusters offering the following features to its users:
- a network stack with efficient workload isolation
- ingress and load-balancing capabilites
- an enterprise-grade monitoring solution for real-time insights
- automated policy rule enforcement to control Kubernetes resources requested by dev teams
---
## 🌰 In a nutshell
- 3 teams: **_⚙️OPS_**, **_🎸ROCKY_**, **_🎬MOVY_**
- 2 clusters: **_☁️CLOUDY_**, **_🤘METAL_**
- 2 envs per cluster and per dev team: **_⚗️TEST_**, **_🏭PROD_**
- 2 Web apps Java/Spring + PostgreSQL: one for pop and rock albums, another for movie soundtrack albums
- 2 deployment strategies: regular `YAML` resources + `Kustomize`, `Helm` charts
> 💻 `Flux` is used both
> - to operate the clusters
> - and to manage the _GitOps_ deployment workflows
---
### What our scenario might look like…
%%{init:
{
"theme": "default",
"gitGraph": {
"mainBranchName": "OPS",
"mainBranchOrder": 0
}
}
}%%
gitGraph
commit id:"0" tag:"start"
branch ROCKY order:4
branch MOVY order:5
branch YouRHere order:6
checkout YouRHere
commit id:'x'
checkout OPS
merge YouRHere id:'YOU ARE HERE'
checkout OPS
commit id:'Flux install on CLOUDY cluster' tag:'T01'
branch TEST-env order:1
commit id:'FLUX install on TEST' tag:'T02' type: HIGHLIGHT
checkout OPS
commit id:'Flux config. for TEST tenant' tag:'T03'
commit id:'namespace isolation by RBAC'
checkout TEST-env
merge OPS id:'ROCKY tenant creation' tag:'T04'
checkout OPS
commit id:'ROCKY deploy. config.' tag:'R01'
checkout TEST-env
merge OPS id:'TEST ready to deploy ROCKY' type: HIGHLIGHT tag:'R02'
checkout ROCKY
commit id:'ROCKY' tag:'v1.0.0'
checkout TEST-env
merge ROCKY tag:'ROCKY v1.0.0'
checkout OPS
commit id:'Ingress-controller config.' tag:'T05'
checkout TEST-env
merge OPS id:'Ingress-controller install' type: HIGHLIGHT tag:'T06'
checkout OPS
commit id:'ROCKY patch for ingress config.' tag:'R03'
checkout TEST-env
merge OPS id:'ingress config. for ROCKY app'
checkout ROCKY
commit id:'blue color' tag:'v1.0.1'
checkout TEST-env
merge ROCKY tag:'ROCKY v1.0.1'
checkout ROCKY
commit id:'pink color' tag:'v1.0.2'
checkout TEST-env
merge ROCKY tag:'ROCKY v1.0.2'
checkout OPS
commit id:'FLUX config for MOVY deployment' tag:'M01'
checkout TEST-env
merge OPS id:'FLUX ready to deploy MOVY' type: HIGHLIGHT tag:'M02'
checkout MOVY
commit id:'MOVY' tag:'v1.0.3'
checkout TEST-env
merge MOVY tag:'MOVY v1.0.3' type: REVERSE
checkout OPS
commit id:'Network policies'
checkout TEST-env
merge OPS type: HIGHLIGHT tag:'T07'
checkout OPS
commit id:'k0s install on METAL cluster' tag:'K01'
commit id:'Flux config. for METAL cluster' tag:'K02'
branch METAL_TEST-PROD order:3
commit id:'ROCKY/MOVY tenants on METAL' type: HIGHLIGHT
checkout OPS
commit id:'Flux config. for OpenEBS' tag:'K03'
checkout METAL_TEST-PROD
merge OPS id:'openEBS on METAL' type: HIGHLIGHT
checkout OPS
commit id:'Prometheus install'
checkout TEST-env
merge OPS type: HIGHLIGHT
checkout OPS
commit id:'Kyverno install'
commit id:'Kyverno rules'
checkout TEST-env
merge OPS type: HIGHLIGHT
checkout OPS
commit id:'Flux config. for PROD tenant' tag:'P01'
branch PROD-env order:2
commit id:'ROCKY tenant on PROD'
checkout OPS
commit id:'ROCKY patch for PROD' tag:'R04'
checkout PROD-env
merge OPS id:'PROD ready to deploy ROCKY' type: HIGHLIGHT
checkout PROD-env
merge ROCKY tag:'ROCKY v1.0.2'
checkout MOVY
commit id:'MOVY HELM chart' tag:'M03'
checkout TEST-env
merge MOVY tag:'MOVY v1.0'