When getting started with Kubernetes and Helm, the process across the release life cycle can feel like a black-box; having to follow debugging processes to understand what is going on behind the scenes. Helm hooks can help with that. This post provides an overview of: If you are new to Helm, we suggest to check-out our previous tutorial first and then come back to learn more about Helm hooks. Hooks perform a single action at a specified point during the release life cycle.

Are you a ninja? It’s a silly question. I know that you are most likely not a real ninja. But you might be considering yourself a ninja of software engineering. “What does Viktor mean by that?” I’m glad you asked. Ninjas appear, perform the mission, and disappear without leaving a trace behind. “Why is Viktor talking nonsense? What does that have to do with software engineering?” Again, I’m glad you asked.

Helm is an application package manager for Kubernetes. Using Kubernetes can often be overwhelming to maintain resources. Since Kubernetes is configured by YAML files, the more complex your application becomes, the more difficult it will be to navigate and make changes to the respective files; think about lots and lots of repetitive YAML files. A scenario that makes every developer cringe. Helm can help you solve this.

The GitHub Container Registry has just been announced by GitHub and is supported natively on Codefresh like any other Docker repository. Codefresh provides multiple options to connect to Docker Container Registries, one of which is GitHub Container Registries. Currently, GitHub plans to include the GitHub Container Registry within the pricing model of GitHub packages. In comparison, Docker Hub has added rate limits to free accounts.

We are about to install and manage Argo CD through a CD pipeline. “Why would we do that? We can just as well accomplish that through a command like kubectl apply or helm upgrade --install.” I’m glad you asked. The primary objective of Argo CD is to help us apply GitOps processes when deploying applications. It is directing us towards the world in which everything is defined as code, and all code is stored in Git.

There are many articles and videos about practicing Continuous Delivery (CD) with applications, but not nearly as many for infrastructure. The same can be said for GitOps applied to infrastructure. That is a bit strange given that applications and infrastructure are almost the same today. Both are defined as code, and everyone stores code in Git repositories. Hence, GitOps is just as good of a fit for infrastructure as for anything else.

There are many articles and videos about practicing Continuous Delivery (CD) with applications, but not nearly as many for infrastructure. The same can be said for GitOps applied to infrastructure. That is a bit strange given that applications and infrastructure are almost the same today. Both are defined as code, and everyone stores code in Git repositories. Hence, GitOps is just as good of a fit for infrastructure as for anything else.

If you use Kubernetes in production, you should already know that monitoring and logging solutions are essentials if you want to make sure that your cluster is healthy at all times. Lack of computing resources and capacity misconfigurations are one of the most common causes of failed deployments. Especially if you are an operator, you always need to know the load of your cluster in order to perform capacity planning and setup autoscaling.

There are many articles and videos about practicing Continuous Delivery (CD) with applications, but not nearly as many for infrastructure. The same can be said for GitOps applied to infrastructure. That is a bit strange given that applications and infrastructure are almost the same today. Both are defined as code, and everyone stores code in Git repositories. Hence, GitOps is just as good of a fit for infrastructure as for anything else.

CI and CD tools are popular for a good reason. They help us automate the application lifecycle, fully or partially. However, the problem is that, in some cases, we are moving away from the core principles behind the CI and CD processes. Products on the market tend to “bend” the definitions of what CI and CD are so that their products can get “yet another sticker”. This is an attempt to bring sanity into the insane situation in which everything and nothing are CI and CD.