Category Archives: Development

Helm chart check list – work flow from dev to prod (always evolving)

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Helm chart setup workflow

Dev

  1. Initially get things working with a default helm install into dev.
  2. Does it have ldap or oidc integration or some other reason to need to verify onprem CA chain? Yes, figure out how to get CA chain installed
  3. Setup oidc if possible, setup ldap if needed and oidc is not available.
  4. Is it possible to set values in helm chart to get CA chain installed as part of the helm install? Yes, modify yaml, no fork helm install and add steps, see if project owner is OK with pull request or not. (better in Integrate with helm chart than manage a fork).
  5. Configure something on server you want to persist.
  6. Helm uninstall and reinstall, did you lose the setting? … figure out steps to get data to persist.
  7. Try to increase the storage size of PVCs which might need to be increased in production?  Is this possible without taking down the application?  Figure out what is required for this use case which will inevitably come up in the future.  Document and be ready.  It may be wise to implement a pipeline for this purpose.
  8. Cordon involved node(s) and drain, uncordon node(s), was data lost when things came back up? Figure out how to ensure data persists.
  9. Does server have a method to export configuration or otherwise backup the server. Configure automated backups.
  10. Is it possible to Configure server as HA? Can it be configured for HA later or must it be configured from initial setup? Can a single instance be migrated to HA. Decide if HA needs to be setup or is a single instance good enough. If HA is desired then figure out how to set that up and go through this list again.
  11. Are there options to configure metrics for the application?  Often these exist in helm installs.  (lower priority when initially working to get something up)
  12. If there is an option to use a log aggregator set that up or possibly setup a sidecar with logging.  (lower priority when initially working to get something up)
  13. Server is now ready to release into test.

Test

  1. Configure permissions of those with accounts accessed via oidc / ldap. Note a program which supports ldap but not oidc is not as evolved. Check for a plugin/extension if oidc does not appear to be available. Oidc enables almost any identity provider & SSO, and is always preferred.
  2. Does the minimum requested CPU and Memory match what’s actually needed?
  3. Someone needs to perform some manual testing or work on automated testing.
  4. If no one ever tries restoring from a backup, there is a good chance the process might not work, might want to try that out before there is a fire.
  5. No system may be released into production without an automated method of registering its ip in dns (e.g. external-dns) and also an automated method of updating its ssl certificates (e.g. cert-man), verify these work.
  6. Be sure to test rolling up to the next release of a helm chart as well as rolling back (and all tests still pass).
  7. If all testing passes then ready for production.

Production

  1. An update strategy needs to be established and followed just prior to release into production. Schedule: Monthly, quarterly, every 6 months, or upon release of a new version. Version: always run the latest, or version just prior to latest major release (and with all the updates).  Some programs such as WordPress can/will update plugins automatically… is this ok?
  2. Generally automation is desired to roll something out into production. When an update is ready automation should be used to update first in dev, perform automated testing, then roll out into dev with the ok of someone (or automatically rolled out into prod if all tests passed and its decided that is good enough).
  3. Also, a pipeline for rolling back to a previous version is a good idea, in case a deployment to production fails.

(pull request) Contributing to open source, helm chart for taiga, ability to import an on prem certificate authority certificate chain

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OIDC is always preferred if possible.  At this time in history not all projects have OIDC support, though some can be extended via an extension or plugin to accomplish the goal.  I’ve got enough experience to help projects get over this hurdle and get OIDC working.  If I could be paid just to help out open source projects I might go for it.

Here’s a pull request for a taiga helm chart I’ve been using.  I’ve been using taiga for years via docker and am happy to be able to help out in this way now that I’m using kubernetes and helm charts.  In this case a borrowed a technique from a nextcloud helm chart and works perfectly for this taiga helm chart:  https://github.com/nemonik/taiga-helm/pull/6

Like rebuilding a Shinto shrine

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Traditionally Shinto shrines are rebuilt exactly the same next to the old shrine every so many years.  The old shrine is removed and when the time comes it will be rebuilt again.

Something similar can apply to home environments.  Recently I nuked everything and rebuilt from the ground up.  Something I’ve always done after 6 months or a year, for security reasons and to ensure I am always getting the fastest performance from infrastructure.

Such reinstalling is a natural fit for kubernetes.  There are several methods for spinning up a cluster, and after that just by the nature of kubernetes being yaml files it is easy to spin up the services you had running before, and watch them self register in the new dns and self generate certificates with the new active directory certificate authority.  Amazing.   Kubernetes is truly, a work of art.

What is Kubernetes really?

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As I take the deep dive into kubernetes what I’m finding is, though definitely a container management system, it can also been seen as a controller yaml processing engine.  Let me explain.

Kubernetes understands what a deployment is, and what a service is, these are defined as yaml and loaded.  Deployments and services can be seen as controllers which understand those types of objects defined in yaml.

What is interesting about this is that we can implement our own controllers.  For example, I could implement a controller that understands how to manage a tic-tac-toe game.  That controller could also implement an ai that knows how to play the game.  In the same way you can edit a deployment you could edit the game and the kubernetes infrastructure could respond to the change.  Or, a move could be another type recognized by the game controller, so you could create a move associated with a game in the same way you can create a service associated with a deployment.

You can imagine doing a ‘k get games’ and seeing the games being played listed out.  As well as ‘k describe game a123’ to get the details and status of the game.

Seems I’m not the only one who has started thinking down this line.  A quick Google search reveals agones.

This is fascinating and gives me a lot of ideas on how I might reimplement my list processing server & generic game server, within the kubernetes framework.

New helm chart: wireguard-centos-8-stream

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https://lknight-gh.github.io/helm-charts

My first helm chart, a fun milestone.  Used it to install my new docker container uploaded to quay.io this morning.

Nice feeling to give back to the open source community.

Now to automate:
* watch for wireguard updates & release an updated docker image
* watch for a centos-8-stream update & release an updated docker image
* watch for a helm chart update & update what is necessary for those changes to be seen

But first, time to investigate and implement longhorn.

https://lknight-gh.github.io/helm-charts

New container: docker-wireguard-centos-8-stream

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A wireguard container built for centos-8-stream which takes advantage of the scripts from the linuxserver docker-wireguard project.

Source: https://github.com/lknight-gh/docker-wireguard-centos-8-stream

LinuxServer docker-wireguard project: https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-wireguard

To use simply replace the docker-wireguard image with: quay.io/lknight/docker-wireguard-centos-8-stream:latest

Note: Initial startup may take quite awhile, 4 minutes +, if the wireguard module is being recompiled. Be sure to use a volume for the modules folder to avoid having to recompile.

Decided to give building a chrome extension a try, introducing: Ivanti Uri Button

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Only useful to those who use the Ivanti Service Desk product, but for those folks, so useful!

The service desk has a button which when clicked generates a popup dialog with a URL pointing directly to the ticket.  But who wants to click, then double click to highlight the uri, then use a menu or type a command to copy when all this can be done in just one click.  Another first world problem solved.

Ivanti Uri Button

Are you a gamer? Yes, but (bots)…

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As a means to socialize, when asked if I game I say yes but it is only a partial truth.  The truth is I write bots to play games, and lately, the only game I play is the stock market.