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diff --git a/doc/user/project/deploy_boards.md b/doc/user/project/deploy_boards.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..01fb14f1e66 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/user/project/deploy_boards.md @@ -0,0 +1,127 @@ +# Deploy Boards **[PREMIUM]** + +> [Introduced][ee-1589] in [GitLab Premium][ee] 9.0. + +GitLab's Deploy Boards offer a consolidated view of the current health and +status of each CI [environment] running on [Kubernetes], displaying the status +of the pods in the deployment. Developers and other teammates can view the +progress and status of a rollout, pod by pod, in the workflow they already use +without any need to access Kubernetes. + +## Overview + +With Deploy Boards you can gain more insight into deploys with benefits such as: + +- Following a deploy from the start, not just when it's done +- Watching the rollout of a build across multiple servers +- Finer state detail (Waiting, Deploying, Finished, Unknown) +- See [Canary Deployments](canary_deployments.md) + +Here's an example of a Deploy Board of the production environment. + +![Deploy Boards landing page](img/deploy_boards_landing_page.png) + +The squares represent pods in your Kubernetes cluster that are associated with +the given environment. Hovering above each square you can see the state of a +deploy rolling out. The percentage is the percent of the pods that are updated +to the latest release. + +Since Deploy Boards are tightly coupled with Kubernetes, there is some required +knowledge. In particular you should be familiar with: + +- [Kubernetes pods](https://kubernetes.io/docs/user-guide/pods) +- [Kubernetes labels](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/working-with-objects/labels/) +- [Kubernetes namespaces](https://kubernetes.io/docs/user-guide/namespaces/) +- [Kubernetes canary deployments](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/cluster-administration/manage-deployment/#canary-deployments) + +## Use cases + +Since the Deploy Board is a visual representation of the Kubernetes pods for a +specific environment, there are lot of uses cases. To name a few: + +- You want to promote what's running in staging, to production. You go to the + environments list, verify that what's running in staging is what you think is + running, then click on the [manual action] to deploy to production. +- You trigger a deploy, and you've got lots of containers to upgrade so you know + it'll take a while (you've also throttled your deploy to only take down X + containers at a time). But you need to tell someone when it's deployed, so you + go to the environments list, look at the production environment to see what + the progress is in real-time as each pod is rolled. +- You get a report that something is weird in production, so you look at the + production environment to see what is running, and if a deploy is ongoing or + stuck or failed. +- You've got an MR that looks good, but you want to run it on staging because + staging is set up in some way closer to production. You go to the environment + list, find the [Review App][review apps] you're interested in, and click the + manual action to deploy it to staging. + +## Enabling Deploy Boards + +To display the Deploy Boards for a specific [environment] you should: + +1. Have a Kubernetes cluster up and running. + + NOTE: **Running on OpenShift:** + If you are using OpenShift, ensure that you're using the `Deployment` resource + instead of `DeploymentConfiguration`, otherwise the Deploy Boards won't render + correctly. For more information, read the + [OpenShift docs](https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/3.7/dev_guide/deployments/kubernetes_deployments.html#kubernetes-deployments-vs-deployment-configurations) + and [GitLab issue #4584](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/4584). + +1. [Configure GitLab Runner][runners] with the [Docker][docker-exec] or + [Kubernetes][kube-exec] executor. +1. Configure the [Kubernetes service][kube-service] in your project for the + cluster. The Kubernetes namespace is of particular note as you will need it + for your deployment scripts (exposed by the `KUBE_NAMESPACE` env variable). +1. Ensure a Kubernetes label of `app: $CI_ENVIRONMENT_SLUG` is applied to the + deployments, replica sets, and pods, where `$CI_ENVIRONMENT_SLUG` the value + of the CI variable. This is so we can lookup the proper environment in a + cluster/namespace which may have more than one. These resources should be + contained in the namespace defined in the Kubernetes service setting. + You can use an [Autodeploy] `.gitlab-ci.yml` template which has predefined + stages and commands to use, and automatically applies the labeling. + Each project will need to have a unique namespace in Kubernetes as well. + The image below demonstrates how this is shown inside Kubernetes. + + ![Deploy Boards Kubernetes Label](img/deploy_boards_kubernetes_label.png) + +Once all of the above are set up and the pipeline has run at least once, +navigate to the environments page under **Operations > Environments**. + +Deploy Boards are visible by default. You can explicitly click +the triangle next to their respective environment name in order to hide them. +GitLab will then query Kubernetes for the state of each node (e.g., waiting, +deploying, finished, unknown), and the Deploy Board status will finally appear. + +GitLab will only display a Deploy Board for top-level environments. Foldered +environments like `review/*` (usually used for [Review Apps]) won't have a +Deploy Board attached to them. + +## Canary Deployments + +A popular CI strategy, where a small portion of the fleet is updated to the new +version of your application. + +[Read more about Canary Deployments.](canary_deployments.md) + +## Further reading + +- [GitLab Autodeploy][autodeploy] +- [GitLab CI environment variables][variables] +- [Environments and deployments][environment] +- [Kubernetes deploy example][kube-deploy] + +[ee-1589]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/1589 "Deploy Boards initial issue" +[ee]: https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/ "GitLab Enterprise Edition landing page" +[kube-deploy]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-examples/kubernetes-deploy "Kubernetes deploy example project" +[kubernetes]: https://kubernetes.io "Kubernetes website" +[environment]: ../../ci/environments.md "Environments and deployments documentation" +[docker-exec]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/docker.html "GitLab Runner Docker executor" +[kube-exec]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/kubernetes.html "GitLab Runner Kubernetes executor" +[kube-service]: integrations/kubernetes.md "Kubernetes project service" +[review apps]: ../../ci/review_apps/index.md "Review Apps documentation" +[variables]: ../../ci/variables/README.md "GitLab CI variables" +[autodeploy]: ../../ci/autodeploy/index.md "GitLab Autodeploy" +[kube-image]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-examples/kubernetes-deploy/container_registry "Kubernetes deploy Container Registry" +[manual action]: ../../ci/yaml/README.md#manual-actions +[runners]: ../../ci/runners/README.md |