KOP Environment Manager - Contexts - Rafay Product Documentation

Create Config Context

A context can be used to define global variables that will be used across different environment templates and resource templates. Config contexts are used in environment or resource templates.

Examples for using Contexts include:

Platform team wants to provide the option of spinning up instances only in a couple of regions for the QE team. Platform team creates a Context, specifies the allowed regions as part of Input Variables and sets Override Type as Restricted. This Context can then be attached to an Environment Template. The QE team can select from one of the options (for region) when creating the Environment
Platform team can specify the registry endpoint for pulling container images as an Environment Variable using Context

Did you know ?

Context can be managed through various methods:

UI
CLI (RCTL)
Terraform
API
GitOps

Create a Context

In a project, select Environments > Contexts
Select New Config Context
Enter a name for the context. Optionally, type a description
Select Create

General

The context is created and the General configuration page displays

Setting	Description
Name	Enter a name for the context
Description	Enter a description for the resource. This is optional

Environment Variables

Select Environment variables and Add Environment variable
Enter an environment key and value. Examples of environment variables include providing credentials (secrets and keys), which are used by agents to create, provision, and manage resources programmatically
Select Sensitive or Required for the provided value
Select the Override Type and add Selector(s)

Selectors

Setting	Description
Environment Key	Enter the environment key
Value	Enter the value for the environment key
Description	Provide a description for the Environment Variable
Sensitive/ Required	Selecting Sensitive will obfuscate the value so it cannot be read after saving the context. If 'required' is selected, providing the value is mandatory during the environment deployment
Override Type	Specify the level of permissions for overrides with three choices: Allowed, Not Allowed, and Restricted
-- Allowed	Allows the user to override the value
-- Not Allowed	Does not allow the user to override the value
-- Restricted	Allows the user to override the value by selecting a different, pre-defined value
-- Restricted Key Values	Allows the user to override the value only by selecting from a specific list of permitted key-value pairs
Selectors	Selectors enable the targeting and customization of specific environment variables within the configuration context. By using selectors, users can alias environment variables and restrict the override scope, allowing them to override only specific environment variables

If not willing to configure environment variables (secrets and keys) here and provisioning on AWS, there is an alternate method.

Using docker cd-agent

Create a Docker agent on the machine running in the cloud environment.
Create an IAM role with access to the necessary cloud resources and assign it to the machine running the Docker agent.
Create a Resource Template and add the agent.
Create an Environment Template that deploys the required resources.
Publish the Environment and validate that the resources are created (without passing cloud access keys and secrets through the config context).

Using K8s cd-agent

Provision a Kubernetes cluster and deploy the Kubernetes CD-agent.
Create an IAM Service Account with a policy granting access to the necessary cloud resources.
Create a Custom Workflow Handler in EaaS, provide the namespace and service account name, and associate the Workflow Handler with the Resource Template.
Create an Environment Template that deploys the required resources.
Publish the Environment and validate that the resources are created (without passing cloud access keys and secrets through the config context).

File Paths

Select File paths and click Add File Paths
Select Sensitive to obfuscate the information
Enter a base64 encoded content for the file path or click Upload File to upload a data file.
Select the Override Type and provide a description

Setting	Description
Name	Enter a name for the file path
Sensitive/ Required	Selecting Sensitive will obfuscate the value and if 'required' is selected, providing the value is mandatory during the environment deployment
Data	Either enter the data as plain text or upload a data file
Override Type	Specify the level of permissions for overrides with two choices:
-- Allowed	Allows the user to override the value
-- Not Allowed	Does not allow the user to override the value
Description	Provide a description for the selected Override Type

Input Variables

Select Variables and click Add Variable
Enter a name for the variable. Optionally, type a description
Enter the values and select the types for this variable
Add one (or) more selector(s).

Selectors

Setting	Description
Name	The name of the variable
Description	A brief description of the variable
Sensitive	Does not display the value in the UI
Required	The variable is required when using this Context
Override Type	Controls if a user can change a variable or not
-- Allowed	Allows the user to override the value
-- Not Allowed	Does not allow the user to override the value
-- Restricted	Allows the user to override the value by selecting a different, pre-defined value
-- Restricted Key Values	Allows the user to override the value only by selecting from a specific list of permitted key-value pairs
-- HCL	Hashicorp configuration language
-- JSON	JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight data-interchange format
-- Expressions	Valid units of code that resolve to a value
-- Text	Text value
Value Type	The type of value
Selectors	Selectors enable the targeting and customization of specific variables within the configuration context.

Select Save to save the context. Click Cancel to close the configuration and go back to the context list.