Part 3: Pipeline

What Will You Do

In this section you will

• Create a GitOps pipeline
• Add multiple stages to the pipeline
• Create a trigger to initiate the pipeline
• Setup a webhook in Github for the pipeline trigger
• Activate the pipeline

Step 1: Create Pipeline

The GitOps pipeline will be used to deploy/update workloads from the Git repository each time an update is made and committed to the repo.

• In your project, navigate to GitOps -> Pipelines
• Click New Pipeline
• Enter gitops-workloads for the name
• Click Create

Step 2: Add Pipeline Stages

A pipeline can have multiple stages, with completely different actions to model your desired workflows. In this exercise, you will create a three stage pipeline that will first seek user approval, then deploy/update the YAML workload and finally deploy/update the Helm workload.

• Under the "Stages" tab, Click Add New Stage
• Enter approval for the name
• Select Approval for the action
• Click Add Approver
• Select your user account
• Click Save

Next, you will add a pipeline stage that will deploy/update the YAML workload.

• Under the "Stages" tab, Click Add New Stage
• Enter deploy yaml workload for the name
• Select Deploy Workload for the action
• Select yaml-gitops-workload for the workload
• Click Save

Next, you will add a pipeline stage that will deploy/update the Helm workload.

• Under the "Stages" tab, Click Add New Stage
• Enter deploy helm workload for the name
• Select Deploy Workload for the action
• Select helm-gitops-workload for the workload
• Click Save

Step 3: Add Pipeline Trigger

A pipeline can be executed based on an "external trigger". For example, changes to the manifests in your Git repository. In this exercise, you will configure a trigger that will receive a webhook notification when specific files and directories in your Git repository are modified.

• Click on the Triggers tab in the pipeline
• Click Add New Trigger
• Enter github-webhook for the name
• Select Webhook for type
• Select gitops-workload-gs for the repository
• Select Github for repository type
• Enter master for revision
• Click Add Path
• Enter gitops-workload/YAML/yaml-workload.yaml
• Click Add Path again
• Enter gitops-workload/Helm/webserver/
• Click Save

You will now be presented with the webhook configuration details that you need to copy/paste to your GitHub repository. Once you complete this step, the GitOps pipeline will be configured to receive webhook notifications whenever the repository is updated in Git.

Step 4: Setup GitHub Webhook

In this step, we will configure the GitHub repository to send a webhook to the controller when updates are made to the repo.

• Navigate to your GitHub repository -> Settings -> Webhooks
• Click Add webhook
• Copy and Paste the "Payload URL" and "Secret" from the previous step
• Click Add webhook

Step 5: Activate Pipeline

By default, newly created pipelines start life in a deactivated state. You will activate the pipeline in this step so that it can be used.

• In your project, navigate to GitOps -> Pipelines
• Click the Activate Pipeline button
• Click Yes to confirm activation

Recap

At this point, you have successfully setup a multistage GitOps pipeline that is triggered by commits to a Github repository.