What is GitOps? A primer for platform engineers

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on X

As platform engineers, we’ve witnessed how the infrastructure management landscape has dramatically transformed over the years. From the days of traditional operations, where manual configurations were the norm, it’s evolved into a realm where automation and collaboration are not just buzzwords but necessities.

The advent of DevOps introduced a paradigm shift by promoting a synergy between development and operations teams. Automation started to replace manual tasks, and the adoption of infrastructure as code (IaC) became more widespread. Tools like Puppet and Chef allowed us to define our infrastructure declaratively, reducing errors and increasing efficiency. 

However, as our systems grew more complex, even IaC practices needed an upgrade. This is where GitOps emerged as the next evolutionary step. GitOps applies the principles of declarative infrastructure and enables us to manage complex systems more efficiently. By leveraging version control systems like Git, we can manage our infrastructure to ensure consistency, transparency, and reliability. 

This blog post will explore GitOps’ foundational principles, essential components, and the advantages it offers to platform engineering. We’ll also discuss the challenges of adopting GitOps and how tools like Incredibuild can support GitOps workflows.

Understanding GitOps and its core principles

GitOps leverages Git to improve the management of declarative infrastructure/applications by integrating version control with automated deployment pipelines.

GitOps follows a few core principles that enhance the way we manage and deploy infrastructure:

• Version control as the foundation: Git captures a record of every infrastructure change, ensuring a complete history is maintained. This enables audits, rollbacks, and complete traceability; if something goes wrong, we can quickly revert to a previous stable state.
• Continuous deployment automation: Automated pipelines are set up to deploy changes when merged into the main branch. This ensures rapid and consistent deployments, reducing the risk of human error.
• System observability: Real-time monitoring and logging are essential. Solutions like Prometheus and Grafana offer valuable visibility into system health to uncover and mitigate any discrepancies.
• Self-service infrastructure: Developers can make infrastructure changes through code commits, empowering them to take ownership while reducing bottlenecks. This cultivates a collaborative environment while accelerating the development workflow.

By adhering to these principles, you can achieve a more efficient and reliable continuous deployment workflow, enhancing the overall agility of your development processes.

Key components of GitOps

To effectively leverage GitOps in your platform engineering practices, you’ll need to understand its primary components.

Version control systems (Git)

Git is the backbone of GitOps, serving as the repository for all infrastructure code and configurations. It provides a single source of truth that enables version control, collaboration, and traceability for all changes made to the system with the following key features:

• Branching strategies: Implementing strategies like GitFlow or trunk-based development helps manage parallel workstreams effectively. These allow multiple teams to work simultaneously without interfering with each other’s work and ensuring changes are integrated smoothly.
• Pull requests (PRs) and code reviews: Enforcing quality and security through mandatory reviews and approvals is crucial. Pull requests let teams examine changes before integration, catching potential issues early and promoting knowledge sharing.

Declarative infrastructure

Defining infrastructure in a declarative manner is a cornerstone of GitOps. This involves Kubernetes manifests and custom resource definitions (CRDs). Using YAML or JSON files, we define the desired state of our Kubernetes clusters, including deployments, services, and other resources, making the infrastructure self-documenting and easier to manage.

Meanwhile, infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform and Pulumi enable us to manage infrastructure declaratively for non-Kubernetes resources. These solutions let us define cloud resources, networking, and more, all through code that can be version-controlled.

Continuous deployment pipelines

Automating deployments is essential for achieving the speed and reliability that GitOps promises.

For example, By integrating CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, or GitHub Actions, you can automate the deployment process. These solutions listen for changes in the Git repositories and trigger pipelines that build, test, and deploy code.

Pipeline as code is also key. Defining pipeline configurations in code ensures consistency and versioning. This means that any changes to the pipeline itself are tracked in Git, providing transparency and the ability to revert if necessary.

Observability and monitoring

Keeping an eye on your system’s health is vital for proactive issue resolution. For this you will need:

• Monitoring systems: Tools like Prometheus collect metrics from various components, while Grafana visualizes this data. Integrating such solutions allows for real-time performance monitoring and swift anomaly detection.
• Logging and tracing: Implementing the ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) and Jaeger provides comprehensive logging and tracing capabilities. This helps diagnose issues by tracing requests across different services.
• Alerting mechanisms: Setting up alerts with tools like Alertmanager guarantees you will be notified promptly of any critical issues so that you can respond fast.

Benefits of GitOps for platform engineering

GitOps will transform how you handle declarative infrastructure and continuous deployment through enhanced collaboration, reliability, security, and efficiency.

Improved collaboration 

GitOps bridges the gap between dev and ops teams, resulting in highly improved collaboration.

The resulting unified processes via shared workflows and tools reduce miscommunication and streamline deployments. Both teams work from the same repositories and follow the same procedures, leading to better coordination.

Better collaboration also brings enhanced visibility. Transparent change logs improve accountability and knowledge sharing. Any changes made, who made them, and why are visible to everyone, promoting a culture of openness and trust.

Increased reliability and consistency

GitOps promotes practices that enhance the stability of our systems.

When you treat infrastructure as immutable, you eliminate “works on my machine” issues. Consistency is maintained across development, staging, and production environments, minimizing unexpected issues.

With automated rollbacks and roll-forwards, quick recovery from failures is possible by reverting immediately to previous stable states. With version control in place, reverting to a previous state is as straightforward as undoing a commit.

Enhanced security and compliance

Security is integral to GitOps, with built-in mechanisms for maintaining compliance and enabling auditability. Detailed records mean each change is logged, creating a transparent and traceable audit trail.

Policy as code is also key. Integrating security policies directly into code with tools like Open Policy Agent (OPA) facilitates automated and consistent enforcement across every deployment.

Faster recovery times

GitOps enables you to respond to issues more rapidly. With automated disaster recovery (DR), infrastructure can be redeployed rapidly in case of failures. Since everything is defined in code, rebuilding environments is straightforward.

You also benefit from continuous reconciliation. Immediate detection and correction of drift from the desired state keep the system aligned with the defined configurations, reducing downtime.

GitOps workflow and best practices

To best leverage a GitOps workflow, you need to understand the steps required to implement it effectively:

1. Code and configuration commits: Developers commit code and infrastructure configurations—including both initial versions and changes—to the Git repository.
2. Pull request creation: A PR is opened for the proposed changes, initiating the review process.
3. Automated testing and validation: CI/CD pipelines automatically run tests and validations to ensure the changes meet quality standards.
4. Code review and approval: Team members evaluate the pull request, offering feedback or granting approval.
5. Merge and deployment: Once approved, the changes are merged into the main branch, triggering automated deployment pipelines.
6. Monitoring and feedback loop: Monitoring tools provide feedback on the system’s health and address any issues promptly.

This workflow emphasizes automation and collaboration, streamlining the journey from code updates to deployment.

In addition, implementing GitOps effectively requires adherence to certain best practices:

• Adopt declarative configurations exclusively: Avoid imperative scripts to ensure idempotency and predictability. Declarative infrastructure defines the desired end state, making managing and replicating environments easier.
• Enforce code reviews and approvals: Enforce peer reviews for earlier issue detection and mitigation. This will enhance code quality and promote team collaboration.
• Implement robust CI/CD pipelines: Automate testing, security checks, and deployments to lower the risk of human error. An effectively designed pipeline guarantees that any code deployed to production has been tested and approved.
• Use secret management solutions: Leverage dedicated solutions like HashiCorp Vault to securely manage and protect sensitive information, as storing secrets in Git is risky. 
• Maintain comprehensive documentation: Keep README files, diagrams, and comments updated within the repository. Good documentation aids onboarding and makes troubleshooting easier.
• Monitor for configuration drift: Leverage reconciliation tools to identify and resolve any unintended changes. Continuous monitoring helps maintain alignment between the system’s current state and its intended configuration.

By following these practices, you can reach the full potential of GitOps and enhance your platform engineering processes.

Popular GitOps tools and technologies

When implementing GitOps, choosing the right tools is crucial. The table below gives an overview of some top options.

Tool	Features	Technical highlights
Argo CD	Declarative continuous deliveryKubernetes-nativeSupports multiple repositories	Uses Kubernetes manifestsSyncs Git with cluster stateOffers a web UI and CLI
Flux	GitOps operator for KubernetesAutomated deploymentIntegrates with Helm	Monitors Git repositoriesChanges reflected to the clusterSupports Kustomize and Helm
Jenkins X	CI/CD for KubernetesAutomated environmentsPreview environments for PRs	Built on JenkinsSupports multiple cloud providers

Comparison and selection criteria

To make an informed decision as to which GitOps tool aligns best with your needs, let’s explore critical factors for selection criteria:

• Deployment strategies: Argo CD and Flux use a pull-based model, where the cluster pulls changes from Git. Jenkins X can be configured for both push and pull models.
• Community support and extensibility: All three have active communities. Argo CD and Flux are part of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).
• Scalability and performance: Argo CD and Flux are lightweight and designed for Kubernetes, offering high performance. Jenkins X is more feature-rich but may require more resources.

Challenges and considerations when adopting GitOps

While adopting GitOps brings significant benefits to platform engineering, it also presents several challenges we must consider carefully. 

Mindset

Firstly, a cultural shift is often required. Moving from manual interventions to trusting automated systems means embracing a new mindset. Breaking down silos between teams encourages cross-functional collaboration, aligning with DevOps principles and enhancing overall efficiency.

Training

Secondly, the complexity of new tooling can be a hurdle. Seamlessly incorporating new tools into established systems requires thoughtful planning to prevent potential compatibility challenges. 

Teams must invest time in onboarding and training to become proficient with these tools, ensuring everyone can work within the GitOps framework. This is essential for successfully implementing infrastructure-as-code practices central to modern platform engineering.

Security

Security concerns are another critical consideration. Improper management of configurations in Git repositories can unintentionally expose sensitive information. Implementing robust secrets management and strict access controls, such as role-based access control (RBAC) policies, is imperative to safeguard the system. 

Additionally, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, especially when managing declarative infrastructure across different geographical locations, adds complexity that must be addressed.

How Incredibuild supports GitOps workflows

Incredibuild enhances GitOps workflows by significantly speeding up build and test cycles. It does this via:

• Distributed processing power: Incredibuild accelerates tasks by distributing them across a network of machines, utilizing idle CPU cycles to maximize efficiency.
• Parallel execution: By processing tasks simultaneously, Incredibuild reduces overall pipeline duration, enabling faster continuous deployment.

In addition, Incredibuild offers features that align well with GitOps practices:

• Seamless integration with CI/CD Tools: Compatibility with Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and GitHub Actions ensures Incredibuild fits smoothly into existing pipelines.
• Scalability and flexibility: Incredibuild dynamically scales resources based on workload demands, adapting to the needs of your infrastructure.
• Advanced caching mechanisms: By reusing previous build outputs, Incredibuild avoids redundant work, further speeding up the pipeline.

The future of GitOps

GitOps represents a significant advancement in managing and deploying infrastructure. With GitOps, you can achieve greater consistency, reliability, and speed by leveraging version control, declarative infrastructure, and automation. 

In an era where speed and reliability are paramount and systems are more and more complex, efficient and scalable management solutions that align with modern development practices are critical. By adopting GitOps, teams can scale without compromising quality, giving their product a competitive advantage. Tools like Incredibuild further enhance these capabilities by accelerating pipelines and improving productivity. 

Find out how to maximize your efficiency by leveraging tools like Incredibuild. Sign up for a free trial today.