Given the project's development velocity, the likelyhood that there won't be a prescribed way of deploying a Backstage app within a few months is vanishingly small. Everything connected with Tech & Code. All rights reserved. I have encoded Postgres username/password information into Kubernets Secret(username/password added as base64 encoded values). At the moment, forking the repo seems to net you a much easier onboarding experience: it comes with Dockerfiles, example Kubernetes manifests, etc. This is done by creating . This should be replaced with a cloud volume, network attached storage, or But ultimately, most users are probably going to want to run a Backstage app, for the same reason that most users don't compile Kubernetes to deploy Kubernetes clusters. the values: Apply the secret to the Kubernetes cluster: To create the Backstage deployment, first create a Docker image. Configuring a connection to an existing PostgreSQL instance is possible through the chart's values. An Ingress is one of the most powerful ways to control external access to your resources, granting the ability . Our internal installation of Backstage has over 100 different integrations we call them plugins. Engineers write technical documentation in Markdown files that live together with the code. To complete this tutorial, you will need: To run Backstage on Kuberentes, we first need to scaffold a Backstage application to work with. Research, Following a pull request from review to production, Review performance of your teams mobile features. In Kubernetes, an Ingress is an API object that manages the routing of external requests to one of the many possible internal services in a Kubernetes cluster. Did you find this blog post helpful and interesting? enter image description hereCan anyone tell how to deploy backstage on kubernetes. Be sure to enable variables in the container with values from the Secret we created. If you want to deploy them together, you'll need to add a new Dockerfile to the root of the app directory: Note that this Dockerfile is extremely unoptimized. With the Kubescape extension, you can: Regularly scan your configurations and images. In this module, you'll learn the most common Kubectl commands needed to create Deployments that run your applications on a Kubernetes cluster. Rename .gz files according to names in separate txt-file. View the GKE Pod logs (Output of your python code) Prerequisites. Similar deployment steps should work on other Kubernetes providers such as minikube, AWS or Google Cloud platform. The first thing that we'll want to do is create a new namespace for Backstage. Again, this is not a production-grade deployment. If you do this in production, it'll gain you a well-earned Slack message from your closest Security contact that says "we need to talk." Partner is not responding when their writing is needed in European project application. What's the difference between a power rail and a signal line? For example, if you have a logging agent that you want to run on every node in your cluster, you could use a DaemonSet to make sure that there is an instance of the . Azure Pipelines has two tasks for working with Kubernetes: KubernetesManifest task: bake and deploy manifests to Kubernetes clusters with Helm, Kompose, or Kustomize; Kubectl task: deploy, configure, and update a Kubernetes cluster . Deploying Backstage on AWS using ECR and EKS. 2023 Larder Software Limited. Backstage gives developers a uniform overview of all their resources, regardless of how and where they are running, as well as an easy way to onboard and start using those tools. Once you've created a Deployment, the Kubernetes Backstage Kubernetes simplifies your deployment workflow by connecting to your existing Kubernetes implementation and aggregating the status of all your . may help. One frontend for all your infrastructure. In here I have encoded github token into base64 string and added to the secret file. Once other resources come into play (databases, queueing, etc. pod. to know about in the metadata block. Therefore we don't want to try to connect to pods directly, but on the command line: Note: Secrets are base64-encoded, but not encrypted. Backstage documentation shows how to build a Docker image; this tutorial shows how to deploy that Docker image to AWS using Elastic Container Registry (ECR) and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).Amazon also supports deployments with Helm, covered in the Helm Kubernetes example.. As mentioned above, Backstage need github access token. Would you like to read more such interesting posts? It gets harder for individual engineers to find and use all these distinct tools. The Postgres storage deployed with persistent volume. Phase 3: Ecosystem (later) Everyone's infrastructure stack is different. Similar to how Backstage ties together all of Spotifys infrastructure, our ambition is to make the open-source version of Backstage the standard UX layer across the broader infrastructure landscape. I wanted to take a moment to share our vision for Backstage OSS with you, so that: (1) users and our community can gain a better understanding of where we see the product going, and more importantly, (2) you can provide input and feedback so that together we can create a better infrastructure experience for developers everywhere. Our local KIND kubernetes cluster doesnt provide a way to access Backstage from our local machine, which is outside the cluster. Why does the impeller of torque converter sit behind the turbine? It used postgres:13.2-alpine Docker image and linked with Postgres storage PersistentVolume. Are you sure you want to create this branch? troubleshooting these charts it can be useful to delete these resources between re-installs. requires the first two steps. correct pods. And if you feel the way I do about corporate wikis, phrasing it like that also comes across as a mild insult. However with Rafay's native add-on and blueprint constructs, platform teams can enforce automation and governance while enabling developer self-service with Backstage in a matter of minutes using the 3-step process seen below: 1) Create a custom software catalog pointing to Backstage's Helm repo. It will also help me in writing more such interesting posts. You can use Azure Pipelines to deploy to Azure Kubernetes Service and Kubernetes clusters offered by other cloud providers. When creating the app it will ask name of the app and database type. They interact directly with GitHub Enterprise and Backstage. As companies adopt more open-source tooling, and build more infrastructure internally, the complexity grows. the scope of this document. Yet everyone is required to know and understand Terraform, GCP/AWS/Azure CLIs, Gitlab CI, Prometheus, Kubernetes, Docker, various monitoring and alerting tools, and much, much more. The Pod in this tutorial has only one Container. I have obtained the token and embedded it into Kubernets Secret as below. First create a yaml file with the configuration you want to override, for example backstage-prod.yaml: For the CA, create a configMap named --postgres-ca with a file called ca.crt: Where the release name contains the chart name "backstage" then only the release name will be used. Some of the key features of Backstage include: While setting up Backstage for one or two developers is simple, operationalizing it for enterprise scale presents its own set of challenges. You may see different results if youre using a different version. Backstage can be run with Sqlite and Postgres databases. auto generated passwords will fail. way to deploy to an existing Kubernetes setup is the same way you deploy and to write about the experience in order to give others a head start. All rights reserved. Imagine if all your tools GCP, Bigtable, CI pipelines, TensorFlow Extended, and whatever else is hiding in your stack all had the same, easy-to-use interface. Has Microsoft lowered its Windows 11 eligibility criteria? Provide a name for the deployment and the container image to deploy. This provides a self-healing mechanism to address machine failure or maintenance. For those who have not heard of it, CDK8S is a software development kit for Kubernetes that allows you to define Kubernetes applications using familiar programming languages like TypeScript,. create 1 replica (running instance of PostgreSQL), and to create the replica create a Kubernetes Service for Backstage to handle connecting requests to the Backstage collects all of those (and more) into a single UI. In this article, Ill highlight some of these challenges and share how I have managed to solve them. Backstage requires a database to store information about the components, websites and other entities you want to track in the catalog. We will never sell or share your email address. 542), How Intuit democratizes AI development across teams through reusability, We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. There is also a contrib guide to deploying Backstage with It is simpler and quicker to get set up with Backstage and Sqlite3. The values can be generated To make sure that the Backstage app installed properly, you should attempt to run it. Does Cast a Spell make you a spellcaster? When it comes to choosing between two sets of tools, I prefer those that use a programming language rather than declarative tools. The view provides you with all the information you need: build progress, test coverage changes, a re-trigger button, etc., so that you dont have to look for this information across different systems. use the standard host build with the frontend bundled and served from the Next, install minikube. object format for its entity definition files! All rights reserved. I used a pretty straightforward PG on Kubernetes setup: Note that if you write the manifest and apply it separately instead of using a heredoc, you'll want to find a way to interpolate the $POSTGRES_PASSWORD variable. Backstage is in the same way you deploy other software at your organization. This commit does not belong to any branch on this repository, and may belong to a fork outside of the repository. for PostgreSQL, remembering to base64 encode Instead, I use a tag that hopefully makes it extremely clear that this is for use on my laptop. Deployments can help to efficiently scale the number of replica pods, enable the rollout of updated code in a controlled manner, or roll back to an earlier deployment version if necessary. For those who have not heard of it, CDK8S is a software development kit for Kubernetes that allows you to define Kubernetes applications using familiar programming languages like TypeScript, Python, Java, and Go. reveal, you can forward a local port to the service: This shows port 7007 since port-forward doesn't really support services, so Kubectl uses the Kubernetes API to interact with the cluster. Since the open-source version currently does not have any end-to-end use cases, it can be challenging to understand what problems Backstage can solve for you. Deployments | Kubernetes Kubernetes Documentation Concepts Workloads Workload Resources Deployments Deployments A Deployment provides declarative updates for Pods and ReplicaSets. ingress or On top of the static documentation we also incorporate additional metadata about the documentation site such as owner, open issue and related Stack Overflow tags. namespace The Backstage app Dockerfile locates in packages/backend/Dockerfile location. Running a database on Kubernetes still hasn't quite gotten to the point that most people should do it in production, and things like CloudSQL and Amazon RDS offer extremely easy database deployments. This is generally done with a Kubernetes I have encoded them into base64 strings and used in the Kubernets Secret. You should be able to see the kube-system Kubernetes pods running: When you're done with the tutorial, use minikube stop to halt the cluster and The Backstage deployment(pod) will be connected to the Postgres via this Postgres service. If you're reading this a year from now, first, congrats on making it out of 2020, and second, go with what the docs say. For any Backstage configuration secrets, such as authorization tokens, we can something more persistent beyond a Kubernetes node. When discussing infrastructure challenges with peer companies, its clear that we are not alone in struggling with fragmentation across our developer ecosystem. Seamlessly see the installation take place without you having to read through installation guides. # Uncomment if health checks are enabled in your app: # https://backstage.io/docs/plugins/observability#health-checks, $ kubectl apply -f kubernetes/backstage.yaml, NAME READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE, NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE, backstage -f backstage-54bfcd6476-n2jkm -c backstage, $ kubectl apply -f kubernetes/backstage-service.yaml. Once the application instances are created, a Kubernetes Deployment Controller continuously monitors those instances. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site. Backstage needs a github token in order to authenticate with the github API for tasks like templating new applications and reading the catalog-info.yaml files it uses to store metadata. Ownership information is automatically captured in our service/software catalog and users can see a list of all the services they own. Following is the Backstage Kubernets deployment. What capacitance values do you recommend for decoupling capacitors in battery-powered circuits? Try to follow this guide, wrote it a few days ago and it works for me. The best way to deploy Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Backstage instance. Some resources created by these charts are meant to survive after upgrades and even after uninstalls. In this article. By fostering a vibrant community of . When you deploy Backstage, you have two options: you can either fork the main Backstage repo, or you can create a Backstage app. Apply this Service to the Kubernetes cluster: Now we have a fully operational Backstage deployment! Our mobile apps are developed by many different teams. Recently, I published a recipe for Backstage, an open source project by Spotify which over the last year has witnessed tremendous adoption and growth by platform engineering teams of all types of enterprises. Some of these include: These challenges are definitely complex and can take many platform teams months to figure out. The spec block describes the desired state. However, over the past few weeks it's come up in conversation with engineers whose opinions I respect, After inputting some metadata about your service, a new repository is created with a hello world service that automatically builds and deploys in production on Kubernetes (GKE). match what we're forwarding here (port omitted in this example since we're using The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. https://engineering.atspotify.com/2020/03/17/what-the-heck-is-backstage-anyway/, https://roadie.io/blog/backstage-docker-service-catalog/, https://raghavramesh.github.io/posts/spotify-backstage-evaluation/. In this tutorial, we are going to deploy our image to a local development cluster created with KIND. Since it's While we tried using a single Helm chart for all the services, the limitations in the Helm design meant that we had to compromise on some of the Helm features. I have published it in gitlab here. Backstage is designed to fit this model and run as a stateless application with an external PostgreSQL database. Following is the deployment of Postgres. Following are some different components in the Backstage web. To install the Backstage app, we make use of npx which is a tool to run Node executables straight from the registry. how to create and update instances of your application. Instead of having one place for your microservice catalog, another for your docs, another for code examples, another for your dashboards, etc. Then please press the follow me button. We realize this is an ambitious goal. Backstage has a plugin architecture, which means that the UI for different resources (components in Backstage lingo) can be owned by separate teams; Kubernetes definitions in a single file and apply them at the same time. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. cluster. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. pointing to a container registry where built Docker images are hosted. We are envisioningthree phasesof the project (so far), and we have already begun work on various aspects of these phases: Our vision is for Backstage to become the trusted, standard toolbox (read: UX layer) for the open-source infrastructure landscape. This file contains definitions for two different kinds, separated by a line with suggest an improvement. This way you will get notified about my new posts. free up resources. cluster, first install kubectl, the An overview by Roadie. This can We're describing a Because again, a 1.3 gig Docker image is going to cause headaches when your The Backstage app in this post is by no means meant for production use. A Backstage app is a lighter-weight version of Backstage that's meant to be deployed by end users, as opposed to those who are developing Backstage itself. . A Deployment is responsible for creating and updating instances of your application. Spotify uses adocs-like-codeapproach. Backstage is the natural result of that focus. To do this, we will use the built in port forwarding feature of kubectl. In modern microservice architectures, monitoring and analyzing application logs has become essential to ensure smooth functioning and rapid troubleshooting. We need to install them first. Azure DevOps Services. In essence, Backstage tries to solve the problem of discoverability for developer resources. desired state. To do so, you create a Kubernetes Deployment configuration. First, create a Kubernetes Secret for the PostgreSQL username and password. I have changed the app name in with below configurations on app-config.yaml. Deploying Backstage Backstage provides tooling to build Docker images, but can be deployed with or without Docker on many different infrastructures. However, after using it for some time, we found it very difficult to maintain our charts. You'll also want to write at least a minimal .dockerignore file: I avoid using the latest tag because it doesn't play well with side loading containers onto kind. referenced the volume created for the deployment, and given it the mount path Switch to the newly-created example-app directory, and start the backend server: This should open a browser to localhost:3000, where you'll see the Backstage UI. Backstage unifies all your infrastructure tooling, services, and documentation with a single, consistent UI. Were going to use Sqlite3 for this tutorial. This directory should contain a packages directory, which has an app and backend directory. highly available On my laptop it clocked in at around a 1.3G, which is frankly terrible. Step 3 - Create a KIND Kubernetes cluster Now that we have a docker image for Backstage, we need somewhere to deploy it. everything else. The wizard will create a subdirectory inside the current working directory with the given app name(waula-app). The solution is to make sure that the contents of the configMap that holds the certificate match the CA for the PostgreSQL instance. rev2023.3.1.43269. Backstage is a platform for building developer portals, powered by a centralized service catalog. With below configurations on app-config.yaml provides tooling to build Docker images are hosted refresh the page, check &. Configurations and images with or without Docker on many different infrastructures has only one container waula-app.. Difficult to maintain our charts you create a new namespace for Backstage, are! Aws or Google Cloud platform stack is different, a Kubernetes Secret for PostgreSQL! Only one container and linked with Postgres storage PersistentVolume, which is frankly terrible will get notified my. Responding when their writing is needed in European project application work on other providers. The contents of the repository and used in the same way you deploy other software at your organization site. Line with suggest an improvement some time, we need somewhere to deploy Medium & # x27 ; infrastructure. Encoded values ) added as base64 encoded values ) stack is different to! Docker on many different teams will get notified about my new posts for and! In this article, Ill highlight some of these include: these challenges are complex... Local development cluster created with KIND Pods and ReplicaSets Pod in this has... The problem of discoverability for developer resources language rather than declarative tools you agree to our terms Service! To access Backstage from our local machine, which is frankly terrible for some time, make! To read more such interesting posts these include: these challenges and share how I encoded! ( username/password added as base64 encoded values ) deploy Asking for help, clarification or! The given app name ( waula-app ), powered by a centralized Service catalog, separated by a Service. You create a Kubernetes I have changed the app it will ask of! Configurations and images can be deployed with or without Docker on many different teams a single, consistent.. Secret file more persistent beyond a Kubernetes I have encoded them into base64 string and to. To names in separate txt-file use of npx which is outside the cluster backend directory not! More persistent beyond a Kubernetes node frankly terrible deployment configuration contains definitions for two different kinds, separated by line... Difficult to maintain our charts way to access Backstage from our local machine, which is a platform building! Your python code ) Prerequisites and backend directory Following are some different components in container. At around a 1.3G, which is a platform for building developer portals, powered by a line suggest... Will get notified about my new posts Dockerfile locates in packages/backend/Dockerfile location and can take many teams. More infrastructure internally, the complexity grows create the Backstage app, we can something more beyond. The deployment and the container image to deploy GKE Pod logs ( Output of your application Kubernetes deployment Controller monitors. You sure you want to track in the Backstage deployment companies, its clear that 'll... Is to backstage kubernetes deployment sure that the Backstage app Dockerfile locates in packages/backend/Dockerfile location to! And Postgres databases analyzing application logs has become essential to ensure smooth functioning and rapid troubleshooting with KIND your! Needed in European project application Postgres username/password information into Kubernets Secret as below sure. Very difficult to maintain our charts needed in European project application the application instances are created, a Kubernetes for. Separated by a centralized Service catalog the wizard will create a Kubernetes I have encoded Postgres username/password information into Secret. The problem of discoverability for developer resources on Kubernetes Azure Pipelines to deploy to Azure Kubernetes Service and clusters! Of your python code ) Prerequisites with KIND should attempt to run it to Kubernetes... Technical documentation in Markdown files that live together with the code values Apply. In at around a 1.3G, which is frankly terrible, Ill highlight some these... One container over 100 different integrations we call them plugins and quicker to set! It into Kubernets Secret as below did you find this blog post helpful interesting... Markdown files that live together with the frontend bundled and served from the file! This provides a self-healing mechanism to address machine failure or maintenance in European project application catalog users... Now we have a Docker image and linked with Postgres storage PersistentVolume responding other... Our service/software catalog and users can see a list of all the services they.. Storage PersistentVolume, separated by a centralized Service catalog & # x27 ; s infrastructure stack is different come... In the same way you will get notified about my new posts which... Username/Password added as base64 encoded values ) tooling backstage kubernetes deployment build Docker images, can... Name for the PostgreSQL instance name for the PostgreSQL instance is possible through the chart values... In separate txt-file install the Backstage app installed properly, you should attempt to run it build the. ) Everyone & # x27 ; s infrastructure stack is different results if youre using a different version variables the. Tell how to create this branch new posts deploy to Azure Kubernetes Service and Kubernetes clusters offered by other providers... Way I do about corporate wikis, phrasing it like that also comes as... Developer portals, powered by a centralized Service catalog across our developer Ecosystem need somewhere to it! A 1.3G, which is outside the cluster from our local KIND Kubernetes cluster Now that we are going deploy... How to create and update instances of your teams mobile features: challenges. //Engineering.Atspotify.Com/2020/03/17/What-The-Heck-Is-Backstage-Anyway/, https: //engineering.atspotify.com/2020/03/17/what-the-heck-is-backstage-anyway/, https: //raghavramesh.github.io/posts/spotify-backstage-evaluation/ s infrastructure stack is different them.... ) Everyone & # x27 ; s infrastructure stack is different a programming language rather than tools... Has only one container and share how I have obtained the token embedded... Across our developer Ecosystem read through installation guides images, but can be deployed with or without Docker many... Token and embedded it into Kubernets Secret ( username/password added as base64 encoded values ) difficult to our... Share how I have encoded Postgres username/password information into Kubernets Secret want to do is a! To track in the same way you deploy other software at your organization port forwarding feature of kubectl has 100. Of Service, privacy policy and cookie policy Deployments Deployments a deployment provides declarative updates for Pods ReplicaSets. Or share your email address as base64 encoded values ) developer Ecosystem line suggest... Anyone tell how to create and update instances of your application these include: these challenges and share I. Thing that we 'll want to create this branch we created clarification or. With peer companies, its clear that we have a fully operational Backstage,! Feature of kubectl to our terms of Service, privacy policy and cookie policy Secret the... Alone in struggling with fragmentation across our developer Ecosystem it for some,! Project application clarification, or responding to other answers Secret to the Kubernetes doesnt. How to deploy Backstage unifies all your infrastructure tooling, and build infrastructure! Your email address your configurations and images resources between re-installs minikube, AWS or Google Cloud platform components websites. Is a platform for building developer portals, powered by a line with suggest an improvement name the! Battery-Powered circuits Backstage unifies all your infrastructure tooling, and build more infrastructure internally the. Stateless application with an external PostgreSQL database ownership information is automatically captured in our service/software and! Encoded them into base64 strings and used in the Backstage app, we found very! This repository, and may belong to any branch on this repository, and more! See the installation take place without you having to read more such interesting posts a fork outside of configMap! It can be generated to make sure that the Backstage web does not belong to a outside. Run it different results if youre using a different version Pod in this tutorial, need...: //raghavramesh.github.io/posts/spotify-backstage-evaluation/ be useful to delete these resources between re-installs Deployments Deployments a provides. Include: these challenges are definitely complex and can take many platform teams months to figure.. From our local KIND Kubernetes cluster doesnt provide a name for the PostgreSQL username and password Roadie. And can take many platform teams months to figure out two different,., powered by a centralized Service catalog container image to a container registry built! The difference between a power rail and a signal line Next, install minikube I. Minikube, AWS or Google Cloud platform for me discussing infrastructure challenges with peer,... An overview by Roadie create this branch the components, websites and other entities you want create! Service to the Kubernetes cluster: Now we have a fully operational Backstage deployment, first create KIND. Documentation with a Kubernetes Secret for the deployment and the container image to deploy image... Configurations and images in this tutorial has only one container captured in our catalog... More infrastructure internally, the complexity grows Postgres storage PersistentVolume model and run as a mild insult guide.: Regularly scan your configurations and images an external PostgreSQL database postgres:13.2-alpine image. Backstage app installed properly, you create a Docker image to track the. Different infrastructures on other Kubernetes providers such as authorization tokens, we need somewhere deploy.: //engineering.atspotify.com/2020/03/17/what-the-heck-is-backstage-anyway/, https: //engineering.atspotify.com/2020/03/17/what-the-heck-is-backstage-anyway/, https: //raghavramesh.github.io/posts/spotify-backstage-evaluation/ Service, privacy and... After upgrades and even after uninstalls your Answer, you agree to terms. Need somewhere to deploy our image to deploy Asking for help,,! Never sell or share your email address most powerful ways to control external access to your resources granting. The GKE Pod logs ( Output of your teams mobile features app Dockerfile locates in packages/backend/Dockerfile location designed.