Deploy an app to GKE using Cloud Deploy

Prepare your Skaffold configuration and Kubernetes manifest

Cloud Deploy uses Skaffold to provide the details for what to deploy and how to deploy it properly for your separate targets.

In this quickstart, you create a skaffold.yaml file, which identifies the Kubernetes manifest to be used to deploy the sample app.

1. Open a terminal window.

2. Create a new directory, named deploy-gke-quickstart and navigate into it.

   mkdir deploy-gke-quickstart
   cd deploy-gke-quickstart
   

3. Create a file named skaffold.yaml with the following contents:

   apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta7
   kind: Config
   manifests:
     rawYaml:
     - k8s-*
   deploy:
     kubectl: {}
   

   This file is a minimal Skaffold config, identifying your manifest. For this quickstart, you create the file. But you can also have Cloud Deploy create one for you, for simple, non-production applications.

   See the skaffold.yaml reference for more information about this file.

4. Create a file named k8s-pod.yaml, with the following contents:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Pod
   metadata:
     name: getting-started
   spec:
     containers:
     - name: nginx
       image: my-app-image
   

   This file is a basic Kubernetes manifest, which is applied to the cluster to deploy the application. The container image to deploy is set here as a placeholder, my-app-image, which is replaced with the specific image when you create the release.

Create your delivery pipeline and targets

You can define your pipeline and targets in one file or in separate files. In this quickstart, you create a single file.

1. In the deploy-gke-quickstart directory, create a new file: clouddeploy.yaml, with the following contents:

   apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
   kind: DeliveryPipeline
   metadata:
     name: my-gke-demo-app-1
   description: main application pipeline
   serialPipeline:
     stages:
     - targetId: qsdev
       profiles: []
     - targetId: qsprod
       profiles: []
   ---
   
   apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
   kind: Target
   metadata:
     name: qsdev
   description: development cluster
   gke:
     cluster: projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/clusters/quickstart-cluster-qsdev
   ---
   
   apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
   kind: Target
   metadata:
     name: qsprod
   description: production cluster
   gke:
     cluster: projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/clusters/quickstart-cluster-qsprod
   

2. Register your pipeline and targets with the Cloud Deploy service:

   gcloud deploy apply --file=clouddeploy.yaml --region=us-central1 --project=PROJECT_ID
   

   You now have a pipeline, with targets, ready to deploy your application to your first target.

3. Confirm your pipeline and targets:

   In the Google Cloud console, navigate to the Cloud Deploy Delivery pipelines page to view of list of your available delivery pipelines.

   Open the Delivery pipelines page

   The delivery pipeline you just created is shown, and the two targets are listed in the Targets column.

   

Create a release

A release is the central Cloud Deploy resource representing the changes being deployed. The delivery pipeline defines the lifecycle of that release. See Cloud Deploy service architecture for details about that lifecycle.

Run the following command from the deploy-gke-quickstart directory to create a release resource that represents the container image to deploy:

gcloud deploy releases create test-release-001 \
  --project=PROJECT_ID \
  --region=us-central1 \
  --delivery-pipeline=my-gke-demo-app-1 \
  --images=my-app-image=gcr.io/google-containers/nginx@sha256:f49a843c290594dcf4d193535d1f4ba8af7d56cea2cf79d1e9554f077f1e7aaa

Notice the --images= flag, which you use to replace the placeholder (my-app-image) in the manifest with the specific, SHA-qualified image. Google recommends that you templatize your manifests this way, and that you use SHA-qualified image names at release creation.

As with all releases (unless they include --disable-initial-rollout), Cloud Deploy automatically creates a rollout resource too. The application is automatically deployed into the first target in the progression.

Promote the release

1. From the Delivery pipelines page, click the my-gke-demo-app-1 pipeline.

   Open the Delivery pipelines page

   The Delivery pipeline details page shows a graphical representation of your delivery pipeline's progress. In this case, it shows that the release was deployed to the qsdev target.

   

2. On the first target in the delivery pipeline visualization, click Promote.

   The Promote release dialog is shown. It shows the details of the target you're promoting to.

3. Click Promote.

   The release is now queued for deployment into qsprod. When deployment is complete, the delivery pipeline visualization shows it as deployed:

   

View the results in Google Cloud console

1. In the Google Cloud console, navigate to the Cloud Deploy Delivery pipelines page to view your my-gke-demo-app-1 delivery pipeline.

   Open the Delivery pipelines page

2. Click the name of your delivery pipeline "my-gke-demo-app-1".

   The pipeline visualization shows the app's progress through the pipeline.

   

   And your release is listed on the Releases tab under Delivery pipeline details.

3. Click the release name, test-release-001.

   Your rollouts appear under Rollouts. You can click a rollout to view its details, including the deployment log.