jx-git-operator: A Go repository from Jenkins X

jx-git-operator

jx-git-operator is an operator which polls a git repository for changes and triggers a Kubernetes Job to process the changes in git.

The definition of the Job is defined in the git repository leaving you free to trigger any kind of Job you like. e.g. use kubectl apply if you wish or helm install or kustomize or whatever.

The jx-git-operator is small with a minimal footprint and has no dependencies so can be used to install/upgrade/configure anything you like in any cluster. e.g. use it to setup tools like tekton, istio, knative, nginx etc.

It can be used to install/upgrade any environment (development, staging, production) via a GitOps approach using any set of tools you like (helm, helmfile, jx, kapp, kpt, kubectl, kustomize etc).

You are in full control over exactly what the Job does in each cluster - its GitOps all the way down ;).

How it works

The jx-git-operator will poll for git commits in git repositories. If a new git commit sha is detected in the repository, the repository is cloned and a Job is triggered for that sha.

The Job to trigger is defined in the git repository being polled. The default file is looked for at versionStream/git-operator/job.yaml or .jx/git-operator/job.yaml.

Here is an example repository with a versionStream/git-operator/job.yaml so you can see how it works

The Jenkins X Job uses a simple Makefile to trigger steps in the git operator job making it super easy for you to use any permutation of commands using tools like (helm, helmfile, jx, kapp, kpt, kubectl, kustomize which are also trivial to test locally via running make in a local git clone of the git repository.

This lets you define the exact GitOps process you wish to use without being locked into a specific operators decisions on what is supported.

Installing the easy way

The jx admin operator command line will install the operator for you and tail the log of the triggered Job so you can see what its doing.

Under the covers the command will download the helm binary for your platform, output the helm command to install the operator then actually run the command for you.

See the Getting Started Instructions

Note that if you are using terraform using a Jenkins X terraform module then the git operator is automatically installed into the Kubernetes clusters via Terraform.

Installing the hard way

To install the git operator by hand using helm 3 then try:

helm repo add jxgh https://jenkins-x-charts.github.io/repo
helm upgrade --install \
    --set url=$GIT_URL \
    --set username=$GIT_USER \
    --set password=$GIT_TOKEN \
     jx-git-operator --create-namespace jxgo jx3/jx-git-operator

Viewing the logs

kubectl

To see the new logs of the operator try:

kubectl logs -f -l app=jx-git-operator -n jx-git-operator

you should see it polling your git repository and triggering Job instances whenever a change is detected

jx

To view the logs of the jobs triggered by the git operator you can use the jx admin log command:

jx admin log

This commmand will list all the known Job instances sorted in time order, letting you pick one then showing the log details.

If you know you have just done a git commit and are waiting for the boot job to start you can run:

jx admin log --wait

Which will wait for a running Job to display.

Octant

If you use the Jenkins X plugin for Octant via:

jx ui

Then you can view the boot Jobs triggered by the git operator (along with the commit message, user and timestamp of the git commits) in the Boot Jobs tab.

See the Jenkins X Console documentation for more

Running locally

You can run the jx-git-operator locally on the command line if you want. Actions will be created as Kubernetes Jobs even if you run the binary locally - it is just the git polling which runs locally.

Download the jx-git-operator binary for your operating system and add it to your $PATH.