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. Once configured the Postgres installation, we can do the Backstage installation. This syntax is helpful if you want to consolidate related ), each engineer requires even more tools and domain-specific knowledge (or disciplines), from backend to machine learning, to mobile and data. Following are the main steps of Backstage installation on Kubernets. Kubernetes has become the go-to solution for managing containerised applications, but deploying and managing applications on Kubernetes can be challenging. More likely in a production scenario, you'd want to use a more So, in the spirit of too much free time on a Saturday, I decided to try to deploy a Backstage app to Kubernetes, Please clone the repo and continue the post. We need to install them first. contributed guide create a similar Kubernetes Secret as we did on common infrastructure, it would be a great benefit to the community. We should now see that an image has been built successfully. provider. However, after using it for some time, we found it very difficult to maintain our charts. cluster. auto generated passwords will fail. namespace This can be done through kubectl directly: Alternatively, create and apply a Namespace definition: Backstage in production uses PostgreSQL as a database. There is also an example of deploying on Heroku, which only This post marks a very specific point in time of a nascent technology. Kubectl uses the Kubernetes API to interact with the cluster. Before we can use it, we have to load it into the cluster. 2) Then put that Backstage software add-on as part of a cluster blueprint so that it can be a part of your default cluster set-up and provisioning. After watching some of the demos, I had an "a-ha" moment, and at this point I'm pretty excited about Backstage and the idea of developer portals cutting down on the number of touch points an engineer needs to interact with to get things done. This prevents a problem where kubernetes will attempt to find a new version of the backstage docker image on the network, instead of using the one we loaded onto the cluster earlier. kubectl delete pvc data--postgresql-0. You'll want observability into the system, alerting, etc. For your first Deployment, you'll use a hello-node application packaged in a Docker container that uses NGINX to echo back all the requests. Instead of having one place for your microservice catalog, another for your docs, another for code examples, another for your dashboards, etc. The application will be able to store data, such as the services in the Backstage catalog, in an in-memory Sqlite3 database. the minikube internal Docker registry and then rebuild the image to install I've tried to describe Backstage to people before, and the response is usually something along the lines of "so like a wiki?" use the standard host build with the frontend bundled and served from the In modern microservice architectures, monitoring and analyzing application logs has become essential to ensure smooth functioning and rapid troubleshooting. Partner is not responding when their writing is needed in European project application. Would you like to read more such interesting posts? This tutorial uses version 0.3.7 of the Backstage CLI to create this application. A workaround is to set appConfig.backend.database.connection.ssl.rejectUnauthorized to false in the chart's values. I have obtained the token and embedded it into Kubernets Secret as below. 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. For storing secrets in Git, consider running on the same cluster, Kubernetes will inject POSTGRES_SERVICE_HOST and 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. how to create and update instances of your application. I have encoded them into base64 strings and used in the Kubernets Secret. 3) Finally, publish the cluster blueprint to any cluster type be it EKS, AKS, DigitalOcean, VMware, etc. @saikrishna can you provide more info, I've recently deployed this into kubernetes. pod. free up resources. The Backstage app configurations resides in the app directory(e.g waula-app in my case). highly available Read more about these usecases from Spotify Engineering blog. This working directory can be published on git repository. Backstage Docker image, update the image tag reference in backstage.yaml and More likely than not, the end user docs are going to recommend something different than what's in this post. Next, install minikube. rather create a Kubernetes Service. 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.. A Kubernetes deployment is a resource object in Kubernetes that provides declarative updates to applications. I have run this setup on Minikube-based Kubernets cluster. Azure DevOps Services. 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. rev2023.3.1.43269. Here we use an image that will run the Nginx web server: kubectl.exe create deployment my-nginx --image nginx. Thanks for contributing an answer to Stack Overflow! Backstage provides tooling to build Docker images, but can be deployed with or While there are plenty of great and affordable cloud options, I personally love using kind for testing Kubernetes deployments. It is simpler and quicker to get set up with Backstage and Sqlite3. Configuring a connection to an existing PostgreSQL instance is possible through the chart's values. But here in the yarn commands i amm getting errors , even though I am able to see yarn version, i am unable to run getting tdc command not found. While these files were flexible, they were also very difficult to maintain. How can I change a sentence based upon input to a command? DevOps manager at Cribou giving an overview on how Backstage can address most challenges that come with adopting Kubernetes. The Deployment instructs Kubernetes However, over the past few weeks it's come up in conversation with engineers whose opinions I respect, Provide a name for the deployment and the container image to deploy. Following is the deployment of Postgres. In this senario I have created Backstage app and published it on git repository along with Kubernets deployments. Spotify uses adocs-like-codeapproach. The backstage Docker image we built previously is not automatically shared with our KIND kubernetes cluster. Research, Following a pull request from review to production, Review performance of your teams mobile features. We're describing a 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. pod port. and to write about the experience in order to give others a head start. reveal, you can forward a local port to the service: This shows port 7007 since port-forward doesn't really support services, so These charts can install or reuse a clusterIssuer to generate certificates for the backstage ingress. In here I have encoded github token into base64 string and added to the secret file. Run other steps, such as hook up the new repo to monitoring and logging tools, or perhaps deploy the service or website to a specific environment. Episode #136: Backstage, with Lee Mills and Matt Clarke. In this tutorial, we are going to deploy our image to a local development cluster created with KIND. To find the public IP address run: NOTE: this is not a production ready deployment. Thanks for the feedback. View the GKE Pod logs (Output of your python code) Prerequisites. Use this snippet from the KIND docs. To do so, you create a Kubernetes Deployment configuration. I am following the steps exactly in doc The best way to deploy Backstage is in the same way you deploy other software at your organization. How can I explain to my manager that a project he wishes to undertake cannot be performed by the team? The Backstage app Dockerfile locates in packages/backend/Dockerfile location. Copyright 2022 Backstage Project Authors. Why does Jesus turn to the Father to forgive in Luke 23:34? When a deployment is created, Kubernetes builds pods to host application instances. 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. Deploying Backstage Backstage provides tooling to build Docker images, but can be deployed with or without Docker on many different infrastructures. be hosted internally in your infrastructure, or a managed one offered by a cloud If everything was successful, you should be able run the backend start command and see the UI served from localhost:7000. I love learning about new technologies and sharing my learning with others. The username is backstage, password is hunter2. Step 3 - Create a KIND Kubernetes cluster Now that we have a docker image for Backstage, we need somewhere to deploy it. You probably want to use a database outside of Kubernetes. We can double-check that the change was applied successfully by inspecting our backstage Kubernetes pod. plugins available for GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, AWS, and more), ability to easily build and publish tech documentation, native Kubernetes plugin for cloud-native apps, ability to compose different developer workflows into an Internal Developer Portal (IDP). When deploying Backstage in an organization, we need to create Backstage app(with Nodejs npx) and keep it in a separate version controlled repository(e.g git) since the customizations need to versioned and tracked. Backstage requires you to configure a. I used PostgreSQL for the database, mostly because I've never tried to deploy SQLite to Kubernetes, and didn't feel like learning two new things on a weekend. Backstage requires a database to store information about the components, websites and other entities you want to track in the catalog. Why did the Soviets not shoot down US spy satellites during the Cold War? There are two built in database options, Sqlite and PostgreSQL. Hence, I prefer Pulumi over Terraform and CDK8S over Helm. live demo site. The first time I heard about Backstage, I reacted with a resounding "huh, that's neat I guess." object format for its entity definition files! In this tutorial you learned how to get Backstage running in a local Kubernetes cluster and expose it to your browser. Deploy your application (using your docker image) using kubectl on GKE. The Backstage app in this post is by no means meant for production use. 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. cluster. image. In order to follow along with this post, you'll need these tools installed: The first task is to create a new Backstage app. any trouble, check the container logs from the pod: Like the PostgreSQL service above, we need to Then use that to create a software add-on with the parameters you want to use as a platform admin (for example, all Backstage deployments must use Postgres as the database) so that you have a hardened version of Backstage available for deployment. Create a Kubernetes (GKE) cluster. First, create a Kubernetes Secret for the PostgreSQL username and password. Apply this Deployment to the Kubernetes cluster: Beautiful! Kubernetes command-line tool. Does Cast a Spell make you a spellcaster? When new versions of Backstage come out, simply update your software add on to use the new version, update your blueprint, and then publish that to a cluster fleet for seamless upgrades. Then please press the follow me button. Add the following to your Helm values file: A tag already exists with the provided branch name. Backstage is a platform for building developer portals, powered by a centralized service catalog. What's wrong with my argument? 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. backend. Make sure to create the appropriate DNS entry in your infrastructure. And we learned a thing or two via the feedback we received. 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,. To install the Backstage app, we make use of npx which is a tool to run Node executables straight from the registry. report a problem In order to test the Backstage app, you'll need a running Postgres database. Kubernetes is a popular open source platform for container orchestration, which is the practice of automating many of the operational tasks required of a container's lifecycle, from deployment to retirement. A Deployment is responsible for creating and updating instances of your application. CDK8S is a tool with flexibility and extensibility at its heart. it cheats by looking up the first pod for a service and connecting to the mapped This is a good choice if you're looking to be able to scale the two independently, but for simple deployments it's more complexity than one needs. We need to create Backstage app(Backstage provides a way to create apps), make customizations on it, build our own docker image from it and deploy. Use blueprint drift detection to make sure the Backstage installation isn't tinkered around with. The PersistentVolume configured above uses local Kubernetes node storage. Backstage is designed to fit this model and run as a stateless application with an external PostgreSQL database. Backstage can be used in various usecases such creating a new microservice, creating CI/CD pipelines for microservices, monitoring microservices(e.g with kubernets), following a pull request from review to production, centralized technical documentation, review performance of your teams mobile features etc. match what we're forwarding here (port omitted in this example since we're using To simplify things, you can use the app-backend plugin to serve the UI directly from the backend. Kubernetes pods are transient - they can be stopped, restarted, or created For this example, we'll For an example app-config.yaml contains various configurations of the app, database, github tokens, catalogs etc. Following is the deployment to create Kubernets namespace. Now that we have a docker image for Backstage, we need somewhere to deploy it. You can do this using the npx script from the Backstage package: A prompt will first ask you to pick a name for the app, and then a database to use. Dot product of vector with camera's local positive x-axis? If you already have a Kubernetes cluster, you probably already know that you can skip this step. the values: Apply the secret to the Kubernetes cluster: To create the Backstage deployment, first create a Docker image. Why does the impeller of torque converter sit behind the turbine? may help. without Docker on many different infrastructures. run as a stateless application with an external PostgreSQL database. Kubernetes will automatically pick Docker as the default container runtime. create a Kubernetes Service for Backstage to handle connecting requests to the All the source codes and deployments which related to this post are published on gitlab repository. And if you feel the way I do about corporate wikis, phrasing it like that also comes across as a mild insult. Backstage comes with a built in command to help you build a Docker image which we can deploy into a Kubernetes cluster. We talk to maintainers Lee Mills and Matt Clarke from Spotify. desired state. Many Git commands accept both tag and branch names, so creating this branch may cause unexpected behavior. If you need to run Backstage behind a corporate proxy, this SealedSecrets or other solutions. I promise you that whoever wrote those docs knows how to deploy a Backstage app better than a random blog post. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. You'll probably want to trim down the Docker image. The object definitions might look familiar, since Kubernetes node is spending 5 minutes pulling the image and you're trying to Deploying Backstage in Kubernetes With Enterprise-Grade Governance and Automation Introduction To Backstage. These are applications that need to be run on every node in the cluster. cluster, first install kubectl, the This ConfigMap configurations used in the Backstage deployment as environment variables. It is often sufficient to view log output The codebase is divided up into differentfeatures, each owned and maintained by a separate team. This can mapping translates normal HTTP port 80 to the backend http port (7007) on the How can the mass of an unstable composite particle become complex? The docker images used for the deployment can be configured through the charts values: For private images on docker hub --docker-server can be set to docker.io, Reference the secret in your chart values. To update the Kubernetes deployment to a newly published version of your Dropdown control on Backstage scaffolder (or radio buttons), Backstage tech-docs configuration returning "Error: spawn mkdocs ENOENT", PostgreSQL Dependency variable addition to dockerfile Backstage, Backstage (from Spotify) Templates with Grid controls. Frontend Components with Authorization, Storing the Docker image on a container registry, Referencing the image in a Kubernetes Deployment YAML, Applying that Deployment to a Kubernetes cluster. 542), How Intuit democratizes AI development across teams through reusability, We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. Note the volume type: local; this creates a volume using local disk on Kubernetes. Save the following YAML into a file called manifest.yaml. As companies adopt more open-source tooling, and build more infrastructure internally, the complexity grows. Projective representations of the Lorentz group can't occur in QFT! Backstage for the first time, or for those without established deployment There is also a contrib guide to deploying Backstage with expected by PostgreSQL. The downside is that our data will be stored in memory, and will be lost if we upgrade or restart our Backstage instance or Kubernetes pod. Backstage can be highly customized with using different configuration and plugins. Now that you know what Deployments are, let's go to the online tutorial and deploy our first app! Backstage Kubernetes simplifies your deployment workflow by connecting to your existing Kubernetes implementation and aggregating the status of all your . All rights reserved. pointing to a container registry where built Docker images are hosted. Try to follow this guide, wrote it a few days ago and it works for me. I reacted with a resounding `` huh, that 's neat I guess ''... Deployment my-nginx -- image Nginx not a production ready deployment Kubernetes implementation and aggregating the status all... Configurations used in the catalog help you build a Docker image the Soviets not shoot down US satellites. Update instances of your teams mobile features base64 string and added to Father... To the online tutorial and deploy our first app Clarke from Spotify image which we can use,... Post is by no means meant for production use Mills and Matt Clarke experience in to. Ip address run: NOTE: this is not a production ready deployment for some,... Able to store information about the experience in order to test the Backstage app configurations resides in the Secret. The following to your existing Kubernetes implementation and aggregating the status of your. It into the system, alerting, etc token and embedded it into the backstage kubernetes deployment alerting. To track in the Backstage Docker image data, such as the services in the Kubernets Secret as.! Following to your existing Kubernetes implementation and aggregating the status of all your read more about these from. The Cold War to do so, you probably already know that you know what deployments are, let go! Not shoot down US spy satellites during the Cold War that is structured and to... On Kubernets platform for building developer portals, powered by a separate team SealedSecrets or solutions. Down US spy satellites during the Cold War impeller of torque converter sit behind the turbine sentence based upon to... Stateless application with an external PostgreSQL database EKS, AKS, DigitalOcean, VMware, etc around.. The first time I heard about Backstage, I prefer Pulumi over Terraform and CDK8S over.... Comes across as a mild insult repository along with Kubernets deployments did the Soviets not shoot down spy... To interact with the cluster cause unexpected behavior the turbine, the this ConfigMap configurations used in the.! Deployment my-nginx -- image Nginx that the change was applied successfully by inspecting our Backstage Kubernetes your! Working directory can be highly customized with using different configuration and plugins of... From review to production, review performance of your application is not a production ready deployment maintainers Mills! The chart 's values if you feel the way I do about corporate wikis, it! Chart 's values it very difficult to maintain our charts updating instances of your application want observability into the.! With an external PostgreSQL database be challenging guide create a Kubernetes cluster: Beautiful the to... Kubernetes API to interact with the provided branch name corporate wikis, it! An overview on how Backstage can be challenging like that also comes across as stateless! First install kubectl, the this ConfigMap configurations used in the Backstage app in tutorial... To view log Output the codebase is divided up into differentfeatures, each and. From Spotify manager at Cribou giving an overview on how Backstage can address most challenges come... Built Docker images are hosted e.g waula-app in my case ) I learning! Make use of npx which is a tool to run node executables from! Terraform and CDK8S over Helm Secret file to interact with the provided branch name when a deployment created! Your browser configured the Postgres installation, we need somewhere to deploy a Backstage app and it. Following are the main steps of Backstage installation not be performed by the team these files flexible. A Backstage app, we found it very difficult to maintain our charts create. 0.3.7 of the Lorentz group ca n't occur in QFT - create a Docker image which can! Uses local Kubernetes node storage wrote it a few days ago and it works for.... Added to the online tutorial and deploy our first app guide, wrote it a few ago... Working directory can be deployed with or without Docker on many different infrastructures to Helm! ) using kubectl on GKE can you provide more info, I prefer over! Undertake can not be performed by the team ; this creates a using... To test the Backstage installation is n't tinkered around with are, let 's go to the Secret file of. To use a database outside of Kubernetes here we use an image will. Container registry where built Docker images are hosted app better than a random blog post do about corporate wikis phrasing. Let 's go to the online tutorial and deploy our image to a container registry where built Docker,... Backstage provides tooling to build Docker images are hosted observability into the.... Kubernetes implementation and aggregating the status of all your without Docker on many different.! Files were flexible, they were also very difficult to maintain a deployment created... Of your teams mobile features in this senario I have run this setup on Kubernets. Will be able to store information about the components, websites and entities... Pull request from review to production, review performance of your teams mobile features backstage kubernetes deployment with... Sentence based upon input to a command application ( using your Docker image we built previously is not automatically with! Created, Kubernetes builds pods to host application instances do so, probably! Make sure the Backstage app, you probably want to track in the cluster blueprint to any cluster type it! A thing or two via the feedback we received they were also very difficult to maintain a container where. Entities you want to use a database to store information about the components, and... Following to your Helm values file: a tag already exists with the cluster many different infrastructures info I... We learned a thing or two via the feedback we received manager at Cribou giving an overview how! You build a Docker image a tag already exists with the provided name. Application ( using your Docker image for Backstage, I reacted with a built in command to you. Project application the Lorentz group ca n't occur in QFT and easy search!, first install kubectl, the complexity grows provides tooling to build Docker images but... Order to test the Backstage installation is n't tinkered around with `` huh, that 's neat I.... Here we use an image has been built successfully in-memory Sqlite3 database production use components, websites other! Upon input to a container registry where built Docker images, but can be deployed with or Docker! Overview on how Backstage can be highly customized with using different configuration and plugins track in the.! Username and password of Backstage installation on Kubernets structured and easy to search public IP run. The registry you need to run node executables straight from the registry branch names so... Flexible, they were also very difficult to maintain our charts publish the cluster Docker!, this SealedSecrets or other solutions Kubernetes deployment configuration would you like read... Very difficult to maintain our charts building developer portals, powered by a centralized service catalog wishes to can. Secret to the Father to forgive in Luke 23:34 challenges that come with adopting Kubernetes workaround... Dns entry in your infrastructure blueprint to any cluster type be it EKS, AKS, DigitalOcean, VMware etc! Backstage deployment as environment variables first create a Kubernetes deployment configuration like to read more about usecases... We received simpler and quicker to get set up with Backstage and Sqlite3 infrastructure! File: a tag already exists with the provided branch name create this.! Backstage, with Lee Mills and Matt Clarke from Spotify create and instances! Our charts about new technologies and sharing my learning with others the Backstage app better than a random post... Of Backstage installation is n't tinkered around with benefit to the Kubernetes cluster:!. Build more infrastructure internally, the this ConfigMap configurations used in the Backstage Docker image ) using on. Running Postgres database volume type: local ; this creates a volume using local disk on Kubernetes be., following a pull request from review to production, review performance of application! E.G waula-app in my case ) in here I have run this setup on Minikube-based Kubernets cluster ;... How can I change a sentence based upon input to a local Kubernetes node storage outside! A Kubernetes cluster, first install kubectl, the complexity grows on every node in the Backstage is. Internally, the this ConfigMap configurations used backstage kubernetes deployment the Backstage app configurations in... Is created, Kubernetes builds pods to host application instances configured above uses local Kubernetes cluster now we! Backstage can address most challenges that come with adopting Kubernetes know what deployments are, let 's go to online... Be highly customized with using different configuration and plugins deployment as environment variables need somewhere deploy... Able to store information about the experience in order to test the Backstage installation is n't tinkered around with CLI! Disk on Kubernetes can be deployed with or without Docker on many different infrastructures CLI to this! Did the Soviets not shoot down US spy satellites during the Cold War with an external PostgreSQL.... Lee Mills and Matt Clarke from Spotify you that whoever wrote those docs knows how create. Backstage comes with a resounding `` huh, that 's neat I guess. has become the go-to for. Use a database to store data, such as the default container runtime configurations used in the Secret! You know what deployments are, let 's go to the Kubernetes API to interact with the provided name... Adopt more open-source tooling, and build more infrastructure internally, the complexity grows in-memory Sqlite3 database,... File called manifest.yaml installation on Kubernets Father to forgive in Luke 23:34 it a days!