Why is GitOps so good?
GitOps is a practice that involves running everything "as code" using best practices from software development, with an automated way to continuously reconcile the code in all aspects of a product's tech stack and life cycle. This approach ensures reproducibility, as automating something is primarily to codify knowledge and maintain consistency.
Formally, GitOps consists of four principles:
1. Declarative - Desired state of the system must be expressed declaratively.
2. Versioned and immutable - Desired state is stored in a way that enforces immutability, versioning, and retains a complete version history.
3. Pulled automatically - Software agents automatically pull the desired state declarations from the source.
4. Continuously reconciled - Software agents observe the actual system state and attempt to apply the desired state.
While GitOps is often discussed in the context of Kubernetes, it can be applied to any system by following the outlined principles. The key is describing your desired state in code, observing the actual state, and automating the reconciliation operation.
GitOps can be executed well or poorly, depending on the precision in describing the desired state and the implementation of the three agent actions. Successful GitOps hinges on accurately defining the desired state and implementing the agent's actions effectively.
Written by urgent.news from Lobsters's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
