Why do we create manifest yaml after creating the helm installation

oskarq

Finally, generate manifests and commit to the flux-infra repo’s staging

Why do we create manifest?
Helm has everything , helm source will be monitored by Flux?

It looks like you create parametrised deployment with helm and them create an output yaml with no reason to use.

luisviveropena

Hi @oskarq, what chapter and section are you working on LFS269, please?

Regards,
Luis.

oskarq

That's the general question for every section.
For example 8 DEPLOYING HELM CHARTS WITH FLUX

fazlur.khan

Hello @oskarq ,

Its a very good question. Lets break it down and understand a little concept around it.

when you want to create Flux resources such as GitRepositories, HelmRepositories, Kustomizations, HelmReleases, and more, instead of applying them directly to your Kubernetes cluster, you want to export these definitions to YAML format. This allows you to review, version control, or modify these configurations before they are applied to the cluster.

This file can then be committed to a Git repository, allowing you to track changes over time or share the configuration with team members before it's applied.

There are few benefits of the same, such as

1. Review Process: Before making changes to your infrastructure, you can review the generated YAML files, making it easier to catch errors or unintended configurations.
2. Version Control: By committing these definitions to a version control system, you maintain a history of changes, improving the auditability and rollback capabilities.
3. Collaboration: It facilitates collaboration among team members, as changes can be reviewed through merge requests or pull requests, adhering to best practices in software development.

However as you pointed out, we don't use the generated yamls in subsequent labs. We just do it as a best practice.

Hope it answers your question.

Regards,
Fazlur

oskarq

Wouldn't it be better to generate them and apply these yaml files and track changes and not generate them after installation is done?

I know the benefits of using yaml versioned source files so I would expect to generate them first and apply all of them from the GitHub repository.

fazlur.khan

Yes you are correct, It makes sense. Its just a matter of choice, I will speak with the author and get that changed in the future release.

oskarq

Thank you.