Version: Next

Use Flux to support Helm chart propagation

Flux is most useful when used as a deployment tool at the end of a Continuous Delivery Pipeline. Flux will make sure that your new container images and config changes are propagated to the cluster. With Flux, Karmada can easily realize the ability to distribute applications packaged by Helm across clusters. Not only that, with Karmada's OverridePolicy, users can customize applications for specific clusters and manage cross-cluster applications on the unified Karmada Control Plane.

Start up Karmada clusters

To start up Karmada, you can refer to here. If you just want to try Karmada, we recommend building a development environment by hack/local-up-karmada.sh.

git clone https://github.com/karmada-io/karmada
cd karmada
hack/local-up-karmada.sh

After that, you will start a Kubernetes cluster by kind to run the Karmada Control Plane and create member clusters managed by Karmada.

kubectl get clusters --kubeconfig ~/.kube/karmada.config

You can use the command above to check registered clusters, and you will get similar output as follows:

NAME      VERSION   MODE   READY   AGE
member1   v1.23.4   Push   True    7m38s
member2   v1.23.4   Push   True    7m35s
member3   v1.23.4   Pull   True    7m27s

Start up Flux

In the Karmada Control Plane, you need to install Flux CRDs but do not need controllers to reconcile them. They are treated as resource templates, not specific resource instances. Based on the work API here, they will be encapsulated as a work object delivered to member clusters and reconciled by Flux controllers in member clusters, finally.

kubectl --kubeconfig ~/.kube/karmada.config --context karmada-apiserver apply -k https://github.com/fluxcd/flux2/manifests/crds?ref=v2.4.0

For testing purposes, we'll install Flux on member clusters without storing its manifests in a Git repository:

kubectl --kubeconfig ~/.kube/members.config --context member1 apply -f https://github.com/fluxcd/flux2/releases/download/v2.4.0/install.yaml
kubectl --kubeconfig ~/.kube/members.config --context member2 apply -f https://github.com/fluxcd/flux2/releases/download/v2.4.0/install.yaml

Tips:

If you want to manage Helm releases across your fleet of clusters, Flux must be installed on each cluster.
If the Flux toolkit controllers are successfully installed, you should see the following Pods:

$ kubectl --kubeconfig ~/.kube/members.config --context member1 get pods -n flux-system 
NAME                                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
helm-controller-79bb868f5d-7cxnx              1/1     Running   0          13m
image-automation-controller-cb5ff5bf9-5vbhg   1/1     Running   0          13m
image-reflector-controller-568fc784cb-t99r7   1/1     Running   0          13m
kustomize-controller-866fbd5855-zrn85         1/1     Running   0          13m
notification-controller-75846575bf-c42m9      1/1     Running   0          13m
source-controller-cc7bd674d-mntb6             1/1     Running   0          13m

Helm release propagation

If you want to propagate Helm releases for your apps to member clusters, you can refer to the guide below.

Define a Flux HelmRepository and a HelmRelease manifest in the Karmada Control Plane. They will serve as resource templates.

apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: HelmRepository
metadata:
  name: podinfo
spec:
  interval: 1m
  url: https://stefanprodan.github.io/podinfo  
---
apiVersion: helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2
kind: HelmRelease
metadata:
  name: podinfo
spec:
  interval: 5m
  chart:
    spec:
      chart: podinfo
      version: 5.0.3
      sourceRef:
        kind: HelmRepository
        name: podinfo

Define a Karmada PropagationPolicy that will propagate them to member clusters:

apiVersion: policy.karmada.io/v1alpha1
kind: PropagationPolicy
metadata:
  name: helm-repo
spec:
  resourceSelectors:
    - apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
      kind: HelmRepository
      name: podinfo
  placement:
    clusterAffinity:
      clusterNames:
        - member1
        - member2
---
apiVersion: policy.karmada.io/v1alpha1
kind: PropagationPolicy
metadata:
  name: helm-release
spec:
  resourceSelectors:
    - apiVersion: helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2
      kind: HelmRelease
      name: podinfo
  placement:
    clusterAffinity:
      clusterNames:
        - member1
        - member2

The above configuration is for propagating the Flux objects to member1 and member2 clusters.

Apply those manifests to the Karmada-apiserver:

kubectl --kubeconfig ~/.kube/karmada.config --context karmada-apiserver apply -f <file-contains-configuration-above>

The output is similar to:

helmrepository.source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/podinfo created
helmrelease.helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/podinfo created
propagationpolicy.policy.karmada.io/helm-repo created
propagationpolicy.policy.karmada.io/helm-release created

Switch to the distributed cluster and verify:

helm --kubeconfig ~/.kube/members.config --kube-context member1 list

The output is similar to:

NAME    NAMESPACE   REVISION    UPDATED                                 STATUS      CHART           APP VERSION
podinfo default     1           2024-12-11 09:38:55.3331234 +0000 UTC   deployed    podinfo-5.0.3   5.0.3

Based on Karmada's propagation policy, you can schedule Helm releases to your desired cluster flexibly, just like Kubernetes schedules Pods to the desired node.

Customize the Helm release for specific clusters

The example above shows how to propagate the same Helm release to multiple clusters in Karmada. Besides, you can use Karmada's OverridePolicy to customize applications for specific clusters. For example, if you just want to change replicas in member1, you can refer to the overridePolicy below.

Define a Karmada OverridePolicy:

apiVersion: policy.karmada.io/v1alpha1
kind: OverridePolicy
metadata:
  name: example-override
  namespace: default
spec:
  resourceSelectors:
    - apiVersion: helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2
      kind: HelmRelease
      name: podinfo
  overrideRules:
    - targetCluster:
        clusterNames:
          - member1
      overriders:
        plaintext:
          - path: "/spec/values"
            operator: add
            value:
              replicaCount: 2

Apply the manifest to the Karmada-apiserver:

kubectl --kubeconfig ~/.kube/karmada.config --context karmada-apiserver apply -f <file-contains-configuration-above>

The output is similar to:

overridepolicy.policy.karmada.io/example-override created

After applying the above policy in the Karmada Control Plane, you will find that replicas in member1 have changed to 2, but those in member2 keep the same.

kubectl --kubeconfig ~/.kube/members.config --context member1 get pods

The output is similar to:

NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
podinfo-77b795cc54-hk9pg   1/1     Running   0          5m39s
podinfo-77b795cc54-mk75j   1/1     Running   0          16s

Kustomize propagation

Kustomize propagation is basically the same as helm chart propagation above. You can refer to the guide below.

Define a Flux GitRepository and a Kustomization manifest in the Karmada Control Plane:

apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: GitRepository
metadata:
  name: podinfo
spec:
  interval: 1m
  url: https://github.com/stefanprodan/podinfo
  ref:
    branch: master
---
apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: Kustomization
metadata:
  name: podinfo-dev
spec:
  interval: 5m
  path: "./deploy/overlays/dev/"
  prune: true
  sourceRef:
    kind: GitRepository
    name: podinfo
  timeout: 80s

Define a Karmada PropagationPolicy that will propagate them to member clusters:

apiVersion: policy.karmada.io/v1alpha1
kind: PropagationPolicy
metadata:
  name: kust-release
spec:
  resourceSelectors:
    - apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
      kind: Kustomization
      name: podinfo-dev
  placement:
    clusterAffinity:
      clusterNames:
        - member1
        - member2
---
apiVersion: policy.karmada.io/v1alpha1
kind: PropagationPolicy
metadata:
  name: kust-git
spec:
  resourceSelectors:
    - apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
      kind: GitRepository
      name: podinfo
  placement:
    clusterAffinity:
      clusterNames:
        - member1
        - member2

Apply those YAMLs to the karmada-apiserver:

kubectl --kubeconfig ~/.kube/karmada.config --context karmada-apiserver apply -f <file-contains-configuration-above>

The output is similar to:

gitrepository.source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/podinfo created
kustomization.kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/podinfo-dev created
propagationpolicy.policy.karmada.io/kust-release created
propagationpolicy.policy.karmada.io/kust-git created

Switch to the distributed cluster and verify:

kubectl --kubeconfig ~/.kube/members.config --context member1 get pods -n dev

The output is similar to:

NAME                        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
backend-69c7655cb-rbtrq     1/1     Running   0          15s
cache-bdff5c8dc-mmnbm       1/1     Running   0          15s
frontend-7f98bf6f85-dw4vq   1/1     Running   0          15s

Start up Karmada clusters​

Start up Flux​

Helm release propagation​

Customize the Helm release for specific clusters​

Kustomize propagation​

Reference​

Start up Karmada clusters

Start up Flux

Helm release propagation

Customize the Helm release for specific clusters

Kustomize propagation

Reference