What is GitOps?

GitOps is a set of practices that uses Git as the single source of truth for infrastructure configuration. It automates deployment and management processes by ensuring the infrastructure's state is always in sync with the desired state defined in Git.

Difference between DevOps and GitOps:

• DevOps focuses on automation and frequent deployments using CI/CD pipelines.

• GitOps emphasizes correctness and uses Git as the main tool.

• DevOps is more flexible and less strict, while GitOps is designed with a focus on correctness and is stricter.

Benefits of GitOps:

• Scalability: Manages large, complex infrastructure environments.

• Reliability: Continuously verifies actual state against desired state.

• Security: Enforces security policies through desired state definitions in Git.

• Collaboration: Facilitates team collaboration using a single source of truth.

• Auditability: Provides a complete audit trail of all infrastructure changes.

Why do we need GitOps? GitOps addresses the challenges of managing infrastructure in complex, dynamic environments, providing a more scalable, reliable, and secure way to manage infrastructure compared to traditional methods.

GitOps Tools:

• Flux: GitOps operator for Kubernetes that periodically pulls changes from Git repositories.

• Argo CD: GitOps operator with a web UI for visualizing GitOps pipelines.

• Jenkins X: CI/CD solution for Kubernetes clusters used as a GitOps tool.

• Weaveworks (WCTL): Uses Git commits to manage Kubernetes clusters.

• GitCube: Tool for building and deploying Docker images on Kubernetes clusters.

• Quay: Managed by Red Hat for image management and registry.

• Helm Operator: Manages Helm chart releases declaratively, often combined with Flux.