CI/CD and GitOps
Introduction
I vividly remember the anxiety of my first manual Kubernetes deployment to production. I had to run a series of kubectl commands in the correct order, ensure the right context was selected, and pray nothing went wrong. When a deployment failed halfway through, I had to manually rollback, and the entire process took over an hour of nerve-wracking work. That experience convinced me there had to be a better way.
Over the years, I've designed and implemented CI/CD pipelines for Kubernetes using Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, and Flux. I've transitioned teams from manual deployments to fully automated GitOps workflows where every change is tracked in Git and deployments happen automatically with proper testing and rollback capabilities. These experiences taught me that automation isn't just about convenience—it's about reliability, consistency, and enabling teams to move faster with confidence.
In this comprehensive guide, I'll share everything I've learned about building production-ready CI/CD pipelines and implementing GitOps for Kubernetes.
Table of Contents
Understanding CI/CD for Kubernetes
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) for Kubernetes involves automating the entire software delivery pipeline—from code commit to production deployment. Unlike traditional deployments, Kubernetes requires building container images, managing manifests, and orchestrating rolling updates across distributed systems.
The Deployment Challenge
Manual Kubernetes deployments are error-prone and don't scale. As teams grow and deployment frequency increases, you need automated pipelines that can build, test, and deploy applications reliably. The goal is to make deployments boring—frequent, fast, and low-risk events rather than stressful manual procedures.
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