Codefresh Bridges the Gap to Helm with Microsoft Azure Integration
Codefresh, which offers what it says is the first Kubernetes-native Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) platform, recently released a native integration for Azure Helm Repositories.
The company had previously launched its own managed repositories earlier this year, but this latest integration makes it so that its users can “build, test, and deploy Helm Charts with an easy-to-use Codefresh GUI, and store them in the Azure Container Registry,” according to a Codefresh statement. The integration allows Codefresh users using Kubernetes to “package Kubernetes applications with the charts and the images they reference together.”
“Codefresh exposes and makes a lot easier the pattern that Helm is really designed for, which is to make your application, package it, store it, and then consume it. That way, you have disaster recovery built in because you can always roll back,” said Codefresh Chief Technology Evangelist Dan Garfield in the statement.
The release is a timely one. Just a year ago, while some were calling 2018 the year of Kubernetes, there remained the sense that implementing the technology was still too difficult. Now, as we head into 2019 however, Kubernetes has emerged as the clearly dominant force in container orchestration technologies and an ecosystem is quickly growing alongside it.
Helm has seen quick adoption in this ecosystem as a package manager for Kubernetes configurations and enjoys a similar dominance. In a 2018 survey, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) called the open source package manager for Kubernetes “the preferred method for packaging.” A separate 2018 survey by Kubernetes also puts Helm above the competition.
Helm uses Helm charts to allow users to define Kubernetes applications, which can be “something simple, like a memcached pod, or something complex, like a full web app stack with HTTP servers, databases, caches, and so on.” And now, a newly announced integration is said to make access to this tool even easier, with the integration of Codefresh, Helm, and Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft announced the addition of Helm chart repositories for the Azure Container Registry (ACR) just months ago, and Garfield said the companies are working together to help grow the Helm ecosystem. According to the Codefresh announcement, users will now be able to:
- Login with Azure to add repositories to Codefresh; no additional authentication configuration required
- Consume and push Charts from Codefresh
- Manage Chart deployments in all connected Kubernetes clusters
- Geo-replicate charts across multiple regions, using the Azure Container Registry Geo-replication capabilities.
Steve Laster, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft Container Registries, said in the Codefresh statement that “Helm Chart Repositories are a natural and obvious addition to Azure Container Registry as we see more and more customers moving into production needing a means to deploy a collection of images and configurations. Being able to geo-replicate Helm Charts alongside their referenced images using common authentication streamlines chart deployments.”
For further details on how to take advantage of the integration, Codefresh offers a blog post with detailed instructions. Codefresh will also be hosting a webinar on November 28 on best practices for creating, testing, and deploying Helm Charts.
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation is a sponsor of The New Stack.
Feature image via Pixabay.
