How to Add an Azure AKS Kubernetes Cluster Self-Signed CA to GitLab CI/CD Kubernetes Integration

In the world of DevOps, Kubernetes has become the go-to solution for container orchestration. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) provides a managed environment for deploying, managing, and scaling your containerized applications. GitLab CI/CD, on the other hand, is a powerful tool for automating the lifecycle of your applications. In this blog post, we’ll guide you through the process of adding an Azure AKS Kubernetes Cluster self-signed CA to GitLab CI/CD Kubernetes integration.

By Saturn Cloud | Tuesday, August 08, 2023 | Miscellaneous

How to Add an Azure AKS Kubernetes Cluster Self-Signed CA to GitLab CI/CD Kubernetes Integration

Prerequisites

Before we dive in, make sure you have the following:

An Azure account with an AKS cluster
GitLab account with sufficient permissions
kubectl and az CLI installed on your local machine

Step 1: Retrieve the AKS Cluster CA Certificate

First, we need to retrieve the self-signed CA certificate from the AKS cluster. This can be done using the Azure CLI (az).

CLUSTER_RESOURCE_GROUP=<your-cluster-resource-group>
CLUSTER_NAME=<your-cluster-name>

# Get the AKS cluster credentials
az aks get-credentials --resource-group $CLUSTER_RESOURCE_GROUP --name $CLUSTER_NAME

# Retrieve the CA certificate
CA_CERTIFICATE=$(kubectl get secret $(kubectl get sa default -o jsonpath="{.secrets[0].name}") -o jsonpath="{.data['ca\.crt']}")

Step 2: Base64 Decode the CA Certificate

The retrieved CA certificate is base64 encoded. We need to decode it before adding it to GitLab.

# Decode the CA certificate
echo $CA_CERTIFICATE | base64 --decode > ca.crt

Step 3: Add the Kubernetes Cluster to GitLab

Now, we’ll add the Kubernetes cluster to GitLab. Navigate to your project in GitLab, then go to Settings > CI/CD > Kubernetes Clusters > Add Kubernetes cluster.

Here, provide the following details:

Kubernetes cluster name: A name for your cluster
API URL: The API URL of your AKS cluster. You can get this by running kubectl cluster-info | grep 'Kubernetes master' | awk '/http/ {print $NF}'
CA Certificate: Open the ca.crt file we created earlier and copy the contents into this field
Token: A service account token. You can create one following this guide

Click on Add Kubernetes cluster to finish the process.

Step 4: Verify the Integration

To verify the integration, navigate to Settings > CI/CD > Kubernetes Clusters. You should see your newly added cluster listed here.

Conclusion

In this post, we’ve walked you through the process of adding an Azure AKS Kubernetes Cluster self-signed CA to GitLab CI/CD Kubernetes integration. This integration allows you to leverage the power of GitLab’s CI/CD pipelines with the scalability and reliability of Azure’s AKS.

Remember, while we’ve used a self-signed CA in this example, in a production environment, you should consider using a CA issued by a trusted certificate authority.

Stay tuned for more posts on leveraging the power of cloud-native technologies to streamline your DevOps workflows.

Keywords: Azure AKS, Kubernetes, GitLab CI/CD, DevOps, Kubernetes Integration, Self-Signed CA, AKS Cluster, CI/CD Pipelines, Container Orchestration, AKS Cluster CA Certificate, Base64 Decode, Add Kubernetes Cluster to GitLab, Verify Integration

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