A trivial flux demo

[ppbrown]

I was surprised that I didnt see a trivial "hello world" type demo for flux in the docs.

So I wrote one.

https://github.com/ppbrown/fluxcd-public-demo

Since it's on a public repo, no github PAT setup is required. Instructions are just this:

flux install   # Sets up the flux controllers in your cluster

flux create source git ppbrown-demo \
 --url=https://github.com/ppbrown/fluxcd-public-demo \
 --branch=main --interval=1m

flux create kustomization demo-app-group \
 --source=GitRepository/ppbrown-demo \
 --path=./clusters/ppbrown-demo \
 --prune=true --interval=1m

[stefanprodan]

We don't offer such a demo because flux install is not meant to be used outside of CI testing. Flux is meant to manage itself from Git, so that you can drive the upgrades in a GitOps fashion. This can be done with either flux bootstrap or Flux Operator.

[ppbrown]

Interesting.

In that case, for purposes of people brand new to flux, and just want a quick "what does it really look like?" view, it would be nice if flux bootstrap supported an install type with a read-only-repo mode.

In that way, it would be possible to make a quickie demo like the above, without having to go through the hassle of setting up git personal access tokens for a one-time demo.

[kphunter]

@ppbrown Are you thinking like a one-shot "here's how flux can install something on a cluster" type demo? There could be a use case there for quick deploys, but the power of flux comes when commits are made to the write-able repo and then the magic of reconciliation takes over :)

[ppbrown]

My motivation for writing this, was,
"I'm coming from argocd. I dont understand what flux is doing or what it looks like. Is it worth my very limited time to look into it any further?"

Since I know both tools can 'do the job', the choice was mostly going to come down to "how does it feel to poke at on a cluster"

A picture is worth a thousands words... a running demo is worth a thousand lines of documentation

This gave me what I needed to know about Flux, with the least amount of effort (if I were just running the script as an outsider, anyway)
Otherwise I may have just decided to go with argoCD out of inertia.

It personally offends my sensibilities to set up access keys to my github for something that I may throw away as soon as I look at it :-}

"the power of flux comes when commits are made to the write-able repo and then the magic of reconciliation takes over"

umm.. yes... exactly? My demo creates a fully working flux, that will bring the cluster in line with any changes made to the repo since last reconcile.

[kphunter]

Your demo certainly helps demonstrate basic functionality; I'll offer two recommendations:

1. simplify your demo: if your intent is "hello-world"-esque, why not reduce to a single kustomization-deployed pod manifest?
2. have the instructions above with placeholders for someone's own writable repo somewhere in the README.md for people to get started quickly.

[ppbrown]

Thanks for the feedback!
I recently tried to simplify the directions, but I'm open to further suggestions.

I currently offer people two choices: a single-pod one, and a helm-based one.
DId you only try the helm one?

Or perhaps you are suggesting I should have the first part focus on the simpler case, and offer the helm one as an optional "part 2" ?

Maybe I'll offer a "QUICKSTART" version, and a seperate "in-depth" version.

[ppbrown]

Okay, I added a super-stripped down Quickstart Guide

And then simplified the README some more.

edit: and also added a multi-environment demo