Configuration📜

Overview📜

Configuration of Big Bang is achieved by overriding default values set in the package or Big Bang using the environment template. The template has a 4 potential locations for setting values: base/secrets.enc.yaml, base/configmap.yaml, <env>/secrets.enc.yaml, and <env>/configmap.yaml. Overrides proceed as follows, with <env>/configmap.yaml having the highest precedence.

graph TD
  pkg[Package values]
  -->bb[Big Bang values]
  -->base-s[`base/secrets.enc.yaml` values]
  -->base-c[`base/configmap.yaml` values]
  -->env-s[`<env>/secrets.enc.yaml` values]
  -->env-c[`<env>/configmap.yaml` values]

In all four cases, Big Bang reads a single key named values.yaml that contains the data to override. See the Big Bang environment template for examples on how to use these files to override values.

Pre-configuration📜

Before configuring Big Bang, it is expected that you have already setup:

A Kubernetes cluster
A SOPS key pair
A Git repository to hold your configuration
Pull credentials for the Git repository (if not public)
An Iron Bank robot account for production, or a non-robot account for testing. Reference Iron Bank authentication for additional details.
Certificates specific to your environment (if needed)

Minimum Viable Configuration📜

At a minimum, the following items must be configured for a default Big Bang deployment:

Big Bang version
Environment Git repository
Hostname
SOPS private key reference.
Registry pull credentials

The Big Bang Environment Template has placeholders for all of the above.

Big Bang Globals📜

`hostname`📜

Hostname is used to override the domain of deployed packages. This allows you to go to the DNS name of a server using the domain. For example, if the domain is bigbang.dev, Kiali can be reached at kiali.bigbang.dev.

Key	Description	Type	Default
`hostname`	Domain to use for deployed servers	Domain Name	`bigbang.dev`

`registryCredentials`📜

Registry credentials are used to pull images for Big Bang. By default, it points to Iron Bank, but can be modified to use a private registry. These credentials are passed down to all relevant namespaces as an image pull secret.

Key	Description	Type	Default
`registry`	Container registry location	Domain Name	`registry1.dso.mil`
`username`*	Container registry username	String	”“
`password`*	User’s password	String	”“
`email`	User’s email	Email	”“

*Credentials should be SOPS encrypted

`flux`📜

Flux settings are used to setup the default continuous deployment configuration for Big Bang packages.

Key	Description	Type	Default
`interval`	Polling interval to check for Git or Helm chart updates	##m##s (ex. 5m30s)	2m
`install.retries`	The number of retries that should be attempted on Helm chart installation failures before bailing.	int	3
`upgrade.retries`	The number of retries that should be attempted on Helm chart upgrade failures before bailing.	int	3
`rollback.timeout`	The time to wait for any individual Kubernetes operation (like Jobs for hooks) during the performance of a Helm rollback action.	##m##s	5m
`rollback.cleanupOnFail`	Allows deletion of new resources created during the Helm rollback action when it fails.	Boolean	`true`

Package📜

Each package (e.g. istio, clusterAuditor) has configuration to control how Big Bang deploys the package

Key	Description	Type	Default
`enabled`	Determines if the package will get deployed or skipped	Boolean	`true` (unless its an `addon`)
`git.repo`	Location of the Git repo holding the package deployment resources	URL	`https://repo1.dso.mil/big-bang/apps/...`
`git.branch`	Branch to use for package deployment resources	string	`chart-release` or `release-vx.x.x`
`git.commit`	SHA of specific commit to use in Git for package deployment resources	SHA	null
`git.tag`	Git tag to use for package deployment resources	string	null
`ingress.gateway`	Name of Istio Gateway to use for ingress (if supported)	string	“public”
`sso.*`	Single sign on configuration (if supported)
`database.*`	External database connection configuration (if supported)
`objectStorage.*`	Object storage configuration (if supported)
`values`	Package specific values to configure	List of key/values pairs	{}
`postRenderers`	See docs/postrenderers.md	list	[]

Flux Resources📜

Big Bang deploys four flux resources that can be customized:

Resource	Controls	Location
GitRepository	Environment	Top-level manifest (e.g. `dev.yaml`, `prod.yaml`)
Kustomization	Environment	Top-level manifest (e.g. `dev.yaml`, `prod.yaml`)
GitRepository	Big Bang	Link
HelmRelease	Big Bang	Link

In addition, each package contains its own GitRepository and HelmRelease resource that can be customized. Look in the Helm chart templates for the these resources.

Settings for any of these resources can be overridden by patching the resource in your environment’s kustomization files. Use Flux’s documentation for GitRepository, HelmRelease, and Kustomization to find settings for these resources. The following are examples of commonly requested custom patches covered in the [bigbang template repo]https://repo1.dso.mil/big-bang/customers/template/-/tree/main#flux-components):

Updating flux-system component resource usage
Example kustomization.yaml
This patch could be used to adjust the resources requested by the flux-system/helm-controller resource. A similar patch could be used to adjust the resources required by the other flux components. > NOTE: If flux is under-resourced, occasionally requests can fail in a manner that looks like a network connectivity issue (use with caution)
Adding environment variables to flux-system components
Example kustomization.yaml
This patch could be used to add AWS credential environment variables into the flux-system/kustomize-controller resource to enable SOPS decryption using a KMS key from outside of AWS.
Changing the image name / version
Example kustomization.yaml
This patch could be used to update the tag of the flux-system component image to be deployed.

NOTE: Multiple patches could be applied within a single kustomization.yaml

Big Bang Version📜

In your kustomization.yaml under your environment, here is an example of how to override the version of Big Bang you will use. You can also use a tag or branch if desired.

bases:
  - https://repo1.dso.mil/big-bang/bigbang.git/base/?ref=v1.2.*
patchesStrategicMerge:
  - |-
    apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
    kind: GitRepository
    metadata:
      name: bigbang
    spec:
      ref:
        $patch: replace
        semver: "1.2.x"

Note: You must put the version in two places, once for Kustomize to pull the right configuration base and two for Git Repository to pull the right Helm Chart.

Environment Location📜

In your top-level <env>.yaml Kubernetes manifest, you would place configuration for the location of your environment. Here is an example:

apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: GitRepository
metadata:
  name: environment-repo
  namespace: bigbang
spec:
  interval: 1m
  url: https://repo1.dso.mil/big-bang/customers/template.git
  ref:
    branch: main
---
apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: Kustomization
metadata:
  name: environment
  namespace: bigbang
spec:
  interval: 1m
  sourceRef:
    kind: GitRepository
    name: environment-repo
  path: ./dev
  prune: true
  decryption:
    provider: sops
    secretRef:
      name: sops-gpg

Registry Pull Credentials📜

If you have pull credentials for your docker registry, add them to secrets.enc.yaml. Here is an example:

The name of the Secret must be common-bb or environment-bb for Big Bang to read values from it.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: common-bb
stringData:
  values.yaml: |-
    registryCredentials:
      username: iron-bank-user
      password: iron-bank-password

You will also need to update your kustomization.yaml to merge with the existing secret:

namespace: bigbang
patchesStrategicMerge:
  - secrets.enc.yaml

Package settings📜

Besides the global settings, package settings are defined by the individual packet’s helm charts. You can find these by reviewing the git.registry setting for the package in Big Bang’s default values.yaml.

To modify a non-sensitive package setting, add it to your configmap.yaml. For sensitive information, follow the pattern for setting registry pull credentials. Here we disable twistlock and set gatekeeper’s replicas to 1:

twistlock:
  enabled: false

gatekeeper:
  values:
    replicas: 1

You will also need to merge this file with the existing configmaps in kustomization.yaml.

The name of the ConfigMap must be common or environment for Big Bang to read values from it.

namespace: bigbang
configMapGenerator:
  - name: common
    behavior: merge
    files:
      - values.yaml=configmap.yaml

Last update: 2023-10-02 by Christopher O'Connell