I'm trying to set up a CI/CD pipeline to deploy services using Azure Container Apps. My plan is to utilize GitHub Actions for continuous integration and deployment, Terraform for managing my infrastructure, and Gitflow as my branching strategy. I want to handle different environments like development, testing, and production through branches or tags, managing the infrastructure with Terraform, and building Docker images via GitHub Actions.
However, I'm unsure where Terraform fits into the process and how to manage deployment configurations effectively. Initially, I considered using the command line, but realized that environmental-specific configurations (like CPU allocation and service-specific settings such as CORS configurations) can complicate things, especially since they differ between environments (e.g., dev versus test and prod).
Does anyone have examples or implementations regarding this setup, or any useful tips to share? Thanks in advance!
3 Answers
I've experimented with many Git strategies for Terraform, and trunk-based development has worked best for me. You might also think about separating your infrastructure from the application repo to allow flexibilities in branching strategies.
Here are some useful resources to kickstart your pipeline setup! For handling secrets in GitHub Actions, you can pass them as Terraform variables, or even create a Key Vault in Terraform to manage them. Check out these links for more details:
- [Using secrets in GitHub Actions](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/security-for-github-actions/security-guides/using-secrets-in-github-actions)
- [Managing environments for deployment](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/managing-workflow-runs-and-deployments/managing-deployments/managing-environments-for-deployment)
- [Terraform .tfvars](https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-tfvars)
Also, I’ve never used Gitflow for Terraform myself, but I've heard mixed reviews.
With Terraform and Azure Container Apps, I find it beneficial to maintain a separate repo just for infrastructure. My setup has specific configurations for deployment where I use a config YAML file to specify the correct image, storage, and resource requirements for the container app but set it to ignore template changes in the app resource.
Interesting! Do you use a placeholder image in the Terraform template during initial deployments? Also curious on your approach to handle secrets and environment variables.
Totally agree! Keeping them separate makes it easier to manage changes independently.