Exekube is a framework (platform) for managing the whole lifecycle of Kubernetes-based projects as declarative code. It takes the modular "Infrastructure as Code" approach to automate the management of both cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes resources using popular open-source tools, Terraform and Helm.
You can find the latest Exekube documentation at https://docs.exekube.com.
The Exekube project is divided across a few GitHub repositories:
-
exekube/exekube. This is the main repository that you are currently looking at. Its divided into the following subdirectories:
- modules. Exekube's Terraform module library (third-party Module Registry)
- cli. Exekube's CLI (written in Go) for commands like
xk up,xk down, etc. - dockerfiles. Exekube's Dockerfiles (
exekube/exekube:<version>-<tag>) - docs. Documentation source for https://docs.exekube.com (MkDocs / Material theme / Markdown)
-
exekube/charts. This Git repository hosts Exekube's Helm chart repository you can add with
helm repo add exekube https://exekube.github.io/charts
- exekube/base-project. A minimal Exekube project on Google Cloud Platform / GKE
- exekube/demo-apps-project. Deploy web applications (Ruby on Rails, React) onto Google Cloud Platform / GKE
- exekube/demo-ci-project. Deploy private CI tools (Concourse, Docker Registry, ChartMuseum) onto Google Cloud Platform / GKE
- exekube/demo-grpc-project. Deploy a hello-world gRPC server app and its REST client app onto Google Cloud Platform / GKE
- exekube/demo-istio-project. Get started with the Istio mesh framework on GKE
Go to the Exekube Getting Started Tutorial at https://docs.exekube.com/in-practice/getting-started to create your first Exekube project.
- Using many command line tools and GUIs to manage cloud resources (
gcloud,aws,kops) and Kubernetes resources (kubectl,helm) is tedious and error-prone - Terraform is a very flexible declarative tool with support for a large number of cloud providers and can replace or automate the use of all of the said command line tools
- Exekube aims to take advantage of Terraform's power and give us a "sane default" state for managing everything related to Kubernetes as declarative code in an automated, Git-based workflow following the "Infrastructure as Code" philosophy
The framework allows you to:
- Not worry about managing dependencies like
gcloud,terraform,kubectl,helm, etc. since they're all packaged into a Docker image - Control your cloud infrastructure as declarative code via Terraform
- Control your container orchestration as decalrative code via Terraform and Helm
- Create production-grade clusters and deploy all Kubernetes resources via one command
- Destroy all cloud and Kubernetes resources via one command (to avoid wasting money in non-production environments)
- Freely choose a cloud provider to host Kubernetes (only Google Cloud Platform with experimental Alibaba Cloud support as of 0.3)
| Terraform module | Platform | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| helm-initializer | Any (Kubernetes) | Module for deploying Tiller into any namespace following security best practices |
| helm-release | Any (Kubernetes) | Module for installing Helm charts (creating a release) |
| helm-template-release | Any (Kubernetes) | Module for installing Helm charts without Tiller (uses helm template and kubectl apply) |
| gke-network | Google Cloud (GKE) | Module for creating a VPC and other networking cloud resources for GKE clusters |
| gke-cluster | Google Cloud (GKE) | Module for creating production-grade Kubernetes clusters using Google Kubernetes Engine |
| gcp-secret-mgmt | Google Cloud (GKE) | Module for creating GCS buckets and KMS encryption keys for securely distributing project secrets |
| ali-network | Alibaba Cloud | [Experimental] Module for creating a VPC and other networking resources for Kubernetes clusters on Alibaba Cloud |
| ali-cluster | Alibaba Cloud | [Experimental] Module for creating Kubernetes clusters on Alibaba Cloud |
Please review the CONTRIBUTING.md file for information on how to get started contributing to the project.