March 21, 2023 . 4 min read .
Tekton is a strong and adaptable open-source framework for building continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines that automate software development workflows.
Have you been curious about Tekton and found yourself searching the internet for information like “What is Tekton? What is Tekton used for? And what is Tekton pipeline? If the answer is yes, you have come to the right place! As we will be addressing these questions along with many others in this blog. But before we delve into the specifics of Tekton, let’s first take a quick look at kubernetes, which is now a well-known concept and is famous for its capabilities in automating and scaling container deployments. Refer to our previous blogs to learn the basics of Kubernetes.
However, working with Kubernetes is easier said than done. It presents its own set of challenges:
And this is where a Kubernetes-native approach can help tackle these challenges and help standardize Kubernetes deployments.
Being Kubernetes native has a lot of other advantages. Kubernetes-native could be any object, resource, custom resource, application, middleware, workload, image, tool, interface, etc., designed to run on the Kubernetes platform.
So, what is Tekton?1 let us look at the advantages it offers for being kubernetes native.
In the past, before Tekton, there were many CI/CD systems designed to run on Kubernetes, but they all had to build the same basic infrastructure before they could start solving customer problems. Kubernetes could make scheduling, orchestration, and infrastructure management more simple. However, it was still a challenge for users to assemble a few pieces before using them as an application delivery platform.
The only possible solution was to have a Kubernetes-native framework that attempted to standardize Kubernetes deployments. To make this a reality, Tekton was created. It was included in the newly established Continuous Delivery Foundation and was released as vendor-neutral, making it easily accessible to everyone. It has now matured into a graduated CDF project with strong community backing.
You can now see how Tekton addresses the issues we mentioned at the beginning of the blog post because you have a better understanding of what is Tekton.
What is Tekton pipeline and how are Tekton pipelines different? Tekton pipelines are Kubernetes extensions meant to be run and installed on Kubernetes clusters. This means we do not need additional machines to run our pipelines and can better utilize our existing ones. Not only this, but Tekton Pipeline also stores everything related to the pipeline within Kubernetes as Kubernetes resources. Tekton pipelines are designated in YAML files, primarily stored in a Git repository. In addition, Tekton provides a set of extensions to Kubernetes that define pipelines.
To understand better, let us look at the components that Tekton pipelines are made up of:
Step – It is the smallest building block for Tekton. Here you can specify an image, command, or argument. This step concept is like the existing Kubernetes container Spec. However, the new CRD (Custom Resource Definitions) for Tekton is Task.
Tasks: A Task is a unit of work in a pipeline that achieves a specific goal (build archive, docker image, test run, and deploy.) Each task is made up of various steps, which are the building blocks of a Tekton pipeline. Once the steps are planned and ordered, DevOps engineers can define the finer tasks Tekton can execute. These tasks help introduce reusability to the pipeline as they can be templatized and reused across various services.
Pipeline: A Tekton pipeline is a collection of tasks that can execute either sequentially, in parallel, or a combination of both. The order of execution can be specified as per your continuous integration flow to fit your business needs. DevOps teams can control the nodes (tasks) and steer the work in their preferred direction of execution. Here’s how a Tekton pipeline would visually look like:
Since it redefines how pipelines are built and standardizes Kubernetes deployments with its reusable pipelines, many challenges of working with Kubernetes can be tackled with the Tekton framework.
However, every rainbow has its rain! Tekton, though excellent on paper, is much more complicated to work with.
Out of the above challenges, what gets developers on edge is the overall complexity of Tekton, which requires building custom tasks and plugins or working on custom tool integrations, which usually takes a lot of time, causing the focus to shift from streamlining DevOps to just working with Tekton.
Ozone is a CI/CD platform with simple CI/CD automation that requires almost no learning curve. Built using Tekton, Ozone makes it easy for developers to automate Kubernetes application delivery. It simplifies end-to-end container development on Kubernetes. Ozone is developed to remove the hassles of managing too many DevOps tools to make it simple for developers to build and deploy applications on the Kubernetes cluster.
Reach us at [email protected] to know more or get a free demo of Ozone.
Ozone is focused on eliminating every complexity of a DevOps team. It simplifies and automates containerized and decentralised application deployments across hybrid cloud and diverse blockchain networks. Ozone integrates seamlessly with major tools across CI, CD, analytics and automation to support your software delivery end to end for even the most complex scenarios.
Write to us at [email protected]
Blog
Learn the ins and outs of GitOps and DevOps, compare and contrast their contrasting methodologies, and see how they complement one another to accelerate your software development. Keep one step ahead of the competition.
Read moreThis site uses cookies to provide a better user experience. By continuing to proceed, you agree to our Terms of Service & Privacy Policy. YesNo