Integrate GitLab and kubernetes

This page covers integrating GitLab with kubernetes cluster to automatically deploy from GitLab to kubernetes via CI/CD jobs.

1. In your project, go to Operate -> Kubernetes clusters, click the dropdown in the top right and select Connect a cluster (certificate - deprecated)
2. In the namespace create a gitlab service account: kubectl create sa gitlab -n <your_namespace>

3. Create the rolebinding for the service account:

   kubectl create -f - << EOF
   apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
   kind: RoleBinding
   metadata:
     name: gitlab
     namespace: <your_namespace>
   roleRef:
     apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
     kind: ClusterRole
     name: admin
   subjects:
   - kind: ServiceAccount
     name: gitlab
     namespace: <your_namespace>
   EOF
   

4. Create a secret for the service account:

   kubectl -n <your_namespace> apply -f - << EOF
   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Secret
   metadata:
     name: gitlab-secret
     annotations:
       kubernetes.io/service-account.name: gitlab
   type: kubernetes.io/service-account-token
   EOF
   

5. Get the secret and CA for the service account:

   kubectl get secret -n your_namespace | grep gitlab

   kubectl get secret -n your_namespace <gitlab-secret-...> -o yaml

   echo <the token value> | base64 -d - this will give you the service token field value

   echo <the CA value> | base64 -d - CA

   API URL - get from your cluster config file (https://67.58.53.147:6443)

6. Uncheck GitLab-managed cluster, enter the namespace into Project namespace prefix (optional, unique)

7. Click Add kubernetes cluster

Now your cluster config will be available to tools like kubectl and helm to access your namespace. You can use this project as an example of how to automatically deploy a helm application yo your namespace and this one to automatically update the deployment image.