27/07/2022

Notes about KRM Functions - Kustomize

Recently I dived into the new plugin system in Kustomize, KRM Functions, so I wanted to know more about it. Kubernetes Resource Model or KRM for short is simply a unified way to work with resources in Kubernetes ecosystem. For example, all plugins will have the same input and output format.

Here is a summary I found useful to share:

  • Kustomize decided to adapt KRM (Kubernetes Resource Model) functions from kpt ... and that's actually not new, it's been there for some time (around 2020).
  • The goal is to deprecate the old plugins style model. Kustomize already deprecated both Go Plugins and Exec plugins in favour of KRM style.
  • KRM Functions style has 2 ways for the plugins: Containerized KRM Functions and Exec KRM Functions.
  • The containerized KRM function is really useful one because you don't need to manage and download the Kustomize plugins (it was super annoying to manage plugins especially across multiple OS).

However, KRM functions are still alpha but look super promising, however, they are still buggy or incomplete for some use cases!

  • KRM exec has a bug which makes it almost unusable. In the PR no. #4654 I've a proposal to fix that issue.
  • KRM container has also some issues! It only works with KRM resources but not any external files (for example, if a plugin reads files from the disk, like creating ConfigMap from a text file, that will not work at the moment).

In May 2022, I decided to go a bit further and try to implement the KRM style to one of the existing plugins. So I've selected SopsSecretGenerator Kustomize plugin and introduced KRM support in the PR no. #32 So if you want to have an idea how KRM style looks like in action, then take a look at the change I made in that PR (It has been merged already).

In conclusion, KRM Functions look super promising but they are not that mature yet in Kustomize and they don't fit all the use cases.

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Hello, my name is Ahmed AbouZaid, I'm a passionate Tech Lead DevOps Engineer. 👋

With 16+ years of open-source contributions, 12+ years of professional hands-on experience in DevOps, and an M.Sc. in Data Engineering from Edinburgh Napier University (UK), I enjoy facilitating the growth of both businesses and individuals.

I specialize in Cloud-Native and Kubernetes. I'm also a Free/Open source geek and book author. My favorite topics are DevOps transformation, automation, data, and metrics.

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