Manage Dynatrace deployments using GitOps

With many companies today adopting GitOps for streamlined Kubernetes deployments, there's a growing interest in applying these practices to Dynatrace components. This guide focuses on deploying Dynatrace Operator with GitOps tools and setting up monitoring efficiently using the DynaKube custom resource (CR), aligning with modern deployment strategies.

Using ArgoCD

This section discusses deploying Dynatrace Operator and applying a DynaKube CR using ArgoCD. Additionally, it outlines options and tips for flexible integration with ArgoCD.

The following three points describe Dynatrace deployment options outlined by the subsections and combinations of them.

Deploy Dynatrace Operator

The following ArgoCD Application defines Dynatrace Operator deployment using the OCI-based Helm chart from Amazon ECR:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: dynatrace-operator
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: dynatrace
  source:
    repoURL: public.ecr.aws/dynatrace
    chart: dynatrace-operator
    targetRevision: 1.0.0
    helm: {}

For deployment customization via Helm values, please refer to ArgoCD's Helm user guide.

The Application CR can be applied in the following ways:

Multi-cluster deployments via ArgoCD ApplicationSet

To use ApplicationSet CRs for multi-cluster deployments, use the Application CR from above as a template and integrate it into an ApplicationSet CR according to ArgoCD's official documentation.

Apply DynaKube custom resource

The following ArgoCD Application references a Git repository holding a DynaKube CR under the specified filepath:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: dynakube
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: dynatrace
  source:
    repoURL: <git-reopository-url>
    targetRevision: <revision>
    path: <path-to-dynakube-dir>

Replace the repoURL, targetRevision, and path source fields with meaningful values before applying the Application CR in either of these ways:

For details on DynaKube CR configuration, see the deployment options documentation.

Apply the App of Apps pattern

ArgoCD's App Of Apps pattern describes a very common approach in the ArgoCD community enabling automatic cluster bootstrapping. In combination with Sync Phases and Waves, the App of Apps pattern provides sequential control over Application synchronization required for deploying Dynatrace Operator before applying a DynaKube CR ¹.

Add the argocd.argoproj.io/sync-wave annotation with the respective value to the Application CRs from the above sections as illustrated in the following snippet:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  annotations:
    argocd.argoproj.io/sync-wave: "0"
  name: dynatrace-operator
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  ...

---
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  annotations:
    argocd.argoproj.io/sync-wave: "10"
  name: dynakube
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  ...

Both Application CRs are meant to be applied via the App of Apps pattern (which requires a parent Application CR).

Use multiple sources for an ArgoCD Application (beta feature)

Multiple sources for an Application enables you to use a single ArgoCD Application for deployment of Dynatrace Operator and DynaKube CR. Additionally, the feature allows Helm value files to be sources from a Git repository other than the Helm chart itself, which was not possible in ArgoCD before.

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: dynatrace
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: dynatrace
  sources:
  - repoURL: public.ecr.aws/dynatrace
    chart: dynatrace-operator
    targetRevision: 1.0.0
    helm:
      valueFiles:
      - $values/<path-to-dynatrace-operator-values-file>
  - repoURL: <git-repository-url>
    targetRevision: HEAD
    ref: values
  - repoURL: <git-repository-url>
    targetRevision: HEAD
    path: <path-to-dynakube-dir>
  syncPolicy:
    retry: # sample retry configuration; for details, see footnote below
      limit: 5
      ...
    ...

Before applying, replace all placeholders with meaningful values and configure automatic retries².

Auto-update for Dynatrace Operator

For configuring automatic updates for Dynatrace Operator, see Auto-update of Dynatrace Operator, which explains integrating GitOps with dependency automation tools.