Quick start: Advanced Promotion Flow with environment dependencies

Promote product apps between environments with dependencies

Advanced Promotion Flow with environment dependencies quick start

By default, each environment in a Promotion Flow (except the Trigger Environment), is dependent on the one preceding it.
However, critical environments may rely on the success or stability of multiple environments before changes can be promoted to them. By defining additional dependencies, you ensure that changes are promoted only when all required environments meet the specified criteria.

This quick start shows how to create additional dependencies between environments in a Promotion Flow.
We’ll do the following:

• Create a new environment
  Add a staging environment to the existing environments.

• Create a new application Create a new application demo-trioapp-staging aligned to staging.

• Modify and save multi-env-sequential-promotion Promotion Flow
  • Add staging as a parallel environment to qa.
  • Create a dependency for prod on both qa and staging

• Trigger the promotion
  Manually trigger the Promotion Flow from within the Flow Builder to orchestrate the promotion.

• Monitor release
  Track the progress of the promotion in the Releases tab for the demo-trioapp product.

Requirements

• GitOps Runtime
• Git Source to store application manifests
• Products and applications
  • Each environment must have an application for the product. For example, demo-trioapp-dev, demo-trioapp-qa, and demo-trioapp-prodrepresenting the development, testing, and production versions.
  • The repository structure must be consistent across all applications.
    If it works for you, copy the corresponding subfolders in demo-applications with the resources.
• Environments
  A Promotion Flow requires at least three environments. In this quick start, we use dev, qa, and prod.

Example Git repository

You can copy the manifests and the resources for the new application from the example GitHub repository.

• Application manifest
  • trio-staging
• Application resources
  • trioapp-staging

Add a dependency to Promotion Flow

Update the dependency on the prod environment, by selecting staging in addition to qa.

Before you begin

• Make sure you have:
  • A new environment for the additional dependency, staging in our example.
  • Application in the new environment demo-trioapp-staging for the quick start.

Step-by-step

1. From the list of Promotion Flows, open the Promotion Flow you created, for example, multi-env-sequential-promotion.
2. If required, change the Version to 3.00.
3. Mouse over the right of the environment node before the final environment in the flow, and add the new environment you created as a parallel environment.
   In the example, staging is the parallel environment to qa.
4. Mouse over the final environment node in the Promotion Flow for which to add the dependency, prod for the quick start, and click Depends on.
5. Select the new environment you added, staging for the quick start, and then click Update dependency.

Here’s the multi-env-sequential-promotion Promotion Flow with the updated dependency.

Here’s the YAML view of the same Promotion Flow with the updated dependency.

4. Continue with Trigger and view product release with dependencies.

Trigger and view product release with dependencies

Trigger the Promotion Flow with dependencies and and verify that changes are promoted to the final environment only after all dependent environments are successfully promoted.

1. Open the Promotion Flow with environment dependencies, multi-env-sequential-promotion for the quick start, and click Trigger.
2. Select the product, the application to promote, and then click Trigger once again.
3. Click View Release Details.

The Release view highlights the dependencies within the Promotion Flow, indicating that promotion to the final environment depends on the successful promotion of one or more environments.
In the following example, prod is dependent on both qa and staging. qa has been promoted, but staging is still pending, preventing prod from starting promotion.

YAML of Promotion Flow with dependencies

Here’s the YAML of the multi-env-sequential-promotion Promotion Flow, updated with dependencies.

The YAML is saved in the Shared Configuration Repository of the GitOps Runtime selected as the Configuration Runtime. The path in the Shared Configuration Repo is <gitops-runtime>/<shared-configuration-repo>/resources/configurations/promotion-flows.

apiVersion: codefresh.io/v1beta1
kind: PromotionFlow
metadata:
  name: multi-env-sequential-promotion
  annotations:
    description: Sequential promotion flow with environment dependencies
    version: "3.0"
spec:
  triggerEnvironment: dev
  steps:
    - environment: qa
      dependsOn:
        - dev
      policy:
        action: commit
        preAction: pre-action
        postAction: post-action
    - environment: prod
      dependsOn:
        - qa
        - staging
      policy:
        action: commit
        preAction: pre-action
        postAction: post-action
    - environment: staging
      dependsOn:
        - dev
      policy:
        action: commit
  promotionTimeoutLimit: 5

By now, you’ve successfully created environments, created a product and applications, and promoted them across environments.
These foundational steps empower you to manage complex promotions confidently and effectively.

Related articles

Now that you’ve covered simple and advanced promotion scenarios, learn more on customizing promotion settings for products:

• Configuring version and promotable properties for products
• Selecting Promotion Flows and triggers for products