Immutable Infrastructure and GitOps

GitOps is a methodology for managing and automating IT operations by using Git as the single source of truth for infrastructure and application configurations. It emphasizes the use of version control systems like Git to store, manage, and track changes to infrastructure code, application code, and configuration files. Infrastructure and configurations are defined declaratively as code, allowing teams to specify the desired state of the system rather than writing imperative scripts to achieve that state. Tools like ArgoCd/ fluxcd monitors for drift in state and automatically redeploys with actual state present in git. The drift could be due to an intended change in configuration or might be due to any issue in infra either ways tools monitor and take immediate action.

Immutable Infrastructure and GitOps are two modern paradigms in the field of DevOps and infrastructure management.

Immutable Infrastructure:
Immutable Infrastructure is an architectural approach where infrastructure components, such as servers, containers, or virtual machines, are created once and never modified afterward.
Instead of making changes to existing infrastructure, updates are achieved by replacing the entire infrastructure with new, updated versions.
This approach ensures consistency, reliability, and reproducibility of infrastructure deployments.
Immutable Infrastructure is often used in conjunction with containerization and cloud computing platforms.

GitOps is a set of practices and principles for managing infrastructure and application deployments using Git as the single source of truth.
With GitOps, all configuration, policies, and infrastructure definitions are stored in a version control system like Git.
Changes to infrastructure or application configurations are made through Git commits, pull requests, and merges.
A continuous delivery pipeline watches the Git repository for changes and automatically applies them to the target environment.
GitOps promotes declarative configurations and automation, enabling infrastructure and application deployments to be fully automated and reproducible.

Integration of Immutable Infrastructure and GitOps:

Immutable Infrastructure complements GitOps by providing a reliable and consistent foundation for infrastructure deployments.
In an Immutable Infrastructure setup, infrastructure changes are defined as code and stored in version control repositories.
GitOps practices ensure that these changes are automatically applied to the target environment, following the principles of continuous delivery and automation.
By combining Immutable Infrastructure and GitOps, organizations can achieve infrastructure as code (IaC) practices, streamline deployments, improve reliability, and enhance collaboration between development and operations teams.
Overall, the integration of Immutable Infrastructure and GitOps enables organizations to achieve more predictable, scalable, and efficient infrastructure management processes, leading to improved agility and faster delivery of applications and services.