gcloud apply spec fields

This page explains the different fields that you can set in the configuration file for Config Sync. You use this file when you are configuring Config Sync components with the Google Cloud CLI. The gcloud CLI command you use to apply the configuration file also has reference documentation.

These commands can also configure Policy Controller, but it's recommended that you use the Policy Controller gcloud commands instead.

The file format used with the gcloud CLI is similar to the format of the ConfigManagement object. However the formats are different and the two are not interchangeable.

Common configuration for Config Management

Key	Description
spec.version	The version of Config Management. If you are configuring Config Management for a cluster, the default version is the current version of the Config Management installation on said cluster. Otherwise, for fleet-wide configuration or in the absence of an existing installation on the target cluster, the default is the latest version.

Configuration for Config Sync

Key	Description
spec.cluster	The cluster name used by Config Sync cluster-name-selector annotation or ClusterSelector, for applying configs to only a subset of clusters. Set this field if a name different from the cluster's fleet membership name is used by Config Sync cluster-name-selector annotation or ClusterSelector.
spec.upgrades	(Preview) The upgrade setting for Config Sync. If set to auto, the Config Sync version is auto-upgraded. For information about how auto-upgrades work, see Upgrade Config Sync. Set to manual to manually upgrade the Config Sync version. The default value is manual. This flag is supported only for GKE clusters on Google Cloud.
spec.configSync.enabled	If true, enables Config Sync. If false, disables Config Sync. Required for gcloud CLI version 429.0.0 and earlier. Optional for gcloud CLI version 430.0.0 and later. Default: true
spec.configSync.sourceType	The type of source that Config Sync should sync from. Accepts git or oci. Default: git.
spec.configSync.syncRepo	The URL of the Git repository, OCI image, or Helm chart to use as the source of truth. You can omit this field if you don't have a repository prepared.
spec.configSync.syncBranch	The branch of the Git repository to sync from. This field is ignored if .spec.configSync.sourceType is set to oci. This field is optional and the default is master. Starting from Config Sync version 1.17.0, it's recommended to use the spec.configSync.syncRev field to specify a branch name for simplicity. If both the spec.configSync.syncRev field and the spec.configSync.syncBranch field are specified, spec.configSync.syncRev takes precedence over spec.configSync.syncBranch.
spec.configSync.policyDir	The path in the Git repository or OCI Image to the root directory that contains the configuration that you want to sync. Default: the root directory of the repository.
spec.configSync.syncWait	Period in seconds between consecutive syncs. Default: 15.
spec.configSync.syncRev	Git revision (tag or hash) to sync from. This field is ignored if .spec.configSync.sourceType is set to oci. This field is optional and the default value is HEAD. Starting from Config Sync version 1.17.0, you can also specify a branch name in the spec.configSync.syncRev field. When using a hash in version 1.17.0 or later, it must be a full hash, and not an abbreviated form.
spec.configSync.preventDrift	If true, enables the Config Sync admission webhook to prevent drifts by rejecting conflicting changes from being pushed to live clusters. Defaults: false. Config Sync always remediates drifts no matter the value of this field.
spec.configSync.secretType	The type of Secret configured for access to the .spec.configSync.syncRepo. If you selected git as the source type, the value must be ssh, cookiefile, gcenode, gcpserviceaccount, token, or none. If you selected oci as the source type, the value must be gcenode, gcpserviceaccount, or none. The validation of this field is case-sensitive. Required.
spec.configSync.gcpServiceAccountEmail	The Google Cloud Service Account used to annotate the RootSync or RepoSync controller's Kubernetes Service Account. This field is only used when spec.configSync.secretType is gcpserviceaccount.
spec.configSync.metricsGcpServiceAccountEmail	Deprecated: If Workload Identity Federation for GKE is enabled, Google Cloud Service Account is not required for exporting Config Sync metrics. Use Kubernetes Service Account instead.
spec.configSync.sourceFormat	When set to unstructured, configures a non-hierarchical repo. Default: hierarchy.

Proxy configuration for the Git repository

If your organization's security policies require you to route traffic through an HTTPS proxy, you can use the proxy's URI to configure Config Sync to communicate with your Git host. Proxy is only supported when using an authorization type of cookiefile, none, or token.

Note: HTTP proxy is not supported for security reasons.

Key	Description
spec.configSync.httpsProxy	Defines an HTTPS_PROXY environment variable used to access the Git repository. For example, https://proxy.internal.business.co:443. The HTTPS proxy only accepts https or unadorned URLs. URLs containing http:// are rejected. If using an unadorned URL, make sure the communication between your proxy server and Git host is secure.

Configuration for Policy Controller

Caution: Configuring Policy Controller through the ConfigManagement object is no longer recommended. You can use Policy Controller Google Cloud CLI commands instead.

Key	Description
spec.policyController.enabled	If true, enables Policy Controller. Defaults to false.
spec.policyController.templateLibraryInstalled	If true, installs a library of constraint templates for common policy types. Defaults to true.
spec.policyController.referentialRulesEnabled	If true, enables support for referential constraints. Be sure that you understand the caveats about eventual consistency. Defaults to false.
spec.policyController.auditIntervalSeconds	Period in seconds between consecutive audits of constraint violations. Set to 0 to disable auditing. Default: 60.
spec.policyController.logDeniesEnabled	If true, logs all denies and dry run failures. Defaults to false.
spec.policyController.mutationEnabled	If true, enables support for mutations. Defaults to false.
spec.policyController.exemptableNamespaces	A list of namespaces to remove from Policy Controller admission webhook enforcement. Any violations are still reported in audit. Defaults to an empty list.
spec.policyController.monitoring.backends	A list of monitoring backends for Policy Controller to export metrics to. Default: [cloudmonitoring, prometheus].

Configuration for Hierarchy Controller

Caution: As of December, 2024 you can no longer install Hierarchy Controller. Config Sync will be blocked from upgrades if Hierarchy Controller is configured as a configmanagement fleet feature or through the ConfigManagement API. To migrate to Hierarchical Namespace Controller (HNC), which Hierarchy Controller is based on and offers similar functionality, see Migrate from Hierarchy Controller to Hierarchical Namespace Controller.

Key	Description
spec.hierarchyController.enabled	If true, enables Hierarchy Controller. Defaults to false.
spec.hierarchyController.enableHierarchicalResourceQuota	If true, enables hierarchical resource quotas. Defaults to false.
spec.hierarchyController.enablePodTreeLabels	If true, enables hierarchical observation of workloads. Defaults to false.

Example gcloud apply spec

applySpecVersion: 1
spec:
  configSync:
    enabled: true
    sourceFormat: unstructured
    syncRepo: https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/anthos-config-management-samples
    syncBranch: main
    secretType: none
    policyDir: config-sync-quickstart/multirepo/root