Deploy an app to multiple targets at the same time

This page shows you how to use Cloud Deploy to deliver a sample application to two targets at the same time—a parallel deployment.

In this quickstart, you'll do the following:

Create two GKE clusters or two Cloud Run services.

You can deploy in parallel to GKE Enterprise clusters too, but this quickstart uses GKE and Cloud Run only.
Create a Skaffold configuration and either a Kubernetes manifest or a Cloud Run service definition.
Define your Cloud Deploy delivery pipeline and deployment targets.

This pipeline will have only one target, but that target will be a multi-target—a target that represents more than one deployment target. This multi-target will comprise two actual targets, delivering your app to the two clusters or services.
Instantiate your delivery pipeline by creating a release, which automatically deploys to the two targets in parallel.
View the "controller rollout" and child rollouts in Google Cloud console.

Before you begin

Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Go to project selector

Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Enable the Cloud Deploy, Cloud Build, GKE, Cloud Run, and Cloud Storage APIs.

Enable the APIs

Install the Google Cloud CLI.

To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

gcloud init

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Go to project selector

Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Enable the Cloud Deploy, Cloud Build, GKE, Cloud Run, and Cloud Storage APIs.

Enable the APIs

Install the Google Cloud CLI.

To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

gcloud init

If you already have the CLI installed, make sure you're running the latest version:

gcloud components update

Make sure the default Compute Engine service account has sufficient permissions.

The service account might already have the necessary permissions. These steps are included for projects that disable automatic role grants for default service accounts.

First add the clouddeploy.jobRunner role:

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \
    --member=serviceAccount:$(gcloud projects describe PROJECT_ID \
    --format="value(projectNumber)")-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com \
    --role="roles/clouddeploy.jobRunner"

Add the developer role for your specific runtime.

For GKE:

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \
    --member=serviceAccount:$(gcloud projects describe PROJECT_ID \
    --format="value(projectNumber)")-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com \
    --role="roles/container.developer"

For Cloud Run:

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \
    --member=serviceAccount:$(gcloud projects describe PROJECT_ID \
    --format="value(projectNumber)")-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com \
    --role="roles/run.developer"

Add the iam.serviceAccountUser role, which includes the actAspermission to deploy to the runtime:

gcloud iam service-accounts add-iam-policy-binding $(gcloud projects describe PROJECT_ID \
    --format="value(projectNumber)")-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com \
    --member=serviceAccount:$(gcloud projects describe PROJECT_ID \
    --format="value(projectNumber)")-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com \
    --role="roles/iam.serviceAccountUser" \
    --project=PROJECT_ID

Create your runtime environments

If you're deploying to Cloud Run, you can skip this command.

For GKE, create two clusters: quickstart-cluster-qsprod1 and quickstart-cluster-qsprod2, with default settings. The clusters' Kubernetes API endpoints must be network-reachable from the public internet. GKE clusters are externally accessible by default.

gcloud container clusters create-auto quickstart-cluster-qsprod1 \
                 --project=PROJECT_ID \
                 --region=us-central1 \
                 && gcloud container clusters create-auto quickstart-cluster-qsprod2 \
                 --project=PROJECT_ID \
                 --region=us-west1

Prepare your Skaffold configuration and application manifest

Cloud Deploy uses Skaffold to provide the details for what to deploy and how to deploy it properly for your separate targets.

In this quickstart, you create a skaffold.yaml file, which identifies the application manifest to be used to deploy the sample app.

Open a terminal window.

Create a new directory and navigate into it.

GKE

mkdir deploy-gke-parallel-quickstart
cd deploy-gke-parallel-quickstart

Cloud Run

mkdir deploy-run-parallel-quickstart
cd deploy-run-parallel-quickstart

Create a file named skaffold.yaml with the following contents:
GKE
```
apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta1
kind: Config
manifests:
  rawYaml:
  - k8s-deployment.yaml
deploy:
  kubectl: {}
```
Cloud Run
```
apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta1
kind: Config
manifests:
  rawYaml:
  - service.yaml
deploy:
  cloudrun: {}
```
This file is a minimal Skaffold config. For this quickstart, you create the file. But you can also have Cloud Deploy create one for you, for simple, non-production applications.

See the skaffold.yaml reference for more information about this file.

Create the definition for your application—a service definition for Cloud Run or a Kubernetes manifest for GKE.

GKE

Create a file named k8s-deployment.yaml, with the following contents:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-deployment
  labels:
    app: my-app
  namespace: default
spec:
  replicas: 1 # from-param: ${replicaCount}
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: my-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: my-app
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: my-app-image

This file is a simple Kubernetes manifest, which is applied to the cluster to deploy the application.

Cloud Run

Create a file named service.yaml, with the following contents:

apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: my-parallel-run-service
spec:
  template:
    metadata:
      annotations:
        autoscaling.knative.dev/minScale: 1 # from-param: ${minInstances}
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: my-app-image

This file is a simple Cloud Run service definition, which is used at deploy time to create your Cloud Run service.

Create your delivery pipeline and targets

You can define your pipeline and targets in one file or in separate files. In this quickstart, you create a single file.

Create your delivery pipeline and target definition:

GKE

In the deploy-gke-parallel-quickstart directory, create a new file: clouddeploy.yaml, with the following contents:

apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
kind: DeliveryPipeline
metadata:
  name: my-parallel-demo-app-1
description: main application pipeline
serialPipeline:
  stages:
  - targetId: qsprod-multi
    profiles: []
    deployParameters:
    - values:
        replicaCount: "1"
      matchTargetLabels:
        label1: label1
    - values:
        replicaCount: "2"
      matchTargetLabels:
        label2: label2
---

apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
kind: Target
metadata:
  name: qsprod-multi
description: production clusters
multiTarget:
  targetIds: [qsprod-a, qsprod-b]
---

apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
kind: Target
metadata:
  name: qsprod-a
  labels:
    label1: label1
description: production cluster 2
gke:
  cluster: projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/clusters/quickstart-cluster-qsprod1
---

apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
kind: Target
metadata:
  name: qsprod-b
  labels:
    label2: label2
description: production cluster 3
gke:
  cluster: projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/us-west1/clusters/quickstart-cluster-qsprod2

Cloud Run

In the deploy-run-parallel-quickstart directory, create a new file: clouddeploy.yaml, with the following contents:

apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
kind: DeliveryPipeline
metadata:
  name: my-parallel-demo-app-1
description: main application pipeline
serialPipeline:
  stages:
  - targetId: qsprod-multi
    profiles: []
    deployParameters:
    - values:
        minInstances: "2"
      matchTargetLabels:
        label1: label1
    - values:
        minInstances: "3"
      matchTargetLabels:
        label2: label2
---

apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
kind: Target
metadata:
  name: qsprod-multi
description: production
multiTarget:
  targetIds: [qsprod-a, qsprod-b]
---

apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
kind: Target
metadata:
  name: qsprod-a
  labels:
    label1: label1
description: production us-central1
run:
  location: projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1
---

apiVersion: deploy.cloud.google.com/v1
kind: Target
metadata:
  name: qsprod-b
  labels:
    label2: label2
description: production us-west1
run:
  location: projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/us-west1

Notice that this file includes three targets: a multi-target and two child targets. You can also configure targets in separate file, rather than with your delivery pipeline.

Notice also that the delivery pipeline includes deployParameters, with labels, and the child targets include labels to match those parameters. This allows you to pass separate values to separate child targets, if you want. Learn more.

Register your pipeline and targets with the Cloud Deploy service:
```
gcloud deploy apply --file=clouddeploy.yaml --region=us-central1 --project=PROJECT_ID
```
You now have a pipeline, with one multi-target comprising two GKE or Cloud Run targets, ready to deploy your application.
Confirm your pipeline and targets:

In the Google Cloud console, navigate to the Cloud Deploy Delivery pipelines page to view of list of your available delivery pipelines.

Open the Delivery pipelines page

The delivery pipeline you just created is shown. Notice that there is one target listed in the Targets column even though you configured three targets (one multi-target and two child targets) in your clouddeploy.yaml file.

Notice that the only target listed is the multi-target qsprod-multi. Child targets are not shown.

Create a release

A release is the central Cloud Deploy resource representing the changes being deployed. The delivery pipeline defines the lifecycle of that release. See Cloud Deploy service architecture for details about that lifecycle.

GKE

Run the following command from the deploy-gke-parallel-quickstart directory to create a release resource that represents the container image to deploy:

 gcloud deploy releases create test-release-001 \
   --project=PROJECT_ID \
   --region=us-central1 \
   --delivery-pipeline=my-parallel-demo-app-1 \
   --images=my-app-image=gcr.io/google-containers/nginx@sha256:f49a843c290594dcf4d193535d1f4ba8af7d56cea2cf79d1e9554f077f1e7aaa \
   --to-target=qsprod-multi

Cloud Run

Run the following command from the deploy-run-parallel-quickstart directory to create a release resource that represents the container image to deploy:

 gcloud deploy releases create test-release-001 \
   --project=PROJECT_ID \
   --region=us-central1 \
   --delivery-pipeline=my-parallel-demo-app-1 \
   --images=my-app-image=us-docker.pkg.dev/cloudrun/container/hello@sha256:6063adf8f687702b4065151acddba6781c47bc602167eb9f3bec8aebc9ce95cc \
   --to-target=qsprod-multi

As always, when you create a release, a rollout is created automatically for the first target in your pipeline (or, as in this case, a specific target specified using --to-target=). In this quickstart, this target is a multi-target, so the rollout is a "controller rollout" for two child targets, and there are no subsequent targets in the delivery pipeline. This means that your application is deployed everywhere upon rollout creation.

View the results in Google Cloud console

Now that you've created the release, and the controller rollout and child rollouts are created, those child rollouts are now deployed (or are in the process of being deployed) to their respective GKE clusters or Cloud Run services.

In the Google Cloud console, navigate to the Cloud Deploy Delivery pipelines page to view your my-parallel-demo-app-1 delivery pipeline.

Open the Delivery pipelines page
Click the name of your delivery pipeline "my-parallel-demo-app-1".

The pipeline visualization shows the app's deployment status. Because there's only one stage in the pipeline, the visualization shows only one node.

And your release is listed on the Releases tab under Delivery pipeline details.
Click the release name, test-release-001.

Your rollouts appear under Rollouts. You can click a rollout to view its details, including the deployment log.

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used on this page, follow these steps.

Delete the GKE clusters or Cloud Run services:

GKE

gcloud container clusters delete quickstart-cluster-qsprod1 --region=us-central1 --project=PROJECT_ID \
&& gcloud container clusters delete quickstart-cluster-qsprod2 --region=us-west1 --project=PROJECT_ID

Cloud Run

gcloud run services delete my-parallel-run-service --region=us-central1 --project=PROJECT_ID \
&& gcloud run services delete my-parallel-run-service --region=us-west1 --project=PROJECT_ID

Delete the delivery pipeline, multi-target, child targets, release, and rollouts:

gcloud deploy delete --file=clouddeploy.yaml --force --region=us-central1 --project=PROJECT_ID

Delete the Cloud Storage buckets that Cloud Deploy created.

One ends with _clouddeploy, and the other is [region].deploy-artifacts.[project].appspot.com.

Open the Cloud Storage browser page

That's it, you completed this quickstart!

What's next

Read more about how to deploy to multiple targets at the same time.
Learn more about Cloud Deploy.
Learn the basics of deploying applications.
Try out the Cloud Deploy walkthrough.
Learn how to manage your manifests.
Learn how to combine Google Cloud CI/CD tools to develop and deliver software effectively to GKE.