Weave GitOps Enterprise FAQ

Weave GitOps Enterprise is a platform engineering solution that extends Kubernetes to manage the platform using the GitOps model. It is a developer friendly Kubernetes application platform for on-premise and cloud deployment and is additive to standard managed Kubernetes tools (e.g., OpenShift, Rancher, EKS, AKS, etc.). WGE offers streamlined operations, enhanced developer productivity, compliance and security, scalability, and growth, and provides trusted support and readiness for production.

How does WGE streamline operations?

WGE streamlines operations by automating platform engineering and CI/CD processes, enhancing operational efficiency while reducing costs. It simplifies the management of Kubernetes across various environments, providing businesses with agility and scalability.

How does WGE enhance developer productivity?

It minimizes the cognitive load and infrastructure complexities for developers, enabling them to focus on building applications and delivering value faster.  WGE enhances developer productivity by providing standardized workflows, automated governance, and a comprehensive catalog of pre-configured resources. 

How does WGE support scale and growth?

WGE enables businesses to automate cloud-native practices, facilitating scalability without the need for significant increases in personnel. It provides a framework for managing multiple Kubernetes clusters, stacks, and resources, ensuring operability, efficiency, and cost optimization, which supports enterprise growth.

How does WGE ensure compliance and security?

WGE seamlessly integrates security and compliance into the development and deployment process. It enforces best practices and compliance standards through Policy-as-Code and Infra-as-Code methodologies, mitigating risks and ensuring the trust of customers and regulatory bodies.

What is the Cluster Fleet Management feature in WGE?

Cluster Fleet Management in WGE involves the life cycle management of clusters using  Cluster API (CAPI), Terraform, or Crossplane. It enables repeatable and reliable provisioning of cluster infrastructure through templates, ensuring easy management and scalability across platforms and environments.

In addition, you can also join clusters to WGE that were deployed using other tooling to manage the lifecycle of the kubernetes add-ons, platform applications, tenants, and tenant applications. This is done by using FluxCD for each cluster and managed through the Fleet Repository.

What are Self-Service Templates and Profiles in WGE?

Self-service templates and profiles in Weave GitOps Enterprise allow users to create reusable configurations for clusters and applications. Templates define collections of Kubernetes objects generated by users, while profiles represent Helm releases that can be used on multiple clusters. These features enable self-service capabilities and simplify the deployment process.

How does Weave GitOps Enterprise handle secrets management?

Weave GitOps Enterprise offers built-in support for secrets management through options like SOPS (Secrets OPerationS) or External Secrets Operator (ESO). SOPS allows storing secrets encrypted in the Git repository, while ESO synchronizes secrets from external secret stores into Kubernetes secrets. A secret's management UI provides visibility and control over secret status.

How does Weave GitOps Enterprise support application pipelines?

Weave GitOps Enterprise incorporates application pipelines, which simplify the process of promoting applications automatically or manually. Organizations can define delivery pipelines for applications packaged as Helm charts, monitor pipeline status, and notify other CI tools about app promotions. Application pipelines enhance the efficiency of application deployments.

What does WGE's Trusted Application Delivery feature entail?

WGE's Trusted Application Delivery feature includes a Weave Policy Engine with over 130 policies covering security and compliance benchmarks such as SOC2, GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, Mitre Attack. It features an Admission Controller that prevents non-compliant resources from being deployed, audit mode for optimization before enforcement, and Commit/Build Time Checks to fix policy issues in Git before deployment.

What are team workspaces in Weave GitOps Enterprise?

Team workspaces enable GitOps practices across multiple namespaces on a fleet of clusters aligned with different engineering teams. Each workspace is configured with allowed namespaces, policies, RBAC rules, and roles to specify user permissions. Team workspaces are portable and declarative, making them manageable through GitOps and templates.

What is the role of the Terraform Controller in Weave GitOps Enterprise?

The Terraform Controller in Weave GitOps Enterprise enables the management of Terraform resources. It provides features such as viewing Terraform plans, auto-applying Terraform-managed cloud resources, detecting drift, and supporting multi-tenant deployments. The Terraform Controller simplifies infrastructure automation and provisioning processes.

How does Weave GitOps Enterprise incorporate dynamic automation with GitOpsSets?

GitOpsSets in Weave GitOps Enterprise are dynamic templates that utilize generators to populate values and create Kubernetes objects in the target cluster. With GitOpsSets, organizations can automate the management of Terraform resources, synchronize secrets, and dynamically generate application resources based on changes in generator values.

What is App Health Status in Weave GitOps Enterprise?

App Health Status in Weave GitOps Enterprise provides a dashboard that showcases the health status of applications across the cluster fleet. It displays information such as the last applied time, version number, and details of the objects created for each application. App Health Status enhances visibility and monitoring capabilities for application management.

How does Weave GitOps Enterprise enable progressive delivery?

Weave GitOps Enterprise facilitates progressive delivery, allowing organizations to deploy applications with a safety net. It supports canary, A/B, and blue-green automated rollouts, that allow gradually moving user traffic from the previous version to the newly deployed version while monitoring the metrics for the application.  If there are bad metrics detected during the rollout, the application is automatically rolled back to the previous version, ensuring application stability in production and increasing developer confidence.

Does Weave GitOps Enterprise include everything in the Weave GitOps Assured product?

Yes, WGE includes all of Weave GitOps Assured, with additional SLA and coverage of separate components.

1. FluxCD: FluxCD is a set of Kubernetes operators that automate the deployment, management, and continuous delivery of applications and infrastructure. The FluxCD suite includes:

2. Flagger: Flagger is a progressive delivery operator for Kubernetes that automates the promotion of canary deployments using various service mesh providers, Ingress controllers, and other traffic routing APIs, Flagger is a subproject of the FluxCD project.

3. Observability UI: This component provides a comprehensive visibility layer into the Kubernetes environment. It collects and provides current status, allowing you to monitor the performance and health of your applications and infrastructure.

4. Infrastructure TF Controller: This component brings GitOps management to Terraform, a popular Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool. It automates the creation, modification, and management of infrastructure resources.

5. Flamingo Flux Subsystem for Argo: This subsystem combines the power of GitOps, provided by FluxCD, with the workflow automation capabilities of Argo. It facilitates efficient management of Kubernetes resources and enables more complex deployment pipelines.

6. Policy Controls via Weave Policy Agent: The Weave Policy Agent enforces policy-based governance and security across your Kubernetes environment. It allows you to define rules and policies that your deployments must adhere to, ensuring consistency and compliance.

7. VSCode Plugin: This plugin provides seamless integration of GitOps processes into the popular Visual Studio Code IDE. It simplifies the development workflow, making it easier to write, test, and deploy code.

What are the emerging AI capabilities in Weave GitOps Enterprise?

Weave GitOps Enterprise is incorporating emerging AI capabilities to enhance operations and provide intelligent insights. This includes the ability to relate cluster incidents, explain them using AI, pinpoint locations for fixes in Git repositories, and even generate pull requests (PRs) to fix the incidents. AI also helps generate policies to prevent similar incidents in the future.

What is the significance of the Weave Backstage integration in Weave GitOps Enterprise?

Weave GitOps Enterprise integrates with Weave Backstage Plugin, which allows for pulling data from various sources and linking them within Weave GitOps. This integration enhances the internal developer portal and provides a developer-centric view of resources, such as FluxCD and Weave GitOps resources. It streamlines access to the state of resources deployed for applications.

How is the service for Weaveworks initiated?

After subscribing, the customer receives a welcome email with access details to the Support Web Portal. This portal enables the customer to use the service request system.

What does each service entitlement cover?

A WGE subscription provides service entitlements, with each entitlement allocated for a single node. Ensure the total number of nodes does not surpass the number outlined in your purchased subscription. Even though you can shift these entitlements among different nodes, it's important to remember that the overall count of nodes shouldn't exceed the number of entitlements you've acquired with your subscription.

What support is provided for verified components?

Weaveworks provides support for installation, configuration values, and tests for delivery methods like Profile or Helm chart. This is done for the default values as listed in the Weave GitOps Supported Software Appendix, Certified Components.

What support does Weaveworks offer for Open-Source software?

Weaveworks offers support for collections of Open-Source software and services to provide a complete software system. In case of an issue with an Open-Source component, Weaveworks works with the upstream community and the customer for a resolution.

How many support cases can I submit?

Customers may submit an unlimited number of cases for services they have purchased. Cases can be reported by telephone or online, and severity level 1 issues must be reported by phone.

What is covered by the Support?

Weaveworks offers support for installation, configuration, maintenance, and management for Weave GitOps Enterprise and other software components as listed in the Weave GitOps Supported Software Appendix.

What is the SLA for Support Services?

Weaveworks assigns Severity Levels to cases, commits to response times based on these levels, and works on resolving the case within the designated Effort Period.

What are the Support Coverage Hours?

Support is provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Local business hours vary by region (North America: 09:00 – 17:00 EST, EMEA: 09:00 – 17:00 GMT).

How can a customer escalate a Case?

If unsatisfied or requiring urgent action, a case can be escalated to Weaveworks' senior management via specific contact information.

What types of Kubernetes environments does Weave GitOps Enterprise support?

Weave Gitops Enterprise is supported on both managed and unmanaged Kubernetes clusters, whether on-premise or on various public cloud services like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.