Harness CD Skill

Deployment orchestration for Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, ECS, serverless with GitOps.

Use For

• CD pipelines, strategies (Canary/Blue-Green/Rolling), environments

• Approval gates, GitOps, rollback, multi-environment promotion

Basic Deployment Pipeline

pipeline: name: Deploy Pipeline stages: - stage: name: Deploy Dev type: Deployment spec: service: serviceRef: my_service environment: environmentRef: development execution: steps: - step: name: Rolling Deploy type: K8sRollingDeploy timeout: 10m rollbackSteps: - step: name: Rollback type: K8sRollingRollback

Deployment Strategies

Rolling (gradual replacement)

• step: type: K8sRollingDeploy spec: skipDryRun: false

Canary (progressive traffic shift)

• step: type: K8sCanaryDeploy spec: instanceSelection: type: Count spec: count: 1

Blue-Green (zero-downtime cutover)

• step: type: K8sBGStageDeployment
• step: type: K8sBGSwapServices

Service Configuration

Kubernetes

serviceDefinition: type: Kubernetes spec: manifests: - manifest: type: K8sManifest spec: store: type: Git spec: connectorRef: github_connector branch: main artifacts: primary: sources: - type: DockerRegistry spec: imagePath: myorg/myapp

Helm

serviceDefinition: type: NativeHelm spec: chartName: my-app helmVersion: V3

Terraform

serviceDefinition: type: CustomDeployment spec: customDeploymentRef: templateRef: terraform_template

Environment & Infrastructure

environment: name: Production type: Production infrastructureDefinition: type: KubernetesDirect spec: connectorRef: k8s_connector namespace: my-namespace

Approval Gates

• step: type: HarnessApproval spec: approvers: userGroups: - account.ProductionApprovers

Jira: type: JiraApproval, issueKey: <+pipeline.variables.jiraIssueKey>

ServiceNow: type: ServiceNowApproval, ticketNumber: <+pipeline.variables.changeRequest>

GitOps Deployments

Argo CD

• step: type: GitOpsUpdateReleaseRepo spec: variables: - name: image_tag value: <+artifact.tag>
• step: type: GitOpsSync spec: prune: true

PR-Based GitOps

• step: type: CreatePR spec: updates: - path: environments/<+env.name>/values.yaml key: image.tag value: <+artifact.tag>

Deployment Verification & Rollback

• step: type: Verify spec: type: Canary sensitivity: MEDIUM
• step: type: Http spec: url: <+infra.variables.serviceUrl>/health failureStrategies:
  • onFailure: errors: - AllErrors action: type: StageRollback

Multi-Environment Promotion

pipeline: stages: - stage: name: Deploy Dev spec: environment: environmentRef: development - stage: name: Deploy Staging spec: environment: environmentRef: staging when: condition: <+pipeline.stages.deploy_dev.status> == "SUCCEEDED" - stage: name: Deploy Production spec: environment: environmentRef: production

Triggers

Artifact

trigger: source: type: Artifact spec: type: DockerRegistry imagePath: myorg/myapp

Webhook

trigger: source: type: Webhook spec: type: Github

Scheduled

trigger: source: type: Scheduled spec: expression: "0 2 * * *"

CD Expressions

Expression Purpose

<+service.name> Service

<+env.name> Environment

<+infra.namespace> Namespace

<+artifact.image>:<+artifact.tag> Image

<+pipeline.stages.X.output.VAR> Output

API Operations

curl -X POST "https://app.harness.io/pipeline/api/pipeline/execute/${PIPELINE_ID}" -H "x-api-key: ${API_KEY}" curl -X GET "https://app.harness.io/pipeline/api/pipelines/execution/v2/${EXECUTION_ID}" -H "x-api-key: ${API_KEY}" curl -X PUT "https://app.harness.io/pipeline/api/pipelines/execution/interrupt/${EXECUTION_ID}" -H "x-api-key: ${API_KEY}"

Common Issues

Issue Solution

Deployment timeout Increase step timeout

Image pull failed Verify connector credentials

Namespace not found Check infrastructure definition

Manifest error Validate YAML locally

Approval timeout Review approval workflow

Rollback failed Configure rollback steps

References

• Harness CD Docs

• Deployment Strategies

• GitOps