GitLab Remote Templates

In GitLab using the include keyword allows the inclusion of external YAML files. This helps to break down the CI/CD configuration into multiple files and increases readability for long configuration files. It’s also possible to have template files stored in a central repository and projects include their configuration files. This helps avoid duplicated configuration, for example, global default variables for all projects.

include requires the external YAML file to have the extensions .yml or .yaml, otherwise the external file won’t be included.

include supports different inclusion methods like:

Method	Description
local	Include a file from the local project repository.
file	Include a file from a different project repository
remote	Include a file from a remote URL. Must be publicly accessible
template	Include templates which are provided by GitLab.

Litmuschaos Remote Templates

The templates in this repository can be used as remote template in the GitLab CI yaml where we can test the resiliency and performance of your application against different chaos experiments.

How to Use the remote template?

It is very simple to use these templates in your CI yaml. It can be done using include:remote in the GitLab CI YAML. include:remote can be used to include a file from a different location, using HTTP/HTTPS, referenced by using the full URL. The remote file must be publicly accessible through a simple GET request as authentication schemas in the remote URL are not supported. For example including pod delete experiment using remote template:

include:
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litmuschaos/gitlab-remote-templates/master/templates/pod-delete-template.yml'

We can provide multiple remotes in list formate to add more number of remote templates.

A Sample GitLab CI YAML using pod delete remote template

gitlab-ci.yml

---
include:
  remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litmuschaos/gitlab-remote-templates/master/templates/pod-delete-template.yml'

stages:
  - chaos

Inject Pod Delete Chaos:
  stage: chaos
  extends: .pod_delete_template
  before_script:
  variables:
    APP_NS: default
    APP_LABEL: "app=nginx"
    APP_KIND: deployment
    TARGET_CONTAINER: nginx