Pipelines with Tekton

Easily view Tekton PipelineRun status for your services in Backstage.

NPM

Tekton plugin for Backstage

The Tekton plugin enables you to visualize the PipelineRun resources available on the Kubernetes cluster.

For administrators​

Setting up the Tekton plugin​

Prerequisites​

• The Kubernetes backend plugin @backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend is installed and configured by following the installation and configuration guides.

• The following customResources component is added in the app-config.yaml file:

   kubernetes:
     ...
     customResources:
       - group: 'tekton.dev'
         apiVersion: 'v1'
         plural: 'pipelineruns'
       - group: 'tekton.dev'
         apiVersion: 'v1'
         plural: 'taskruns'
  

• The Kubernetes plugin is configured and connects to the cluster using a ServiceAccount.

• The ClusterRole must be granted for custom resources (PipelineRuns and TaskRuns) to ServiceAccount accessing the cluster.

• To view the pod logs, you have granted permissions for pods/log.

• If you have the Backstage Kubernetes Plugin configured, then the ClusterRole is already granted.

  You can use the following code to grant the ClusterRole for custom resources and pod logs:

    ...
    apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
    kind: ClusterRole
    metadata:
      name: backstage-read-only
    rules:
      - apiGroups:
          - ""
        resources:
          - pods/log
        verbs:
          - get
          - list
          - watch
      ...
      - apiGroups:
          - tekton.dev
        resources:
          - pipelineruns
          - taskruns
        verbs:
          - get
          - list
  
  

  Tip: You can use the prepared manifest for a read-only ClusterRole, which provides access for both Kubernetes plugin and Tekton plugin.

• The following annotation is added to the entity's catalog-info.yaml file to identify whether an entity contains the Kubernetes resources:

  annotations:
    ...
  
    backstage.io/kubernetes-id: <BACKSTAGE_ENTITY_NAME>
  

  You can also add the backstage.io/kubernetes-namespace annotation to identify the Kubernetes resources using the defined namespace.

  annotations:
    ...
  
    backstage.io/kubernetes-namespace: <RESOURCE_NS>
  

• The following annotation is added to the catalog-info.yaml file of the entity to enable the Tekton related features in Backstage. The value of the annotation identifies the name of the Backstage entity:

  annotations:
    ...
  
    janus-idp.io/tekton : <BACKSTAGE_ENTITY_NAME>
  

• A custom label selector can be added, which Backstage uses to find the Kubernetes resources. The label selector takes precedence over the ID annotations.

  annotations:
    ...
  
    backstage.io/kubernetes-label-selector: 'app=my-app,component=front-end'
  

• The following label is added to the resources so that the Kubernetes plugin gets the Kubernetes resources from the requested entity:

  labels:
    ...
  
    backstage.io/kubernetes-id: <BACKSTAGE_ENTITY_NAME>`
  

  ---

  NOTE

  When using the label selector, the mentioned labels must be present on the resource.

  ---

Procedure​

1. Install the Tekton plugin using the following command:

   yarn workspace app add @janus-idp/backstage-plugin-tekton
   

2. To enable the PipelineRun list in the CI/CD tab on the entity view page, add the following snippet in the packages/app/src/components/catalog/EntityPage.tsx.

   packages/app/src/components/catalog/EntityPage.tsx

   import {
     isTektonCIAvailable,
     TektonCI,
   } from '@janus-idp/backstage-plugin-tekton';
   
   const cicdContent = (
     <EntitySwitch>
       {/* ... */}
       <EntitySwitch.Case if={isTektonCIAvailable}>
         <TektonCI />
       </EntitySwitch.Case>
     </EntitySwitch>
   );
   

For users​

Using the Tekton plugin in Backstage​

Tekton is a front-end plugin that enables you to view the PipelineRun resources.

Prerequisites​

• Your Backstage application is installed and running.
• You have installed the Tekton plugin. For the installation process, see Installation.

Procedure​

1. Open your Backstage application and select a component from the Catalog page.

2. Go to the CI/CD tab.

   The CI/CD tab displays the list of PipelineRun resources associated with a Kubernetes cluster. The list contains pipeline run details, such as NAME, STATUS, TASK STATUS, STARTED, and DURATION.

   

3. Click on expand row button besides PipelineRun name in the list to view the PipelineRun visualization. The pipeline run resource include tasks to complete. When you hover the mouse pointer on a task card, you can view the steps to complete that particular task.

   

Enabling UI elements​

Vulnerabilites Column​

Vulnerabilities column provides a visual representation of identified vulnerabilities in the OCI image produced by the pipelinerun. The Author of the pipeline scanner task would provide the CVE summary data using the below format that the UI can interpret.

The result of the scanner task should be emitted back to the pipelinerun and it should contain a result that ends with SCAN_OUTPUT string.

Format:​

Result name: <any_prefix>_SCAN_OUTPUT eg: SCAN_OUTPUT, MY_ACS_SCAN_OUTPUT

Result value: '{"vulnerabilities":{"critical": 0,"high": 9,"medium": 2,"low": 13,"unknown": 0}, "unpatched_vulnerabilities": {"critical": 0,"high": 1,"medium": 0,"low":1}}'

Example PipelineRun:

   ...
   status:
     results:
       -  name: 'MY_SCAN_OUTPUT'
          value:
            '{"vulnerabilities":{"critical": 0,"high": 9,"medium": 2,"low": 13,"unknown": 0},
             "unpatched_vulnerabilities": {"critical": 0,"high": 1,"medium": 0,"low":1}}'

Action buttons​

SBOM​

Link to SBOM action will be enabled if there is a SBOM task in the pipelinerun and it should contain required annotations and emit the below result

Format:​

annotations:

    task.output.location: results
    task.results.format: application/text
    task.results.type: external-link  # Optional: This will redirect to external page
    task.results.key: LINK_TO_SBOM

results.name: LINK_T0_SBOM

results.value: <sbom-viewer-url>

Example:

Task: [Optional]​

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1
kind: Task
metadata:
 name: export-sbom-task
 annotations:
    task.output.location: results
    task.results.format: application/text
    task.results.type: external-link  # Optional: This will redirect to external page
    task.results.key: LINK_TO_SBOM
spec: …
      steps:
        -  image: registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi-minimal
           name: export-sbom
           script:  |
             #!/bin/sh
             ## sbom image generation script goes here
             echo 'quay.io/repo/image:build-8e536-1692702836' | tee $(results.LINK_TO_SBOM.path)

Note: Absence of the below annotation will open SBOM taskrun logs modal.

task.results.type: external-link  # This will redirect to external page

Output:​

Output action will be enabled when the pipelinerun emits some results and/or contains taskruns with supported annotations and emits report data in pod logs.

This action opens a modal where it will render the reports for Enterprise contract and Advanced cluster security. The report data should be exposed via pod logs and the taskruns should contain the following annotations.

Examples:

list of supported report tasks with correct annotations are listed below:

Enterprise contract Task [Optional]:​

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1
kind: Task
metadata:
 name: enterprise-contract-task
 annotations:
    task.results.format: application/json
    task.results.type: ec
    task.output.location: logs
    task.results.container: step-report-json
spec: …
      steps:
        - name: report-json
          image: quay.io/enterprise-contract/ec-cli:snapshot@sha256:33be4031a3316a46db3559a4d8566bc22f9d4d491d262d699614f32f35b45b67
          command: [cat]
          args:
            - "$(params.HOMEDIR)/report-json.json"

ACS Image scan Task [Optional]:​

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1
kind: Task
metadata:
 name: acs-image-scan
 annotations:
    task.results.format: application/json
    task.results.type: roxctl-image-scan
    task.results.key: SCAN_OUTPUT
    task.output.location: logs
    task.results.container: step-report
spec: …
      steps:
        - name: report
          image: 'quay.io/lrangine/crda-maven:11.0'
          script: |
              #!/bin/sh
              cat $(workspaces.reports.path)/image-scan

ACS Image check Task [Optional]:​

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1
kind: Task
metadata:
 name: acs-image-check
 annotations:
    task.results.format: application/json
    task.results.type: roxctl-image-check
    task.results.key: SCAN_OUTPUT
    task.output.location: logs
    task.results.container: step-report
spec: …
      steps:
        - name: report
          image: 'quay.io/lrangine/crda-maven:11.0'
          script: |
              #!/bin/sh
              cat $(workspaces.reports.path)/image-check

ACS Deployment check Task [Optional]:​

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1
kind: Task
metadata:
 name: acs-deployment-check
 annotations:
    task.results.format: application/json
    task.results.type: roxctl-deployment-check
    task.results.key: SCAN_OUTPUT
    task.output.location: logs
    task.results.container: step-report
spec: …
      steps:
        - name: report
          image: 'quay.io/lrangine/crda-maven:11.0'
          script: |
              #!/bin/sh
              cat $(workspaces.reports.path)/deployment-check

Pipelinerun results​

The results emitted in the pipelinerun resource will be available in the Others section in the output modal.