265 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
265 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
# Serverless
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> Introduced in GitLab 11.5.
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CAUTION: **Caution:**
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Serverless is currently in [alpha](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/#alpha).
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Run serverless workloads on Kubernetes using [Knative](https://cloud.google.com/knative/).
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## Overview
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Knative extends Kubernetes to provide a set of middleware components that are useful to build modern, source-centric, container-based applications. Knative brings some significant benefits out of the box through its main components:
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- [Build](https://github.com/knative/build): Source-to-container build orchestration.
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- [Eventing](https://github.com/knative/eventing): Management and delivery of events.
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- [Serving](https://github.com/knative/serving): Request-driven compute that can scale to zero.
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For more information on Knative, visit the [Knative docs repo](https://github.com/knative/docs).
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With GitLab serverless, you can deploy both functions-as-a-service (FaaS) and serverless applications.
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## Requirements
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To run Knative on Gitlab, you will need:
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1. **Kubernetes Cluster:** An RBAC-enabled Kubernetes cluster is required to deploy Knative.
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The simplest way to get started is to add a cluster using [GitLab's GKE integration](../index.md#adding-and-creating-a-new-gke-cluster-via-gitlab).
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1. **Helm Tiller:** Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes and is required to install
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Knative.
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1. **Domain Name:** Knative will provide its own load balancer using Istio. It will provide an
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external IP address for all the applications served by Knative. You will be prompted to enter a
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wildcard domain where your applications will be served. Configure your DNS server to use the
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external IP address for that domain.
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1. **`gitlab-ci.yml`:** GitLab uses [Kaniko](https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/kaniko)
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to build the application and the [TriggerMesh CLI](https://github.com/triggermesh/tm) to simplify the
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deployment of knative services and functions.
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1. **`serverless.yaml`** (for [functions only](#deploying-functions)): When using serverless to deploy functions, the `serverless.yaml` file
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will contain the information for all the functions being hosted in the repository as well as a reference to the
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runtime being used.
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1. **`Dockerfile`** (for [applications only](#deploying-serverless-applications): Knative requires a `Dockerfile` in order to build your application. It should be included
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at the root of your project's repo and expose port `8080`.
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## Installing Knative via GitLab's Kubernetes integration
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NOTE: **Note:**
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The minimum recommended cluster size to run Knative is 3-nodes, 6 vCPUs, and 22.50 GB memory. **RBAC must be enabled.**
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1. [Add a Kubernetes cluster](../index.md) and install Helm.
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1. Once Helm has been successfully installed, on the Knative app section, enter the domain to be used with
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your application and click "Install".
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![install-knative](img/install-knative.png)
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1. After the Knative installation has finished, you can wait for the IP address to be displayed in the
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**Knative IP Address** field or retrieve the Istio Ingress IP address by running the following command:
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```bash
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kubectl get svc --namespace=istio-system knative-ingressgateway -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip} '
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```
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Output:
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```bash
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35.161.143.124 my-machine-name:~ my-user$
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```
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1. The ingress is now available at this address and will route incoming requests to the proper service based on the DNS
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name in the request. To support this, a wildcard DNS A record should be created for the desired domain name. For example,
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if your Knative base domain is `knative.info` then you need to create an A record with domain `*.knative.info`
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pointing the ip address of the ingress.
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![dns entry](img/dns-entry.png)
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## Deploying Functions
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> Introduced in GitLab 11.6.
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Using functions is useful for initiating, responding, or triggering independent
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events without needing to maintain a complex unified infrastructure. This allows
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you to focus on a single task that can be executed/scaled automatically and independently.
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At launch, the following [runtimes](https://gitlab.com/triggermesh/runtimes) are offered:
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- node.js
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- kaniko
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In order to deploy functions to your Knative instance, the following files must be present:
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1. `gitlab-ci.yml`: This template allows to define the stage, environment, and
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image to be used for your functions. It must be included at the root of your repository:
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```yaml
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stages:
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- deploy
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functions:
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stage: deploy
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environment: test
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image: gcr.io/triggermesh/tm:v0.0.6
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script:
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- tm -n "$KUBE_NAMESPACE" set registry-auth gitlab-registry --registry "$CI_REGISTRY" --username "$CI_REGISTRY_USER" --password "$CI_JOB_TOKEN"
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- tm -n "$KUBE_NAMESPACE" --registry-host "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE" deploy --wait
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```
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The `gitlab-ci.yml` template creates a `Deploy` stage with a `functions` job that invokes the `tm` CLI with the required parameters.
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2. `serverless.yaml`: This file contains the metadata for your functions,
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such as name, runtime, and environment. It must be included at the root of your repository. The following is a sample `echo` function which shows the required structure for the file.
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NOTE: **Note:**
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The file extension for the `serverless.yaml` file must be specified as `.yaml` in order to the file to be parsed properly. Specifying the extension as `.yml` will not work.
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```yaml
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service: my-functions
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description: "Deploying functions from GitLab using Knative"
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provider:
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name: triggermesh
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registry-secret: gitlab-registry
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environment:
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FOO: BAR
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functions:
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echo:
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handler: echo
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runtime: https://gitlab.com/triggermesh/runtimes/raw/master/nodejs.yaml
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description: "echo function using node.js runtime"
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buildargs:
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- DIRECTORY=echo
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environment:
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FUNCTION: echo
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```
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The `serverless.yaml` file contains three sections with distinct parameters:
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### `service`
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| Parameter | Description |
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|-----------|-------------|
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| `service` | Name for the Knative service which will serve the function. |
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| `description` | A short description of the `service`. |
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### `provider`
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| Parameter | Description |
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|-----------|-------------|
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| `name` | Indicates which provider is used to execute the `serverless.yaml` file. In this case, the TriggerMesh `tm` CLI. |
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| `registry-secret` | Indicates which registry will be used to store docker images. The sample function is using the GitLab Registry (`gitlab-registry`). A different registry host may be specified using `registry` key in the `provider` object. If changing the default, update the permission on the `gitlab-ci.yml` file. |
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| `environment` | Includes the environment variables to be passed as part of function execution for **all** functions in the file, where `FOO` is the variable name and `BAR` are he variable contents. You may replace this with you own variables. |
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### `functions`
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In the `serverless.yaml` example above, the function name is `echo` and the subsequent lines contain the function attributes.
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| Parameter | Description |
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|-----------|-------------|
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| `handler` | The function's file name. In the example above, both the function name and the handler are the same. |
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| `runtime` | The runtime to be used to execute the function. |
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| `description` | A short description of the function. |
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| `buildargs` | Pointer to the function file in the repo. In the sample the function is located in the `echo` directory. |
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| `environment` | Sets an environment variable for the specific function only. |
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After the `gitlab-ci.yml` template has been added and the `serverless.yaml` file has been
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created, each function must be defined as a single file in your repository. Committing a
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function to your project will result in a
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CI pipeline being executed which will deploy each function as a Knative service.
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Once the deploy stage has finished, additional details for the function will
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appear under **Operations > Serverless**.
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![serverless page](img/serverless-page.png)
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This page contains all functions available for the project, the URL for
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accessing the function, and if available, the function's runtime information.
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The details are derived from the Knative installation inside each of the project's
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Kubernetes cluster.
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The function details can be retrieved directly from Knative on the cluster:
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```bash
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kubectl -n "$KUBE_NAMESPACE" get services.serving.knative.dev
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```
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The sample function can now be triggered from any HTTP client using a simple `POST` call.
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![function exection](img/function-execution.png)
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Currently, the Serverless page presents all functions available in all clusters registered for the project with Knative installed.
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## Deploying Serverless applications
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> Introduced in GitLab 11.5.
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NOTE: **Note:**
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You can reference the sample [Knative Ruby App](https://gitlab.com/knative-examples/knative-ruby-app) to get started.
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Add the following `.gitlab-ci.yml` to the root of your repository
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(you may skip this step if using the sample [Knative Ruby App](https://gitlab.com/knative-examples/knative-ruby-app) mentioned above):
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```yaml
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stages:
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- build
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- deploy
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build:
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stage: build
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image:
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name: gcr.io/kaniko-project/executor:debug
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entrypoint: [""]
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only:
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- master
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script:
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- echo "{\"auths\":{\"$CI_REGISTRY\":{\"username\":\"$CI_REGISTRY_USER\",\"password\":\"$CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD\"}}}" > /kaniko/.docker/config.json
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- /kaniko/executor --context $CI_PROJECT_DIR --dockerfile $CI_PROJECT_DIR/Dockerfile --destination $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE
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deploy:
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stage: deploy
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image: gcr.io/triggermesh/tm@sha256:e3ee74db94d215bd297738d93577481f3e4db38013326c90d57f873df7ab41d5
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only:
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- master
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environment: production
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script:
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- echo "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE"
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- tm -n "$KUBE_NAMESPACE" --config "$KUBECONFIG" deploy service "$CI_PROJECT_NAME" --from-image "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE" --wait
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```
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## Deploy the application with Knative
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With all the pieces in place, the next time a CI pipeline runs, the Knative application will be deployed. Navigate to
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**CI/CD > Pipelines** and click the most recent pipeline.
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## Obtain the URL for the Knative deployment
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Use the CI/CD deployment job output to obtain the deployment URL. Once all the stages of the pipeline finish, click the **deploy** stage.
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![deploy stage](img/deploy-stage.png)
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The output will look like this:
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```bash
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Running with gitlab-runner 11.5.0~beta.844.g96d88322 (96d88322)
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on docker-auto-scale 72989761
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Using Docker executor with image gcr.io/triggermesh/tm@sha256:e3ee74db94d215bd297738d93577481f3e4db38013326c90d57f873df7ab41d5 ...
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Pulling docker image gcr.io/triggermesh/tm@sha256:e3ee74db94d215bd297738d93577481f3e4db38013326c90d57f873df7ab41d5 ...
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Using docker image sha256:6b3f6590a9b30bd7aafb9573f047d930c70066e43955b4beb18a1eee175f6de1 for gcr.io/triggermesh/tm@sha256:e3ee74db94d215bd297738d93577481f3e4db38013326c90d57f873df7ab41d5 ...
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Running on runner-72989761-project-4342902-concurrent-0 via runner-72989761-stg-srm-1541795796-27929c96...
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Cloning repository...
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Cloning into '/builds/danielgruesso/knative'...
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Checking out 8671ad20 as master...
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Skipping Git submodules setup
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$ echo "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE"
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registry.staging.gitlab.com/danielgruesso/knative
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$ tm -n "$KUBE_NAMESPACE" --config "$KUBECONFIG" deploy service "$CI_PROJECT_NAME" --from-image "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE" --wait
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Deployment started. Run "tm -n knative-4342902 describe service knative" to see the details
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Waiting for ready state.......
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Service domain: knative.knative-4342902.knative.info
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Job succeeded
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```
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The second to last line, labeled **Service domain** contains the URL for the deployment. Copy and paste the domain into your
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browser to see the app live.
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![knative app](img/knative-app.png)
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