Dear friend, you have built a Kubernetes

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2024-11-24 05:30:05

I am afraid to inform you that you have built a Kubernetes. I know you wanted to "choose boring tech" to just run some containers. You said that "Kubernetes is overkill" and "it's just way too complex for a simple task" and yet, six months later, you have pile of shell scripts that do not work—breaking every time there's a slight shift in the winds of production.

Surely, switching to Docker Compose will be the end of your woes; at least that way, someone else maintains a standard config file format for you to use. But wait, Compose is still not a holistic solution. "Do I really need a separate solution for deployment, rolling updates, rollbacks, and scaling?" you ask yourself? Surely not. Your app is so simple; a backend, a reverse proxy, postgres, and a job runner. So you march on, and add another few sections to your deploy.sh script, certain, that this will be the last of what you need to do to maintain this pile of hacks.

Ah, but wait! Inevitably, you find a reason to expand to a second server. While it's true a single server can go a long way many things can force this decision, such as the need for special hardware, high availability, or the speed of light. Tired, you parameterize your deploy script and configure firewall rules, distracted from the crucial features you should be working on and shipping. One of your team members suggests connecting the servers with Tailscale: an overlay network with service discovery. After that you will know, yes know, that there is no tougher complexity hurdle to clear than the networking.