Kubernetes how to make Deployment to update image

Question

I do have deployment with single pod, with my custom docker image like:

containers:
  - name: mycontainer
    image: myimage:latest

During development I want to push new latest version and make Deployment updated. Can't find how to do that, without explicitly defining tag/version and increment it for each build, and do

kubectl set image deployment/my-deployment mycontainer=myimage:1.9.1

Answer 1

You can configure your pod with a grace period (for example 30 seconds or more, depending on container startup time and image size) and set "imagePullPolicy: "Always". And use kubectl delete pod pod_name. A new container will be created and the latest image automatically downloaded, then the old container terminated.

Example:

spec:
  terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 30
  containers:
  - name: my_container
    image: my_image:latest
    imagePullPolicy: "Always"

I'm currently using Jenkins for automated builds and image tagging and it looks something like this:

kubectl --user="kube-user" --server="https://kubemaster.example.com"  --token=$ACCESS_TOKEN set image deployment/my-deployment mycontainer=myimage:"$BUILD_NUMBER-$SHORT_GIT_COMMIT"

Another trick is to intially run:

kubectl set image deployment/my-deployment mycontainer=myimage:latest

and then:

kubectl set image deployment/my-deployment mycontainer=myimage

It will actually be triggering the rolling-update but be sure you have also imagePullPolicy: "Always" set.

Update:

another trick I found, where you don't have to change the image name, is to change the value of a field that will trigger a rolling update, like terminationGracePeriodSeconds. You can do this using kubectl edit deployment your_deployment or kubectl apply -f your_deployment.yaml or using a patch like this:

kubectl patch deployment your_deployment -p \
  '{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"terminationGracePeriodSeconds":31}}}}'

Just make sure you always change the number value.