Backstage App

This is a backstage app basic setup with PSQL backend and GitLab auth provider. You will need to setup an application in GitLab to enable the authentication feature. Follow the instructions here.

Running the app

This backstage app can be run in:

1. Kubernetes (Production)
   1. kubectl apply -f kubernetes/backstage-rbac.yaml to create the required RBAC permissions and objects
   2. Create the required secrets
   3. Create the directory in Windows (C:\KubeData\backstage-db) for the db vol mount
   4. Deploy via kubectl apply -f kubernetes/backstage.yaml
2. Docker (Production)
   1. Deploy via docker-compose up -d --build
3. Local Node Environment (Development)
   1. cd to backstage and, run yarn install and deploy via yarn dev

Entities

Entities are important in backstage and it is configured in the ./catalog folder. The entities represent the data model used in the backstage catalog. The User entity is also used for sign-in with Gitlab. Entities follow a format similar to kubernetes: kind:namespace/name where kind is the type.

Environment Variables

These are the environment variables used in the backstage config files (backstage/app-config.yaml and backstage/app-config.production.yaml (used in the Dockerfile)):

For docker-compose, you can create a .env file as below:

# Required in both development and production
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=<DB_PASSWORD>
POSTGRES_HOST=<DB_HOSTNAME>
POSTGRES_PORT=<DB_PORT>
POSTGRES_USER=<DB_USERNAME>
BACKSTAGE_APP_URL=<BACKSTAGE_APP_URL>

# Required in production
AUTH_GITLAB_CLIENT_ID=<GITLAB_APP_ID>
AUTH_GITLAB_CLIENT_SECRET=<GITLAB_APP_SECRET>
AUTH_GITLAB_URL=<GITLAB_URL>
GITLAB_HOSTNAME=<GITLAB_HOSTNAME_EXCLUDING_PROTOCOL>

# Required if you want Kubernetes integration

## retrieved from `kubectl create token <SERVICE_ACC_NAME> --duration=1000000m`
K8S_SVC_ACC_TOKEN=<SVC_ACC_TOKEN>

## retreived from `C:\users\<USER>\.kube\config` in `clusters[].certificate-authority-data`
K8S_CONFIG_CA_DATA=<CA_DATA>

Authentication

Currently, authentication with Gitlab is only enabled in production mode. production mode is enabled in the Docker image and not with yarn dev.

1. You will need to setup an application in GitLab to enable the authentication feature. Follow the instructions here. After which, the above AUTH_... env variables will need to be set.

2. Lastly, you will need to modify the User entity to match your GitLab username in the file catalog/users/user.yaml and edit the git location of catalog.locations[0].target in app-config.production.yaml for Users.

Kubernetes Secrets

The following secrets will need to be created (create a new yaml file and run kubectl apply -f <FILENAME>):

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
type: Opaque
metadata:
    name: backstage-db-secret
stringData:
    POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ''
    POSTGRES_USER: ''
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
type: Opaque
metadata:
    name: backstage-app-secret
stringData:
    AUTH_GITLAB_CLIENT_ID: ''
    AUTH_GITLAB_CLIENT_SECRET: ''
    K8S_SVC_ACC_TOKEN: '' # retrieved from `kubectl create token <SERVICE_ACC_NAME> --duration=1000000m`
    K8S_CONFIG_CA_DATA: '' # retreived from `C:\users\<USER>\.kube\config` in `clusters[].certificate-authority-data`