Running aws kubernetes deploy --dry-run seems to still create the kubernetes objects

Question

As part of the pipeline I want to check the kubernetes deployment scripts for syntax errors. I am adding the --dry-run=client (or just --dry-run) to the deploy command. But that seems to be ignored and the script gets executed as it were called without --dry-run.

The pipeline is defined as below:

- pipe: atlassian/aws-eks-kubectl-run:1.4.1 
  variables:                
    AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: "$AWS_DEV_ACCESS_KEY_ID"                
    AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: "$AWS_DEV_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"                
    AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: "$AWS_DEV_DEFAULT_REGION"                
    CLUSTER_NAME: "$AWS_CLUSTER_NAME"
    KUBECTL_COMMAND: "apply"                
    RESOURCE_PATH: "k8s/deploy/aws-dev"                
    KUBECTL_ARGS: "--dry-run=client"                
    KUBECTL_APPLY_ARGS: "-k"

How can I achieve that behavior?

Oleksandr Kyrdan · Answer

@Brad Vrabete

Yep, good question! It shouldn't filter or modify passed params.

We are investigating this case and notify you.

Thank you!
Oleksandr Kyrdan

Brad Vrabete · Answer

Hi @Oleksandr Kyrdan,

Thanks for the answer. The strange thig is that it works if I put all the parameters in the KUBECTL_COMMAND parameter and remove the rest; that's why I thought there must be something in the pipe that prevents it from running. I di not try --server-dry-run.

Are you filtering the parameters passed to the pipe? That would not be a good idea as it is hard to know what went wrong (hence my question); I would rather get the error message from kubectl and let people handle that.

In any case I'll try with  --server-dry-run.

Thanks,

Brad

Oleksandr Kyrdan · Answer

Hi @Brad Vrabete ,

Thank you for your question!

The pipe atlassian/aws-eks-kubectl-run:1.4.1 based on kubectl v1.17.

According to the kubectl v1.17 documentation apply command supports the next flags only:

If true, only print the object that would be sent, without sending it.

Warning:
--dry-run cannot accurately output the result of merging the local manifest and the server-side data.

Use --server-dry-run to get the merged result instead.

so, recommended way is "--server-dry-run".

Also, we are investigating bump version of the kubectl.

Cheers,
Oleksandr Kyrdan