external-secrets/design/007-provider-versioning-strategy.md

Provider Separation on specific CRDs

---
title: Provider Separation on specific CRDs
version: v1alpha1
authors: Gustavo Carvalho
creation-date: 2023-08-25
status: draft
---

WRT: https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/issues/694

We want to separate provider configuration from the SecretStore, in a way that allows us to install providers only when needed. This also allows us to version provider fields accordingly to their maturity without impacting the SecretStore Manifest

Proposed Changes

The changes to the code proposed are summarized below:

• Add a new CRD group called providers where all provider configuration will reside as individual CRD.
• Add a new CRD group called cluster.providers where all provider configuration will reside as individual CRD for ClusterScoped providers.
• Add a new Field ProviderRef to the SecretStore/ClusterSecretStore manifests.
• Add a new provider registry called RefRegister, which registers based on a provider kind.
• Update NewClient to receive the provider interface
• Add new methods Convert and ApplyReferent on the provider interface, to be able to customize SecretStore.provider vs provider.spec differences, and apply Referent logic on Client Manager
• Change SecretStore/ClusterSecretStore reconcilers to create Provider/ClusterProvider based on the spec.provider field and on the Convert method
• Change ClientManager logic to use providerRef or to generate a providerRef from spec.provider.
• Make ClientManager handle namespace configuration for referentAuth.

The Following diagram shows how the new sequence would work:

SecretStore Reconcilers

sequenceDiagram
  Reconciler ->> Reconciler: Check for spec.providers
  Reconciler ->> APIServer: Creates Providers based on ProviderRef
  Reconciler ->> APIServer: GetProvider
  Reconciler ->> Provider: ValidateStore

Provider Reconcilers - Empty on purpose

This is a basic reconciler using APIDiscovery just to prepare if we decide to deprecate the whole SecretStore structure. It could be a no-op as well.

sequenceDiagram
  Reconciler ->> Reconciler: ValidateStore

ExternalSecrets/PushSecrets Reconcilers (it excludes generators logic)

sequenceDiagram
  Reconciler ->> ClientManager: GetClient
  ClientManager ->> Store: GetProviderRef
  Store ->> ClientManager: Ref
  alt ProviderRef not defined:
  ClientManager ->> ClientManager: GetProviderRefFromStoreName
  end
  ClientManager ->> ClientManager: GetProviderSpecFromK8s
  ClientManager ->> Provider: ApplyReferent(spec)
  Provider ->> ClientManager: spec
  ClientManager ->> Provider: NewClientFromObj(spec)
  Provider ->> ClientManager: Client

An example of how this implementation would look like is available on here - This example still needs to be updated to take into account some SecretStore changes after community meeting discussions

Example Implementations

Fake Provider Basic Convert function (very similar to other ):

func (p *Provider) Convert(in esv1beta1.GenericStore) (client.Object, error) {
	out := &prov.Fake{}
	tmp := map[string]any{
		"spec": in.GetSpec().Provider.Fake,
	}
	d, err := json.Marshal(tmp)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	err = json.Unmarshal(d, out)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("could not convert %v in a valid fake provider: %w", in.GetName(), err)
	}
	return out, nil
}

Gitlab Provider ApplyReferent Implementation:

func (g *Provider) ApplyReferent(spec kclient.Object, caller esmeta.ReferentCallOrigin, namespace string) (kclient.Object, error) {
	conv, ok := spec.(*prov.Gitlab)
	if !ok {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("could not convert spec %v onto a Gitlab Provider type: current type: %T", spec.GetName(), spec)
	}
	out := conv.DeepCopy()
	switch caller {
	case esmeta.ReferentCallSecretStore:
		out.Spec.Auth.SecretRef.AccessToken.Namespace = &namespace
	case esmeta.ReferentCallProvider:
		out.Spec.Auth.SecretRef.AccessToken.Namespace = &namespace
	case esmeta.ReferentCallClusterSecretStore:
	default:
	}
	return out, nil
}

Gitlab Provider new getAuth method:

func (g *gitlabBase) getAuth(ctx context.Context) ([]byte, error) {
	credentialsSecret := &corev1.Secret{}
	credentialsSecretName := g.store.Auth.SecretRef.AccessToken.Name
	if credentialsSecretName == "" {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf(errGitlabCredSecretName)
	}

	objectKey := types.NamespacedName{
		Name:      credentialsSecretName,
		Namespace: g.namespace,
	}
	// If namespace is set, it means we must use it (non-referrent call either from local SecretStore or defined ClusterSecretStore)
	if g.store.Auth.SecretRef.AccessToken.Namespace != nil {
		objectKey.Namespace = *g.store.Auth.SecretRef.AccessToken.Namespace
	}

	err := g.kube.Get(ctx, objectKey, credentialsSecret)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf(errFetchSAKSecret, err)
	}

	credentials := credentialsSecret.Data[g.store.Auth.SecretRef.AccessToken.Key]
	if len(credentials) == 0 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf(errMissingSAK)
	}
	return credentials, nil
}

Gitlab Provider NewClient implementations:

func (g *Provider) NewClient(ctx context.Context, obj kclient.Object, kube kclient.Client, namespace string) (esv1beta1.SecretsClient, error) {
	prov, ok := obj.(*prov.Gitlab)
	if !ok {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("could not convert spec %v onto a Gitlab Provider type: current type: %T", obj.GetName(), obj)
	}

	gl := &gitlabBase{
		kube:      kube,
		store:     &prov.Spec,
		namespace: namespace,
	}

	client, err := gl.getClient(ctx, &prov.Spec)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	gl.projectsClient = client.Projects
	gl.projectVariablesClient = client.ProjectVariables
	gl.groupVariablesClient = client.GroupVariables

	return gl, nil
}

Client Manager reconciler changes:

func (m *Manager) GetProviderRefFromStore(store esv1beta1.GenericStore) (esv1beta1.ProviderRef, error) {
  providerRef := store.GetSpec().ProviderRef
  if providerRef != nil {
    return *providerRef, nil
  }
provider, err := esv1beta1.GetProvider(store)
  if err != nil {
    return esv1beta1.ProviderRef{}, err
  }
  providerRef := esv1beta1.GetProviderRefByProvider(provider)
  providerRef.Name = store.GetName()
  return *providerRef, nil
}

func (m *Manager) GetFromStore(ctx context.Context, store esv1beta1.GenericStore, namespace string) (esv1beta1.SecretsClient, error) {
	var storeProvider esv1beta1.Provider
	var err error
	var spec client.Object
  prov, err := GetProviderRefFromStore(store)
  if err != nil {
    return nil, err
  }
		storeProvider, _ = esv1beta1.GetProviderByRef(*prov)
		spec, err = m.getProviderSpec(ctx, prov, namespace)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
	secretClient := m.getStoredClient(ctx, storeProvider, store)
	if secretClient != nil {
		return secretClient, nil
	}
	m.log.V(1).Info("creating new client",
		"provider", fmt.Sprintf("%T", storeProvider),
		"store", fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", store.GetNamespace(), store.GetName()))
	caller := esmetav1.ReferentCallSecretStore
	storeKind := store.GetObjectKind().GroupVersionKind().Kind
	if storeKind == esv1beta1.ClusterSecretStoreKind {
		caller = esmetav1.ReferentCallClusterSecretStore
	}
	referredSpec, err := storeProvider.ApplyReferent(spec, caller, namespace)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("could not apply referrent logic to spec on %v: %w", store.GetName(), err)
	}
	secretClient, err = storeProvider.NewClientFromObj(ctx, referredSpec, m.client, namespace)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	idx := storeKey(storeProvider)
	m.clientMap[idx] = &clientVal{
		client: secretClient,
		store:  store,
	}
	return secretClient, nil
}

Benefits

• We can add providers gradually
• We can add conversion to provider versions gradually as well
• We can have multiple providers on different support versions (e.g. for community-maintained to be always on v1alpha1)
• Users can opt out of providers they don't use, making the runtime footprint smaller.
• Referent Authentication setting is now ran by the Client Manager (easier to handle)
• We can manage separately provider versions via the Convert method
• We delegate the decision of what to deprecate (SecretStore or SecretStore.spec.provider) to later on.

Drawbacks

• Complexity
• Secrets Management is still done on the provider code.