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Getting Started with Deployments

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Sign up today to unleash the potential of intelligent Harness CD.

This guide walks you through creating your first deployment pipeline in Harness Continuous Delivery (CD). You'll build a complete pipeline from scratch, step by step.

New to Harness CD?​

Start with the CD Overview to understand key concepts, including Services, Environments, Pipelines, and Deployment Strategies.

What you'll accomplish:

  1. Create a deployment pipeline
  2. Configure a service (what to deploy)
  3. Set up an environment (where to deploy)
  4. Choose an execution strategy
  5. Run your first deployment

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, ensure you have:

  • A Harness account - Sign up for free
  • Access to a Harness project - Use the Default Project or create your own

Platform-Specific Prerequisites

Select your deployment platform to see all requirements and set up connectors:

Infrastructure Requirements:

  • A Kubernetes cluster (local like K3D, or cloud-managed like GKE, EKS, AKS)
  • kubectl access to your cluster
  • Application deployed to a container registry (Docker Hub, ECR, GCR, etc.)
  • A Harness Delegate installed - Required to connect to your cluster. Follow the delegate installation guide

Quick Verification:

# Verify kubectl access
kubectl cluster-info
kubectl get nodes

Required Connectors:

  1. Kubernetes Cluster Connector - Connects Harness to your cluster

    • Go to Project Setup → Connectors → New Connector → Kubernetes Cluster
    • Choose connection method (Delegate, Service Account, etc.)
    • Follow: Create a Kubernetes connector

  2. Git Connector - For storing Kubernetes manifests

    • Go to Project Setup → Connectors → New Connector → GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket
    • Provide repository URL and authentication (Personal Access Token recommended)
    • Follow: Git connector setup

  3. Docker Registry Connector - For pulling container images

    • Go to Project Setup → Connectors → New Connector → Docker Registry
    • For Docker Hub: Use https://registry.hub.docker.com/v2/
    • For ECR/GCR/ACR: Use respective registry URLs
    • Follow: Docker Registry connector

Important Notes:

  • Complete all connector setups before proceeding - You'll select these connectors in the following steps
  • Test each connector - Use the "Test Connection" button to verify connectivity
  • Save connector identifiers - You'll reference these by name when configuring services and environments

Step 1: Create Your Pipeline​

Follow these steps to create your first deployment pipeline.

1. Navigate to Pipelines

  1. From your Harness project, select Pipelines from the left navigation menu.
  2. Click + Create a Pipeline.

2. Configure Pipeline Basics

  1. Provide a Name for your pipeline (e.g., "Deploy to Production")
  2. Choose Inline for Pipeline Storage (stores configuration in Harness)
  3. Click Start
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You can also store pipelines in Git using Remote storage. Learn more in the Pipelines documentation.

Step 2: Add a Deploy Stage and Configure Deployment​

Add a Deploy stage and configure your deployment based on your target platform.

  1. Select the Deploy stage type.
  1. In the "About your Stage" section:
    • Enter a Stage Name (e.g., "Deploy to Dev")
    • Select your Deployment Type

Select Your Deployment Type

This guide covers the most common deployment types. Select the one that matches your infrastructure:

  • Kubernetes - Deploy to any Kubernetes cluster
  • AWS Lambda - Serverless functions on AWS
  • Google Cloud Run - Fully managed containers on GCP
  • Azure Web Apps - PaaS web applications on Azure
  • Azure Functions - Serverless compute on Azure
  • SSH - Deploy to Linux/Windows servers
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Harness supports 20+ deployment types including ECS, Helm, SAM, Google Cloud Functions, Spot, Tanzu, and more. For a complete list, see What's Supported in CD.

  1. Click Set Up Stage to continue.
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The deployment type you select here determines the configuration needed in Service, Environment, and Infrastructure sections. Make sure to follow the same deployment type throughout all configuration steps.

Step 3: Configure Your Service​

The Service defines what you're deploying (application, artifacts, manifests). Select your deployment platform below:

Kubernetes Service Configuration

  1. In the Service tab, click + Add Service
  2. Provide a Name (e.g., nginx-service) and click Save

Add Kubernetes Manifest

  1. Click Add Manifest → Select K8s Manifest
  2. Configure:
    • Manifest Identifier: k8s-manifest
    • Git Connector: Select the Git connector you created in Prerequisites
    • Repository: Use https://github.com/harness-community/harnesscd-example-apps
    • Branch: master
    • File Path: guestbook/manifest.yaml

Sample Manifest:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: guestbook-ui
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: guestbook-ui
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: guestbook-ui
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: guestbook-ui
        image: <+artifact.image>
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: guestbook-ui
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    app: guestbook-ui
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80

Add Container Image

  1. Click Add Primary Artifact → Select Docker Registry

  2. Configure:

    • Artifact Source Name: nginx
    • Docker Registry Connector: Select the Docker Registry connector you created in Prerequisites
    • Image Path: library/nginx
    • Tag: Select stable or use <+input> for runtime input

  3. Click Continue to proceed to Environment configuration.

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You can also use Helm charts or Kustomize for Kubernetes deployments.

Step 4: Configure Environment and Infrastructure​

Define where you're deploying (Environment) and the specific infrastructure details. Select your deployment platform:

Kubernetes Environment & Infrastructure

Create Environment

  1. Click + New Environment
  2. Configure:
    • Name: dev-environment
    • Environment Type: Pre-Production
  3. Click Save

Define Infrastructure

  1. Click + Select Infrastructure

  2. Provide Name: k8s-dev-cluster

  3. Configure connection:

    • Connector: Select the Kubernetes cluster connector you created in Prerequisites
    • Namespace: Enter target namespace (e.g., default, dev, production)
    • Release Name: release-<+INFRA_KEY> (for deployment tracking)

  4. Click Continue to proceed to Execution.

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See Kubernetes infrastructure for advanced configuration options.

Step 5: Configure Execution Strategy​

Different deployment types support different execution strategies. Select your deployment platform to see available strategies:

Kubernetes Execution Strategies

Choose how your Kubernetes deployment will be executed:

  1. In the Execution tab, Harness automatically adds a Rollout Deployment step
  1. Click on the step to choose your execution strategy:

Available Strategies for Kubernetes:

  • Rolling: Incrementally updates pods with zero downtime. Supports all Kubernetes workloads (Deployment, DaemonSet, etc.)
  • Blue Green: Deploys new version alongside old, then switches traffic instantly. Supports Deployment workloads only
  • Canary: Gradually routes traffic to new version in phases. Supports Deployment workloads only
  • Blank Canvas: Start with empty execution for custom workflows
  1. Select your strategy and click Use Strategy
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For more details on Kubernetes deployment strategies, see What Can I Deploy in Kubernetes?

Optional: Enable Continuous Verification

Add automated health monitoring to any deployment:

  1. Toggle Enable Continuous Verification
  2. Configure your monitoring tools (APM, logging, metrics)
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Learn about verification in the Continuous Verification documentation.

Step 6: Run Your Pipeline​

After completing all configuration steps, execute your deployment:

  1. Ensure your pipeline is saved (click Save if needed)
  2. Click Run in the top right corner
  3. Provide any required runtime inputs:
    • Artifact versions or tags
    • Environment variables
    • Infrastructure parameters
  4. Click Run Pipeline to begin execution

Harness will execute your deployment and display real-time progress, logs, and status for each step.

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For detailed information on monitoring execution, viewing logs, troubleshooting failures, and understanding deployment status, see the Pipeline Execution Walkthrough.

Next Steps​

Explore More Tutorials

Now that you've completed your first deployment, dive deeper with platform-specific tutorials and sample applications:

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The harnesscd-example-apps repository contains complete working examples with manifests, configurations, and artifacts that you can fork and use in your own pipelines.

What's Next​

Congratulations on completing your first deployment! Continue your Harness CD journey:

Harness CD self-paced training

For an interactive onboarding experience including advanced features like canary deployments, blue-green strategies, and automated rollbacks, check out Harness CD self-paced training.