Cloud Deploy performs its operations using a custom image, whichincludes default tool versions. Cloud Deploy provides you withflexibility and control over your deployment process by allowing you to specifytool versions to use in operations to render, deploy, and verify your manifests.

This page describes how Cloud Deploy tool versions are selected andthe maintenance and support time for each tool version.

Supported Cloud Deploy Tool Versions

Cloud Deploy lets you select the versions for thefollowing tools:

• Docker
• Kubectl
• Kpt
• Helm
• Kustomize
• Skaffold

Cloud Deploy provides arepositoryof available tool versions that you can use for your operations. All of theseversions are subject to themaintenance and deprecation policy.

Default tool versions

If no user-specified tool versions are supplied, default tool versions areused during release creation.

A new Cloud Deploy image is released every week containing thelatest tool versions available at the time the image is built. Based on thetiming of different release schedules of the tools, a new tool version may takeup to two weeks to become the default.

You can view the default versions by running the following command:

gclouddeployget-config\--project=PROJECT\--region=REGION\--format'yaml(defaultToolVersions)'

Fixed Tool Versioning

All tool versions are saved onto the release resource by default. The toolversions are associated with a release at release creation and are used for theentire lifecycle of that release, and cannot be changed during that lifetime.The release lifecycle consists of all render, deploy, and other jobs on thatrelease. This includes up to deployment into the final target in the progression, and beyond (rollbacks or redeployments).You can find the tool versions associated with a release by running the following command:

gclouddeployreleasesdescribeRELEASE_NAME\--delivery-pipeline=PIPELINE_NAME\--project=PROJECT\--region=REGION\--format='yaml(toolVersions)'

Releases created before the tool versioning feature won't have toolVersionslisted in their output. Instead you can see their Skaffold versionwith the--format 'yaml(skaffoldVersion)' flag.

Disable fixed tool versioning

If you want to disable fixed tool versioning and use the latest tools for agiven release, you can do so by specifying the special keywordlatest foreach tool. Here's an example of creating a release that uses the latestversions for all tools:

gclouddeployreleasescreateRELEASE_NAME\--delivery-pipeline=PIPELINE_NAME\--project=PROJECT\--region=REGION\--docker-version=latest\--helm-version=latest\--kpt-version=latest\--kubectl-version=latest\--kustomize-version=latest\--skaffold-version=latest

How to specify a particular tool version to use

You can use any of thesupported tool versions. To specifythe version that you want to use, include the appropriate flag for specific tool:

gclouddeployreleasescreateRELEASE_NAME\--delivery-pipeline=PIPELINE_NAME\--project=PROJECT\--region=REGION\--docker-version=DOCKER_VERSION\--helm-version=HELM_VERSION\--kpt-version=KPT_VERSION\--kubectl-version=KUBECTL_VERSION\--kustomize-version=KUSTOMIZE_VERSION\--skaffold-version=SKAFFOLD_VERSION

For any tools where you want to use the default version, you can omit the corresponding version flag.

For example, the following command uses Skaffold2.16.1 and Helm3.18.3:

gclouddeployreleasescreaterelease-001\--delivery-pipeline=PIPELINE_NAME\--skaffold-version=2.16.1\--helm-version=3.18.3\--project=PROJECT\--region=REGION

Tool version compatibility

Cloud Deploy takes responsibility for ensuring that the tool versionsare compatible on the Cloud Deploy image. If you use the toolversion replacement feature to replace tool versions on the Cloud Deployimage, then you're responsible for choosing compatible tool versions.

Tool version deprecation and maintenance policy

Tool versions are supported for 12 months with a 60-day maintenance period,from the day they are imported. This maintenance period means that releases tiedto a tool version are still supported for 60 days after support for that toolversion has expired. You can still create rollouts from those releases, but youcan't createreleases using a tool version that's in the maintenance period.

After the 60-day maintenance period, the tool version is no longersupported for any operations. You can no longer create rollouts from a releasethat uses the unsupported version. However, all data associated with the releaseremains.

You can view the maintenance and expiration dates on the release by running thefollowing command:

gclouddeployreleasesdescribeRELEASE_NAME\--delivery-pipeline=PIPELINE_NAME\--project=PROJECT\--region=REGION\--format'yaml(condition)'

You can also view the maintenance and expiration date of a specific tool by runningthe command:

gcloudartifactsversionslist\--packageTOOL_NAME\--repositorytools\--projectcd-image-prod\--location=REGION

The maintenance and expiration dates are available as annotations on therespective versions.

Legacy Skaffold version

Cloud Deploy used to provide a specific list of Skaffold versionsthat were supported. These Skaffold versions corresponded with aCloud Deploy image that was built with that particular version ofSkaffold and other tools. The Skaffold versions were supported for 12 months,with a 60-day maintenance period.

Cloud Deploy is moving away from this model in favor of improvingCloud Deploy's security posture. Without the need to provide imagesthat correspond to a particular Skaffold version, Cloud Deploy canaddress vulnerabilities more quickly and can update the default tool versions morefrequently.

Existing Skaffold versions will continue to be supported until the expirationdate.

You can continue to create releases that use these specific Skaffold versionsby using the--skaffold-version flag in the following command:

gclouddeployreleasescreateRELEASE_NAME\--delivery-pipeline=PIPELINE_NAME\--skaffold-version=SKAFFOLD_VERSION\--project=PROJECT\--region=REGION