Backstage

Scaffolded Backstage App for Org, Good Luck!

Setup

Github Setup

• Create Org, Teams as you desire
• Setup a GitHub App for backstage
  • App Settings
  • App Permissions
  • Copy GitHub App Credentials as backstage-github-app-credentials.local.yaml

K8s minikube (OPTIONAL)

• Setup minikube & Docker Desktop
• In a separate shell, run ./environment/local/minikube/minikube-setup.sh
• Look at shell output to copy values into backstage-environment-setup.local.sh

Webhook (OPTIONAL) - used for catalog provider to pick up catalog entity updates at source control

• Create channel at smee.io (use channel at GitHub Org Webhook and below -u arg)

• npm install --global smee-client
  smee -u https://smee.io/{REPLACE_WITH_CREATED_CHANNEL} -t http://localhost:7007/api/events/http/github
  

• Setup Org Webhook Settings
• Copy secret generated to BS_CATALOG_PROVIDER_WEBHOOK_SECRET at backstage-environment-setup.local.sh

Local Run

Environment Variables

• copy env shell script as backstage-environment-setup.local.sh and fillout the values

Install

yarn install

Local Run

• To start the app locally, run:

source backstage-environment-setup.local.sh
yarn dev

Upgrade

Upgrade

• See https://backstage.io/docs/getting-started/keeping-backstage-updated
• check https://backstage.github.io/upgrade-helper/, run:

yarn backstage-cli versions:bump

Noob

• Best resource to get overview: https://backstage.spotify.com/
• Modeling: https://backstage.io/docs/features/software-catalog/system-model/
• Entity Lifecycle: https://backstage.io/docs/features/software-catalog/life-of-an-entity/

Notes from Setup

Open Ports

frontend: 3000, backend: 7007

Windows Laptop Needs

• https://docs.docker.com/desktop/install/windows-install/ (docs relies on docker)
• https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows (scaffolder relies on isolated-vm)

Catalog priming (Ingesting existing software ecosystems)

• https://backstage.io/docs/features/software-catalog/external-integrations/
• https://backstage.io/docs/integrations/github/discovery/

Templating

All scaffolder actions http://localhost:3000/create/actions

Plugins

AuthN Plugin

• https://backstage.io/docs/getting-started/configuration#setting-up-authentication
• https://backstage.io/docs/auth/github/provider

Github Integration Plugin

• https://backstage.io/docs/getting-started/configuration#setting-up-a-github-integration
• https://backstage.io/docs/integrations/github/locations
• Permissions to set on Organization: https://roadie.io/docs/details/github-app-permissions/#roadie-backstage

Useful backstage repos

• https://github.com/backstage/actions #github actions for backstage deploy
• https://github.com/backstage/software-templates #software templates that can be registered
• https://github.com/backstage/charts #eval helm chart