Gubernator Weekly Update: CoreDNS Aqueducts, SRE Stack, Network Topology & Cluster Auto-Updates!

Gubernator Weekly Update: CoreDNS Aqueducts, SRE Stack, Network Topology & Cluster Auto-Updates!
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What an intense week for Gubernator (gbnt)! If you're new here, Gubernator is the "Goldilocks" container orchestrator that bridges the gap between Docker Swarm's simplicity (native Compose support, simple node joining) and Nomad's scheduling flexibility (hardware targeting, labels, task-based management).

Over the past 7 days, Gubernator evolved from a single-node engine into a production-ready cluster ecosystem. Here is a breakdown of everything shipped this week!

1. Ingress & Service Discovery ("The Aqueducts")
One of our biggest milestones this week was shipping automated internal DNS resolution and edge ingress routing:

• CoreDNS Integration: Every node running Gubernator can now deploy CoreDNS. Containers across all hosts can resolve internal service IPs using dynamic domain names (.gbnt.test). As containers spin up or die, Gubernator's manager updates CoreDNS records in real-time.
• Caddy Ingress: Exposing web services is now effortless. Services deployed with routing labels are automatically proxied by Caddy, managing SSL and HTTP/HTTPS ingress dynamically.

2. SRE Observability Suite (gbnt monitor init)
Observability shouldn't require writing 500 lines of YAML. With a single command, gbnt monitor init, Gubernator deploys a complete, production-grade observability stack:

• Prometheus & cAdvisor: Detailed container and host-level metrics collection (CPU, RAM, Network I/O).
• Loki & Promtail: Centralized log aggregation across all containers.
• Grafana: Pre-configured dashboards for instant visualization out of the box.
• Jaeger Tracing: Full OpenTelemetry distributed tracing support (OTLP gRPC :4317 & HTTP :4318).

1. Interactive Network Topology (Weave Scope Integration) Understanding how containers talk to each other across a distributed cluster can be tough. We integrated Weave Scope directly into the Flutter Web Dashboard!

• Live Process & Socket Spy: Mounts /proc and /sys to trace active socket connections between containers in real-time.
• Dynamic CoreDNS Spy: Container relationships are automatically linked and mapped based on DNS requests and active network traffic.

4. Zero-Downtime Cluster Auto-Updates
Keeping a cluster updated shouldn't require manual SSH scripts. We introduced Gubernator Cluster Auto-Updates:

• GitHub Releases Integration: The Manager polls the GitHub Releases API (with 15-minute smart caching).
• Header Notification: When a new tag is detected, the top-left sidebar header highlights the available update: [ MANAGER v2.7.2 ] → [ MANAGER v2.7.4 ]
• Cluster-Wide Rolling Update: Clicking the badge opens a confirmation dialog with full release notes. Confirming triggers an automated image pull (marioezquerro/gubernator:) and coordinated rolling restarts across the Manager and all registered Worker nodes!

5. UI/UX Refinements (Flutter Web Dashboard)
We also polished the Web UI for maximum developer ergonomics:

• Clickable Port Chips: Mapped container ports (e.g. 8080:80) are now rendered as interactive chips. One click opens http://: directly in your browser.
• Bulk Container Actions: Checkboxes on the Tasks table allow batch Start, Stop, Restart, or Delete operations.
• Dynamic Split Ratio: Legions (Stacks) and Centurions (Nodes) panels now feature a default 1/3 vs 2/3 layout with drag-to-resize support.

Try Gubernator Today!
Gubernator is open-source and built for developers who want the simplicity of Swarm combined with modern SRE observability.

GitHub Repository: mario-ezquerro/gubernator
Docker Hub: marioezquerro/gubernator

Drop a ⭐ on GitHub if you like where Gubernator is heading! What features would you like to see next? Let me know in the comments!