Level-up Your DevOps with GitHub Actions and Kubernetes - Rob Richardson - NDC Oslo 2024

Multi-stage Docker builds separate build environment from runtime environment, keeping production images small and secure by excluding build tools and source code

Use environment variables and Kubernetes secrets for configuration instead of embedding sensitive data in application settings or Docker images

Leverage GitHub Actions secrets manager to store credentials and sensitive configuration, avoiding secrets in pipeline definitions

Reference external CDN resources for common libraries like Bootstrap/jQuery rather than bundling them, reducing image size

.gitignore and .dockerignore files are crucial for excluding downloaded content, build artifacts, temp files, user-specific files, and secrets

Tag Docker images with Git commit SHA for traceability between running containers and source code

Kubernetes port forwarding enables local testing and debugging without exposing services publicly

GitHub Actions workflows can be configured differently for main branch vs pull request builds

Alpine-based images provide smaller footprint compared to Debian-based alternatives

Use GitHub status badges to quickly visualize build status and link back to source code