How can I get values from an Environment Config to a Composition and vice versa?

[tvandinther]

I have an environment config with some values, and I also have a composition with some values in spec. I need to get these values existing in the same context so that I can use CombineFromComposite or CombineFromEnvironment to patch a managed resource.

I saw in the docs that you can patch a composite resource with an environment but I'm not able to get the values to appear in the status of the composition as I would expect. The # Removed for Brevity along with the inconsistent indentation in the example also makes me unsure of the correct way to define these patches. My environment section currently looks like this:

spec:
  environment:
    environmentConfigs:
      - type: Reference
        ref:
          name: cluster-metadata
    patches:
      - type: ToCompositeFieldPath
        fromFieldPath: oidcUri
        toFieldPath: status.oidcUri
      - type: ToCompositeFieldPath
        fromFieldPath: oidcArn
        toFieldPath: status.oidcArn

When I view the status of my composite resource I do not see these fields appear which in turn causes my combine patch to fail specifying a required property in atProvider on my managed resource.

Any thoughts or ideas? Thanks.

[bobh66]

Are the status.oidcUri and status.oidcArn fields defined in your XRD? If not then kubernetes will discard them unless you tell it to allow unknown fields with the x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true attribute.

[phisco]

Can you share your CompositeResourceDefinition? Or at least the part where you define those fields in the status

[tvandinther]

I've determined that it came down my usage of composition functions and using mode: pipeline. I got a working XR by using the environment-config and patch-and-transform functions together. I wrote to status from the environment patches section of patch and transform.

mode: Pipeline
  pipeline:
    - step: environmentConfigs
      functionRef:
        name: crossplane-contrib-function-environment-configs
      input:
        apiVersion: environmentconfigs.fn.crossplane.io/v1beta1
        kind: Input
        spec:
          environmentConfigs:
            - type: Reference
              ref:
                name: cluster-metadata
    - step: patch-and-transform
      functionRef:
        name: crossplane-contrib-function-patch-and-transform
      input:
        apiVersion: pt.fn.crossplane.io/v1beta1
        kind: Resources
        environment:
          patches:
            - type: ToCompositeFieldPath
              fromFieldPath: oidcUri
              toFieldPath: status.irsa.oidcUri
            - type: ToCompositeFieldPath
              fromFieldPath: oidcArn
              toFieldPath: status.irsa.oidcArn
            - type: ToCompositeFieldPath
              fromFieldPath: clusterName
              toFieldPath: status.clusterName

[phisco]

Aha, just to understand if there is anything to fix. You mean you were using functions but providing environment Patches at spec.environment.patches instead of through the function-patch-and-transform input?

[tvandinther]

Yes that is correct. One thing I didn't try is loading the environment under spec.environment.environmentConfigs and patch under the function. I am unsure if that should work, but loading the environment via the environment function works.

[phisco]

Yes, that should work, loading is still supported in core, but patches have to be defined at the function level. But function-environment-configs is totally fine and has its pros 😉