An effective CI/CD pipeline uses open-source tools for integration, testing and deployment. Correct configuration of your CI/CD process also impacts the success of the software development pipeline. Continuous integration (CI) focuses on the early stages of a software development pipeline where the code is built and undergoes initial testing. Multiple developers work on the same codebase simultaneously and make frequent commits to the code repository. Build frequency can be daily or even several times per day at some points in the project’s lifecycle.

If your environment has been running for a long time, it can be difficult to keep track of all configuration changes and updates applied—this is known as configuration drift. Maintaining a static environment incurs maintenance costs, slows down testing, and delays the release process. A commercial release is only possible if the software is release-ready and tested in a production-like environment. https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ Therefore, it is best to add a step that deploys new versions to a realistic pre-production staging environment, or to the production environment itself alongside the current production version. It lets you use the GitLab API to install and set up projects hosted on GitLab. It indicates areas that require improvement and lets you secure project data using confidential issues.

What is pipeline execution?

Test and build automation is key to a CI/CD pipeline, which helps developers identify potential code flaws early in the software development lifecycle (SDLC). It is then easier to push code changes to various environments and release the software to production. Automated tests can assess crucial aspects ranging from application performance to security. In the traditional software development process, multiple developers produce code, and only towards the end of a release do they consolidate their work.

• GCP also integrates with popular open-source tools like Git, Jenkins, and Spinnaker, providing a flexible and customizable CI/CD solution.
• A feature is not considered done until it is working on the main branch and integrated with other code changes.
• With the build complete, the pipeline moves to the test stage and spins up a test environment, often using a container orchestration tool like Kubernetes.
• This lets scrum teams focus on products that wow the world, instead of draining their energy on logistics.

Don’t underestimate the possibility that developers may seek to develop their own techniques intended to circumvent the CI/CD pipeline. This might take the form of deploying shadow technology or finding ways to skip parts of the testing process. DevOps is a software development methodology that aims to bridge the traditional divide between development (dev) and IT operations (ops) sides of the ci cd monitoring development process. Infrastructure as code (IaC), a key practice in DevOps, involves managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files. Security in IaC involves managing these definition files and the infrastructure they create. Encrypt sensitive data, limit access to the IaC files, and regularly audit the infrastructure for security compliance.

Why GitLab CI/CD?

The architecture of the product that flows through the pipeline is a key factor that determines the anatomy of the continuous delivery pipeline. A highly coupled product architecture generates a complicated graphical pipeline pattern where various pipelines could get entangled before eventually making it to production. Thus, users can integrate almost all aspects of the software delivery into Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery.

These small, frequent builds enable easy and low-risk experimentation, as well as the ability to easily roll back or abandon undesirable outcomes. Think of it as a control plane for everything you need to do to release new code. You define the operations and execution order in your CI/CD pipeline, and your CI/CD platform pulls the levers to make it happen automatically.

Benefits of a CI/CD Pipeline

Open DevOps also integrates with other CI/CD tools including Harness, GitLab, JFrog, Codefresh, and CircleCI. Most CI/CD tools let developers kick off builds on demand, triggered by code commits in the version control repository, or on a defined schedule. Teams need to determine the build schedule that works best for the size of the team, the number of daily commits expected, and other application considerations. A best practice is to ensure that commits and builds are fast; otherwise, these processes may impede teams trying to code quickly and commit frequently. CI/CD is an essential part of DevOps and any modern software development practice. A purpose-built CI/CD platform can maximize development time by improving an organization’s productivity, increasing efficiency, and streamlining workflows through built-in automation, testing, and collaboration.

Additional testing, such as integration and end-to-end testing, takes place. This exercise also tests your deployment process, a critical component for reliably releasing software. Once these steps succeed, your CI/CD pipeline may automatically push your application to production, giving you continuous deployment.

Building your CI/CD toolkit

Development teams should have access to the latest executables, as well as a line of sight to any changes made to the repository. Version control should be used to manage handoffs so that developers know which version is the latest. All changes should go through the pipeline to ensure that every change is tested, consistent, and traceable. Conducted testing in an environment that mirrors the production environment rather than testing new code in the live production version. Use rigorous testing scripts in this cloned environment to detect and identify bugs that may have slipped through the initial prebuild testing process. Security in a monorepo CI/CD pipeline prevents changes from affecting other components.

So how do you set up your CI/CD pipeline to implement the process we’ve just described? You’ll do this by setting some branch protection rules for your mainline branch. We’ll walk you through how to do this using Git and GitHub Actions, but most source control management systems and CI/CD platforms will support these options. OpenText™ Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) are two essential components of both Agile and DevOps toolchains that lead to successful software development.

Continuous Integration tools & platforms

Continuous delivery usually includes deploying to testing and/or staging environments and running additional automated and manual tests. These tests all run against the deployed code vs. the unit tests that run at the CI stage of the pipeline. The CI in CI/CD stands for continuous integration and involves frequent merges to a mainline branch, automated builds, and automated tests. When a software team employs continuous integration, developers commit code daily, sometimes multiple times per day, to a shared mainline repository, such as the main branch of a GitHub repository. Regular, small code changes greatly simplify root cause analysis when a bug is detected. Continuous integration is a coding philosophy and set of practices that drive development teams to frequently implement small code changes and check them in to a version control repository.

These compress operating systems into barebones packages, therefore also making them highly transportable between teams not physically co-located. Using this kind of technology can make it much more effective to quickly spin up new testing environments as the pipeline requires it. If hurdles stand between the code developers and putting out the production environment, team members may inevitably be tempted to seek out the path of least resistance. Codefresh, besides providing CI capabilities, also supports continuous delivery.