Introduction to CI/CD Pipelines

Tutorial 1 of 5

1. Introduction

1.1 Tutorial's Goal

The goal of this tutorial is to help beginners understand the basic principles of Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) pipelines, collectively known as CI/CD pipelines.

1.2 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:

  • Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment
  • Understand the benefits of CI/CD pipelines
  • Set up a basic CI/CD pipeline

1.3 Prerequisites

Prior knowledge of version control systems like Git and basic knowledge of software development is required.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

2.1 Continuous Integration (CI)

CI is a development practice where developers integrate their code into a shared repository frequently, usually multiple times per day. Each integration can then be verified by an automated build and tests.

# Code is pushed to a shared repository
git push origin master

# An automated build runs to verify the integration
# Output is either success (build passes) or failure (build fails)

2.2 Continuous Deployment (CD)

CD is a development practice where software is automatically deployed to production after passing through stages of testing, staging, and production in the CI/CD pipeline.

# After successful tests, code is automatically deployed
# Code is now live in production environment

2.3 Benefits of CI/CD

  • Fast and continuous delivery of features
  • More stable and reliable releases
  • Faster feedback and error detection
  • Less time spent on debugging and more on feature development

3. Code Examples

3.1 Setting up a basic CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins

Jenkins is a popular open-source tool used for implementing CI/CD pipelines.

# Install Jenkins
apt-get install Jenkins

# Start Jenkins service
service jenkins start

After Jenkins is installed and started, you can access Jenkins on your local machine at http://localhost:8080.

// Jenkinsfile (Declarative Pipeline)
pipeline {
    agent any 

    stages {
        stage('Build') {
            steps {
                // Build your project here
                echo 'Building..'
            }
        }
        stage('Test') {
            steps {
                // Test your project here
                echo 'Testing..'
            }
        }
        stage('Deploy') {
            steps {
                // Deploy your project here
                echo 'Deploying....'
            }
        }
    }
}

This Jenkinsfile defines a simple pipeline with three stages: Build, Test, and Deploy.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we have learned:

  • The principles of CI and CD
  • The benefits of using CI/CD pipelines
  • How to set up a basic CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins

For further learning, you can explore more advanced features of Jenkins and other CI/CD tools like Travis CI, Circle CI, etc.

5. Practice Exercises

5.1 Exercise 1

Set up a basic CI/CD pipeline for a simple Hello World application in any language of your choice. The pipeline should have at least two stages: Build and Test.

5.2 Exercise 2

Expand the pipeline you created in Exercise 1 by adding a Deploy stage. This stage should simulate a deployment process by simply printing a message, e.g. "Deploying...".

5.3 Exercise 3

Explore the Jenkins dashboard. Create a new pipeline, and familiarize yourself with the different options and configurations.

Solutions and Tips

Solutions will vary based on the language and application. The key is to understand the principles of CI/CD and how to implement them using tools like Jenkins. For further practice, try expanding the pipeline with more stages or integrating with other tools like Docker or Kubernetes.