In evolving software development, the implementation of continuous Integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines has become essential at the enterprise level for automated, optimized reliable deployment processes. Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery are the backbone of this approach for ensuring a seamless collaboration of software delivery updates among developers.
AWS Code
pipeline in the cloud services provides the automation of developing, testing
and releasing of code updates. In this article, you are going to understand AWS
CI/CD pipeline workflows and their implementation effectively.
What Are
The AWS CI/CD Pipeline Components
AWS pipeline
is a set of processes for delivering software updates seamlessly. It automates
the software releases integrating with AWS services such as CodeBuild,
CodeDeploy, COdeCommit, etc…
AWS CICD streamlines the software development enhancing efficiency
and reliability. Popular terminologies of AWS CI/CD are listed and discussed in
short as follows:
- Continuous Integration and
Continuous Deployment (CICD): A CI/CD is a process of automation of
stages with the offering of continuous Integration and Continuous
Deployment of software with efficiency.
- Continuous Integration
(CI): CI brings together all the developers working copies to a
shared main line. All the developers working on parallel branches of a
certain upgrade of an application merge their changes into one main
branch.
- Continuous Deployment (CD): It
is about the processes that have to happen after the code is integrated
for the app to be delivered to the users. These processes involve testing,
staging and deploying the code.
- AWS CodePipeline: AWS
Codepipeline provides CI / CD services by automating Build, Test,
Deployment stages effectively.
- AWS CodeBuild: It is a
fully managed service for building and then compiling source code, runs
tests producing ready-to-deploy software artifacts.
- AWS CodeDeploy: It simply
automates code deployments to EC2 instances or on-premises
instances, or serverless Lambda functions.
What Is
CI/CD On AWS?
AWS DevOps is
a methodology of using DevOps principles and practices within the AWS
Cloud Network. The software development life cycle is fully automated and
coordinated by AWS DevOps through the use of several cloud services and
technologies, including AWS Codepipeline, AWS CodeBuild, and AWS CodeDeploy.
Teams can now easily develop, test, and launch apps on the AWS cloud thanks to
this. To improve consistency and scalability, AWS encourages teams to use code
(IaaC) for infrastructure provisioning and management. For more dependable and
rapid software releases, AWS introduces services like Continuous Integration
and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) methodologies.
How Does
AWS CI/CD Works?
AWS CI/CD
works by improving the combination of AWS services and practices the automation
of software development lifecycle from code integration to deployment. The
Operations of AWS CI/CD is breakdown as follows:
AWS
CodePipeline
- Orchestration: CodePipelines acts as an
orchestrator in defining the workflows and stages of the CI/CD process.
- Integration With Source
Control: It
provides a seamless integration with source code repositories
like GitHub, AWS CodeCommit, Bitbucket for knowing changes in
the source code.
Continuous
Integration (CI)
- AWS CodeBuild: When any changes are
detected in the source code CodePipeline notifies it to the CodeBuild.
Then CodeBuild build and compile the changes in the source code.
- Artifacts Generation: CodeBuild uses the build
process to generate deployable artifacts, such as binaries or
packages. It helps in deploying the artifacts to the specified deployment
targets may include EC2 Instances on-premises servers, or Lambda
functions.
Continuous
Deployment (CD)
- AWS CodeDeploy: After once Build and Test stages
are successful then CodePipeline will triggers CodeDeploy to automate the
deployment process.
- Deployment Configurations: CodeDeploy facilitates
users in defining deployment configurations. Users can specify how they
want to proceed the deployment such as canary deployments for gradual
rollouts.
- Rollback Mechanism: CodeDeploy facilitates easy
rollbacks to previous code applications, In case of any issues arises
during deployment.
Continuous
Monitoring
- CloudWatch: It offers monitoring
features for users in creating alerts on the functionality and health of
their deployed applications.
- Log And Metrics: Services like CodePipeline,
CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy helps in generating logs and metrics for
supporting in troubleshooting and performance analysis of the CI/CD
pipeline.
Collaboration
And Visibility
- Integration With AWS Services: AWS CI/CD tools supports
integration with other AWS services such as CodeCommit, S3
Bucket, Elastic Beanstalk and more for providing a complete platform.
- Dashboard And
Notifications: AWS comes with providing a user-friendly dashboard for visualizing
the pipeline stages and notifications for pipeline events.
Infrastructure
as Code (IaC)
- CloudFormation: AWS allows users in defining and
provisioning of infrastructure with Infrastracture as Code scripts using
the services such as CloudFormation for ensuring consistency across the
environments.
AWS CI/CD
facilitates with automation of building, testing, and deployment phases of
software application providing an optimized and efficient workflow. It promotes
collaboration, visibility, and reliability in the software development process.
The combination of AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy services makes a
powerful CI/CD solution within the AWS ecosystem.
What Is
CI/CD Pipeline?
The CI/CD
(Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) pipeline is a practice in
software development that used for automating the process of integrating code
changes into a shared repository (Continuous Integration ) and Deploying them
it into production environments (Continuous Deployment ). It comes with
involving several stages as listed follows:
- Source Control Management: Developers uses version
control systems like Git to share their code changes in common shared
repository.
- Continuous Integration: The Continuous Integration
phases deals with building and testing of the code, everytime a new code
pushed into the repository. This ensures that new code doesn’t break the
existing codebase.
- Automated Testing: Various type of automated
tests included unit tests, integration tests and end-to-end tests are
executed to verify the functionality and quality of the code.
- Monitoring And Feedback: Continuous Monitoring of
application performance and feedback from users helps in detecting the
issues and making the improvements in the application enhancing the
application quality.
Implementation
Of AWS CI/CD Pipleline: A Step-By-Step Guide
Lets now
build a CI/CD Pipeline with AWS by detailing step by step as follows:
Step 1:
Create IAM Role for EC2 and AWS CodeDeploy
- Navigate to IAM service.
- Then go to roles and create a
new role.
- Select trusted entity type
as AWS Service and use case as EC2
Step 2: Add permissions To IAM Role
- Select AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess permission.
It will allow our EC2 instance to access stored artifacts from
the Amazon S3 bucket.
Step 3: Creating The Role For AWS CodeDeploy
- Provide the Name, review and
Click on Create for creating the Role.
- Select an appropriate role name and click on create role.
Step 4: Creating New Service Role For
CodeDeploy
- Create a new service role for
CodeDeploy and attach AWSCodeDeployRole policy which will provide the
permissions for our service role to read tags of our EC2 instance, publish
information to Amazon SNS topics and much more task.
- Repeat the Above 3 steps again
with trusted entity type AWS Service, use case CodeDeploy.
- Add AWSCodeDeployRole permissions to this creating Role
- Provide the Name, review and
create the role.
Step 5:
Launch An Linux EC2 instance
- Select the instance with AMI
such as “Amazon Linux” and connect to CLI Console.
- Switch to root
user from ec2-user to gain admin access power by
using following command “sudo su” in Linux.
sudo su
Step 6: Update The Packages
- The command “sudo yum update” is
used in Amazon Linux, CentOS, and Red Hat Linux distributions to update
installed packages on your system to their latest available versions.
sudo yum update
Step 7: Install The Ruby And Wget Software
- The command ‘sudo yum
install ruby’ is used to install the Ruby programming software using
the YUM package manager.
sudo yum install ruby
- The command sudo yum install wget is used to install the “wget” package on a system running Amazon Linux, CentOS, or other Red Hat-based Linux distributions that use the YUM package manager.
sudo yum install wget
Step 8:
Download CodeDeploy Agent Script
- Downloading the AWS CodeDeploy
agent installation script from the AWS S3 bucket is an essential step in
setting up AWS CodeDeploy for your infrastructure.
- The CodeDeploy agent is a lightweight, scalable software component that enables AWS CodeDeploy to deploy and manage applications on your EC2 instances or on-premises servers.
wget https://aws-codedeploy-us-east-1.s3.amazonaws.com/latest/install
Step 9: Run Installation Script
- The command chmod +x ./install
is used to make a file executable in a Unix-like operating system,
including Linux.
chmod +x ./install
The
command ‘sudo ./install auto’ is likely used to run an installation
script with superuser (administrator) privileges and pass the “auto” argument
to the script.
sudo ./install auto
Step 10:
Check CodeDeploy Agent Status
- The command sudo service
codedeploy-agent status is used to check the status of the AWS CodeDeploy
agent running on your system.
sudo service codedeploy-agent status
Step 11: Modifying IAM Role
- After running the following
commands, select the instance and click on “Actions”, then click on
“Security” and click on “Modify IAM Role”. Then choose the above created
IAM Role and click on “Update IAM Role”.
- After this step, your EC2
instance gets attached with your above created IAM Role.
- Modify
the IAM role by clicking on the button Update IAM
role as shown in the figure.
Step 12: Finalizing The Configuration
After this process, go to the console where your instance is
connected and run the command “exit” to exit from the root folder and go back
to the EC2 folder. Make a directory on the EC2 folder named “server”, this is
the directory where my source code will be deployed.
- Then
after doing the above process, come back to the running instances list.
- Select
your currently created running instance and go to the “Security” section
present at the end of the page.
- Click
on the link present under the “Security Groups”. After redirecting to the
required page, click on “Edit Inbound rules” under the section of “Inbound
rules” present at the end of the page.
- Then
add a rule, select a port range of your choice and select the source as
“Anywhere-IPv4” from the dropdown menu and then click on “Save rules”.
- Basically,
let me give you a overview what we are actually doing here. In brief, when
you add an inbound rule to a security group for an instance with port
range (in my case, it was 4000) and set the source to “Anywhere-IPv4,” you
are allowing any computer or device on the internet to connect to your
instance through port 4000.
- This
is like opening a door (port 4000) on your server and letting anyone from
anywhere access the service or application running on that port.
Step 13: Create A New Pipeline
- Create
a CodePipeline using Github, CodeBuild and CodeDeploy
- Firstly
Create CodePipeline navigate to CodePipeline via AWS Management Console
and click on Create pipeline.
Step 14: Choose Github In Code Source
- After
selecting GitHub as the source provider, click on the Connect to GitHub
button. You’ll then be prompt to enter your GitHub login credentials.
- Once
you grant AWS CodePipeline access to your GitHub repository, you can
select a repository and branch for CodePipeline to upload commits to this
repository to your pipeline.
Step 15: Configure CodeBuild (Optional)
- If
you haven’t created a project prior to creating your pipeline, then you
can create a project directly from here by clicking Create project button.
- Note:
Buildspec file is a collection of build commands and related settings, in
YAML format, that CodeBuild uses to run a build. For my project, I created
a buildspec.yaml file and added it in the root of my project directory.
Step 16: Add Deploy Stage
Note : Before going to configure Add Deploy Stage,
Let’s make duplicate tab of current tab.
- Go
to code deploy in the navigation, Select Application, then add create a
deployment group.
- Create
a deployment Group by clicking on the button “Create deployment group“,
the following screenshot illustrates with practically.
- In
deployment group Select EC2 instances and select Tag and Value
- Provide
the Environment configurations such as select the Amazon EC2
Instances and provide the key and values to it.
- Uncheck Load Balancer Option
- Finally
Come on Add Deploy Stage and select that created Application name &
Deployment group
Step 17: Review And Create
- As a
final step review and create it. By creating this we have successful the
created a CI/CD pipeline in AWS.
UseCases And Benefits Of AWS CI/CD Pipelines
The following are the well known usecases and benefits of
AWS CI/CD pipelines:
1. Frequent Software Releases
Use Case: Organizations look for frequent software
releases for delivering new features or updates to end-users to be head in
business competition.
Benefits: AWS CI/CD pipelines facilitates in automating
the entire releasing process of the deployment rapid and reliable. It helps in
business bringing agility responsive to market demands.
2. Microservices Architecture
Use Case: Development teams utilizes the microservices
architecture which are independent services that require continuous integration
and deployment.
Benefits: AWS CI/CD provides the automation for testing
and deployment of each microservice. It helps teams in manage and release
components independently with efficient scaling.
3. Implementation Of Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Use Case: Organizations implementing Infrastructure as
Code practices to ensure dependable and repeatable infrastructure deployments
rollouts.
Benefits: AWS CI/CD pipelines seamlessly integrate with
AWS CloudFormation, automating the provisioning and updating of infrastructure.
This ensures the changes that are applied consistently across different
environments increasing efficiency and reducing manual errors.
4. Collaborative Devlopment Environments:
Use Case: Large development teams working
collaboratively on a project, requiring efficient code integration and
deployment processes.
Benefits: AWS CI/CD pipelines facilitate seamless
collaboration by automating the integration of code changes from multiple
developers. This provides a standardized and controlled approach to code
releases, reducing the likelihood of integration issues and fostering a
collaborative development environment.
Best Practices For Successful CI/CD On AWS
The following are the best practices for Successful CI/CD on
AWS:
- Automate
Infrastructure Setup: On usage of AWS CloudFormation or Terraform
will helps in automating the infrastructure provisioning ensuring
consistency and scalability.
- Integrate
Automated Testing: On practising the implementation of automated testing
such as Unit, Integration, end-to-end on using tools such as Jenkins or
AWS Codepipeline helps in maintaining the code quality and reliability.
- Adopt
Immutable Infrastructure: On adopting to the Immutable Infrastructure
and blue-geen deployments helps in minimising the down time. Its usage
with aws services such as Elastic Beanstalk and CodeDeploy helps in
reducing the risk during updates.
- Continuous
Monitoring And Feedback: Monitoring of application performance with
AWS Services such as CloudWatch or third party tools helps in gathering
the feedback for Continuous improvement of CI/CD processes and application
performances.
Conclusion
In conclusion, implementing a CI/CD pipeline using AWS
CodePipeline can significantly improves your software development process. It
brings automation, efficiency, and reliability to your deployments, allowing
you to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. Embrace CI/CD as
a mindset for constant improvement and innovation, and AWS CodePipeline as your
trusted tool for this journey.
AWS CI/CD Pipeline – FAQ’s
What Is CI/CD Pipeline In AWS?
It is automated software development practice in AWS when
new code is pushed into the shared repository in Cloud environments, It is
moved into the Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment stages ensuring
reliable software delivery.
How Do I Create A CI CD Pipeline In AWS EC2 Instance?
You can create the CI CD Pipeline in AWS using services
such as AWS CodePipeline, AWS CodeBuild and AWS CodeDeploy. It helps in
integrating your EC2 Instances in automating to build, test and deploying
applications.
What Are AWS CodeBuild And AWS CodeDeploy? How Do They Fit
Into A CI/CD Pipeline?
AWS CodeBuild is for building and testing code. AWS
CodeDeploy automates deployments to EC2 instances, AWS lambda functions,
or ECS clusters. They work together to ensure code changes are built and
deployed reliably.
Can I Use Third-Party Tools Like Jenkins Or GitLab In An AWS
Based CI/CD Pipeline?
Yes, you can use third-party CI/CD tools within AWS
pipelines. AWS services are flexible and can integrate with popular tools like
Jenkins and GitLab to extend your pipeline capabilities.
What’s The Cost Of Running A CI/CD Pipeline On AWS, And How
Can I Optimize It?
Costs vary based on usage. Use the AWS Simple Monthly
Calculator to estimate costs. Optimize costs by choosing the right instance
types, minimizing idle time, and considering reserved instances.
How Do I Troubleshoot Common Issues In My AWS CI/CD pipeline
On AWS?
Use AWS CloudWatch Logs and CloudWatch Alarms for
monitoring and debugging. Check CodePipeline logs and notifications for
pipeline issues.
Are There Any Alternatives To AWS CodePipeline For Building
A CI/CD Pipeline On AWS?
Yes, alternatives include Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, and
Travis CI. These tools can be used alongside AWS services for building CI/CD
pipelines.
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