In modern software development, developers need a reliable way to build, test, and deploy applications quickly. This is where CI/CD comes in. When CI/CD is combined with Red Hat OpenShift, teams can automate much of the application delivery process while taking advantage of OpenShift’s container and Kubernetes capabilities.
What Is CI/CD?
CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery or Continuous Deployment.
Continuous Integration means that developers regularly push their code to a shared repository. Automated processes can then build the application and run tests to identify problems early.
Continuous Delivery or Deployment focuses on automatically preparing or releasing the application after it passes the required checks.
A simple CI/CD process looks like this:
Code → Build → Test → Container Image → Deploy → OpenShift
What Is OpenShift?
OpenShift is Red Hat’s enterprise Kubernetes platform. It provides tools for developing, deploying, and managing containerized applications.
Instead of manually configuring servers every time an application needs to be deployed, developers can use OpenShift to manage containers, applications, networking, scaling, and other resources.
How CI/CD Works with OpenShift
A typical CI/CD pipeline on OpenShift starts when a developer pushes code to a Git repository.
The pipeline can then automatically:
- Retrieve the latest source code.
- Build the application.
- Run automated tests.
- Build a container image.
- Store the image in a container registry.
- Deploy the application to OpenShift.
- Verify that the deployment is working correctly.
This reduces the amount of manual work required from developers and system administrators.
OpenShift Pipelines
One of the important technologies used for CI/CD on OpenShift is OpenShift Pipelines.
OpenShift Pipelines is based on Tekton, a Kubernetes-native framework for creating CI/CD pipelines.
A pipeline can contain different tasks. For example:
Developer pushes code
↓
Build application
↓
Run tests
↓
Build container image
↓
Push image to registry
↓
Deploy to OpenShift
↓
Application availableEach task performs a specific part of the software delivery process.
Example
Imagine a developer has created a Node.js application.
The developer pushes the latest changes to GitHub. The CI/CD pipeline detects the change and starts automatically.
The pipeline can install the Node.js dependencies, run tests, create a production build, create a container image, and deploy that image to an OpenShift cluster.
If everything succeeds, users can access the updated application without the operations team having to manually deploy it.
Benefits of CI/CD on OpenShift
Faster Deployment
Automating the deployment process allows teams to release applications more frequently.
Improved Reliability
The same automated steps can be executed every time, reducing mistakes caused by manual deployments.
Better Testing
Automated tests can be included in the pipeline before an application reaches production.
Container-Based Deployment
OpenShift works naturally with containers, making it easier to package applications together with their dependencies.
Scalability
Applications deployed on OpenShift can be scaled according to demand.
CI/CD Tools Used with OpenShift
Several tools can be used as part of an OpenShift CI/CD environment, including:
- OpenShift Pipelines
- Tekton
- GitHub
- GitLab
- Jenkins
- Argo CD
- OpenShift GitOps
These tools can work together to create an automated software delivery process.
CI/CD and DevOps
CI/CD is an important part of DevOps because it brings development and operations closer together.
Developers can focus on writing and improving applications while automated pipelines handle many of the repetitive tasks involved in testing and deployment.
With OpenShift, organizations can create a consistent environment where applications can be built, tested, deployed, monitored, and scaled.