Basic CI/CD

Development of a simple CI/CD for the C project. Building, testing, deployment.

The russian version of the task can be found in the repository.

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Contents

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
   2.1. CI/CD basics
   2.2. CI basics
   2.3. CD basics
3. Chapter III
   3.1. Setting up the gitlab-runner
   3.2. Building
   3.3. Codestyle test
   3.4. Integration tests
   3.5. Deployment stage
   3.6. Bonus. Notifications
4. Chapter IV

Chapter I

Planet Earth, ASI office, today.

After arriving at the Port of London, you have had a few days to settle in and explore the city, and then comes the day you have to go to your new job.

Today you arrive in a taxi at the door of the office of the company that brought you to Albion. In the letter you received the day you arrived, you were given the door code and your office number. Surprised by the empty corridors and the deathly silence, you descend a few floors to find your workstation.

There you find a recently switched on computer and an intercom in a poor state of repair. As you enter and close the door behind you, a robotic voice comes out.

"Welcome to the ASI lab's computerised experimental center. The analysis of your body's characteristics has been completed. We are ready to start."

"You will be assisting with one of our experimental center projects. Your first task will be to create a CI/CD for the well-known cat and grep utilities."

Before you begin, we would like to remind you that although learning through play is the main principle of the Experimental Centre, we cannot guarantee the absence of injury and trauma. For your own safety and the safety of others, please refrain from touching bzzz anything at all."

Chapter II

"Your first task requires some explanation. Let me give you a brief introduction."

You could make out the most basic information from the speech that followed, as it felt accelerated by five.

CI/CD basics

Sadly... If something is always done "manually", it will either work poorly or not work at all.

CI/CD is a set of principles and practices that enable more frequent and secure deployment of software changes.

Reasons for using CI/CD:

• Team development;
• Long software life cycle;
• Shortened release cycle;
• Difficulties in deployment and testing of large systems;
• Human factor.

CI/CD pipeline is a sequence of actions (scripts) for a particular version of the code in the repository, which is started automatically when changes are made.

CI basics

CI (Continuous Integration) refers to the integration of individual pieces of application code with each other. CI normally performs two tasks as described below.

• BUILD:
  • Checking if the code is being built at all;
  • Prepare the artifacts for the next stages;
• TEST:
  • Codestyle tests;
  • Unit tests;
  • Integration tests;
  • Other tests you have;
  • Test reports.

CD basics

CD (Continuous Delivery) is a continuous integration extension, as it automatically deploys all code changes to the test and/or production environment after the build stage. CD can perform the following tasks.

• PUBLISH (If using a deployment docker):
  • Build container images;
  • Push the images to where they will be taken from for deployment;
• UPDATE CONFIGS:
  • Update configuration on the machines;
• DEPLOY STAGING:
  • Deployment of test environment for manual tests, QA, and other non-automated checks;
  • Can be run manually or automatically if CI stages are passed successfully;
• DEPLOY PRODUCTION:
  • Deploying a new version of the system on "production";
  • This stage better be run manually rather than automatically;
  • If you want, you can set it up for a specific branch of the repository only (master, release, etc.).

"There you go. If you have any questions, run what I said slowly through your head. I'll be right back."

Chapter III

As a result of the work you must save two dumps of the virtual machine images described below.
P.S. Do not upload dumps to git under any circumstances!

Part 1. Setting up the gitlab-runner

"Since you have decided to do CI/CD, you must really, really like testing. I love it too. So let's get started." If you need any information, I recommend looking for answers in the official documentation.

== Task ==

Start Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS virtual machine.

Be prepared to save a dump of the virtual machine image at the end of the project.

Download and install gitlab-runner on the virtual machine.

Run gitlab-runner and register it for use in the current project (DO6_CICD).

• You will need a URL and a token for runner registration, that can be obtained from the task page on the platform.

Part 2. Building

"The previous test was designed to boost people's self-confidence." Now I have readjusted the tests, making them more difficult and less flattering.

== Task ==

Write a stage for CI to build applications from the C2_SimpleBashUtils project.

n the gitlab-ci.yml file, add a stage to start the building via makefile from the C2 project.

Save post-build files (artifacts) to a random directory with a 30-day retention period.

== If the project C2_SimpleBashUtils is not fulfilled ==

Write a stage for CI to build DO application from the code-samples folder.

In the gitlab-ci.yml file, add a stage to start the building via makefile from the code-samples folder.

Save post-build files (artifacts) to a random directory with a 30-day retention period.

Part 3. Codestyle test

"Congratulations, you've accomplished a completely pointless task. Just kidding. It was necessary for moving on to all the following ones."

== Task ==

Write a stage for CI that runs a codestyle script (clang-format).

If the codefile didn't pass, "fail" the pipeline.

In the pipeline, display the output of the clang-format utility.

Part 4. Integration tests

"Great, the codestyle test is written. [WHISPERING] I'm talking to you in private. Don't tell anything to your colleagues. Between you and me, you're doing very well. [LOUDLY] Let's move on to writing integration tests."

== Task ==

Write a stage for CI that runs integration tests.

For the C2_SimpleBashUtils project, you can take your already written integration tests.

For the project from the code-samples folder, write integration tests yourself. The tests can be written in any language (c, bash, python, etc.) and should call the built application to check its validity on different cases.

Run this stage automatically only if the build and codestyle test passes successfully.

If tests didn't pass, "fail" the pipeline.

In the pipeline, display the output of the succeeded / failed integration tests.

Part 5. Deployment stage

"To complete this task, you must move the executable files to another virtual machine, which will play the role of a production. Good luck."

== Task ==

Start the second virtual machine Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS.

Write a stage for CD that "deploys" the project on another virtual machine.

Run this stage manually, if all the previous stages have passed successfully.

Write a bash script which copies the files received after the building (artifacts) into the /usr/local/bin directory of the second virtual machine using ssh and scp.

Here the knowledge gained from the DO2_LinuxNetwork project can help you.

• Be prepared to explain from the script how the relocation occurs.

In the gitlab-ci.yml file, add a stage to run the script you have written.

In case of an error, fail the pipeline.

As a result, you should get a ready-to-use application from the C2_SimpleBashUtils project (cat and grep) or an application from the code-samples folder (DO) on the second virtual machine (depending on what you did).

Save dumps of virtual machine images.

P.S. Do not upload dumps to git under any circumstances!

• Don't forget to run the pipeline with the last commit in the repository.

Part 6. Bonus. Notifications

"It says that your next task is for Nobel laureates specially. It does not say what they won the prize for, but certainly not for their ability to work with gitlab-runner."

== Task ==

Set up notifications of successful/unsuccessful pipeline execution via bot named "[your nickname] DO6 CI/CD" in Telegram.

• The text of the notification must contain information on the successful passing of both CI and CD stages.
• The rest of the notification text may be arbitrary.

Chapter IV

"Good. After completing a series of tasks, the employee should go to the break room."

While you have a free moment in the break room you decide to check your mail, thinking about the weirdness of what is going on.

Just before you take out your phone, another person enters the break room.

"Hi! I haven't seen you here before."

"That would be weird if you had. It's my first day here, huh."

"Oh, first day! So, what do you think of our 'boss'?" the last words were spoken with an obvious grin.

"That was the boss? Phew, I'm not the only one who thinks he's weird... and a bit rude? I thought you were all like that in England."

"Haha, definitely not, mate. It's just a prank on the newbies, but don't worry everything will be fine tomorrow. By the way, here comes the real boss, looks like he's coming your way. Well, good luck, see you later."

The stranger quickly disappeared and a short man in an expensive suit, slightly balding, in his early fifties or sixties, entered the room. Without waiting for you to speak, he said with a subtle, almost imperceptible smile:

"Oh, you must be Thomas. A truly magnificent performance on the test piece. I hope you weren't intimidated by our dear friend ASI Junior, she spoke very highly of you. So, let me tell you more about what we do here in general and what your role is in our company..."