CI/CD Pipeline Guide
Pipeline stages, deployment strategies, best practices, and tools.
Pipeline Stages
Code
Push to repository, trigger pipeline
Tools: Git, GitHub, GitLab
Build
Compile, bundle, create artifacts
Tools: Webpack, Maven, Gradle
Test
Unit, integration, coverage checks
Tools: Jest, pytest, Selenium
Analyze
Lint, security scan, quality gates
Tools: SonarQube, ESLint, Snyk
Deploy Staging
Deploy to test environment
Tools: Docker, Kubernetes, Helm
Test Staging
Smoke, regression, performance
Tools: Newman, k6, Cypress
Deploy Prod
Production deployment
Tools: Blue-green, canary, rolling
Monitor
Health checks, metrics, alerts
Tools: Prometheus, Grafana
Deployment Strategies
Blue-Green
Two envs, switch instantly
Pros: Zero downtime, easy rollback
Canary
Gradual rollout to subset
Pros: Test with real users, limit blast
Rolling
Incremental replace instances
Pros: Gradual, resource efficient
Feature Flags
Deploy code, enable later
Pros: Separate deploy from release
Best Practices
Automate everything
Fast feedback loops
Quality gates
Small batches
Fail fast, fix fast
Immutable artifacts
Version everything
Monitor deployments
CI/CD Tools
GitHub Actions
CI/CD platform, workflows
Jenkins
Traditional CI server, plugins
GitLab CI
Built-in CI/CD, Docker
CircleCI
Cloud CI, fast builds
ArgoCD
GitOps deployment, K8s
CI/CD Checklist
1. Version control all code. 2. Automate build process. 3. Run tests on every push. 4. Add quality gates. 5. Build artifacts once. 6. Deploy to staging first. 7. Run smoke tests. 8. Use deployment strategy. 9. Monitor production. 10. Automate rollback. CI = build + test. CD = deploy + release. Automate everything, manual approvals for prod.