CI Pipeline

Info:
For Devtron version older than v0.4.0, please refer the CI Pipeline (legacy) page.

A CI Pipeline can be created in one of the three ways:

Each of these methods has different use-cases that can be tailored to the needs of the organization.

1. Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration Pipeline allows you to build the container image from a source code repository.

From the Applications menu, select your application.
On the App Configuration page, select Workflow Editor.
Select + New Build Pipeline.
Select Continuous Integration.
Enter the following fields on the Create build pipeline screen:

Field Name	Required/Optional	Description
Source type	Required	Source type to trigger the CI. Available options: Branch Fixed \| Pull Request \| Tag Creation
Branch Name	Required	Branch that triggers the CI build
Advanced Options	Optional	Create Pre-Build, Build, and Post-Build tasks

Field Name

Required/Optional

Description

Source type

Required

Source type to trigger the CI. Available options: Branch Fixed | Pull Request | Tag Creation

Branch Name

Required

Branch that triggers the CI build

Advanced Options

Optional

Create Pre-Build, Build, and Post-Build tasks

Advanced Options

The advanced CI Pipeline includes the following stages:

Pre-build stage: The tasks in this stage run before the image is built.
Build stage: In this stage, the build is triggered from the source code that you provide.
Post-build stage: The tasks in this stage are triggered once the build is complete.

The Pre-Build and Post-Build stages allow you to create Pre/Post-Build CI tasks as explained here.

Scan for vulnerabilities

To Perform the security scan after the container image is built, enable the Scan for vulnerabilities toggle in the build stage.

Build stage

The Build stage allows you to configure a build pipeline from the source code.

From the Create build pipeline screen, select Advanced Options.
Select Build stage.

Field Name	Required/Optional	Description
TRIGGER BUILD PIPELINE	Required	The build execution may be set to: Automatically (default): Build is triggered automatically as the Git source code changes. Manually: Build is triggered manually.
Pipeline Name	Required	A name for the pipeline
Source type	Required	Select the source type to build the CI pipeline: Branch Fixed \| Pull Request \| Tag Creation
Branch Name	Required	Branch that triggers the CI build
Docker build arguments	Optional	Override docker build configurations for this pipeline. Key: Field name Value: Field value

Field Name

Required/Optional

Description

TRIGGER BUILD PIPELINE

Required

The build execution may be set to:

Automatically (default): Build is triggered automatically as the Git source code changes.
Manually: Build is triggered manually.

Pipeline Name

Required

A name for the pipeline

Source type

Required

Select the source type to build the CI pipeline: Branch Fixed | Pull Request | Tag Creation

Branch Name

Required

Branch that triggers the CI build

Docker build arguments

Optional

Override docker build configurations for this pipeline.

Key: Field name
Value: Field value

Select Update Pipeline.

Source type: Branch Fixed

The Source type - "Branch Fixed" allows you to trigger a CI build whenever there is a code change on the specified branch.

Select the Source type as "Branch Fixed" and enter the Branch Name.

Configuring Webhook

Info: If you choose "Pull Request" or "Tag Creation" as the source type, you must first configure the Webhook for GitHub/Bitbucket as a prerequisite step.

1. Configure Webhook for GitHub

Go to the Settings page of your repository and select Webhooks.
Select Add webhook.
In the Payload URL field, enter the Webhook URL that you get on selecting the source type as "Pull Request" or "Tag Creation" in Devtron the dashboard.
Change the Content-type to application/json.
In the Secret field, enter the secret from Devtron the dashboard when you select the source type as "Pull Request" or "Tag Creation".

Under Which events would you like to trigger this webhook?, select Let me select individual events. to trigger the webhook to build CI Pipeline.
Select Branch or tag creation and Pull Requests.
Select Add webhook.

2. Configure Webhook for Bitbucket cloud

Go to the Repository settings page of your Bitbucket repository.
Select Webhooks and then select Add webhook.

Enter a Title for the webhook.
In the URL field, enter the Webhook URL that you get on selecting the source type as "Pull Request" or "Tag Creation" in the Devtron dashboard.
Select the event triggers for which you want to trigger the webhook.
Select Save to save your configurations.

Source type: Pull Request

The Source type - "Pull Request" allows you to configure the CI Pipeline using the PR raised in your repository.

Before you begin, configure the webhook for either GitHub or Bitbucket.

The "Pull Request" source type feature only works for the host GitHub or Bitbucket cloud for now. To request support for a different Git host, please create a github issue here.

To trigger the build from specific PRs, you can filter the PRs based on the following keys:

Filter key Description

Filter key	Description
`Author`	Author of the PR
`Source branch name`	Branch from which the Pull Request is generated
`Target branch name`	Branch to which the Pull request will be merged
`Title`	Title of the Pull Request
`State`	State of the PR. Default is "open" and cannot be changed

Author

Author of the PR

Source branch name

Branch from which the Pull Request is generated

Target branch name

Branch to which the Pull request will be merged

Title

Title of the Pull Request

State

State of the PR. Default is "open" and cannot be changed

Select the appropriate filter and pass the matching condition as a regular expression (regex).

Devtron uses regexp library, view regexp cheatsheet. You can test your custom regex from here.

Select Create Pipeline.

Source type: Tag Creation

The Source type - "Tag Creation" allows you to build the CI pipeline from a tag.

Before you begin, configure the webhook for either GitHub or Bitbucket.

To trigger the build from specific tags, you can filter the tags based on the author and/or the tag name.

Filter key Description

Filter key	Description
`Author`	The one who created the tag
`Tag name`	Name of the tag for which the webhook will be triggered

Author

The one who created the tag

Tag name

Name of the tag for which the webhook will be triggered

Select the appropriate filter and pass the matching condition as a regular expression (regex).

Select Create Pipeline.

Note
(a) You can provide pre-build and post-build stages via the Devtron tool’s console or can also provide these details by creating a file devtron-ci.yaml inside your repository. There is a pre-defined format to write this file. And we will run these stages using this YAML file. You can also provide some stages on the Devtron tool’s console and some stages in the devtron-ci.yaml file. But stages defined through the Devtron dashboard are first executed then the stages defined in the devtron-ci.yaml file.
(b) The total timeout for the execution of the CI pipeline is by default set as 3600 seconds. This default timeout is configurable according to the use case. The timeout can be edited in the configmap of the orchestrator service in the env variable as env:"DEFAULT_TIMEOUT" envDefault:"3600"

2. Linked CI Pipeline

If one code is shared across multiple applications, Linked CI Pipeline can be used, and only one image will be built for multiple applications because if there is only one build, it is not advisable to create multiple CI Pipelines.

From the Applications menu, select your application.
On the App Configuration page, select Workflow Editor.
Select + New Build Pipeline.
Select Linked CI Pipeline.
Enter the following fields on the Create linked build pipeline screen:

Select the application in which the source CI pipeline is present.
Select the source CI pipeline from the application that you selected above.
Enter a name for the linked CI pipeline.

Select Create Linked CI Pipeline.

After creating a linked CI pipeline, you can create a CD pipeline. Builds cannot be triggered from a linked CI pipeline; they can only be triggered from the source CI pipeline. There will be no images to deploy in the CD pipeline created from the 'linked CI pipeline' at first. To see the images in the CD pipeline of the linked CI pipeline, trigger build in the source CI pipeline. The build images will now be listed in the CD pipeline of the 'linked CI pipeline' whenever you trigger a build in the source CI pipeline.

3. Incoming Webhook

The CI pipeline receives container images from an external source via a webhook service.

You can use Devtron for deployments on Kubernetes while using your CI tool such as Jenkins. External CI features can be used when the CI tool is hosted outside the Devtron platform.

From the Applications menu, select your application.
On the App Configuration page, select Workflow Editor.
Select + New Build Pipeline.
Select Incoming Webhook.

Field Name	Required/Optional	Description
Pipeline Name	Required	Name of the pipeline
Source Type	Required	‘Branch Fixed’ or ‘Tag Regex’
Branch Name	Required	Name of the branch

Field Name

Required/Optional

Description

Pipeline Name

Required

Name of the pipeline

Source Type

Required

‘Branch Fixed’ or ‘Tag Regex’

Branch Name

Required

Name of the branch

Select Save and Generate URL. This generates the Payload format and Webhook URL.

You can send the Payload script to your CI tools such as Jenkins and Devtron will receive the build image every time the CI Service is triggered or you can use the Webhook URL which will build an image every time CI Service is triggered using Devtron Dashboard.

Update CI Pipeline

You can update the configurations of an existing CI Pipeline except for the pipeline's name. To update a pipeline, select your CI pipeline. In the Edit build pipeline window, edit the required stages and select Update Pipeline.