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Creating CI/CD solutions for applications using OpenShift Pipelines

With Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines, you can create a customized CI/CD solution to build, test, and deploy your application.

To create a full-fledged, self-serving CI/CD pipeline for an application, perform the following tasks:

  • Create custom tasks, or install existing reusable tasks.

  • Create and define the delivery pipeline for your application.

  • Provide a storage volume or filesystem that is attached to a workspace for the pipeline execution, using one of the following approaches:

    • Specify a volume claim template that creates a persistent volume claim

    • Specify a persistent volume claim

  • Create a PipelineRun object to instantiate and invoke the pipeline.

  • Add triggers to capture events in the source repository.

This section uses the pipelines-tutorial example to demonstrate the preceding tasks. The example uses a simple application which consists of:

  • A front-end interface, pipelines-vote-ui, with the source code in the pipelines-vote-ui Git repository.

  • A back-end interface, pipelines-vote-api, with the source code in the pipelines-vote-api Git repository.

  • The apply-manifests and update-deployment tasks in the pipelines-tutorial Git repository.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to an OKD cluster.

  • You have installed OpenShift Pipelines using the Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines Operator listed in the OpenShift OperatorHub. Once installed, it is applicable to the entire cluster.

  • You have installed OpenShift Pipelines CLI.

  • You have forked the front-end pipelines-vote-ui and back-end pipelines-vote-api Git repositories using your GitHub ID, and have administrator access to these repositories.

  • Optional: You have cloned the pipelines-tutorial Git repository.

Creating a project and checking your pipeline service account

Procedure

  1. Log in to your OKD cluster:

    $ oc login -u <login> -p <password> https://openshift.example.com:6443

  2. Create a project for the sample application. For this example workflow, create the pipelines-tutorial project:

    $ oc new-project pipelines-tutorial

    If you create a project with a different name, be sure to update the resource URLs used in the example with your project name.

  3. View the pipeline service account:

    Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines Operator adds and configures a service account named pipeline that has sufficient permissions to build and push an image. This service account is used by the PipelineRun object.

    $ oc get serviceaccount pipeline

Creating pipeline tasks

Procedure

  1. Install the apply-manifests and update-deployment task resources from the pipelines-tutorial repository, which contains a list of reusable tasks for pipelines:

    $ oc create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-1.4/01_pipeline/01_apply_manifest_task.yaml
$ oc create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-1.4/01_pipeline/02_update_deployment_task.yaml

  2. Use the tkn task list command to list the tasks you created:

    $ tkn task list

    The output verifies that the apply-manifests and update-deployment task resources were created:

    NAME                DESCRIPTION   AGE
apply-manifests                   1 minute ago
update-deployment                 48 seconds ago

  3. Use the tkn clustertasks list command to list the Operator-installed additional cluster tasks such as buildah and s2i-python:

    To use the buildah cluster task in a restricted environment, you must ensure that the Dockerfile uses an internal image stream as the base image.

    		 
    $ tkn clustertasks list

    The output lists the Operator-installed ClusterTask resources:

    NAME                       DESCRIPTION   AGE
buildah                                  1 day ago
git-clone                                1 day ago
s2i-python                               1 day ago
tkn                                      1 day ago

Assembling a pipeline

A pipeline represents a CI/CD flow and is defined by the tasks to be executed. It is designed to be generic and reusable in multiple applications and environments.

A pipeline specifies how the tasks interact with each other and their order of execution using the from and runAfter parameters. It uses the workspaces field to specify one or more volumes that each task in the pipeline requires during execution.

In this section, you will create a pipeline that takes the source code of the application from GitHub, and then builds and deploys it on OKD.

The pipeline performs the following tasks for the back-end application pipelines-vote-api and front-end application pipelines-vote-ui:

  • Clones the source code of the application from the Git repository by referring to the git-url and git-revision parameters.

  • Builds the container image using the buildah cluster task.

  • Pushes the image to the internal image registry by referring to the image parameter.

  • Deploys the new image on OKD by using the apply-manifests and update-deployment tasks.

Procedure

  1. Copy the contents of the following sample pipeline YAML file and save it:

    apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
kind: Pipeline
metadata:
  name: build-and-deploy
spec:
  workspaces:
  - name: shared-workspace
  params:
  - name: deployment-name
    type: string
    description: name of the deployment to be patched
  - name: git-url
    type: string
    description: url of the git repo for the code of deployment
  - name: git-revision
    type: string
    description: revision to be used from repo of the code for deployment
    default: "pipelines-1.4"
  - name: IMAGE
    type: string
    description: image to be built from the code
  tasks:
  - name: fetch-repository
    taskRef:
      name: git-clone
      kind: ClusterTask
    workspaces:
    - name: output
      workspace: shared-workspace
    params:
    - name: url
      value: $(params.git-url)
    - name: subdirectory
      value: ""
    - name: deleteExisting
      value: "true"
    - name: revision
      value: $(params.git-revision)
  - name: build-image
    taskRef:
      name: buildah
      kind: ClusterTask
    params:
    - name: IMAGE
      value: $(params.IMAGE)
    workspaces:
    - name: source
      workspace: shared-workspace
    runAfter:
    - fetch-repository
  - name: apply-manifests
    taskRef:
      name: apply-manifests
    workspaces:
    - name: source
      workspace: shared-workspace
    runAfter:
    - build-image
  - name: update-deployment
    taskRef:
      name: update-deployment
    params:
    - name: deployment
      value: $(params.deployment-name)
    - name: IMAGE
      value: $(params.IMAGE)
    runAfter:
    - apply-manifests

    The pipeline definition abstracts away the specifics of the Git source repository and image registries. These details are added as params when a pipeline is triggered and executed.

  2. Create the pipeline:

    $ oc create -f <pipeline-yaml-file-name.yaml>

    Alternatively, you can also execute the YAML file directly from the Git repository:

    $ oc create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-1.4/01_pipeline/04_pipeline.yaml

  3. Use the tkn pipeline list command to verify that the pipeline is added to the application:

    $ tkn pipeline list

    The output verifies that the build-and-deploy pipeline was created:

    NAME               AGE            LAST RUN   STARTED   DURATION   STATUS
build-and-deploy   1 minute ago   ---        ---       ---        ---

Mirroring images to run pipelines in a restricted environment

To run OpenShift Pipelines in a disconnected cluster or a cluster provisioned in a restricted environment, ensure that either the Samples Operator is configured for a restricted network, or a cluster administrator has created a cluster with a mirrored registry.

The following procedure uses the pipelines-tutorial example to create a pipeline for an application in a restricted environment using a cluster with a mirrored registry. To ensure that the pipelines-tutorial example works in a restricted environment, you must mirror the respective builder images from the mirror registry for the front-end interface, pipelines-vote-ui; back-end interface, pipelines-vote-api; and the cli.

Procedure

  1. Mirror the builder image from the mirror registry for the front-end interface, pipelines-vote-ui.

    1. Verify that the required images tag is not imported:

      $ oc describe imagestream python -n openshift
      Example output
      Name:			python
Namespace:		openshift
[...]

3.8-ubi8 (latest)
  tagged from registry.redhat.io/ubi8/python-38:latest
    prefer registry pullthrough when referencing this tag

  Build and run Python 3.8 applications on UBI 8. For more information about using this builder image, including OpenShift considerations, see https://github.com/sclorg/s2i-python-container/blob/master/3.8/README.md.
  Tags: builder, python
  Supports: python:3.8, python
  Example Repo: https://github.com/sclorg/django-ex.git

[...]

    2. Mirror the supported image tag to the private registry:

      $ oc image mirror registry.redhat.io/ubi8/python-38:latest <mirror-registry>:<port>/ubi8/python-38

    3. Import the image:

      $ oc tag <mirror-registry>:<port>/ubi8/python-38 python:latest --scheduled -n openshift

      You must periodically re-import the image. The --scheduled flag enables automatic re-import of the image.

    4. Verify that the images with the given tag have been imported:

      $ oc describe imagestream python -n openshift
      Example output
      Name:			python
Namespace:		openshift
[...]

latest
  updates automatically from registry <mirror-registry>:<port>/ubi8/python-38

  * <mirror-registry>:<port>/ubi8/python-38@sha256:3ee3c2e70251e75bfeac25c0c33356add9cc4abcbc9c51d858f39e4dc29c5f58

[...]

  2. Mirror the builder image from the mirror registry for the back-end interface, pipelines-vote-api.

    1. Verify that the required images tag is not imported:

      $ oc describe imagestream golang -n openshift
      Example output
      Name:			golang
Namespace:		openshift
[...]

1.14.7-ubi8 (latest)
  tagged from registry.redhat.io/ubi8/go-toolset:1.14.7
    prefer registry pullthrough when referencing this tag

  Build and run Go applications on UBI 8. For more information about using this builder image, including OpenShift considerations, see https://github.com/sclorg/golang-container/blob/master/README.md.
  Tags: builder, golang, go
  Supports: golang
  Example Repo: https://github.com/sclorg/golang-ex.git

[...]

    2. Mirror the supported image tag to the private registry:

      $ oc image mirror registry.redhat.io/ubi8/go-toolset:1.14.7 <mirror-registry>:<port>/ubi8/go-toolset

    3. Import the image:

      $ oc tag <mirror-registry>:<port>/ubi8/go-toolset golang:latest --scheduled -n openshift

      You must periodically re-import the image. The --scheduled flag enables automatic re-import of the image.

    4. Verify that the images with the given tag have been imported:

      $ oc describe imagestream golang -n openshift
      Example output
      Name:			golang
Namespace:		openshift
[...]

latest
  updates automatically from registry <mirror-registry>:<port>/ubi8/go-toolset

  * <mirror-registry>:<port>/ubi8/go-toolset@sha256:59a74d581df3a2bd63ab55f7ac106677694bf612a1fe9e7e3e1487f55c421b37

[...]

  3. Mirror the builder image from the mirror registry for the cli.

    1. Verify that the required images tag is not imported:

      $ oc describe imagestream cli -n openshift
      Example output
      Name:                   cli
Namespace:              openshift
[...]

latest
  updates automatically from registry quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev@sha256:65c68e8c22487375c4c6ce6f18ed5485915f2bf612e41fef6d41cbfcdb143551

  * quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev@sha256:65c68e8c22487375c4c6ce6f18ed5485915f2bf612e41fef6d41cbfcdb143551

[...]

    2. Mirror the supported image tag to the private registry:

      $ oc image mirror quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev@sha256:65c68e8c22487375c4c6ce6f18ed5485915f2bf612e41fef6d41cbfcdb143551 <mirror-registry>:<port>/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev:latest

    3. Import the image:

      $ oc tag <mirror-registry>:<port>/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev cli:latest --scheduled -n openshift

      You must periodically re-import the image. The --scheduled flag enables automatic re-import of the image.

    4. Verify that the images with the given tag have been imported:

      $ oc describe imagestream cli -n openshift
      Example output
      Name:                   cli
Namespace:              openshift
[...]

latest
  updates automatically from registry <mirror-registry>:<port>/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev

  * <mirror-registry>:<port>/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev@sha256:65c68e8c22487375c4c6ce6f18ed5485915f2bf612e41fef6d41cbfcdb143551

[...]
Additional resources

Running a pipeline

A PipelineRun resource starts a pipeline and ties it to the Git and image resources that should be used for the specific invocation. It automatically creates and starts the TaskRun resources for each task in the pipeline.

Procedure

  1. Start the pipeline for the back-end application:

    $ tkn pipeline start build-and-deploy \
    -w name=shared-workspace,volumeClaimTemplateFile=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-1.4/01_pipeline/03_persistent_volume_claim.yaml \
    -p deployment-name=pipelines-vote-api \
    -p git-url=https://github.com/openshift/pipelines-vote-api.git \
    -p IMAGE=image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-vote-api

    The previous command uses a volume claim template, which creates a persistent volume claim for the pipeline execution.

  2. To track the progress of the pipeline run, enter the following command::

    $ tkn pipelinerun logs <pipelinerun_id> -f

    The <pipelinerun_id> in the above command is the ID for the PipelineRun that was returned in the output of the previous command.

  3. Start the pipeline for the front-end application:

    $ tkn pipeline start build-and-deploy \
    -w name=shared-workspace,volumeClaimTemplateFile=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-1.4/01_pipeline/03_persistent_volume_claim.yaml \
    -p deployment-name=pipelines-vote-ui \
    -p git-url=https://github.com/openshift/pipelines-vote-ui.git \
    -p IMAGE=image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-vote-ui

  4. To track the progress of the pipeline run, enter the following command:

    $ tkn pipelinerun logs <pipelinerun_id> -f

    The <pipelinerun_id> in the above command is the ID for the PipelineRun that was returned in the output of the previous command.

  5. After a few minutes, use tkn pipelinerun list command to verify that the pipeline ran successfully by listing all the pipeline runs:

    $ tkn pipelinerun list

    The output lists the pipeline runs:

     NAME                         STARTED      DURATION     STATUS
 build-and-deploy-run-xy7rw   1 hour ago   2 minutes    Succeeded
 build-and-deploy-run-z2rz8   1 hour ago   19 minutes   Succeeded

  6. Get the application route:

    $ oc get route pipelines-vote-ui --template='http://{{.spec.host}}'

    Note the output of the previous command. You can access the application using this route.

  7. To rerun the last pipeline run, using the pipeline resources and service account of the previous pipeline, run:

    $ tkn pipeline start build-and-deploy --last

Adding triggers to a pipeline

Triggers enable pipelines to respond to external GitHub events, such as push events and pull requests. After you assemble and start a pipeline for the application, add the TriggerBinding, TriggerTemplate, Trigger, and EventListener resources to capture the GitHub events.

Procedure

  1. Copy the content of the following sample TriggerBinding YAML file and save it:

    apiVersion: triggers.tekton.dev/v1alpha1
kind: TriggerBinding
metadata:
  name: vote-app
spec:
  params:
  - name: git-repo-url
    value: $(body.repository.url)
  - name: git-repo-name
    value: $(body.repository.name)
  - name: git-revision
    value: $(body.head_commit.id)

  2. Create the TriggerBinding resource:

    $ oc create -f <triggerbinding-yaml-file-name.yaml>

    Alternatively, you can create the TriggerBinding resource directly from the pipelines-tutorial Git repository:

    $ oc create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-1.4/03_triggers/01_binding.yaml

  3. Copy the content of the following sample TriggerTemplate YAML file and save it:

    apiVersion: triggers.tekton.dev/v1alpha1
kind: TriggerTemplate
metadata:
  name: vote-app
spec:
  params:
  - name: git-repo-url
    description: The git repository url
  - name: git-revision
    description: The git revision
    default: pipelines-1.4
  - name: git-repo-name
    description: The name of the deployment to be created / patched

  resourcetemplates:
  - apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
    kind: PipelineRun
    metadata:
      generateName: build-deploy-$(tt.params.git-repo-name)-
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: pipeline
      pipelineRef:
        name: build-and-deploy
      params:
      - name: deployment-name
        value: $(tt.params.git-repo-name)
      - name: git-url
        value: $(tt.params.git-repo-url)
      - name: git-revision
        value: $(tt.params.git-revision)
      - name: IMAGE
        value: image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000/pipelines-tutorial/$(tt.params.git-repo-name)
      workspaces:
      - name: shared-workspace
        volumeClaimTemplate:
          spec:
            accessModes:
              - ReadWriteOnce
            resources:
              requests:
                storage: 500Mi

    The template specifies a volume claim template to create a persistent volume claim for defining the storage volume for the workspace. Therefore, you do not need to create a persistent volume claim to provide data storage.

  4. Create the TriggerTemplate resource:

    $ oc create -f <triggertemplate-yaml-file-name.yaml>

    Alternatively, you can create the TriggerTemplate resource directly from the pipelines-tutorial Git repository:

    $ oc create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-1.4/03_triggers/02_template.yaml

  5. Copy the contents of the following sample Trigger YAML file and save it:

    apiVersion: triggers.tekton.dev/v1alpha1
kind: Trigger
metadata:
  name: vote-trigger
spec:
  serviceAccountName: pipeline
  bindings:
    - ref: vote-app
  template:
    ref: vote-app

  6. Create the Trigger resource:

    $ oc create -f <trigger-yaml-file-name.yaml>

    Alternatively, you can create the Trigger resource directly from the pipelines-tutorial Git repository:

    $ oc create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-1.4/03_triggers/03_trigger.yaml

  7. Copy the contents of the following sample EventListener YAML file and save it:

    apiVersion: triggers.tekton.dev/v1alpha1
kind: EventListener
metadata:
  name: vote-app
spec:
  serviceAccountName: pipeline
  triggers:
    - triggerRef: vote-trigger

    Alternatively, if you have not defined a trigger custom resource, add the binding and template spec to the EventListener YAML file, instead of referring to the name of the trigger:

    apiVersion: triggers.tekton.dev/v1alpha1
kind: EventListener
metadata:
  name: vote-app
spec:
  serviceAccountName: pipeline
  triggers:
  - bindings:
    - ref: vote-app
    template:
      ref: vote-app

  8. Create the EventListener resource by performing the following steps:

    • To create an EventListener resource using a secure HTTPS connection:

      1. Add a label to enable the secure HTTPS connection to the Eventlistener resource:

        $ oc label namespace <ns-name> operator.tekton.dev/enable-annotation=enabled

      2. Create the EventListener resource:

        $ oc create -f <eventlistener-yaml-file-name.yaml>

        Alternatively, you can create the EvenListener resource directly from the pipelines-tutorial Git repository:

        $ oc create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openshift/pipelines-tutorial/pipelines-1.4/03_triggers/04_event_listener.yaml

      3. Create a route with the re-encrypt TLS termination:

        $ oc create route reencrypt --service=<svc-name> --cert=tls.crt --key=tls.key --ca-cert=ca.crt --hostname=<hostname>

        Alternatively, you can create a re-encrypt TLS termination YAML file to create a secured route.

        Example Re-encrypt TLS Termination YAML of the Secured Route
        apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
  name: route-passthrough-secured (1)
spec:
  host: <hostname>
  to:
    kind: Service
    name: frontend (1)
  tls:
    termination: reencrypt         (2)
    key: [as in edge termination]
    certificate: [as in edge termination]
    caCertificate: [as in edge termination]
    destinationCACertificate: |-   (3)
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      [...]
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
        1 The name of the object, which is limited to 63 characters.
        2 The termination field is set to reencrypt. This is the only required tls field.
        3 Required for re-encryption. destinationCACertificate specifies a CA certificate to validate the endpoint certificate, securing the connection from the router to the destination pods. If the service is using a service signing certificate, or the administrator has specified a default CA certificate for the router and the service has a certificate signed by that CA, this field can be omitted.

        See oc create route reencrypt --help for more options.

    • To create an EventListener resource using an insecure HTTP connection:

      1. Create the EventListener resource.

      2. Expose the EventListener service as an OKD route to make it publicly accessible:

        $ oc expose svc el-vote-app

Creating webhooks

Webhooks are HTTP POST messages that are received by the event listeners whenever a configured event occurs in your repository. The event payload is then mapped to trigger bindings, and processed by trigger templates. The trigger templates eventually start one or more pipeline runs, leading to the creation and deployment of Kubernetes resources.

In this section, you will configure a webhook URL on your forked Git repositories pipelines-vote-ui and pipelines-vote-api. This URL points to the publicly accessible EventListener service route.

Adding webhooks requires administrative privileges to the repository. If you do not have administrative access to your repository, contact your system administrator for adding webhooks.
Procedure

  1. Get the webhook URL:

    • For a secure HTTPS connection:

      $ echo "URL: $(oc  get route el-vote-app --template='https://{{.spec.host}}')"

    • For an HTTP (insecure) connection:

      $ echo "URL: $(oc  get route el-vote-app --template='http://{{.spec.host}}')"

      Note the URL obtained in the output.

  2. Configure webhooks manually on the front-end repository:

    1. Open the front-end Git repository pipelines-vote-ui in your browser.

    2. Click Settings → Webhooks → Add Webhook

    3. On the Webhooks/Add Webhook page:

      1. Enter the webhook URL from step 1 in Payload URL field

      2. Select application/json for the Content type

      3. Specify the secret in the Secret field

      4. Ensure that the Just the push event is selected

      5. Select Active

      6. Click Add Webhook

  3. Repeat step 2 for the back-end repository pipelines-vote-api.

Triggering a pipeline run

Whenever a push event occurs in the Git repository, the configured webhook sends an event payload to the publicly exposed EventListener service route. The EventListener service of the application processes the payload, and passes it to the relevant TriggerBinding and TriggerTemplate resource pairs. The TriggerBinding resource extracts the parameters, and the TriggerTemplate resource uses these parameters and specifies the way the resources must be created. This may rebuild and redeploy the application.

In this section, you push an empty commit to the front-end pipelines-vote-ui repository, which then triggers the pipeline run.

Procedure

  1. From the terminal, clone your forked Git repository pipelines-vote-ui:

    $ git clone git@github.com:<your GitHub ID>/pipelines-vote-ui.git -b pipelines-1.4

  2. Push an empty commit:

    $ git commit -m "empty-commit" --allow-empty && git push origin pipelines-1.4

  3. Check if the pipeline run was triggered:

    $ tkn pipelinerun list

    Notice that a new pipeline run was initiated.

Additional resources