In this tutorial we will look at the key concepts and objects for the Pipelines capability of CloudBees CD (CloudBees Flow).
CloudBees CD Pipelines
Pipelines in CloudBees CD allow to model and execute your software delivery process.
Pipelines allow you to define various stages and automated as well as manual tasks to perform as your software moves through various milestones.
Pipelines are made up various stages. You can have as many stages as your software delivery process requires. For example you can have stages such as Development stage, QA stage , Integration testing stage, pre-production stage and all the way to production.
Stage
Lets take a closer look at a 'Stage'.
A stage is made up of tasks and gates. Tasks are the various activities you want to perform in a stage and Gates allow to control the flow via various approvals to ensure governance.
Tasks
Lets look deeper at tasks.
Tasks allow you to orchestrate and execute various automation units. Tasks can be of various types.
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A task of application process type allows you to execute application deployments for example. Application processes are defined as part of application models. Please refer to other videos like 'CloudBees CD Deploy Concepts' for more details around Application processes.
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Tasks could also point to platform level automation building blocks like procedures or workflows.
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In addition tasks also allow you to create manual actions or invoke various 3 party tools at the right time in the software delivery flow using various plug-ins.
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Task of Deployer type is used to deploy multiple applications when the pipeline is used within a multi-application release.
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Tasks will run one after another serially but each of the task can point to automation which can run multiple actions in parallel. For example, an application process task can run multiple steps in parallel, so can a task pointing to a procedure.
Gates
In addition to tasks, Pipelines also have Approval gates. Gates ensure that right individuals can control how a pipeline can flow.
Gates can of 2 types - Entry gate and Exit gate.
Entry gates control when a pipeline can enter a stage. That is, entry gates ensure that tasks in a stage won’t start unless all the required approvals are met. For example, you can use entry gates to ensure that all the right approvals are met before entering the production stage.
Similarly exit gates control when a pipeline can exit a stage. For example, using exit gates quality assurance teams can ensure all their checks have been done before certifying a payload.
Approval Rules in entry gates or exit gates can point to one or more individuals or even groups. It is possible to setup the system so that approvers get email notifications at the right time to take actions. Pipeline run will also record all the approvals for auditing purposes.
Summary
In summary pipelines allow you to model and execute your software delivery process. Pipeline can have multiple stages, each stage can have multiple tasks as well as entry gate and exit gate.
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