Enhancement of DevOps toolchain with Integrated CI-CD based techniques
Introduction
A toolset that is responsible for the automation, delivery, maintenance, and optimization of the various processes and the software with a set of tools that an organization completely is said to be the DevOps toolchain. They basically work in the background to secure the data, and customer and employee information. They are deployed at all levels in an organization. It makes sure of timely delivery even for complex solutions and is hence more efficient. The fundamentals of DevOps are based on automation, Continuous Integration (CI), continuous deployment(delivery)(CD), and collaboration. Open-source DevOps tools are available as open source. When more than one tool is clubbed together in the development process it is said to be a Tool Chain.
Continuous Delivery is for every change in code a built is created, tested, and then allowed to pass through the nonproduction testing with multiple stages before production deployment. Continuous deployment is when production happens without approvals automatically.
Benefits and Examples of Microservices and the top Benefits of using Docker
Software development lifecycle stages and DevOps Toolchain
- There are Five major stages in the software development life cycle
- Planning- Get to know the requirement of clients, convert them into specifications, design a prototype or a model, assign tasks to different teams, decide timelines for release, and Plan for maintenance.
- Creating-Designing software, developing codes and testing the codes.
- Verification – clearing acceptance and integration tests and security of the system.
- Release – This involves making the software available for use by releasing the codes.
- Monitor – Ensuring optimal performance, gathering feedback, and focusing on improvement.
DevOps Tool chain in process
In these stages, Verification, testing and monitoring phases can be automated to avoid human errors and achieve perfection. Different tools are used in every stage of the software development life cycle. DevOps are very useful in these automation processes. Fig.1 shows the different areas in an organization where DevOps can be effectively used to achieve effective and efficient delivery with time constraints.
- Collaboration – Tools are involved to communicate and collaborate with different teams such as the development team, testing team, and product coordination team. The tools involved here helps people to work regardless of different time zones and connect people from a different location. Tools used here are Campfire, skype.
- Planning – Planning tolls provide transparency among the people working in different stages of software development. Tools used in this phase are Clarizen and Asana.
- Source Control – All documents, configurations, data, and codes are stored in a centralized location and then shared among the various teams based on their requirement. Tools used for managing these sources are Git and SVN.
- Issue Tracking – Issues need to be raised and tracked by all the teams working together provided the same tool is used by all the teams. Some of the tools used are Jira and Backlog.
- Configuration Management – these tools are helpful to avoid the configuration drifts across the environment. They manage the system configuration and update automatically. Some of the tools used here are Ansible, puppet.
- Continuous Integration – Codes are generally developed in chunks by different teams in software development and integrated continuously. The integration process may end up in errors even though these codes would have worked independently. Tools are deployed here to identify the errors during the integration process and resolve them quickly. Some of the tools used are Bamboo, and Team City.
- Binary Repositories-Collection of metadata, code, and software artifacts by the repository manager helps in the smooth updating from development to production. Some tools are Nexus and Maven.
- Monitoring – These tools make sure to provide optimal performance and service delivery uptime. Monitoring tools include Big Panda and Sensu.
- Automated Testing – Before passing the integrated codes to the build these codes need to be tested Few automated testing tools are QTP and Test complete.
- Development – The tools involved in development help the product to be released into the market. Some known tools are IBM and uDeploy.
- Data Base- The database is a centralized management system. A large amount of cumbersome data is handled by these tools easily. Some tools used in this application are RazorSQL and Teamdesk.
Necessities of DevOps tool Chain
DevOps Toolchain automates almost all the stages of the software development cycle and hence providing a standardized pipeline for product deliverables. They allow the teams to respond faster and more efficiently in the early stages of error detection. It is possible to deliver the best product with the best quality in a specified timeframe.
Security- DevOps toolchain is a valuable addition to the business where several people are involved in managing an incident. Considering the security of digital services DevOps plays a major role. All security considerations like continuous monitoring for issues and warning signs, encrypting data, and post-incident requirements can be built into the DevOps toolchain.
Incident Management- For smooth operation and to give a good experience to the customer there is a need for both manual and automated processes. DevOps toolchain handles the automated requirement. DevOps toolchain helps in incident management and resolves automatically in a short duration. It also creates incident post-mortems that is preserving the data from all impacting systems. This process of post-mortem prevents the same issues to be experienced multiple times and reduces application downtime and hence the cost.
Work Automation- DevOps gives the benefit of end-to-end business data management. It helps in workflow management. In real-time data can be captured and processed and provide the data to the teams with the required information as and when required. Data visualization and dashboard management at all levels of the organization is made feasible with this toolchain automation system. Overall developers and managers can ensure the workflow in the project effectively.
Customizable DevOps toolchain
DevOps toolchain allows customization based on the team’s needs. Teams are allowed to bring together the existing tools provided integration is possible with these tools. Integrated tools reduce the time spent on screen switching and multiple logins and also avoid the difficulty in sharing the data between tools. It also avoids the unnecessary time spent looking at the manual and trying to find the key information about the tool.
Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice in which developers merge the changes made in the code to the main code. In General, codes are written by developers in chunks and then integrated into the main branch. The build is created and automated tests are run to validate the changes made by the developers. Thus, integration challenges can be managed. CI Technique makes sure that the application is not broken when integration happens.
At an organizational level, there are few requirements to implement CI into the system. For the improvement of each new feature, the team needs to write automated tests. A CI server is required separately to monitor the main repository, and run tests as each commit are pushed. Changes need to be updated regularly.
CI reduces the time spent by the quality assurance team in testing and hence allows them to focus on improvement. CI servers can handle hundreds of tests and reduce the testing cost. Developers can avoid context switching as the build helps them to work on the task to fix before moving on to the next task. All integration changes are handled with the CI technique that helps the release smoothly. Before entering into the production stage generally, bugs are all rectified due to automated testing.
Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment (CD):
CI process further extends to CD. In continuous delivery, all code changes are deployed into testing and production after the build stage. This enables the application to be released anytime. Apart from automated testing, continuous delivery should be deployed in the production stage at the earliest so that small batches can be released and makes troubleshooting easier.
Continuous Deployment is a stage ahead of continuous delivery. Here all changes that pass through the production pipeline are released to the customer. Failed test prevents deployment to production. It provides developers to see their work go live as they complete a task.
TO implement Continuous delivery a very strong foundation in CI is required. Automating the deployment stage is also a useful criterion for the successful implementation of CD. For the successful implementation of Continuous deployment, the quality of testing needs to be good as it is the key parameter to determine the quality of the release. The documentation process needs to keep up to pace with the automated process.
By using the continuous delivery technique the complexity involving the deployment software is reduced. Release happens quite often and thereby connecting the customers to the team through the feedback. These techniques provide iterative changes and create less pressure on the team. Release becomes much faster as there is no delay in the development release stage. Release becomes much simpler are major issues are sorted in each stage. These techniques allow the customers to view the improvement in the quality and the progress which builds trust with the developers.
Benefits of CI/CD Tools
Some benefits that the organization experience by implementing the CI CD tools is
- Minute Code Modifications are reflected and merged in the system
- Isolates failed tests and identifies the faults
- Resolves the incident in less time efficiently
- Improved reliability compared to manual processes
- Able to increase the release rate
- Pipeline concepts reduce the backlog
- Customers can view the progress directly and are assured of timely delivery
- Team’s transparency and accountability are improved.
- Cost is reduced to a greater extend
- Data, process updating, and maintenance are made easy
Selection of the proper tool seems to be an important part. Before deciding on the tool, one needs to consider the functionality of the tool, the extensibility of the tool, the platform and the programming language supported by the tool, the cost involved in using the tool, and the convenience of using it.
Conclusion
CI/CD is mainly used by developers to update code, and DevOps streamlines overall product development. CI/CD is a set of development practices that enable the rapid and reliable delivery of code changes. DevOps is a collection of ideas, practices, processes, and technologies. CI/CD tools and procedures help developers in applying discipline, efficiency, and high-quality control standards in software development. CI/CD is crucial for DevOps engineers and development teams and is a critical component of the software development and project management process. Implementing CI/CD improves business outcomes in addition to the advantages of process automation. Organizations that efficiently use continuous integration tools maximize their human resources, save money, and have more time and resources available for strategy development and employee training.
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