Pipeline
In recent years, the term pipeline has been strongly influenced by the topic of DevOps in connection with software development. In general, a pipeline in software development stands for the sum of all activities that lead from an idea to the operation of this idea. In relation to DevOps, the pipeline often corresponds to a Continuous Delivery pipeline, which has been extended by further mechanisms for monitoring and communication between operation and development of the software.
Tools of a pipeline
These steps are implemented with the help of tools.
- Ideas for changes can be collected and elaborated in an issue tracker or wiki.
- Code is written using an IDE and stored in a version control tool.
- Builds are performed using a build server. It also runs automated tests itself or triggers a code analysis tool. Finally, the build server deploys the software to a server or places the build in an artifact repository.
A software pipeline with the Cloudogu EcoSystem
In software development, a pipeline plays a central role in increasing efficiency and quality. The Cloudogu EcoSystem offers an ideal solution for this by providing a collection of essential tools for the entire development process. With minimal configuration effort, it enables development teams to build a solid pipeline. From SCM-Manager, which provides a central repository for code, to Jenkins, which performs automated builds and tests, to SonarQube for code quality checking and Nexus Repository as an archive for finished applications, the Cloudogu EcoSystem seamlessly integrates all the tools needed to run an effective software pipeline. It is a platform for tools that are usually required for a pipeline. The advantage of the platform is that it can be operated and expanded with little effort. If you would like to find out more about a software pipeline with the Cloudogu EcoSystem, take a look at this blog post.
As needed, this pipeline can be extended to include issue trackers such as Redmine, Easy Redmine or JIRA, wikis such as Smeagol or Confluence or container management with Portainer.
Building a DevOps pipeline
To build a pipeline, the existing processes must be analyzed and documented (who does what and with what?). Once all the steps have been recorded, the company's own pipeline can be optimized. To do this, in the spirit of DevOps, these questions must be asked:
- What exactly are we doing in this step?
- How well does it work?
- What can we do better?
Based on the answers, you can then start implementing improvement measures, e.g. by automating steps or selecting more suitable tools.
