Attack of the Pipelines

In this lab we will explore the sample TODO List application and create a pipeline in Jenkins to build and deploy our code.

Learning Outcomes

As a learner by the end of this lesson you will be able to

• Build and run the full stack of the TODO List application locally
• Create an un-gated pipeline using the Jenkins UI for the backend and frontend
• Add branching to the pipeline to target specific namespace

Tools and Frameworks

The following tools are used throughout this exercise. Familiarity with them is not required but knowing what they are may help!

1. Jenkins - OpenSource build automation server; highly customisable through plugins
2. NodeJS - Node.js® is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient. Node.js' package ecosystem, npm, is the largest ecosystem of open source libraries in the world.
3. MongoDB - MongoDB stores data in flexible, JSON-like documents, meaning fields can vary from document to document and data structure can be changed over time
4. VueJS - Vue (pronounced /vjuː/, like view) is a progressive framework for building user interfaces. It is designed from the ground up to be incrementally adoptable, and can easily scale between a library and a framework depending on different use cases. It consists of an approachable core library that focuses on the view layer only, and an ecosystem of supporting libraries that helps you tackle complexity in large Single-Page Applications.

Big Picture

From the previous exercise; we created some supporting tooling needed by our app/

10,000 Ft View

This lab requires users to take the sample TODO app and create a build pipeline in Jenkins by clicking your way to success ending up with an app deployed to each of the namespaces created previously

1. Import the projects into your gitlab instance. See README of each for build instructions

2. Deploy a MongoDB using the provided template to all project namespace.

3. Create 2 pipline with three stages (build, bake, deploy) in jenkins for develop & master branches on the todolist-fe such that:

   • Build job should:
     1. Checkout from source code (develop for <yourname>-dev & master for <yourname>-test)
     2. Install node dependencies and run a build / package
     3. Send the package to Nexus (as a zip)
     4. Tag the git repository with the ${JOB_NAME}.${BUILD_NUMBER} from Jenkins
     5. Trigger the bake job
   • Bake job should:
     1. Take an input of the previous jobs ${BUILD_TAG} ie ${JOB_NAME}.${BUILD_NUMBER}.
     2. Checkout the binary from Nexus and unzip it's contents
     3. Run and OC build of the App and tag it's imagestream with the provided ${BUILD_TAG}
     4. Trigger a deploy job using the parameter ${BUILD_TAG}
   • deploy job should:
     1. Take an input of the ${BUILD_TAG}
     2. Patch / set the DeploymentConfig to the image's ${BUILD_TAG}
     3. Rollout the changes
     4. Verify the deployment

4. Repeat the above setup for the backend todolist-fe. TIP - use the copy config to speed things up!

5. Verify that both apps and the DB are talking to one another as expected.

Step by Step Instructions

This is a fairly structured guide with references to exact filenames and sections of text to be added.

Part 1 - Explore the Sample App

In this part of the exercise we will explore the sample application, become familiar with it locally before building and deploying in OCP Land

1. Git clone the todolist-fe project to somewhere sensible and checkout the develop branch.
   bash $ git clone https://github.com/springdo/todolist-fe.git $ git checkout develop

2. Create a new project (internal) in GitLab called todolist-fe to host your clone of the project and copy it's remote address.

3. In your local clone of the todolist-fe, remove the origin and add the GitLab origin by replacing <YOUR_GIT_LAB_PROJECT>. Push your app to GitLab
   bash $ git remote remove origin $ git remote add origin <YOUR_GIT_LAB_PROJECT> $ git push -u origin --all

4. To get the app running locally; first check you've got node and npm installed
   bash $ node -v $ npm -v
   

   
   NOTE - If you are missing these dependencies; install them with ease using the Node Version Manager
   

   
   

5. The todolist-fe has a package.json at the root of the project, this defines some configuration for the app including it's dependencies, dev dependencies, scripts and other configuration. Install the apps dependencies
   bash $ npm install

6. The todolist-fe has some scripts defined in the package.json at the root of the project. To Run any of these scripts run npm run <SCRIPT_NAME>. Let's start by serving our application
   
   bash npm run serve

7. This will take sometime to execute; but once done it should open the browser for you displaying the todolist-fe app.
   

   • The server hosting it live reloads; so as you make changes to your code; the app will live update
   • The Data you see in the screen is dummy / stubbed data. This is served up when there is no backend connection found

8. The app is a todolist manager built in Vue.js. Play around with the App. You will notice when you add todos they appear and clear as expected. If you refresh the page you'll loose all additions. This is because there is persistence

9. The structure of the todolist-fe is as follows.
   bash todolist-fe ├── jest.config.js ├── jsconfig.json ├── nightwatch.config.js ├── node_modules ├── package.json ├── public │   ├── favicon.ico │   ├── img │   ├── index.html │   └── manifest.json ├── src │   ├── App.vue │   ├── assets │   ├── components │   ├── config │   ├── main.js │   ├── registerServiceWorker.js │   ├── router.js │   ├── scss │   ├── services │   ├── store │   └── views ├── tests │   ├── e2e │   └── unit └── vue.config.js
   where the following are the important things:

   • ./src is the main collection of files needed by the app. The entrypoint is the main.js which is used to load the root App.vue file.
   • ./node_modules is where the dependencies are stored
   • ./test contains our end-to-end tests and unit tests. More covered on these in later labs.
   • ./src/components contains small, lightweight reusable components for our app. These include the NewTodo component which encapsulates the styling, logic and data for adding a new todo to our list
   • ./src/store is the vuex files for managing application state and backend connectivity
   • ./src/views is the view containers; which are responsible for loading components and managing their interactions.
   • the ./src/router.js controls routing logic. In our case the app only has one real endpoint.
   • ./src/scss contains custom SCSS used in the application.
   • ./*.js is mostly config files for running and managing the app and the tests

10. Now let's move on to the todolist-api and wire them together. As with the todolist-fe we need to clone the repo and add it to our GitLab in the cluster.
    bash $ git clone https://github.com/springdo/todolist-api.git $ git checkout develop

11. Create a new project (internal) in GitLab called todolist-api to host your clone of the project and copy it's remote address.

12. In your local clone of the todolist-api, remove the origin and add the GitLab origin by replacing <YOUR_GIT_LAB_PROJECT>. Push your app to GitLab
    bash $ git remote remove origin $ git remote add origin <YOUR_GIT_LAB_PROJECT> $ git push -u origin --all

13. Once pushed; explore the application. It is a NodeJS application with the Express.js framework and MongoDB for persistent storage. Same as before, the package.json defines most of the configuration etc. Install the dependencies
    bash $ npm i

14. While the dependencies are being installed; explore the project structure.
    bash todolist-api ├── Dockerfile ├── Gruntfile.js ├── README.md ├── node_modules ├── package-lock.json ├── package.json ├── server │   ├── api │   │   └── todo │   ├── app.js │   ├── components │   │   └── errors │   ├── config │   │   ├── environment │   │   ├── express.js │   │   ├── local.env.sample.js │   │   └── seed.js │   ├── mocks │   │   ├── mock-routes-config.json │   │   ├── mock-routes.js │   │   └── mock-routes.spec.js │   ├── routes.js │   └── views │   └── 404.html └── tasks └── perf-test.js
    where the following are the important things:

    • ./server is the main collection of files needed by the app. The entrypoint is the app.js
    • ./node_modules is where the dependencies are stored
    • ./server/api is where the api's controller, data model & unit test are stored.
    • ./server/mocks is a mock server used for when there is no DB access
    • ./server/config stores our Express JS config, header information and other middlewear.
    • ./server/config/environment stores enviromnent specific config; such as connectivity to backend services like the MongoDB.
    • ./tasks is a collection of additional Grunt tasks which will be used in later labs
    • package.json contains the dependency list and a lot of very helpful scripts for managing the app lifecycle

15. The npm scripts are shown below. There are application start scripts, build and test items which will be used in the build. The ones for MongoDB are just provided for convenience and require Docker installed to execute.
    json "scripts": { "start": "node server/app.js", "dev": "./node_modules/.bin/grunt serve", "jshint": "./node_modules/.bin/grunt jshint", "jshint:ci": "./node_modules/.bin/grunt jshint:ci_server", "clean": "rm -rf reports package-contents*", "build": "mkdir -p package-contents && cp -vr server Dockerfile package.json package-contents", "package": "zip -r package-contents.zip package-contents", "test": "node_modules/.bin/nyc node_modules/.bin/mocha server/**/*.spec.js --exit", "test:ci": "export MOCHA_FILE='reports/server/mocha/test-results.xml' && export NODE_ENV=ci && node_modules/.bin/nyc node_modules/.bin/mocha server/**/*.spec.js -R mocha-junit-reporter --exit", "mongo" : "docker run -i -d --name mongo-local -p 27017:27017 mongo", "mongo:drop" : "npm run mongo:stop && docker rm mongo-local", "mongo:stop" : "docker stop mongo-local", "mongo:start" : "docker start mongo-local" },

16. To run the application; start a new instance of the MongoDB by running.
    bash $ npm run mongo
    

    
    npm run mongo:drop is used to completely remove the running container. npm run mongo:stop & npm run mongo:start will preserve data in the container
    

17. Fire up the todolist-api by running.
    bash $ npm run start
    

18. Check things are responding correctly by running and checking the response. It contains some seeded data (stored in server/config/seed.js)
    bash $ curl localhost:9000/api/todos
json [{ "_id": "5ac8ff1fdfafb02138698948", "title": "Learn some stuff about MongoDB", "completed": false, "__v": 0 }, { "_id": "5ac8ff1fdfafb02138698949", "title": "Play with NodeJS", "completed": true, "__v": 0 }]

19. Now let's check out todolist-fe app by reloading the browser. We should now see our dummy front end data is replaced by the backend seed data
    

Part 2 - Create a NodeJS Build slave

In this exercise; we will create a build configuration for to generate a slave for Jenkins to use in it's builds

1. In order for Jenkins to be able to run npm builds and installs as we have done locally, we must configure a jenkins-build-slave for Jenkins to use. This slave will be dynamically provisioned when we run a build. It needs to have NodeJS and npm installed in it. In your enablement-cd-cd repository, checkout the template and configuration. This will bring in the template, the params & the Docerfile.
   bash $ git checkout exercise2/jenkins-slave docker/ templates/ params/

2. Open the params/jenkins-slave-npm file and update <YOUR_ENABLEMENT_GIT_REPO> accordingly. This set of parameters will clone from the enablement repo and run a docker build of the Dockerfile stored in docker/jenkins-slave-npm.
   bash SOURCE_REPOSITORY_URL=<YOUR_ENABLEMENT_GIT_REPO> SOURCE_CONTEXT_DIR=docker/jenkins-slave-npm NAME=npm-jenkins-slave

3. Create an item in the ansible variables file under the ci-cd-builds object to run the template with. Don't forget to substitute <YOUR_NAME>
   ```yaml

• name: "jenkins-npm-slave"
  namespace: "-ci-cd"
  template: "{{ inventory_dir }}/../templates/jenkins-slave-generic-template.yml"
  params: "{{ inventory_dir }}/../params/jenkins-slave-npm"
  tags:
  • jenkins-slave
    ```
    

1. Run the OpenShift Applier to trigger a build of this jenkins slave image.
   bash $ ansible-playbook roles/openshift-applier/playbooks/openshift-cluster-seed.yml \ -i inventory/ \ -e "filter_tags=jenkins-slave"

2. Verify the build executed successfully by logging into the cluster and checking the builds tab of the <YOUR_NAME>-ci-cd project.
   

3. You should now be able to apply the label jenkins-slave-npm to a build job to run a build on this newly created slave as we will see in the rest of this lab
   

   
   NOTE - Jenkins may need to be restarted for the configuration to appear. To do this; navigate to your jenkins instance and add /restart to the url.
   

Part 3 - Add configs to cluster

In this exercise; we will use the OpenShift Applier to drive the creation of cluster content required by the app such and MongoDB and the Apps Build / Deploy Config

1. TODO - waiting for Justins example before proceeding here

Part 4 - Build > Bake > Deploy

In this exercise; we take what we have working locally and get it working in OpenShift

1. With the Configuration & DB in place,

2. Do other things

3. Do other things

4. Do other things

5. Do other things

6. Do other things

Extension Tasks

Ideas for go-getters. Advanced topic for doers to get on with if they finish early. These will usually not have a solution and are provided for additional scope.

• Add a GitHub Webhook to trigger your build on each commit
• Create a promote-to-uat phase after the branch deploy
• Add MongoDB Stateful set for the UAT environment (or test)
• Inject MongoDB config into the NodeJS app

Additional Reading

List of links or other reading that might be of use / reference for the exercise

• What's in a package.json?

Slide links

link back to the deck for the supporting material