GitLab: A faster solution for development & deployment

For development and DevOps teams, several CI/CD systems technologies offer capabilities including source control, build artifacts, and deployment. GitLab is one of them, however, it offers benefits for CI/CD pipelines, from simple installation to sophisticated automation. This web-based application promotes ethical coding practices within the team and enables secure production deployment. Companies looking for a DevOps lifecycle tool might consider GitLab CI/CD pipelines in the following five areas:

Easy configuration 

In CI/CD tools, server configuration might be difficult. With some products, the firm must pay a significant premium before the IT team can deploy the tool in a cloud provider or on-site. The GitLab CI/CD tool may be installed virtually anywhere, including on-site, in the cloud, in a container, with almost any Linux distribution, and you can even use Kubernetes to orchestrate the process.

Source code security

A CI/CD pipeline should take security and compliance into account. Control over where code is stored and who has access to it should be a part of security.

Since many CI/CD platforms already have source control built in, the GitLab platform features a complete distributed version of the control system platform. Additionally, it provides total control over access restrictions and the location of code storage. For instance, if you install GitLab locally, you already have control over which server or servers run the platform and where the code is stored. Government agencies and other IT organizations held to strict security requirements favor this approach. Without leaving the GitLab UI, you can store external code in GitLab repositories.

Users can choose whether a project is secret, internally shared, or publicly accessible when importing it from another source control repository. Use GitLab’s Web IDE to create new code or clone the existing one.

Pipeline automation

With the help of the CI/CD pipeline, GitLab’s Auto DevOps tool can automatically find, develop, test, deploy, and monitor apps. Everything that developers desire to automate or are already automating is included in the feature. Since teams don’t have to undertake manual setup for those phases, auto DevOps saves time and upholds standards. All projects on GitLab have the feature enabled by default.

Users need to incorporate a Kubernetes cluster into GitLab in order to take advantage of Auto DevOps. Two strategies to use Kubernetes with GitLab are as follows:

•  Bring a cluster of your own. Fill up the platform with the details of an existing Kubernetes cluster. The cluster name, API URL, certification information, and service token are required for this function.
•  Make a cluster. Create a Kubernetes cluster using either Google Kubernetes Engine or Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) through the GitLab UI (GKE). Authenticate to the chosen cloud service provider from GitLab to utilize EKS or GKE.

Feedback on DevOps Maturity

In the real world, DevOps adoption rapidly becomes perplexing. Users are given a grade by GitLab depending on how well they use the CI/CD pipeline tool for DevOps. This score aids companies in determining, for instance, where to expand DevOps capabilities and whether developers are effectively utilizing a GitLab feature.

Issue Boards for ticketing are just one example of an area outside of the GitLab CI/CD pipeline that might be suggested. The use of these boards by a development team for a CI/CD pipeline guarantees that the team ships the right software, patches problems, and takes proper implementations into account before the process begins. GitLab users get access to instructional resources aimed at enhancing DevOps deployment and can compare their actions with those of other businesses. These features are especially helpful for small or remote IT teams who don’t have access to shared knowledge with other employees.

Deployment scheduling

When the code enters source control, it is pushed to the CI process, which finally starts the CD process to deploy the code. This is known as a pure CI/CD pipeline. However, the IT team might need to plan releases in a functional enterprise production system to prevent conflicts or make sure support staff can keep an eye on performance levels. For instance, operations might mandate that code deploys each day at 4 a.m., which is the time of day with the fewest users.

You can designate a time for a certain branch to deploy using GitLab’s CI/CD pipeline scheduling. You can program an automatic schedule to run once, repeatedly, or as often as you choose

Conclusion

GitLab’s Deployment objective is to make the most challenging aspect of DevOps, deployment, simple, adaptable, and safe so that your business can execute at an outstanding level.