Create a Multi-branch Pipeline with GitLab
GitLab is an open source code repository platform that provides public and private repositories. It is a complete DevOps platform that enables professionals to perform their tasks in a project.
In KubeSphere 3.1.x and later, you can create a multi-branch pipeline with GitLab in your DevOps project. This tutorial demonstrates how to create a multi-branch pipeline with GitLab.
Prerequisites
- You need to have a GitLab account and a Docker Hub account.
- You need to enable the KubeSphere DevOps system.
- You need to create a workspace, a DevOps project and a user (
project-regular
). This user must be invited to the DevOps project with theoperator
role. For more information, refer to Create Workspaces, Projects, Users and Roles.
Hands-on Lab
Step 1: Create credentials
Log in to the KubeSphere console as
project-regular
. Go to your DevOps project and create the following credentials in Credentials under DevOps Project Settings. For more information about how to create credentials, see Credential Management.Note
If there are any special characters such as@
and$
in your account or password, they can cause errors as a pipeline runs because they may not be recognized. In this case, you need to encode your account or password on some third-party websites first, such as urlencoder. After that, copy and paste the output for your credential information.Credential ID Type Where to use dockerhub-id Account Credentials Docker Hub gitlab-id Account Credentials GitLab demo-kubeconfig kubeconfig Kubernetes After creation, you can see the credentials in the list.
Step 2: Modify the Jenkinsfile in your GitLab repository
Log in to GitLab and create a public project. Click Import project/repository, select Repo by URL to enter the URL of devops-maven-sample, select Public for Visibility Level, and then click Create project.
In the project just created, create a new branch from the master branch and name it
gitlab-demo
.In the
gitlab-demo
branch, click the fileJenkinsfile-online
in the root directory.Click Edit, change
GITHUB_CREDENTIAL_ID
,GITHUB_ACCOUNT
, and@github.com
toGITLAB_CREDENTIAL_ID
,GITLAB_ACCOUNT
, and@gitlab.com
respectively, and then edit the following items. You also need to change the value ofbranch
in thepush latest
anddeploy to dev
stages togitlab-demo
.Item Value Description GITLAB_CREDENTIAL_ID gitlab-id The Name you set in KubeSphere for your GitLab account. It is used to push tags to your GitLab repository. DOCKERHUB_NAMESPACE felixnoo Replace it with your Docker Hub’s account name. It can be the Organization name under the account. GITLAB_ACCOUNT felixnoo Replace it with your GitLab account name. It can also be the account’s Group name. Note
For more information about the environment variables in the Jenkinsfile, refer to Create a Pipeline Using a Jenkinsfile.Click Commit changes to update this file.
Step 3: Create projects
You need to create two projects, such as kubesphere-sample-dev
and kubesphere-sample-prod
, which represent the development environment and the production environment respectively. For more information, refer to Create a Pipeline Using a Jenkinsfile.
Step 4: Create a pipeline
Log in to the KubeSphere web console as
project-regular
. Go to your DevOps project and click Create to create a new pipeline.Provide the basic information in the displayed dialog box. Name it
gitlab-multi-branch
and select a code repository.On the GitLab tab, select the default option
https://gitlab.com
for GitLab Server Address, enter the username of the GitLab project owner for Project Group/Owner, and then select thedevops-maven-sample
repository from the drop-down list for Code Repository. Click √ in the lower-right corner and then click Next.Note
If you want to use a private repository from GitLab, refer to the following steps:
- Go to User Settings > Access Tokens on GitLab to create an access token with API and read_repository permissions.
- Log in to the Jenkins dashboard, go to Manage Jenkins > Manage Credentials to use your GitLab token to create a Jenkins credential for accessing GitLab, and go to Manage Jenkins > Configure System to add the credential in GitLab Server.
- In your DevOps project, select DevOps Project Settings > Credentials to use your GitLab token to create a credential. You have to specify the credential for Credential on the GitLab tab when creating a pipeline so that the pipeline can pull code from your private GitLab repository.
On the Advanced Settings tab, scroll down to Script Path. Change it to
Jenkinsfile-online
and then click Create.Note
The field specifies the Jenkinsfile path in the code repository. It indicates the repository’s root directory. If the file location changes, the script path also needs to be changed.
Step 5: Run a pipeline
After a pipeline is created, it is displayed in the list. Click its name to go to its details page.
Click Run on the right. In the displayed dialog box, select gitlab-demo from the drop-down list and add a tag number such as
v0.0.2
. Click OK to trigger a new run.Note
The pipeline pauses at the stagedeploy to dev
. You need to click Proceed manually. Note that the pipeline will be reviewed three times asdeploy to dev
,push with tag
, anddeploy to production
are defined in the Jenkinsfile respectively.
Step 6: Check the pipeline status
In the Task Status tab, you can see how a pipeline is running. Check the pipeline running logs by clicking View Logs in the upper-right corner.
You can see the dynamic log output of the pipeline, including any errors that may stop the pipeline from running. For each stage, you can click it to inspect logs, which can also be downloaded to your local machine for further analysis.
Step 7: Verify results
The Docker image built through the pipeline has been successfully pushed to Docker Hub, as it is defined in the Jenkinsfile. In Docker Hub, you will find the image with the tag
v0.0.2
that is specified before the pipeline runs.At the same time, a new tag is generated in GitLab.
The sample application will be deployed to
kubesphere-sample-dev
andkubesphere-sample-prod
with corresponding Deployments and Services created.Environment URL Namespace Deployment Service Development http://{$NodeIP}:{$30861}
kubesphere-sample-dev ks-sample-dev ks-sample-dev Production http://{$NodeIP}:{$30961}
kubesphere-sample-prod ks-sample ks-sample Note
You may need to open the port in your security groups so that you can access the app with the URL. For more information, refer to Access the example Service.
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