Every time a developer changes some code, they commit it and push it upstream to the repository. From there, they can create a PR for other developers to review the code. After the PR is approved, the code can be merged into develop or master branches.
Without continuous integration and deployment, the new code has to be manually verified for integration and manually deployed. This is generally a tedious, repetitive task.
The Problem: Manual Deployment Hell#
My Pre-CI/CD Process#
- Local Development: Use Docker to keep environments consistent
- Manual Integration: Test services locally on my computer
- Push Code: Upload to repository
- SSH into Production: Connect to production servers
- Pull and Build: Pull code, build Docker images
- Deploy: Run docker-compose files manually
Why This Was Suboptimal#
- Wasted Developer Time: Repetitive, error-prone manual work
- Production Risk: Building images on production servers could endanger system stability due to unpredictable CPU load
- Deployment Delays: Manual process created bottlenecks
- Human Error: Risk of bad deployments, wrong commands, forgotten steps
- No Rollback Strategy: If something went wrong, manual recovery required
Sure, you could use a container registry and pull from it, but you ran the risk of a bad image being pulled and blocking the system until a healthy image is built (yes, I’m ignoring image versioning for the time being).
The Solution: Automated CI/CD#
Once CI/CD is configured properly, a PR can go through the process of integration and deployment automatically with notifications sent out via Slack/PagerDuty/your tool of choice in case there is a failure.
Modern CI/CD Pipeline#
- Code Commit → Automatic trigger
- Integration Testing → Automated verification
- Image Building → Consistent, isolated builds
- Registry Push → Versioned, immutable artifacts
- Deployment → Automated rollout via Kubernetes
- Notifications → Real-time status updates
Implementation Benefits#
With GitLab CI and Travis CI#
- Zero Manual Intervention: CICD pipelines integrate services automatically
- Safe Builds: Images built in isolated environments, not on production
- Registry Management: Push to container registry with proper versioning
- Kubernetes Integration: Deploy new images through commands or K8s manifests
- Real-time Notifications: Get notified as deployments happen
Key Advantages#
- Reliability: Consistent, repeatable deployments
- Speed: Faster time from code to production
- Safety: Rollback capabilities and staging environments
- Visibility: Full deployment history and status tracking
- Developer Focus: More time coding, less time deploying
Why Automate Early#
Human Psychology: Impending tedious tasks (like manual deployments) make us look less forward to shipping features and less likely to deploy frequently if we don’t have to.
Productivity Compound Effect: If you set up the pipeline right away, you will:
- See results sooner
- Be more productive immediately
- Build better deployment habits
- Catch integration issues faster
- Ship features more confidently
The Bottom Line: We’re only human. Automate the boring stuff so you can focus on building great features.
So what are you waiting for? Set up that CI/CD pipeline today!