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Nowadays, GitLab found its way to become a core element of CI/CD pipeline with the purpose of providing robust, reliable, and steady deployment for software applications. GitLab Runner becomes one of the leaders on the CI/CD market by utilizing its superb architecture to integrate different relevant components within the software development process and executing it through the GitLab Runner.
An Overview of GitLab Runner:
Runner is the open source part of CI/CD infrastructure that uses it to run your application code. No matter if it's a virtual machine, a container, or a bare-metal server, with GitLab Runner you can easily define and run your CI/CD pipeline on any environment.
GitLab Runner comprises the following components:
GitLab Executables:
This is the actual binary or script that is executed by the GitLab Runner. It communicates with the it's server to fetch jobs, executes them on the runner's machine, and reports the results. GitLab Runner includes executables that interact with GitLab CI/CD. These executables are responsible for fetching and running jobs specified in the .gitlab-ci.yml file
Executor:
The executor creates the jobs execution environment. Runner supports various executors like Shell, Docker, Kubernetes, and others. The choice of executor depends on the requirements of your project.
Registration and Deregistration of components:
The Runner requires instance registration. In this process, The system will securely link the runner with it. Though the Runner can also be unregistered when it is not in use.
CI/CD Pipeline utilization:
Job Definitions:
Jobs refer to a single task that the pipeline must perform and make up your CI/CD Pipeline in your project's .gitlab-ci.yml file . Jobs can include build, test, and deploy to staging and production stages.
Stages:
The stage is one which differentiates between jobs, it represents every step a pipeline must pass. This helps define which task must be performed when. Such jobs are divided into stages where each stage represents a phase in your pipeline (build, test, deploy). Stages allow you to parallelize the jobs and optimize the overall pipeline execution time.
Runners and Executors:
Runners are agents or applications running CI/CD pipeline. They separate machines connected to the server. The executor determines the environment in which jobs execute. Each job specifies the Runner and the executor. This supports tuning of the execution environment for different stages or tasks.
Artifacts:
Artifacts are files created as part of a build process, often including metadata about that building's jobs like test results, security scans, etc. The jobs would create artifacts that can be files or directories in the file system created during the execution of the job. Jobs within the same pipeline could pass these artifacts between them.
GitLab Architecture Workflow:
Job Triggering in the Pipeline:
Such changes, for example, as the commit to a branch or merge request are passed onto the repository activate a CI/CD pipeline.
GitLab CI/CD Configuration:
Your pipeline configuration is stored in the .gitlab-ci.yml file. It describes jobs, stages, dependencies, and other settings necessary for your pipeline to work
Selecting Runners:
Based on your tags, availability, and the executor type, it selects a suitable Runner to run each job of your pipeline
Job Execution:
The Executor fetches the job's details from GitLab, provisions the executor described using a predefined mechanism, and then runs the job. At the end of running the job it returns the result and the artifacts to application.
GitLab Pipeline Visualization:
GitLab provides a visual representation of your pipeline, showing the status of each job and stage. This helps developers identify bottlenecks and understand the flow of their CI /CD process.
Scaling and Parallelism:
GitLab Runner provides for horizontal scaling by enabling the installation of a number of Runners across machines or environments. This allows running of jobs in parallel, considerably reducing the total duration of executing the entire pipeline.
Security Considerations:
This tool that ensures secure communication of the GitLab instance with the Runner in such a way as it should protect sensitive data from being hacked and used by unauthorized persons to get hands-on information to gain access to your CI/CD process.
Conclusion:
GitLab Runner is an exceptional tool, which smoothly integrates with CI/CD for automating and easing out the software development life cycle. Understanding its architecture is essential for your effective, reliable delivery of software, and CI/ CD pipeline optimization.
Moreover, it also facilitates quick deployment on AWS in minutes, courtesy of Musewerx's services . Development teams can enhance the velocity of their release cycles, ensure better code quality and collaboration enhancement. of codes by using GitLab Runner.