CI/CD - Ideal Pipeline Characteristics

 An Ideal CI/CD Pipeline with Harness means an automated flow where code goes from developer → build → test → security → deploy → monitor with minimum manual work and strong governance.

Think of it as a production assembly line for software.

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High-Level Flow

Developer → Git Push → CI Build → Test → Security → Artifact → CD Deploy → Monitor → Feedback

Harness mainly shines in Continuous Deployment, but it also supports CI.

“An ideal CI/CD pipeline with Harness automates build, test, security scanning, artifact versioning, progressive deployment strategies like canary or blue-green, governance approvals, and automated rollback with continuous monitoring across environments.”

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Stage-by-Stage Ideal Pipeline

1. Source Control (Git)

Tools: GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket

What happens

• Developer pushes code
• Pull request triggers pipeline

Best Practice

• Branch strategy (main / develop / feature)
• Mandatory code review

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2. Continuous Integration (CI)

Steps

1. Checkout Code
2. Build
3. Unit Tests
4. Code Quality
5. Security Scan
6. Create Artifact (Docker / JAR / DLL)

Typical Tools

• Build: .NET CLI / Maven / npm
• Quality: SonarQube
• Security: Snyk / Trivy
• Artifact Repo: Nexus / Artifactory / ECR

Goal: Ensure every commit is buildable and safe.

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3. Artifact Storage

Store versioned outputs:

• Docker Images → AWS ECR
• NuGet / JARs → Artifact repo

Key Rule:
Only deploy immutable artifacts, never rebuild in CD.

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Continuous Deployment (Harness Strength Area)

4. Environment Promotion Flow

Dev → QA → Staging → Prod

Harness provides:

• Visual pipeline
• Rollback automation
• Approval gates
• Feature flags
• Canary / Blue-Green deploy

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5. Deployment Strategies

Blue-Green

• Old version live
• New version parallel
• Switch traffic instantly

Canary

• 5% → 25% → 50% → 100%
• Auto rollback on failure

Rolling

• Replace containers gradually

Harness automates health checks and rollback without manual SSH.

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6. Approvals & Governance

Before Prod:

• Manual approval
• Security approval
• Change-management integration
• RBAC controls

This is crucial for enterprises.

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7. Infrastructure Integration

Works with:

• Kubernetes (EKS)
• ECS / Fargate
• VMs
• Serverless (Lambda)
• Terraform / CloudFormation

Harness doesn’t replace infra tools — it orchestrates them.

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8. Monitoring & Feedback

After deployment:

• Metrics (CPU, memory, error rate)
• Logs
• APM tools
• Automated rollback triggers

This closes the DevOps loop.

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Ideal Pipeline Characteristics

Characteristic	Why Important
Automated	Removes human error
Fast	Short feedback cycle
Secure	Scans before deploy
Immutable	Predictable releases
Observable	Quick failure detection
Rollback Ready	Reduces risk
Multi-Env	Dev → Prod consistency

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Example Ideal Flow (AWS + .NET + Docker)

1. Developer pushes code
2. CI builds Docker image
3. Unit + security tests
4. Push to ECR
5. Harness picks image
6. Deploy to Dev ECS
7. Auto test
8. Promote to QA
9. Manual approval
10. Canary to Prod
11. Auto health check
12. Rollback if error > threshold