Pipelines

Notes:

• Pipelines are new and improved for Rancher v2.1! Therefore, if you configured pipelines while using v2.0.x, you’ll have to reconfigure them after upgrading to v2.1.
• Still using v2.0.x? See the pipeline documentation for previous versions.

Before setting up any pipelines, review the pipeline overview and ensure that the project has configured authentication to your version control provider, e.g. GitHub, GitLab, Bitucket. If you haven’t configured a version control provider, you can always use Rancher’s example repositories to view some common pipeline deployments.

If you can access a project, you can enable repositories to start building pipelines. Only an administrator, cluster owner or member, or project owner can authorize version control providers.

Concepts

When setting up a pipeline, it’s helpful to know a few related terms.

• Pipeline:

  A pipeline consists of stages and steps. It is based on a specific repository. It defines the process to build, test, and deploy your code. Rancher uses the pipeline as code model. Pipeline configuration is represented as a pipeline file in the source code repository, using the file name .rancher-pipeline.yml or .rancher-pipeline.yaml.

• Stages:

  A pipeline stage consists of multiple steps. Stages are executed in the order defined in the pipeline file. The steps in a stage are executed concurrently. A stage starts when all steps in the former stage finish without failure.

• Steps:

  A pipeline step is executed inside a specified stage. A step fails if it exits with a code other than 0. If a step exits with this failure code, the entire pipeline fails and terminates.

• Workspace:

  The workspace is the working directory shared by all pipeline steps. In the beginning of a pipeline, source code is checked out to the workspace. The command for every step bootstraps in the workspace. During a pipeline execution, the artifacts from a previous step will be available in future steps. The working directory is an ephemeral volume and will be cleaned out with the executor pod when a pipeline execution is finished.

Configuring Repositories

After the version control provider is authorized, you are automatically re-directed to start configuring which repositories that you want start using pipelines with. Even if someone else has set up the version control provider, you will see their repositories and can build a pipeline.

1. From the Global view, navigate to the project that you want to configure pipelines.

2. Click Resources > Pipelines. In versions prior to v2.3.0, click Workloads > Pipelines.

3. Click on Configure Repositories.

4. A list of repositories are displayed. If you are configuring repositories the first time, click on Authorize & Fetch Your Own Repositories to fetch your repository list.

5. For each repository that you want to set up a pipeline, click on Enable.

6. When you’re done enabling all your repositories, click on Done.

Results: You have a list of repositories that you can start configuring pipelines for.

Pipeline Configuration

Now that repositories are added to your project, you can start configuring the pipeline by adding automated stages and steps. For your convenience, there are multiple built-in step types for dedicated tasks.

1. From the Global view, navigate to the project that you want to configure pipelines.

2. Click Resources > Pipelines. In versions prior to v2.3.0, click Workloads > Pipelines.

3. Find the repository that you want to set up a pipeline for. Pipelines can be configured either through the UI or using a yaml file in the repository, i.e. .rancher-pipeline.yml or .rancher-pipeline.yaml. Throughout the next couple of steps, we’ll provide the options of how to do pipeline configuration through the UI or the YAML file.

   • If you are going to use the UI, select the vertical Ellipsis (…) > Edit Config to configure the pipeline using the UI. After the pipeline is configured, you must view the YAML file and push it to the repository.
   • If you are going to use the YAML file, select the vertical **Ellipsis (…) View/Edit YAML to configure the pipeline. If you choose to use a YAML file, you need to push it to the repository after any changes in order for it to be updated in the repository.

   Note: When editing the pipeline configuration, it takes a few moments for Rancher to check for an existing pipeline configuration.

4. Select which branch to use from the list of branches.

5. Pipeline configuration is split into stages and steps. Remember that stages must fully complete before moving onto the next stage, but steps in a stage run concurrently.

   For each stage, you can add different step types. Learn more about how to configure each step type:

   • Run Script
   • Build and Publish Images
   • Publish Catalog Template
   • Deploy YAML
   • Deploy Catalog App

   Note: As you build out each step, there are different advanced options based on the step type.

   Adding Stages and Steps

   
   If you haven’t added any stages, click Configure pipeline for this branch to configure the pipeline through the UI.

   1. Add stages to your pipeline execution by clicking Add Stage.

      1. Enter a Name for each stage of your pipeline.
      2. For each stage, you can configure trigger rules by clicking on Show Advanced Options. Note: this can always be updated at a later time.

   2. After you’ve created a stage, start adding steps by clicking Add a Step. You can add multiple steps to each stage.
      
      

   
   For each stage, you can add multiple steps. Read more about each step type and the advanced options to get all thhe details on how to configure the YAML. This is only a small example of how to have multiple stages with a singular step in each stage.

   # example
   stages:
     - name: Build something
       # Conditions for stages
       when:
         branch: master
         event: [ push, pull_request ]
       # Multiple steps run concurrently
       steps:
         - runScriptConfig:
             image: busybox
             shellScript: date -R
     - name: Publish my image
       steps:
       - publishImageConfig:
           dockerfilePath: ./Dockerfile
           buildContext: .
           tag: rancher/rancher:v2.0.0
           # Optionally push to remote registry
           pushRemote: true
           registry: reg.example.com

   
   

6. Available as of v2.2.0

   Notifications: Decide if you want to set up notifications for your pipeline. You can enable notifications to any notifiers based on the build status of a pipeline. Before enabling notifications, Rancher recommends setting up notifiers so it will be easy to add recipients immediately.

   Configuring Notifications

   
   Available as of v2.2.0

   1. Within the Notification section, turn on notifications by clicking Enable.

   2. Select the conditions for the notification. You can select to get a notification for the following statuses: Failed, Success, Changed. For example, if you want to receive notifications when an execution fails, select Failed.

   3. If you don’t have any existing notifiers, Rancher will provide a warning that no notifers are set up and provide a link to be able to go to the notifiers page. Follow the instructions to add a notifier. If you already have notifiers, you can add them to the notification by clicking the Add Recipient button.

      Note: Notifiers are configured at a cluster level and require a different level of permissions.

   4. For each recipient, select which notifier type from the dropdown. Based on the type of notifier, you can use the default recipient or override the recipient with a different one. For example, if you have a notifier for Slack, you can update which channel to send the notification to. You can add additional notifiers by clicking Add Recipient.
      
      

   
   Available as of v2.2.0

   In the notification section, you will provide the following information:

   • Recipients: This will be the list of notifiers/recipients that will receive the notification.
     • Notifier: The ID of the notifier. This can be found by finding the notifier and selecting View in API to get the ID.
     • Recipient: Depending on the type of the notifier, the “default recipient” can be used or you can override this with a different recipient. For example, when configuring a slack notifier, you select a channel as your default recipient, but if you wanted to send notifications to a different channel, you can select a different recipient.
   • Condition: Select which conditions of when you want the notification to be sent.
   • Message (Optional): If you want to change the default notification message, you can edit this in the yaml. Note: This option is not available in the UI.
     

   # Example
   stages:
     - name: Build something
       steps:
       - runScriptConfig:
           image: busybox
           shellScript: ls
   notification:
     recipients:
     - # Recipient
       recipient: "#mychannel"
       # ID of Notifier
       notifier: "c-wdcsr:n-c9pg7"
     - recipient: "test@example.com"
       notifier: "c-wdcsr:n-lkrhd"
     # Select which statuses you want the notification to be sent  
     condition: ["Failed", "Success", "Changed"]
     # Ability to override the default message (Optional)
     message: "my-message"

   
   

7. Set up the Trigger Rules for the pipeline.

8. Enter a Timeout for the pipeline. By default, each pipeline execution has a timeout of 60 minutes. If the pipeline execution cannot complete within its timeout period, the pipeline is aborted.

   Setting up Timeout

   
   Enter a new value in the Timeout field.
   
   

   
   In the timeout section, enter the timeout value in minutes.

   # example
   stages:
     - name: Build something
       steps:
       - runScriptConfig:
           image: busybox
           shellScript: ls
   # timeout in minutes
   timeout: 30

   
   

9. When all the stages and steps are configured, click Done.

Results: Your pipeline is now configured and ready to be run.

Running your Pipelines

Run your pipeline for the first time. From the project view in Rancher, go to Resources > Pipelines. (In versions prior to v2.3.0, go to the Pipelines tab.) Find your pipeline and select the vertical Ellipsis (…) > Run.

During this initial run, your pipeline is tested, and the following pipeline components are deployed to your project as workloads in a new namespace dedicated to the pipeline:

• docker-registry
• jenkins
• minio

This process takes several minutes. When it completes, you can view each pipeline component from the project Workloads tab.

Pipeline Setting

When a repository is enabled, a webhook is automatically set in the version control provider. By default, the pipeline is triggered by a push event to a repository, but you can modify the event(s) that trigger running the pipeline.

Available Events:

• Push: Whenever a commit is pushed to the branch in the repository, the pipeline is triggered.
• Pull Request: Whenever a pull request is made to the repository, the pipeline is triggered.
• Tag: When a tag is created in the repository, the pipeline is triggered.

Note: This option doesn’t exist for Rancher’s example repositories.

Modifying the Event Triggers for the Repository

1. From the Global view, navigate to the project that you want to modify the event trigger for the pipeline.

2. 1. Click Resources > Pipelines. In versions prior to v2.3.0, click Workloads > Pipelines.

3. Find the repository that you want to modify the event triggers. Select the vertical Ellipsis (…) > Setting.

4. Select which event triggers (Push, Pull Request or Tag) you want for the repository.

5. Click Save.

Step Types

Within each stage, you can add as many steps as you’d like. When there are multiple steps in one stage, they run concurrently.

• Run Script
• Build and Publish Images
• Publish Catalog Template
• Deploy YAML
• Deploy Catalog App

Run Script

The Run Script step executes arbitrary commands in the workspace inside a specified container. You can use it to build, test and do more, given whatever utilities the base image provides. For your convenience, you can use variables to refer to metadata of a pipeline execution. Please refer to the pipeline variable substitution reference for the list of available variables.

# example
stages:
- name: Build something
  steps:
  - runScriptConfig:
      image: golang
      shellScript: go build

Build and Publish Images

The Build and Publish Image step builds and publishes a Docker image. This process requires a Dockerfile in your source code’s repository to complete successfully.

Available as of Rancher v2.1.0

The option to publish an image to an insecure registry is not exposed in the UI, but you can specify an environment variable in the YAML that allows you to publish an image insecurely.

# This example shows an environment variable being used
# in the Publish Image step. This variable allows you to
# publish an image to an insecure registry:

stages:
- name: Publish Image
  steps:
  - publishImageConfig:
      dockerfilePath: ./Dockerfile
      buildContext: .
      tag: repo/app:v1
      pushRemote: true
      registry: example.com
    env:
      PLUGIN_INSECURE: "true"

Publish Catalog Template

Available as of v2.2.0

The Publish Catalog Template step publishes a version of a catalog app template (i.e. Helm chart) to a git hosted chart repository. It generates a git commit and pushes it to your chart repository. This process requires a chart folder in your source code’s repository and a pre-configured secret in the dedicated pipeline namespace to complete successfully. Any variables in the pipeline variable substitution reference is supported for any file in the chart folder.

# example
stages:
- name: Publish Wordpress Template
  steps:
  - publishCatalogConfig:
      path: ./charts/wordpress/latest
      catalogTemplate: wordpress
      version: ${CICD_GIT_TAG}
      gitUrl: git@github.com:myrepo/charts.git
      gitBranch: master
      gitAuthor: example-user
      gitEmail: user@example.com
    envFrom:
    - sourceName: publish-keys
      sourceKey: DEPLOY_KEY

Deploy YAML

This step deploys arbitrary Kubernetes resources to the project. This deployment requires a Kubernetes manifest file to be present in the source code repository. Pipeline variable substitution is supported in the manifest file. You can view an example file at GitHub. Please refer to the pipeline variable substitution reference for the list of available variables.

# example
stages:
- name: Deploy
  steps:
  - applyYamlConfig:
      path: ./deployment.yaml

Deploy Catalog App

Available as of v2.2.0

The Deploy Catalog App step deploys a catalog app in the project. It will install a new app if it is not present, or upgrade an existing one.

# example
stages:
- name: Deploy App
  steps:
  - applyAppConfig:
      catalogTemplate: cattle-global-data:library-mysql
      version: 0.3.8
      answers:
        persistence.enabled: "false"
      name: testmysql
      targetNamespace: test

Advanced Options

Within a pipeline, there are multiple advanced options for different parts of the pipeline.

• Trigger Rules
• Environment Variables
• Secrets

Trigger Rules

Trigger rules can be created to have fine-grained control of pipeline executions in your pipeline configuration. Trigger rules come in two types:

• Run this when:

  This type of rule starts the pipeline, stage, or step when a trigger explicitly occurs.

• Do Not Run this when:

  This type of rule skips the pipeline, stage, or step when a trigger explicitly occurs.

If all conditions evaluate to true, then the pipeline/stage/step is executed. Otherwise it is skipped. When a pipeline is skipped, none of the pipeline is executed. When a stage/step is skipped, it is considered successful and follow-up stages/steps continue to run.

Wildcard character (*) expansion is supported in branch conditions.

# example
stages:
  - name: Build something
    # Conditions for stages
    when:
      branch: master
      event: [ push, pull_request ]
    # Multiple steps run concurrently
    steps:
    - runScriptConfig:
        image: busybox
        shellScript: date -R
      # Conditions for steps
      when:
        branch: [ master, dev ]
        event: push
# branch conditions for the pipeline
branch:
  include: [ master, feature/*]
  exclude: [ dev ]

Environment Variables

When configuring a pipeline, certain step types allow you to use environment variables to configure the step’s script.

# example
stages:
  - name: Build something
    steps:
    - runScriptConfig:
        image: busybox
        shellScript: echo ${FIRST_KEY} && echo ${SECOND_KEY}
      env:
        FIRST_KEY: VALUE
        SECOND_KEY: VALUE2

Secrets

If you need to use security-sensitive information in your pipeline scripts (like a password), you can pass them in using Kubernetes secrets.

Prerequisite

Create a secret in the same project as your pipeline, or explicitly in the namespace where pipeline build pods run.

Note: Secret injection is disabled on pull request events.

# example
stages:
  - name: Build something
    steps:
    - runScriptConfig:
        image: busybox
        shellScript: echo ${ALIAS_ENV}
      # environment variables from project secrets
      envFrom:
      - sourceName: my-secret
        sourceKey: secret-key
        targetKey: ALIAS_ENV

Pipeline Variable Substitution Reference

For your convenience, the following variables are available for your pipeline configuration scripts. During pipeline executions, these variables are replaced by metadata. You can reference them in the form of ${VAR_NAME}.