Course Outline

1. Introduction to CI/CD

• What is Continuous Integration
• What is Continuous Delivery
• What is Continuous Deployment
• CI/CD vs Traditional Software Delivery
• Benefits of CI/CD
• DevOps pipeline overview
• CI/CD lifecycle

2. Introduction to GitLab Platform

• What is GitLab
• GitLab architecture
• GitLab SaaS vs Self-Managed
• GitLab features overview
• GitLab UI walkthrough
• GitLab project structure
• GitLab groups and subgroups
• GitLab repositories

3. Git Fundamentals (Required for CI/CD)

• What is Git
• Installing Git
• Git workflow
• Git repository concepts
• Git clone
• Git commit
• Git push / pull
• Git branches
• Git merge
• Git rebase
• Git tags
• Merge requests in GitLab

4. GitLab CI/CD Core Concepts

• What is GitLab CI/CD
• CI/CD pipeline overview
• .gitlab-ci.yml file
• Pipeline stages
• Jobs
• Runners
• Executors
• Artifacts
• Cache
• Pipeline triggers

5. GitLab Runners

• What is a GitLab Runner
• Shared runners vs specific runners
• Runner architecture
• Installing GitLab Runner
• Registering runners
• Runner configuration
• Runner executors
• Shell executor
• Docker executor
• Kubernetes executor
• Scaling runners

6. Creating Your First Pipeline

• Creating .gitlab-ci.yml
• Basic pipeline example
• Job execution
• Pipeline visualization
• Pipeline logs
• Pipeline status

Lab:

• Create a simple pipeline that prints Hello World

7. Pipeline Stages and Jobs

• Defining stages
• Job dependencies
• Parallel jobs
• Sequential jobs
• Manual jobs
• Delayed jobs
• Retry jobs
• Job timeouts

Lab:

• Build → Test → Deploy pipeline

8. CI/CD Variables and Secrets

• Environment variables
• Project variables
• Group variables
• Protected variables
• Masked variables
• Secret management
• Using variables in pipelines

Lab:

• Use variables in a deployment job

9. Artifacts and Caching

• What are artifacts
• Artifact storage
• Artifact expiration
• Downloading artifacts
• What is caching
• Cache vs artifacts
• Cache strategies

Lab:

• Build code and pass artifact to next stage

10. GitLab Pipeline Triggers

• Trigger pipelines manually
• Pipeline schedules
• API triggers
• Trigger tokens
• Downstream pipelines
• Multi-project pipelines

11. Branch Based Pipelines

• Pipelines per branch
• Feature branch pipelines
• Merge request pipelines
• Tag pipelines
• Protected branches

Example:

only:

 - main

12. Merge Request Pipelines

• Merge request workflow
• Merge request pipelines
• Pipeline approvals
• Code review integration
• Required pipeline success before merge

13. Environments and Deployments

• What are environments
• Environment types
• Development
• Staging
• Production
• Environment URLs
• Deployments
• Rollbacks
• Deployment history

14. CI/CD for Docker

• Docker basics
• Building Docker images
• Docker registry
• GitLab container registry
• Docker login
• Push Docker image

Lab:

• Build and push Docker image using pipeline

15. CI/CD for Kubernetes

• Kubernetes basics
• GitLab Kubernetes integration
• Deploying to Kubernetes
• Helm deployments
• Kubernetes environments

16. Security in GitLab CI/CD

• Secure variables
• Protected branches
• Protected environments
• Access control
• Token security

GitLab security tools:

• SAST
• DAST
• Dependency scanning
• Container scanning

17. Advanced Pipeline Features

• Pipeline templates
• YAML anchors
• Includes
• Child pipelines
• Dynamic pipelines
• Matrix builds

18. Performance Optimization

• Parallel jobs
• Runner autoscaling
• Cache optimization
• Artifact management
• Pipeline speed improvements

19. Monitoring and Troubleshooting

• Pipeline monitoring
• Job logs
• Debugging pipelines
• Runner troubleshooting
• Failed pipeline analysis

20. GitLab DevOps Lifecycle

GitLab integrates entire DevOps lifecycle:

• Plan
• Code
• Build
• Test
• Release
• Deploy
• Operate
• Monitor

21. Real-World CI/CD Pipeline Example

Example workflow:

Developer pushes code →

GitLab pipeline triggers →

Code builds →

Unit tests run →

Docker image built →

Image pushed to registry →

Deployment to Kubernetes →

Production release

22. Best Practices for GitLab CI/CD

• Keep pipelines simple
• Use caching effectively
• Secure secrets
• Use pipeline templates
• Separate environments
• Use automated testing
• Enable merge request pipelines

23. Capstone DevOps Project

Build a complete CI/CD system:

Pipeline stages:

1. Code commit
2. Build application
3. Run tests
4. Build Docker image
5. Push to registry
6. Deploy to Kubernetes
7. Run integration tests