Mapping Automated CI/CD Pipeline Stages

Design a logical flow of pipeline stages, starting from source control triggers through build, test, and artifact packaging phases for containerized applications.

In this lesson, you will learn how to structure a robust, automated CI/CD pipeline flow specifically designed for containerized applications.

The Logical Pipeline Flow

When moving code from your local machine to a Kubernetes cluster, a logical pipeline acts as a series of quality gates. For containerized applications, we generally map these stages in a linear, sequential flow to ensure that failures are caught as early as possible.

Source Control Trigger: The pipeline initiates whenever a developer pushes code or creates a Pull Request. This ensures your observability and security gates (which we previously covered in your compliance auditing lessons) are applied to every change.
Build Phase: Here, the CI server executes docker build. This step transforms your source code and Dockerfile into a versioned container image.
Test Phase: Once the image is built, you run automated tests against it. This includes unit tests, integration tests, and security scans (like the automated compliance checks you learned about earlier).
Artifact Packaging: After the image passes all tests, it is tagged with a unique version (often the Git commit SHA) and pushed to a secure Container Registry.
Deployment Prep: The final stage updates the manifest files (e.g., Helm charts or Kustomize templates) to point to the new image tag, ready for the CD tool to synchronize with your Kubernetes cluster.

A Simplified Example

You can visualize the flow in a declarative configuration file like this:

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - package
  - deploy

build_image:
  stage: build
  script: docker build -t my-app:$CI_COMMIT_SHA .

run_tests:
  stage: test
  script: ./run-security-scans.sh && ./run-unit-tests.sh

push_to_registry:
  stage: package
  script: docker push my-registry/my-app:$CI_COMMIT_SHA

By strictly mapping these stages, you ensure that no artifact enters your production cluster without first being built, tested, and scanned. If any stage fails, the pipeline halts immediately, preventing faulty or vulnerable code from reaching your observability-enabled runtime environment.

Key Takeaway: A well-mapped CI/CD pipeline creates a repeatable, quality-controlled "assembly line" that transforms source code into a secure, versioned, and deployable container image.