Steady Integration/Steady Supply (CI/CD) software program – that means options that groups use to construct, take a look at and deploy purposes – has come a great distance over the previous decade. Whereas organizations as soon as cobbled collectively CI/CD pipelines utilizing disparate open supply instruments, they now have a plethora of end-to-end, vendor-supported enterprise CI/CD platforms that they will use as an alternative. As a result of these options supply every thing groups must ship software program, they’re less complicated to deploy and handle.
But, whereas there are clear advantages to adopting an enterprise CI/CD platform, migrating to 1 will be troublesome. It poses quite a lot of challenges, akin to the danger of CI/CD pipeline downtime and safety and compliance challenges.
That’s why companies migrating to newer CI/CD options ought to strategy the method with an in depth, step-by-step plan. Right here’s a take a look at the challenges to navigate, together with tips about the right way to make CI/CD migration as easy as attainable.
To floor the dialogue, I’ll deal with migrating to GitHub Enterprise, a CI/CD platform from GitHub, the software program growth platform now owned by Microsoft. GitHub Enterprise is the choice that I’m seeing an increasing number of companies select in my work serving to corporations to modernize their IT and software program supply practices.
Challenges to GitHub Enterprise migration
As a complete CI/CD platform that’s accessible as a completely hosted answer, GitHub Enterprise is comparatively straightforward to make use of when you’ve migrated to it. The problem, although, is getting your code into the platform, together with making the method modifications needed to start utilizing the answer rather than a legacy CI/CD suite.
Particularly, count on to face challenges that embrace:
- Utility supply delays: A drawn-out, time-consuming migration course of interprets to downtime for CI/CD operations – which implies that your builders gained’t have the ability to push out utility updates. This may in the end hurt the enterprise as a result of customers aren’t receiving characteristic enhancements whereas your CI/CD pipelines are in transition.
- Efficiency dangers: Failure to decide on the best GitHub Enterprise deployment technique, and to configure the answer in an optimum means, might decelerate CI/CD efficiency and scale back developer productiveness attributable to points like inadequate infrastructure sources for constructing and testing purposes.
- Coaching necessities: Expert software program builders can sometimes study to make use of a brand new CI/CD platform simply sufficient, however there’s nonetheless an upskilling requirement. It’s vital to not overlook the necessity to present builders with time to study GitHub Enterprise (or whichever answer you might be migrating to).
- Safety and compliance: To mitigate dangers just like the injection of malicious code into your purposes, it’s vital to implement entry controls throughout the migration course of that forestall unauthorized customers from accessing the brand new CI/CD platform.
Greatest practices for a easy GitHub Enterprise migration
The excellent news is that with the best strategy, migrating to GitHub Enterprise or an identical CI/CD platform doesn’t need to be risk-prone. The next greatest practices may help to streamline the method.
1. Select the best internet hosting possibility
Like many CI/CD platforms, GitHub Enterprise is accessible in two primary types: A completely managed, cloud-based possibility and a model that customers can set up and handle utilizing their very own infrastructure.
Usually, the totally managed answer tends to be the higher alternative as a result of it considerably reduces setup and upkeep effort on the a part of customers. Nevertheless, the self-hosted possibility could also be higher for organizations that want larger management over their CI/CD surroundings. This tends to be very true for companies in verticals like finance and insurance coverage, the place safety and compliance mandates could also be simpler to fulfill when the group runs CI/CD software program by itself infrastructure (and subsequently has larger management over how delicate information is managed and secured).
2. Configured granular entry insurance policies
Like most trendy CI/CD suites, GitHub Enterprise gives entry management options that companies can use to find out who can do what inside CI/CD instruments. For instance, you can provide some builders read-only entry to supply code, whereas permitting others to change it. GitHub Enterprise additionally helps environment-based entry settings, that means you’ll be able to configure completely different ranges of entry for a similar customers throughout dev/take a look at and manufacturing environments.
As a greatest follow, make the most of these granular entry management choices by assigning completely different entry rights to every group that makes use of your CI/CD platform. For instance, you may need an admin group whose privileges lengthen to altering the configuration of GitHub Enterprise, whereas one other group that merely makes use of the platform has a lesser degree of entry.
3. Use OpenID Connect with combine with cloud environments
GitHub Enterprise presents an identification administration possibility that leverages OpenID Connect (OIDC) to combine with third-party cloud environments.
While you make the most of this characteristic, you’ll be able to routinely run workflows (like utility builds) on public cloud infrastructure with out having to retailer cloud entry credentials as long-lived GitHub secrets and techniques, which presents a considerable safety danger. As well as, this strategy routinely creates a log of GitHub workflows and motion executions, which you should use for audit and monitoring functions.
4. Leverage single sign-on
One other approach to streamline the migration into GitHub Enterprise is to combine the platform with whichever single sign-on (SSO) supplier (like Microsoft Entra or Energetic Listing) your small business already makes use of. Ideally, you’ll additionally allow multi-factor authentication (MFA) via your SSO answer so as to add one other layer of safety.
This strategy eliminates the necessity to handle GitHub Enterprise entry credentials individually out of your current accounts. It additionally reduces the burden positioned in your IT group throughout the migration as a result of as an alternative of getting to “reinvent the wheel,” they will merely use a sign-on answer that already exists.
5. Doc widespread duties
To ease the training curve for builders as they migrate to GitHub Enterprise, doc widespread duties – akin to the right way to migrate code from native repositories or one other CI/CD platform into GitHub Enterprise.
That is one other tactic that eliminates the necessity on your group to reinvent the wheel repeatedly; as an alternative of forcing every engineer to determine the right way to migrate on their very own, everybody can comply with a prescribed plan.
6. Publish workflow patterns
Going a step additional, think about as properly publishing detailed steps on the right way to use key options in GitHub Enterprise which are more likely to be vital for all your groups. For instance, you’ll be able to element the right way to create pull requests or construct Docker photographs within the platform, or the right way to execute Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) deployments.
Right here once more, this technique reduces the training curve and helps get your group up and working on the brand new platform as shortly as attainable.
7. Automate widespread workflows utilizing GitHub Actions
Going even additional, you’ll be able to create totally automated workflows for widespread duties utilizing GitHub Actions, a characteristic that permits you to set off automated operations throughout numerous components of your CI/CD pipeline. For example, you’ll be able to routinely set off an utility construct after code has been checked in, or routinely start testing after the construct is full.
Extremely complicated workflows which will fluctuate between tasks or groups should not nice candidates for such a automation, however core routines will be totally automated, making it even simpler on your group to start utilizing the brand new platform.
