Day 52 : Your CI/CD pipeline on AWS - Part 3

AWS CodeDeploy

AWS CodeDeploy is a fully managed deployment service that automates the deployment of applications to various compute services such as Amazon EC2 instances, on-premises instances, serverless AWS Lambda functions, and Amazon ECS services. It helps you automate software deployments, reducing the need for error-prone manual operations and allowing you to deploy reliably and rapidly.

Key Features of CodeDeploy:

1. Automated Deployments: CodeDeploy automates the entire deployment process, ensuring consistent and repeatable deployments.

2. Supports Multiple Compute Platforms: You can deploy applications to Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, Amazon ECS, and on-premises servers.

3. Minimize Downtime: CodeDeploy helps maximize application availability during deployments by introducing changes incrementally and tracking application health.

4. Centralized Control: You can easily launch and track the status of your deployments through the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI.

5. Integration with CI/CD Tools: CodeDeploy integrates seamlessly with other AWS services like CodePipeline, as well as third-party tools like GitHub and Jenkins.

Example Scenario:

Let’s say you have a web application running on a fleet of Amazon EC2 instances. You want to deploy a new version of this application without causing any downtime. Here’s how you can use CodeDeploy to achieve this:

1. Create a Deployment Group: Define a deployment group that includes the EC2 instances where you want to deploy your application.

2. Prepare the Application: Package your application code and upload it to an S3 bucket or a GitHub repository.

3. Create an Application Specification File (AppSpec): This file defines the deployment actions, such as where to copy the files and what scripts to run before and after the deployment.

4. Deploy the Application: Use the CodeDeploy console or CLI to create a deployment. CodeDeploy will take care of copying the files to the EC2 instances, running the specified scripts, and monitoring the deployment process.

5. Monitor the Deployment: Track the progress of the deployment through the CodeDeploy console. If any issues arise, you can stop the deployment and roll back to the previous version.

Example AppSpec File:

Here’s a simple example of an AppSpec file for a web application:

version: 0.0
os: linux
files:
  - source: /
    destination: /var/www/html
hooks:
  BeforeInstall:
    - location: scripts/install_dependencies.sh
      timeout: 300
      runas: root
  AfterInstall:
    - location: scripts/start_server.sh
      timeout: 300
      runas: root
  ApplicationStop:
    - location: scripts/stop_server.sh
      timeout: 300
      runas: root

In this example, the BeforeInstall hook runs a script to install dependencies, the AfterInstall hook starts the web server, and the ApplicationStop hook stops the server before the new version is deployed.

Thank you for reading😉.