CICD Google Cloud Build

Introduction

Google Cloud Build is a fully managed continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform that helps you build, test, and deploy applications quickly and efficiently. As part of Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Cloud Build integrates seamlessly with other GCP services and supports a wide range of programming languages and tools.

In this guide, you'll learn how Cloud Build works, its key features, and how to set up your first CI/CD pipeline using Google Cloud Build.

What is CI/CD?

Before diving into Cloud Build, let's understand what CI/CD means:

• Continuous Integration (CI): The practice of frequently merging code changes into a central repository, followed by automated builds and tests.
• Continuous Delivery (CD): The practice of automatically preparing code for release to production and making the release process repeatable and reliable.

CI/CD helps teams deliver code changes more frequently and reliably, which is essential in today's fast-paced development environment.

Key Features of Google Cloud Build

• Serverless: No need to provision or manage servers
• Scalable: Automatically scales based on your build needs
• Flexible: Supports Docker, Gradle, Maven, Bazel, and more
• Integrated: Works with GitHub, Bitbucket, Cloud Source Repositories
• Secure: Built-in authentication and encryption
• Cost-effective: First 120 build-minutes per day are free

How Google Cloud Build Works

Google Cloud Build uses a concept called build steps to define your CI/CD pipeline. Each build step is a Docker container that performs a specific action.

Getting Started with Google Cloud Build

Prerequisites

• A Google Cloud Platform account
• A project with billing enabled
• Cloud Build API enabled
• Source code in GitHub, Bitbucket, or Cloud Source Repositories

Setting Up Your First Build

1. Create a cloudbuild.yaml file in the root of your project:

yaml

steps:
  # Build the container image
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
    args: ['build', '-t', 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/my-app:$COMMIT_SHA', '.']
  # Push the container image to Container Registry
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
    args: ['push', 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/my-app:$COMMIT_SHA']
  # Deploy to Cloud Run
  - name: 'gcr.io/google.com/cloudsdktool/cloud-sdk'
    entrypoint: gcloud
    args:
      - 'run'
      - 'deploy'
      - 'my-app'
      - '--image'
      - 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/my-app:$COMMIT_SHA'
      - '--region'
      - 'us-central1'
      - '--platform'
      - 'managed'
      - '--allow-unauthenticated'
images:
  - 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/my-app:$COMMIT_SHA'

2. Connect your repository to Cloud Build:
   • Go to the Cloud Build console
   • Click "Create Trigger"
   • Connect your repository
   • Configure the trigger settings

Understanding Build Configuration

The cloudbuild.yaml file defines your build pipeline through a series of steps. Each step runs in a separate container and can access the workspace.

Common Build Steps

1. Dependency Installation

yaml

steps:
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    args: ['install']

2. Running Tests

yaml

steps:
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    args: ['test']

3. Building Docker Images

yaml

steps:
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
    args: ['build', '-t', 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/my-app:$COMMIT_SHA', '.']

Build Triggers

Cloud Build can automatically start builds in response to various events:

• Code changes in repositories (GitHub, Bitbucket, Cloud Source Repositories)
• Manual triggers
• Scheduled builds
• Cloud Pub/Sub messages

Creating a GitHub Trigger

1. Connect your GitHub repository in the Cloud Build console
2. Create a new trigger with these settings:
   • Name: my-app-trigger
   • Event: Push to a branch
   • Branch: ^main$ (regular expression for main branch)
   • Build configuration: Cloud Build configuration file
   • Build configuration location: Repository

Real-World Example: Node.js Application Pipeline

Let's build a complete CI/CD pipeline for a Node.js application:

Project Structure

my-nodejs-app/
├── src/
│   ├── app.js
│   └── ...
├── test/
│   └── app.test.js
├── Dockerfile
├── package.json
└── cloudbuild.yaml

Dockerfile

dockerfile

FROM node:16-alpine

WORKDIR /app

COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm install --production

COPY . .

EXPOSE 8080
CMD ["node", "src/app.js"]

cloudbuild.yaml

yaml

steps:
  # Install dependencies
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    args: ['install']
  
  # Run tests
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    args: ['test']
  
  # Build the container image
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
    args: ['build', '-t', 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/nodejs-app:$COMMIT_SHA', '.']
  
  # Push the image to Container Registry
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
    args: ['push', 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/nodejs-app:$COMMIT_SHA']
  
  # Deploy to Cloud Run
  - name: 'gcr.io/google.com/cloudsdktool/cloud-sdk'
    entrypoint: gcloud
    args:
      - 'run'
      - 'deploy'
      - 'nodejs-app'
      - '--image'
      - 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/nodejs-app:$COMMIT_SHA'
      - '--region'
      - 'us-central1'
      - '--platform'
      - 'managed'
      - '--allow-unauthenticated'

# Store images in Google Container Registry
images:
  - 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/nodejs-app:$COMMIT_SHA'

# Set timeout for the entire build
timeout: '1200s'

Example Output

When this pipeline runs successfully, you'll see output similar to this in the Cloud Build console:

Starting Step #1 - "npm install"
Step #1 - "npm install": Done
Starting Step #2 - "npm test"
Step #2 - "npm test": 
> [email protected] test
> jest

PASS  test/app.test.js
  ✓ should return 200 (32ms)
  ✓ should return correct content (3ms)

Test Suites: 1 passed, 1 total
Tests:       2 passed, 2 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        1.032s
Ran all test suites.
Step #2 - "npm test": Done
Starting Step #3 - "docker build"
Step #3 - "docker build": Successfully built 9a7d5ec23f1a
Step #3 - "docker build": Successfully tagged gcr.io/my-project/nodejs-app:a1b2c3d
Step #3 - "docker build": Done
...

Advanced Features

Substitutions

Cloud Build supports variable substitutions in your build configuration:

yaml

steps:
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    args: ['install']
    env:
      - 'NODE_ENV=${_NODE_ENV}'
substitutions:
  _NODE_ENV: production

Concurrent Builds

You can run steps concurrently to speed up your build:

yaml

steps:
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    id: 'install'
    args: ['install']
  
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    id: 'lint'
    args: ['run', 'lint']
    waitFor: ['install']
  
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    id: 'test'
    args: ['test']
    waitFor: ['install']
  
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    id: 'build'
    args: ['run', 'build']
    waitFor: ['lint', 'test']

Notifications

You can set up notifications for build status:

1. Go to Cloud Build settings
2. Under "Notifications"
3. Add a new notification channel (email, Slack, Pub/Sub)

Best Practices

1. Use caching to speed up builds:

yaml

steps:
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm'
    args: ['install']
    volumes:
      - name: 'node_modules'
        path: '/workspace/node_modules'

2. Keep your build steps modular for better maintainability
3. Use build timeouts to prevent runaway builds
4. Include proper testing in your pipeline
5. Configure appropriate IAM permissions for security

Troubleshooting Cloud Build

Common Issues

1. Build Timeout: Increase the timeout in your configuration
2. Permission Errors: Check IAM permissions
3. Network Issues: Ensure services can communicate
4. Memory Errors: Use a higher memory machine type

Debugging Steps

1. Check build logs in the Cloud Build console
2. Use Cloud Build's "Retry" feature to rerun failed builds
3. Simplify your build to isolate the problem

Summary

Google Cloud Build is a powerful, serverless CI/CD platform that integrates seamlessly with the Google Cloud ecosystem. It allows you to automate your build, test, and deployment processes, improving development velocity and code quality.

Key points to remember:

• Cloud Build uses YAML configuration files to define build steps
• Each step runs in its own container
• Cloud Build integrates with popular source repositories
• You can set up triggers to automate builds
• First 120 build-minutes per day are free

Additional Resources

• Official Google Cloud Build Documentation
• Cloud Build GitHub Actions
• Community Cloud Build Sample Projects

Practice Exercises

1. Set up a basic Cloud Build pipeline for a simple web application
2. Configure a build trigger that runs on pull requests
3. Implement caching to speed up your builds
4. Set up notifications for build failures
5. Create a multi-stage build that deploys to different environments based on the branch

By mastering Google Cloud Build, you'll have a powerful tool in your CI/CD toolkit that can help you deliver high-quality software faster and more reliably.