CodePipeline Advanced FAQ

AWS CodePipeline is a managed service that orchestrates workflow for continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment. With CodePipeline, you define a series of stages composed of actions that perform tasks in a release process from a code commit all the way to production. It helps teams deliver changes to users whenever there’s a business need to do so.

If you use AWS CodePipeline for continuous delivery/deployment, one of the first pages you should visit its FAQ at https://aws.amazon.com/codepipeline/faqs/.

After you’ve gone through and used CodePipeline for your applications, you’ll probably want to learn more. If so, this README is a resource for you. In it, I go over the FAQ and, when appropriate, I provide more detailed examples along with more advanced topics with code and other examples. It’s intended as a more comprehensive view of the service.

How do I specify parallel actions in CodePipeline?

Use the same integration in the RunOrder for each action you want to run in parallel within a particular stage.

  - Name: Build
    Actions:
    - InputArtifacts:
      - Name: MyApp
      Name: cfn_nag
      ActionTypeId:
        Category: Test
        Owner: AWS
        Version: '1'
        Provider: CodeBuild
      OutputArtifacts: []
      Configuration:
        ProjectName:
          Ref: CodeBuildWebsite
      RunOrder: 1
    - InputArtifacts:
      - Name: MyApp
      Name: Build
      ActionTypeId:
        Category: Build
        Owner: AWS
        Version: '1'
        Provider: CodeBuild
      OutputArtifacts:
      - Name: MyAppBuild
      Configuration:
        ProjectName:
          Ref: CodeBuildWebsite
      RunOrder: 1

What are the currently supported action types?

The only valid owner string is AWS, ThirdParty, or Custom.

Here are examples of configuring action types in the AWS CloudFormation AWS::CodePipeline::Pipeline resource.

      Name: Source
      ActionTypeId:
        Category: Source
        Owner: ThirdParty
        Version: '1'
        Provider: GitHub

    - Name: Artifact
      ActionTypeId:
        Category: Build
        Owner: AWS
        Version: '1'
        Provider: CodeBuild


    - Name: Jenkins
      ActionTypeId:
        Category: Build
        Owner: Custom
        Version: '1'
        Provider: CodeBuild

What is the Artifact Store?

Artifact Store is an S3 bucket used to securely store CodePipeline artifacts. When using the CodePipeline console in a region for the first time, CodePipeline automatically generates a new S3 bucket for all CodePipeline artifacts. You can also create your own S3 bucket and make a reference to the bucket from CodePipeline.

Here’s an example of doing this in AWS CloudFormation:

    PipelineBucket:
      Type: AWS::S3::Bucket
      DeletionPolicy: Delete

Where and how are CodePipeline artifacts stored?

Within the S3 bucket designated for the pipeline(s), there are S3 keys/folders. There’s a different key for each artifact name used across all pipelines.

Here’s an example of the S3 keys within an S3 bucket. The names of keys are a truncated version of the Artifact names specified in CodePipeline when developers were creating their pipelines.

      Name: Source

How does CodePipeline encrypt artifacts in S3?

CodePipeline automatically encrypts artifacts using the default KMS key. You may also customize this by creating a custom KMS and assign it to the S3 artifacts.

      Name: Source

How do I disable and enable transitions?

You can disable/enable transitions using the AWS Console, API, CLI, or SDK.

Here’s an example of disabling a transition using the CLI:

      Name: Source

When and where does CodePipeline create an S3 bucket to store artifacts?

TBD

      Name: Source

How are the artifacts in CodePipeline structured in S3?

TBD

      Name: Source

Which Source providers are currently supported?

TBD

      Name: Source

Which Build providers are currently supported?

TBD

      Name: Source

Which Test providers are currently supported?

TBD

      Name: Source

Which Deploy providers are currently supported?

TBD

      Name: Source

What are the different mechanisms for triggering source events

(hooks, cloudwatch events, polling, etc.)

      Name: Source

How do I use S3 to look for changes to a non-supported Source Provider?

TBD

      Name: Source

How many revisions can go through a CodePipeline stage at a time?

Only one at a time. The result is that your feedback time might be slowed down if you have too many actions in a particular stage and revisions get queued up waiting for the stage to complete.

      Name: Source

How do I obtain history for an individual pipeline?

From the CodePipeline console, select a specific pipeline. From the pipeline, click on View pipeline history. From the AWS CLI, you

      aws codepipeline list-pipeline-executions --pipeline-name MyFirstPipeline
      aws codepipeline get-pipeline-execution --pipeline-name MyFirstPipeline --pipeline-execution-id 7cf7f7cb-3137-539g-j458-d7eu3EXAMPLE

For more information, see View Pipeline Details and History in AWS CodePipeline.

How does CodePipeline compare to other continuous delivery providers?

TBD

      Name: Source

What’s the duration for actions of the following provider types: CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, Lambda, CloudFormation, and Approval?

Approval action: 7 days
AWS CloudFormation deployment action: 3 days
AWS CodeBuild build action and test action: 8 hours
AWS CodeDeploy deployment action: 7 days
AWS Lambda invoke action: 1 hour
```
    Name: Source
```

How do a I create a pipeline in one AWS account and access it from other AWS accounts?

TBD

      Name: Source

How do I use CloudWatch Events to notifications?

TBD

      Name: Source

How do I create a customer managed KMS key with CodePipeline?

TBD

      Name: Source

How to I use CloudWatch Events to send CodePipeline notifications via Slack?

TBD

      Name: Source

What are the maximum number of actions in a stage?

TBD

      Name: Source

What are the maximum number of parallel actions in a stage?

What are the maximum number of sequential actions in a stage?

What are the pipeline naming constraints?

TBD

      Name: Source

What are maximum number of pipelines in an AWS account?

TBD

      Name: Source

How do I get CodePipeline statistics?

TBD

      Name: Source

How do I provide real-time dashboards for CodePipeline metrics?

TBD

      Name: Source

Which 3rd party product integrations are available with AWS CodePipeline?

TBD

      Name: Source

How do I use CloudFormation Stack Sets and Change Sets with CodePipeline?

TBD

      Name: Source

How to I get a JSON object representing a pipeline using the AWS CLI?

By calling the get-pipeline command from the AWS CLI. This returns a JSON object describing all components of a specific pipeline including stages, actions, artifacts, artifact store, providers, configuration, etc. Below, you see an example of running this command. Below, MyFirstPipeline is the unique name of the pipeline for a particular region.

      aws codepipeline get-pipeline --name MyFirstPipeline --region us-east-1

How do I start a pipeline that’s not triggered by a source event?

TBD

How do I provide read-only access to a specific pipeline when provisioning the pipeline in CloudFormation?

TBD

What are the different types of deployments and deploy providers?

AWS CloudFormation Amazon ECS AWS CodeDeploy AWS Elastic Beanstalk

How do I enable AWS Config for CodePipeline?

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2018/09/aws-config-adds-support-for-aws-codepipeline/

What AWS service integrations are available with AWS CodePipeline? AWS CloudFormation AWS CodeBuild AWS CodeCommit AWS CodeDeploy AWS Config AWS Device Farm AWS Elastic Beanstalk AWS Key Management Service AWS Lambda Amazon ECS Amazon S3 AWS OpsWorks
```
   Name: Source
```

PaulDuvall / CodePipeline