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CI/ CD for genetwork projects

We need to figure out/ discuss and document how to go about doing the whole automated testing and deployment, from pushing code to deployment to production.

For a first, we need various levels of tests to be run, from unit tests to the more complicated ones like integration, performance, regression, etc tests, and of course, they cannot all be run for each and every commit, and will thus need to be staggered across the entire deployment cycle to help with quick iteration of the code.

Tasks

As part of the CI/CD effort, it is necessary that there is

automated testing.

Ideas

GeneNetwork is interested in doing two things on every commit (or

periodically, say, once an hour/day):

CI: run unit tests
CD: rebuild and redeploy a container running GN3

Arun has figured out the CI part. It runs a suitably configured laminar CI service in a Guix container created with `guix system container'. A cron job periodically triggers the laminar CI job.

https://git.systemreboot.net/guix-forge/about/

CD hasn't been figured out. Normally, Guix VMs and containers created by `guix system` can only access the store read-only. Since containers don't have write access to the store, you cannot `guix build' from within a container or deploy new containers from within a container. This is a problem for CD. How do you make Guix containers have write access to the store?

Another alternative for CI/ CID were to have the quick running tests, e.g unit tests, run on each commit to branch "main". Once those are successful, the CI/CD system we choose should automatically pick the latest commit that passed the quick running tests for for further testing and deployment, maybe once an hour or so. Once the next battery of tests is passed, the CI/CD system will create a build/artifact to be deployed to staging and have the next battery of tests runs against it. If that passes, then that artifact could be deployed to production, and details on the commit and

Possible Steps

Below are some possible steps (and tasks) to undertake for automated deployment

STEP 01: Build package

Triggered by a commit to "main" branch (for now)
Trigger build of the package
Run unit tests as part of the build: This has been done with the laminar scripts under `scripts/laminar` in genenetwork3. Maybe just change the command to ensure only specific tests are run, especially when we add in non-functional tests and the like
If the build fails (tests fail, other failures): abort and send notifications to development team
If build succeeds, go to STEP 02

STEP 02: Deploy to Staging

Triggered by a successful build
Run in intervals of maybe one hour or so...
Build the container/VM for deployment: here's the first time `guix system container ...` is run
Deploy the container/VM to staging: the details are fuzzy here
Run configuration tests here
Run performance tests
Run integration tests
Run UI tests
Run ... tests
On failure, abort and send out notification to development team
On success go to STEP 03

STEP 03: Deploy to Release Candidate

Triggered by a successful deploy to Staging
Run in intervals of maybe 6 hours
Pick latest successful commit to pass staging tests
Build the container/VM for deployment: run `guix system container ...` or reuse container from staging
Update configurations for production
Run configuration tests
Run acceptance tests
On failure, abort and send out notification to development team
On success go to STEP 04

STEP 03: Deploy to Production

Triggered by a successful Release Candidate
Tag the commit as a release. Maybe include the commit hash and date e.g gn3-v0.0.12-794db6e2-20220113
Build the container/VM for deployment: run `guix system container ...` or reuse container from staging; tag container as a release container
Deploy container to production
Generate documentation for tagged commit
Generate guix declaration for re-generating the release
Archive container image, documentation and guix declaration for possible rollback

Some Work Done

GN Services

This contains a check-list of things that need to be done:

Orchestration

Broken-cd (Resolved)