Set up a CI/CD pipeline by using AWS CodePipeline and AWS CDK

Install tools on macOS or Linux.

If you are using MacOS or Linux, you can install the tools by running the following command in your preferred terminal or using Homebrew for Linux.

brew install
brew install git-remote-codecommit
brew install ruby brew-gem
brew-gem install cfn-nag

Install tools using AWS Cloud9.

If you are using AWS Cloud9, install the tools by running the following command.

gem install cfn-nag

Note: AWS Cloud9 should have Node.js and npm installed. To check the installation or version, run the following command.

node -v
npm -v

Set up AWS CLI.

To set up AWS CLI, use the instructions for your operating system:

Download or clone the code.

To get the code that is used by this pattern, do one of the following:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aws-samples/aws-codepipeline-cicd.git

Remove the .git directory from the cloned repository.

cd ./aws-codepipeline-cicd
rm -rf ./.git

Later, you will use a newly created AWS CodeCommit repository as a remote origin.

Connect to the AWS account.

You can connect by using a temporary security token or landing zone authentication. To confirm that you are using the correct account and AWS Region, run the following commands.

AWS_REGION="eu-west-1"
ACCOUNT_NUMBER=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text)
echo "${ACCOUNT_NUMBER}"

Bootstrap the environment.

To bootstrap an AWS CDK environment, run the following commands.

npm install
npm run cdk bootstrap "aws://${ACCOUNT_NUMBER}/${AWS_REGION}"

After you successfully bootstrap the environment, the following output should be displayed.

⏳  Bootstrapping environment aws://{account}/{region}...
✅  Environment aws://{account}/{region} bootstrapped

For more information about AWS CDK bootstrapping, see the AWS CDK documentation.

Synthesize a template.

To synthesize an AWS CDK app, use the cdk synth command.

npm run cdk synth

You should see the following output.

Successfully synthesized to <path-to-directory>/aws-codepipeline-cicd/cdk.out
Supply a stack id (CodePipeline, Dev-MainStack) to display its template.

Deploy the CodePipeline stack.

Now that you bootstrapped and synthesized the CloudFormation template, you can deploy it. The deployment will create the CodePipeline pipeline and a CodeCommit repository, which will be the source and trigger of the pipeline.

npm run cdk -- deploy CodePipeline --require-approval never

After you run the command, you should see a successful deployment of the CodePipeline stack and output information. The CodePipeline.RepositoryName gives you the name of the CodeCommit repository in the AWS account.

CodePipeline: deploying...
CodePipeline: creating CloudFormation changeset...
✅  CodePipeline
Outputs:
CodePipeline.RepositoryName = SampleRepository
Stack ARN:
arn:aws:cloudformation:REGION:ACCOUNT-ID:stack/CodePipeline/STACK-ID

Set up the remote CodeCommit repository and branch.

After a successful deployment, CodePipeline will initiate the first run of the pipeline, which you can find in the AWS CodePipeline console. Because AWS CDK and CodeCommit don’t initiate a default branch, this initial pipeline run will fail and return the following error message.

The action failed because no branch named main was found in the selected AWS CodeCommit repository SampleRepository. Make sure you are using the correct branch name, and then try again. Error: null

To fix this error, set up a remote origin as SampleRepository, and create the required main branch.

RepoName=$(aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name CodePipeline --query "Stacks[0].Outputs[?OutputKey=='RepositoryName'].OutputValue" --output text)
echo "${RepoName}"
#
git init
git branch -m master main
git remote add origin codecommit://${RepoName}
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git push -u origin main

Commit a change to activate the pipeline.

After a successful initial deployment, you should have a complete CI/CD pipeline with a main branch for SampleRepository as a source branch. As soon as you commit changes to the main branch, the pipeline will initiate and run the following sequence of actions:

Run the development process by using a Makefile.

You can run the whole pipeline locally by using the make command, or you can run an individual step (for example, make linting).

To test using make, perform the following actions:

Delete AWS CDK app resources.

To clean up your AWS CDK app, run the following command.

cdk destroy --all

Be aware that the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) buckets that are created during bootstrapping aren't automatically deleted. They need a retention policy that allows deletion, or you need to delete them manually in your AWS account.