What is GitLab CI/CD?
GitLab CI/CD is a built-in continuous integration and continuous deployment tool integrated into GitLab's complete DevOps platform. Unlike standalone CI/CD tools, GitLab provides an integrated experience from planning and source code management to CI/CD, monitoring, and security, all in a single application.
Founded in 2011, GitLab has evolved from a Git repository manager to a complete DevOps platform. GitLab CI/CD enables teams to automatically build, test, and deploy code with every commit, supporting both GitLab.com (SaaS) and self-managed installations. It provides built-in container registry, security scanning, and monitoring capabilities.
GitLab CI/CD Usage Calculator
Storage Used: 10GB
Concurrent Jobs: 20
Performance Score: 100/100
GitLab CI/CD Pipeline Structure
Basic .gitlab-ci.yml Structure
YAML configuration file that defines your CI/CD pipeline stages and jobs.
stages:
- build
- test
- deploy
variables:
NODE_VERSION: "18"
build_job:
stage: build
image: node:$NODE_VERSION
script:
- npm install
- npm run build
artifacts:
paths:
- dist/Advanced Pipeline Features
Complex pipeline configurations with conditions, parallel jobs, and environments.
test_parallel:
stage: test
parallel:
matrix:
- BROWSER: [chrome, firefox, safari]
script:
- npm run test:$BROWSER
deploy_production:
stage: deploy
script:
- ./deploy.sh production
environment:
name: production
url: https://example.com
when: manual
only:
- mainGitLab Integrated Features
Source Code Management
Complete Git repository management with collaboration features.
• Merge requests
• Code review tools
• Branch protection
• Wiki documentation
Container Registry
Built-in Docker container registry for storing application images.
• Vulnerability scanning
• Image cleanup policies
• Multi-architecture support
• Harbor integration
Security Scanning
Integrated security testing and vulnerability management.
• DAST (Dynamic Analysis)
• Dependency scanning
• License compliance
• Security dashboards
Monitoring & Operations
Application performance monitoring and incident management.
• Error tracking
• Performance metrics
• Incident management
• On-call scheduling
GitLab Auto DevOps
Zero Configuration CI/CD
Auto DevOps automatically detects your application type and creates appropriate pipelines.
Detection
Automatically detects Python, Node.js, Java, Go, Ruby, PHP, and more
Building
Creates Docker images using Cloud Native Buildpacks or Dockerfile
Deployment
Deploys to Kubernetes clusters with Helm charts automatically
Auto DevOps Pipeline Stages
Complete pipeline from code to production with minimal configuration.
License Scanning → Container Scanning →
Review Apps → Staging → Canary → Production →
Performance Testing → Cleanup
Real-World GitLab Implementations
Ticketmaster
Uses GitLab for complete DevOps transformation and microservices deployment.
- • 2,000+ microservices
- • Kubernetes deployments
- • Security scanning integration
- • Multi-region deployments
Jaguar Land Rover
Leverages GitLab for automotive software development and connected vehicle services.
- • Safety-critical software
- • Compliance automation
- • Hardware-in-the-loop testing
- • Vehicle software updates
Siemens
Uses GitLab for industrial IoT and manufacturing software development.
- • Industrial automation
- • Edge computing deployments
- • Quality gate automation
- • Regulatory compliance
Chorus
Conversation intelligence platform using GitLab for ML pipeline automation.
- • ML model deployments
- • Data pipeline automation
- • A/B testing integration
- • Real-time feature flags
GitLab CI/CD Best Practices
✅ Do
- • Use semantic versioning for releases
- • Implement proper secret management
- • Enable security scanning in pipelines
- • Use environments for deployment tracking
- • Implement merge request pipelines
- • Cache dependencies for faster builds
- • Use GitLab Container Registry
❌ Don't
- • Store secrets in .gitlab-ci.yml
- • Skip testing stages for speed
- • Use overly complex pipeline logic
- • Ignore pipeline performance metrics
- • Deploy directly to production without staging
- • Forget to clean up old artifacts
- • Bypass security scans in pipelines