Implementing pipeline actions

Common Back-end Scripts

Popular choices for continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline orchestration include Azure Pipelines, Github Actions, Gitlab CI, and Jenkins. Each orchestrator has its specific way of defining the configurations to coordinate pipeline actions. For instance, Jenkins has its Jenkinsfile, and GitLab CI has its .gitlab-ci.yml file.

To help provide a consistent CI/CD pipeline experience regardless of your selected pipeline orchestrator, the Dependency Based Build (DBB) community repository provides a set of Common Back-end Scripts for pipeline implementations. These scripts cover orchestration tasks throughout the CI/CD pipeline, and can be run from any pipeline orchestrator by including them in the orchestrator's configuration as shell script invocations. You can learn more about how to use these Common Back-end Scripts to simplify your pipeline configuration and setup in the Common Back-end Scripts Readme.

Example pipeline templates using the Common Back-end Scripts are available for the following orchestrators:

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions
• GitLab CI/CD
• Jenkins

The following video demonstrates an implementation of the Common Back-end Scripts using an Azure DevOps (ADO) pipeline.

Older guides for specific orchestrators

The following guides for common pipeline orchestrators may help you get started with implementing your CI/CD pipeline for mainframe applications. The guides cover commonly-selected combinations of tools for the different CI/CD pipeline components. They are intended as examples and are therefore not all-inclusive. If you do not see the specific technology or combination of tools your enterprise has selected, it's likely you can still align with our guidance. For most tools being used elsewhere, you can integrate them into the pipeline as long as they are compatible with z/OS® application development and bring value to your enterprise.

Note: These guides were written before the creation of the Common Back-end Scripts, and some of the content and components within them might be outdated. However, the guides may still be useful as reference documents when integrating the Common Back-end Scripts into the specific orchestrators.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Building enterprise CI/CD pipelines for mainframe applications using the IBM Z & Cloud Modernization Stack: See Section 3: "Real-life example - Building a CI/CD pipeline with AWS Developer services".

Azure Pipelines

• Azure DevOps and IBM® Dependency Based Build Integration
• Building enterprise CI/CD pipelines for mainframe applications using the IBM Z & Cloud Modernization Stack: See Section 4: "Building a CI/CD pipeline with Azure DevOps and IBM Z & Cloud Modernization Stack".

GitHub Actions

• Using IBM Dependency Based Build (DBB) with GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

• Build a pipeline with GitLab CI, IBM Dependency Based Build, and IBM UrbanCode® Deploy
• Integrating IBM z/OS platform in CI/CD pipelines with GitLab

Jenkins

• Build a Pipeline with Jenkins, DBB and UCD
• Managing git credentials in Jenkins to access the central git provider
• POC Cookbook – Building a modern pipeline in Mainframe
• Setting up the CI Pipeline Agent on IBM Z as a Started Task