Weight: 22% | Focus: CI/CD Pipelines, Testing, Deployment

🔥 MUST KNOW Services

CodePipeline - Orchestration

  • Stages: Source → Build → Test → Deploy → Monitor
  • Actions: Source (CodeCommit/GitHub), Build (CodeBuild), Deploy (CodeDeploy/CloudFormation)
  • Cross-Account: Use IAM roles, not access keys
  • Artifacts: Stored in S3, encrypted with KMS

CodeBuild - Build Service

  • buildspec.yml: Root of source, defines build commands
  • Phases: install → pre_build → build → post_build
  • Environment: Managed images vs custom Docker
  • Artifacts: Output location in S3

CodeDeploy - Deployment

  • Deployment Types: In-place, Blue/Green
  • Compute Platforms: EC2, Lambda, ECS
  • Deployment Configs: OneAtATime, HalfAtATime, AllAtOnce
  • appspec.yml: Defines deployment steps

CodeCommit - Git Repository

  • Authentication: IAM users, federated access
  • Encryption: At rest (KMS), in transit (HTTPS/SSH)
  • Triggers: Lambda, SNS for notifications

⚡ Key Patterns

Multi-Stage Pipeline

Source (CodeCommit) → Build (CodeBuild) → Test → Deploy (CodeDeploy) → Monitor

Cross-Account Deployment

  1. Create cross-account IAM role in target account
  2. Grant CodePipeline permission to assume role
  3. Use role in deployment action

Blue/Green Deployment

  • EC2: Use Auto Scaling + ELB
  • Lambda: Use aliases and weighted routing
  • ECS: Use service with task sets

🎯 Exam Scenarios

Scenario 1: Pipeline fails at build stage

  • Check buildspec.yml syntax
  • Verify IAM permissions for CodeBuild
  • Check environment variables and parameters

Scenario 2: Cross-account deployment not working

  • Verify cross-account IAM role trust policy
  • Check S3 bucket policy for artifacts
  • Ensure KMS key permissions for encryption

Scenario 3: Blue/green deployment stuck

  • Check health checks configuration
  • Verify target group settings
  • Review deployment configuration timeouts

📋 Quick Commands

# Create pipeline
aws codepipeline create-pipeline --pipeline file://pipeline.json

# Start pipeline execution
aws codepipeline start-pipeline-execution --name MyPipeline

# Get pipeline state
aws codepipeline get-pipeline-state --name MyPipeline

# Create CodeBuild project
aws codebuild create-project --name MyProject --source type=CODEPIPELINE

# Create CodeDeploy application
aws deploy create-application --application-name MyApp --compute-platform Server

⚠️ Common Mistakes

  • Forgetting to enable versioning on S3 artifact bucket
  • Not configuring proper IAM permissions for cross-account access
  • Missing buildspec.yml or appspec.yml files
  • Incorrect deployment configuration for target platform
  • Not setting up proper health checks for blue/green deployments

🔑 Key Points

  • CodePipeline orchestrates, doesn’t execute
  • Cross-account requires IAM roles, not users
  • Artifacts must be in same region as pipeline
  • Blue/Green requires health checks and load balancers
  • buildspec.yml and appspec.yml are mandatory files