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AlexsJones/gist:54e790fa919f9d0ecb1aaa37951848a8

Last active October 17, 2016 09:17
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Gitlab and why it's not production ready
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gistfile1.md

Current issues:

####Build process

  • Any change to build configuration essentially requires a new branch to make the change & then a pull request to build it in the gitlab pipeline. Therefore, two seperate changes would essentially spawn N * C builds (N is the number of builds per pipeline, C is changes - On complexity).

  • static YAML files require enormous amounts of repetitive statements as it doesn't support in line interpolation or dynamically injection build variables.

    • Further to this; by way of compromise, the YAML sets environment shell variables, which have to fight ordinality with those set by developers in Xcode or subsequent shell scripts.

  • The fan out build strategy (whilst promoting parrallism) actually creates a block on building as tests will continue to run - despite the primary build failing, and visa versa. It is not an efficient strategy and would be better replaced by a gated build chain.

#####Build Interaction

  • Accessibility to developers is very low as having to use a static YAML file, not only pushes the responsibility over the fence to DevOps, but also has a layer of mysticism about how the DSL works.
    • Further to this point; The entire build process is far too complex and relys on too many downstream tools.
  • No dynamic variable injection through custom build configuration

#####Administration

  • Build machines have no form of management integrated into the CI; meaning restarting, ssh and system load information is not seen.
  • There is no meaningful administration dashboard (other than to show total number CPU's / Memory / Disk - on the gitlab server)
  • Administration UI is clunky and requires you to go into an individual machine (runner) page to see its build history.
  • There is no plugin support
  • Having a single 2 factor auth for a master admin is a complete joke on any system of scale.
  • Completely unintuitive UI requires you to go into a project to see current builds; there is no way to see all build machines and current system load.
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