multi-architecture-cicd

This project deploys self-hosted GitHub runners to be used for multi-architecture builds and offers up to 90% faster builds. The implementation is reflective of a CI/CD solution we built for a mid-size security startup.

Typically, multi-architecture builds leverage an emulation tool like QEMU to enable cross-platforms builds from a single machine. This offers a simpler configuration, but delivers a significant perfomance hit when emulating another architecture.

Our solution uses the native node strategy to give us the performance gains of native architecture builds, but still supporting multi-architecture manifests.

Going through the guide, you will notice how the native-build action (self-hosted runners) runs roughly 90% faster than the emulated-build action (github-hosted runners), and roughly 95% faster leveraging Docker Build Cloud

Business Impact

Improving build times has a direct impact on DORA metrics. Primarily on the Lead time for changes and Time to restore, but has an impact on all metrics. If this use-case fits your purposes, the drop in build times could have a significant impact on your teams DORA report.

Pre-requisuites

• Terraform
• Helm
• Azure CLI

Guide

1. Generate GitHub PAT

   Follow these docs to generate a PAT that the self-hosted runners will use to register with the target repository/organization.

2. Update the variables.tf

   You can update the variables.tf with the config url and pat or create a .tfvars file

     variable "github_config" {
       type = object({
         config_url = string
         pat = string
       })
       default = {
       config_url = "https://github.com/${organization}/${repo}"
       pat = "${github_pat}"
     }
   }

3. Initialize AZ CLI

run the following commands to initialize your az cli

az cloud set --name AzureCloud
az login
az account set --subscription ${subscription}

4. Deploy Cluster

terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply -auto-approve

5. Create a PR to validate pipelines

Update the REGISTRY value to match your ghcr repository, push your changes, and create a Pull Request. This will trigger the emulated-build and native-build to kickoff.

Docker Build Cloud

This is a new feature set that offers blazing fast builds, multi-architecture support, shared build caching right from the Docker Desktop app.

Setup is straightforward, and can be done following this guide: DBC setup guide. Once you've done this, you will be able to target remote builders for local development builds. This is hugely beneficial for heavier/multi-architecture builds, since you can leverage the speed of native-arch builders for local development!

Following this guide, you can integrate these builders into your CI/CD pipelines: CI/CD integration guide. Also, see the docker-build-cloud.yml for the working example for this project.

Tooling Docs

• AKS
• Terraform
• GitHub Runners
• GitHub Actions
• Docker Build Cloud