Orchestrating multi-stack deployments with Buildkite pipeline dependencies

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Creating a multi-stack deployment setup using Pulumi with Buildkite as the CI/CD solution involves several steps. The goal is to define pipelines in Buildkite which trigger Pulumi deployments across multiple environments or stacks. Here's an explanation and the corresponding Pulumi program:

1. **Defining the Buildkite Pipeline**: You'll want to define a Buildkite pipeline which includes steps that trigger Pulumi commands. These steps could be anything from linting, building, testing, to actually deploying with Pulumi.

2. **Pipeline Dependencies**: For multi-stack deployments, it's necessary to orchestrate the deployment order. Buildkite doesn't inherently support declaring pipeline dependencies, but you can design a workflow using pipeline triggers. For instance, you can have a "Deploy to Staging" pipeline that triggers a "Deploy to Production" pipeline only if the staging deployment is successful.

3. **Pulumi Stacks**: Each deployment environment (e.g., staging, production) will be a separate Pulumi stack. Pulumi allows you to manage multiple stacks for the same project, enabling you to customize configurations per environment.

4. **Pulumi Program**: Your Pulumi program will contain the infrastructure-as-code for your application. The exact resources and architecture depend on what you want to deploy.

5. **Buildkite YAML Configuration**: Buildkite pipelines are defined in YAML configuration files. These can be stored in your repository or defined through Buildkite's web UI. They specify the steps that need to execute during the pipeline's runtime.

Here's a basic TypeScript Pulumi program that you can use to set up a Buildkite pipeline to orchestrate Pulumi stack deployments:

```typescript
import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as buildkite from "@pulumi/buildkite";

// Create a new Buildkite pipeline for the staging environment
const stagingPipeline = new buildkite.Pipeline("staging-pipeline", {
    name: "staging-deployment",
    repository: "git://github.com/yourorg/staging-repo.git",
    steps: `
  steps:
    - label: "Pulumi Preview"
      command: "pulumi preview"
      agents:
        queue: "pulumi"
    - wait
    - label: "Pulumi Up"
      command: "pulumi up --yes"
      agents:
        queue: "pulumi"
      artifact_paths: "pulumi-up.log"
  `,
});

// Create a pipeline for the production environment that triggers after staging succeeds
const productionPipeline = new buildkite.Pipeline("production-pipeline", {
    name: "production-deployment",
    repository: "git://github.com/yourorg/production-repo.git",
    steps: `
  steps:
    - trigger: "staging-pipeline"
      label: "Trigger Staging Pipeline"
      build:
        message: "Deploying to production"
        commit: "HEAD"
        branch: "master"
  `,
});

export const stagingPipelineURL = stagingPipeline.web_url;
export const productionPipelineURL = productionPipeline.web_url;

// Note: Make sure to replace the repository URLs with your actual repository locations.
```

In this program:
- We use the `@pulumi/buildkite` package to create two pipelines.
- Each pipeline corresponds to an environment: `staging` and `production`.
- The program expresses the desire to run `pulumi preview` and `pulumi up` in the staging pipeline. After `pulumi up` succeeds and the `wait` step ensures completion with no failures, the production pipeline triggers.
- The `pulumi up` step for the staging environment includes the `--yes` flag to proceed without a manual confirmation, which is suitable for CI/CD environments.
- The `productionPipeline` is set to trigger after the `stagingPipeline`. In actual Buildkite setups, you can trigger other pipelines based on conditions using dynamic pipelines or the Buildkite API.

Please note that this is a simplified representation to serve as a starting point. You'll want to fill in the appropriate commands for your actual build steps, and you may need additional configurations such as environment variables, agent targeting, and more. Buildkite pipelines are powerful and can include many more sophisticated capabilities such as parallel steps, manual approvals, and block steps for increased control over your deployment process.

Remember to replace placeholders (like repository URLs and other configuration options) with your specific details. Before you run this Pulumi program, you should have Pulumi and Buildkite configured correctly, with all necessary credentials and access permissions in place.