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Streamlined and Secure: Building a Modern CI/CD Pipeline on AWS with Open Source Tools(Jenkins, ArgoCD, Prometheus,Grafana, Trivy , SonarQube)

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Lajah Shrestha
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Streamlined and Secure: Building a Modern CI/CD Pipeline on AWS with Open Source Tools(Jenkins, ArgoCD, Prometheus,Grafana, Trivy , SonarQube)

Table of contents

This project demonstrates how to deploy a Netflix clone application using a DevSecOps approach on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using Jenkins for CI, Prometheus& Grafana for monitoring, SonarQube & Trivy for security Checks, and later deploying it in K8s Ckuster using ArgoCD as Gitops tool. This project has been published by Nasiullha Chaudhari which can be found here . This blog post builds upon the valuable foundation provided by the project's GitHub README, offering a deeper exploration of the implementation process.

Before we dive deep into the project lets breakdown the project into the phases in which the actions are to be performed:

Phase 1: Initial Setup and Deployment

Setup an EC2 Instance and run the application in docker container

Phase 2: Security

Implement Security checks using scanning tools

Phase 3: CI/CD Setup

  1. Install Necessary Plugins: Jenkins plugins are installed for tools like SonarQube Scanner, NodeJS, and dependency management. Credentials for DockerHub are also added securely.

    1. Install Jenkins: This is used to automate the deployment process.

  2. Configure CI/CD Pipeline: A Jenkins pipeline is created to automate the following stages:

    • Clean workspace

    • Checkout code from Git repository

    • SonarQube Analysis: Code is scanned for vulnerabilities and quality issues using SonarQube.

    • Quality Gate: The pipeline can be halted if quality thresholds are not met.

    • Install Dependencies: Any additional dependencies required by the application are installed.

    • OWASP FS SCAN: The code is scanned for potential vulnerabilities in dependencies using the OWASP Dependency-Check plugin.

    • TRIVY FS SCAN: The container image is scanned for vulnerabilities using Trivy.

    • Docker Build & Push: The application is built as a Docker image, tagged with your credentials, and pushed to a Docker registry.

    • TRIVY: The pushed image is scanned again for vulnerabilities using Trivy.

    • Deploy to container: The application container is deployed and runs on the server.

Phase 4: Monitoring

  1. Install Prometheus and Grafana: These tools are used to monitor the application's performance and health. Prometheus collects metrics, while Grafana visualizes them for easy analysis.

  2. Configure Prometheus: Prometheus is configured to scrape metrics from the application and other relevant sources like Node Exporter (which collects system metrics from the server).

  3. Install Node Exporter: This tool is installed to collect system metrics from the server running the application.

  4. Configure Prometheus Plugin Integration: Jenkins can be integrated with Prometheus to monitor the CI/CD pipeline itself.

  5. Install Grafana: This is installed and configured to display visualizations of the collected metrics from Prometheus.

Phase 5: Notification

  1. Implement Notification Services: This could involve setting up email notifications or other mechanisms to receive alerts when issues arise.

Phase 6: Kubernetes (Optional)

This phase covers deploying the application to a scalable environment using Kubernetes, a container orchestration platform. It also involves integrating monitoring with Prometheus and Node Exporter within Kubernetes.

1. Hardware Requirements: Server Configuration and port on which each service is configured to run:

Server 1(Application/Pipeline Instance) : T2.large
1. Jenkins(8080)
2. sonarqube(9000)
3. Netflix Container(8081)
---------------------------------------------------------------------=
On server 2(Monitoring Instance): T2.medium
3. Node Exporteer(9100)
4. Prometheus(9090) -> yaml configuration
5. Grafana(3000) data source

2. Application Architecture:

4. Implementation.

Phase 1: Initial Setup and Deployment

Instance: i-0a9b2965ff3babddd (devSecOps)

Step 1: Launch EC2 (Ubuntu 22.04):

  • Provision an EC2 instance on AWS with Ubuntu 22.04.

  • Connect to the instance using SSH.

Step 2: Clone the Code:

  • Update all the packages and then clone the code.

  • Clone your application's code repository onto the EC2 instance:

      git clone https://github.com/N4si/DevSecOps-Project.git

Step 3: Install Docker and Run the App Using a Container:

  • Set up Docker on the EC2 instance:

      sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install docker.io -y
  sudo usermod -aG docker $USER  # Replace with your system's username, e.g., 'ubuntu'
  newgrp docker
  sudo chmod 777 /var/run/docker.sock

  • Build and run your application using Docker containers:

      docker build -t netflix .
  docker run -d --name netflix -p 8081:80 netflix:latest

  #to delete
  docker stop <containerid>
  docker rmi -f netflix

Once the container is run we can access the website but the page is empty because the contents are being delivered via an external API(TMDB) which were supposed to pass through the argument in our docker command.

TMDB: The movie database api credentials(personal) for the netflix clone website

Step 4: Get the API Key:

  • Open a web browser and navigate to TMDB (The Movie Database) website.

  • Click on "Login" and create an account.

  • Once logged in, go to your profile and select "Settings."

  • Click on "API" from the left-side panel.

  • Create a new API key by clicking "Create" and accepting the terms and conditions.

  • Provide the required basic details and click "Submit."

  • You will receive your TMDB API key.

Now recreate the Docker image with your api key:

docker build --build-arg TMDB_V3_API_KEY=<your-api-key> -t netflix .

sudo docker run -d -p 8081:80 netflix2
docker run -d --name sonar -p 9000:9000 sonarqube:lts-community

Phase 2: Security

  1. Install SonarQube and Trivy:

    • Install SonarQube and Trivy on the EC2 instance to scan for vulnerabilities.

      sonarqube

        docker run -d --name sonar -p 9000:9000 sonarqube:lts-community

      To access:

      publicIP:9000 (by default username & password is admin)

      To install Trivy:

        sudo apt-get install wget apt-transport-https gnupg lsb-release
  wget -qO - https://aquasecurity.github.io/trivy-repo/deb/public.key | sudo apt-key add -
  echo deb https://aquasecurity.github.io/trivy-repo/deb $(lsb_release -sc) main | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/trivy.list
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install trivy

      to scan image using trivy

        trivy image <imageid>

  2. Integrate SonarQube and Configure:

    • Integrate SonarQube with your CI/CD pipeline.

    • Configure SonarQube to analyze code for quality and security issues.

Phase 3: CI/CD Setup

  1. Install Jenkins for Automation:

    • Install Jenkins on the EC2 instance to automate deployment: Install Java
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install fontconfig openjdk-17-jre
    java -version
    openjdk version "17.0.8" 2023-07-18
    OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.8+7-Debian-1deb12u1)
    OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.0.8+7-Debian-1deb12u1, mixed mode, sharing)

    #jenkins
    sudo wget -O /usr/share/keyrings/jenkins-keyring.asc \
    https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable/jenkins.io-2023.key
    echo deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/jenkins-keyring.asc] \
    https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable binary/ | sudo tee \
    /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jenkins.list > /dev/null
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install jenkins
    sudo systemctl start jenkins
    sudo systemctl enable jenkins

  • Access Jenkins in a web browser using the public IP of your EC2 instance.

    publicIp:8080

  1. Install Necessary Plugins in Jenkins:

Goto Manage Jenkins →Plugins → Available Plugins →

Install below plugins

1 Eclipse Temurin Installer (Install without restart)

2 SonarQube Scanner (Install without restart)

3 NodeJs Plugin (Install Without restart)

4 Email Extension Plugin

Configure Java and Nodejs in Global Tool Configuration

Goto Manage Jenkins → Tools → Install JDK(17) and NodeJs(16)→ Click on Apply and Save

SonarQube

Create the token

Goto Jenkins Dashboard → Manage Jenkins → Credentials → Add Secret Text. It should look like this

After adding sonar token

Click on Apply and Save

The Configure System option is used in Jenkins to configure different server

Global Tool Configuration is used to configure different tools that we install using Plugins

We will install a sonar scanner in the tools.

Create a Jenkins webhook

  1. Configure CI/CD Pipeline in Jenkins:
  • Create a CI/CD pipeline in Jenkins to automate your application deployment.

Certainly, here are the instructions without step numbers:

Install Dependency-Check and Docker Tools in Jenkins

Install Dependency-Check Plugin:

  • Go to "Dashboard" in your Jenkins web interface.

  • Navigate to "Manage Jenkins" → "Manage Plugins."

  • Click on the "Available" tab and search for "OWASP Dependency-Check."

  • Check the checkbox for "OWASP Dependency-Check" and click on the "Install without restart" button.

Configure Dependency-Check Tool:

  • After installing the Dependency-Check plugin, you need to configure the tool.

  • Go to "Dashboard" → "Manage Jenkins" → "Global Tool Configuration."

  • Find the section for "OWASP Dependency-Check."

  • Add the tool's name, e.g., "DP-Check."

  • Save your settings.

Install Docker Tools and Docker Plugins:

  • Go to "Dashboard" in your Jenkins web interface.

  • Navigate to "Manage Jenkins" → "Manage Plugins."

  • Click on the "Available" tab and search for "Docker."

  • Check the following Docker-related plugins:

    • Docker

    • Docker Commons

    • Docker Pipeline

    • Docker API

    • docker-build-step

  • Click on the "Install without restart" button to install these plugins.

Add DockerHub Credentials:

  • To securely handle DockerHub credentials in your Jenkins pipeline, follow these steps:

    • Go to "Dashboard" → "Manage Jenkins" → "Manage Credentials."

    • Click on "System" and then "Global credentials (unrestricted)."

    • Click on "Add Credentials" on the left side.

    • Choose "Secret text" as the kind of credentials.

    • Enter your DockerHub credentials (Username and Password) and give the credentials an ID (e.g., "docker").

    • Click "OK" to save your DockerHub credentials.

Now, you have installed the Dependency-Check plugin, configured the tool, and added Docker-related plugins along with your DockerHub credentials in Jenkins. You can now proceed with configuring your Jenkins pipeline to include these tools and credentials in your CI/CD process.


pipeline{
    agent any
    tools{
        jdk 'jdk17'
        nodejs 'node16'
    }
    environment {
        SCANNER_HOME=tool 'sonar-scanner'
    }
    stages {
        stage('clean workspace'){
            steps{
                cleanWs()
            }
        }
        stage('Checkout from Git'){
            steps{
                git branch: 'main', url: '<https://github.com/LajahShrestha/DevSecOps-Project.git>'
            }
        }
        stage("Sonarqube Analysis "){
            steps{
                withSonarQubeEnv('sonar-server') {
                    sh ''' $SCANNER_HOME/bin/sonar-scanner -Dsonar.projectName=Netflix \\
                    -Dsonar.projectKey=Netflix '''
                }
            }
        }
        stage("quality gate"){
           steps {
                script {
                    waitForQualityGate abortPipeline: false, credentialsId: 'Sonar-token' 
                }
            } 
        }
        stage('Install Dependencies') {
            steps {
                sh "npm install"
            }
        }
        stage('OWASP FS SCAN') {
            steps {
                dependencyCheck additionalArguments: '--scan ./ --disableYarnAudit --disableNodeAudit', odcInstallation: 'DP-Check'
                dependencyCheckPublisher pattern: '**/dependency-check-report.xml'
            }
        }
        stage('TRIVY FS SCAN') {
            steps {
                sh "trivy fs . > trivyfs.txt"
            }
        }
        stage("Docker Build & Push"){
            steps{
                script{
                   withDockerRegistry(credentialsId: 'docker', toolName: 'docker'){   
                       sh "docker build --build-arg TMDB_V3_API_KEY=8ddb5be8173d1f5790522f4d62bf3937 -t netflix ."
                       sh "docker tag netflix lajahshrestha/netflix-clone:latest "
                       sh "docker push lajahshrestha/netflix-clone:latest "
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        stage("TRIVY"){
            steps{
                sh "trivy image lajahshrestha/netflix-clone:latest > trivyimage.txt" 
            }
        }
        stage('Deploy to container'){
            steps{
                sh 'docker run -d -p 8081:80 lajahshrestha/netflix-clone:latest'
            }
        }
    }
}

Phase 4: Monitoring

Prometheus and Grafana are a powerful duo for monitoring applications and infrastructure. Prometheus, the unsung hero, acts as a data collector, constantly gathering metrics on various aspects like CPU usage, memory consumption, or API request counts. It keeps a watchful eye on these metrics, and if they stray from expected levels, it throws up an alert. But raw data can be overwhelming. This is where Grafana steps in. It acts as the visualizer, transforming the data collected by Prometheus into easy-to-understand graphs, charts, and dashboards. You can customize these dashboards to focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter most to you. Together, they provide a clear picture of your application's health and performance, allowing you to identify and address potential issues before they snowball.

  1. Install Prometheus and Grafana:

    Set up Prometheus and Grafana to monitor your application.

    Installing Prometheus:

    First, create a dedicated Linux user for Prometheus and download Prometheus:

     sudo useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /bin/false prometheus
 wget <https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/download/v2.47.1/prometheus-2.47.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz>

    Extract Prometheus files, move them, and create directories:

     tar -xvf prometheus-2.47.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
 cd prometheus-2.47.1.linux-amd64/
 sudo mkdir -p /data /etc/prometheus
 sudo mv prometheus promtool /usr/local/bin/
 sudo mv consoles/ console_libraries/ /etc/prometheus/
 sudo mv prometheus.yml /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

    Set ownership for directories:

     sudo chown -R prometheus:prometheus /etc/prometheus/ /data/

    Create a systemd unit configuration file for Prometheus:

     sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/prometheus.service

    Add the following content to the prometheus.service file:

     [Unit]
 Description=Prometheus
 Wants=network-online.target
 After=network-online.target

 StartLimitIntervalSec=500
 StartLimitBurst=5

 [Service]
 User=prometheus
 Group=prometheus
 Type=simple
 Restart=on-failure
 RestartSec=5s
 ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/prometheus \\
   --config.file=/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml \\
   --storage.tsdb.path=/data \\
   --web.console.templates=/etc/prometheus/consoles \\
   --web.console.libraries=/etc/prometheus/console_libraries \\
   --web.listen-address=0.0.0.0:9090 \\
   --web.enable-lifecycle

 [Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target

    Here's a brief explanation of the key parts in this prometheus.service file:

    • User and Group specify the Linux user and group under which Prometheus will run.

    • ExecStart is where you specify the Prometheus binary path, the location of the configuration file (prometheus.yml), the storage directory, and other settings.

    • web.listen-address configures Prometheus to listen on all network interfaces on port 9090.

    • web.enable-lifecycle allows for management of Prometheus through API calls.

Enable and start Prometheus:

    sudo systemctl enable prometheus
    sudo systemctl start prometheus

Verify Prometheus's status:

    sudo systemctl status prometheus

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You can access Prometheus in a web browser using your server's IP and port 9090:

http://<your-server-ip>:9090

Installing Node Exporter:

Create a system user for Node Exporter and download Node Exporter:

    sudo useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /bin/false node_exporter
    wget <https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v1.6.1/node_exporter-1.6.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz>

Extract Node Exporter files, move the binary, and clean up:

    tar -xvf node_exporter-1.6.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
    sudo mv node_exporter-1.6.1.linux-amd64/node_exporter /usr/local/bin/
    rm -rf node_exporter*

Create a systemd unit configuration file for Node Exporter:

    sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/node_exporter.service

Add the following content to the node_exporter.service file:

    [Unit]
    Description=Node Exporter
    Wants=network-online.target
    After=network-online.target

    StartLimitIntervalSec=500
    StartLimitBurst=5

    [Service]
    User=node_exporter
    Group=node_exporter
    Type=simple
    Restart=on-failure
    RestartSec=5s
    ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter --collector.logind

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

Replace --collector.logind with any additional flags as needed.

Enable and start Node Exporter:

    sudo systemctl enable node_exporter
    sudo systemctl start node_exporter

Verify the Node Exporter's status:

    sudo systemctl status node_exporter

You can access Node Exporter metrics in Prometheus.

  1. Configure Prometheus Plugin Integration:

    Integrate Jenkins with Prometheus to monitor the CI/CD pipeline.

    Prometheus Configuration:

    To configure Prometheus to scrape metrics from Node Exporter and Jenkins, you need to modify the prometheus.yml file. Here is an example prometheus.yml configuration for your setup:

     scrape_configs:
   - job_name: "prometheus"
     static_configs:
       - targets: ["localhost:9090"]

   - job_name: 'node_exporter'
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:9100']

   - job_name: 'jenkins'
     metrics_path: '/prometheus'
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['13.232.109.143:8080']

    Make sure to replace <your-jenkins-ip> and <your-jenkins-port> with the appropriate values for your Jenkins setup.

    Check the validity of the configuration file:

     promtool check config /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

    Reload the Prometheus configuration without restarting:

     curl -X POST <http://localhost:9090/-/reload>

    You can access Prometheus targets at:

    http://<your-prometheus-ip>:9090/targets

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Install Grafana on Ubuntu 22.04 and Set it up to Work with Prometheus

Step 1: Install Dependencies:

First, ensure that all necessary dependencies are installed:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https software-properties-common

Step 2: Add the GPG Key:

Add the GPG key for Grafana:

wget -q -O - <https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key> | sudo apt-key add -

Step 3: Add Grafana Repository:

Add the repository for Grafana stable releases:

echo "deb <https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb> stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list

Step 4: Update and Install Grafana:

Update the package list and install Grafana:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install grafana

Step 5: Enable and Start Grafana Service:

To automatically start Grafana after a reboot, enable the service:

sudo systemctl enable grafana-server

Then, start Grafana:

sudo systemctl start grafana-server

Step 6: Check Grafana Status:

Verify the status of the Grafana service to ensure it's running correctly:

sudo systemctl status grafana-server

Step 7: Access Grafana Web Interface:

Open a web browser and navigate to Grafana using your server's IP address. The default port for Grafana is 3000. For example:

http://<your-server-ip>:3000

You'll be prompted to log in to Grafana. The default username is "admin," and the default password is also "admin."

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Step 8: Change the Default Password:

When you log in for the first time, Grafana will prompt you to change the default password for security reasons. Follow the prompts to set a new password.

Step 9: Add Prometheus Data Source:

To visualize metrics, you need to add a data source. Follow these steps:

  • Click on the gear icon (⚙️) in the left sidebar to open the "Configuration" menu.

  • Select "Data Sources."

  • Click on the "Add data source" button.

  • Choose "Prometheus" as the data source type.

  • In the "HTTP" section:

    • Set the "URL" to http://localhost:9090 (assuming Prometheus is running on the same server).

    • Click the "Save & Test" button to ensure the data source is working.

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Step 10: Import a Dashboard:

To make it easier to view metrics, you can import a pre-configured dashboard. Follow these steps:

  • Click on the "+" (plus) icon in the left sidebar to open the "Create" menu.

  • Select "Dashboard."

  • Click on the "Import" dashboard option.

  • Enter the dashboard code you want to import (e.g., code 1860).

  • Click the "Load" button.

  • Select the data source you added (Prometheus) from the dropdown.

  • Click on the "Import" button.

You should now have a Grafana dashboard set up to visualize metrics from Prometheus.

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Grafana is a powerful tool for creating visualizations and dashboards, and you can further customize it to suit your specific monitoring needs.

That's it! You've successfully installed and set up Grafana to work with Prometheus for monitoring and visualization.

  1. Configure Prometheus Plugin Integration:

    • Integrate Jenkins with Prometheus to monitor the CI/CD pipeline.

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Phase 5: Notification

  1. Implement Notification Services:

    • Set up email notifications in Jenkins or other notification mechanisms.

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    lajah.aws@gmail.com
    ktut rfsu nkog avvt

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Phase 6: Kubernetes

Create Kubernetes Cluster with Nodegroups

In this phase, you'll set up a Kubernetes cluster with node groups. This will provide a scalable environment to deploy and manage your applications.

Monitor Kubernetes with Prometheus

Prometheus is a powerful monitoring and alerting toolkit, and you'll use it to monitor your Kubernetes cluster. Additionally, you'll install the node exporter using Helm to collect metrics from your cluster nodes.

Install Node Exporter using Helm

To begin monitoring your Kubernetes cluster, you'll install the Prometheus Node Exporter. This component allows you to collect system-level metrics from your cluster nodes. Here are the steps to install the Node Exporter using Helm:

  1. Add the Prometheus Community Helm repository:

     helm repo add prometheus-community <https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts>

  2. Create a Kubernetes namespace for the Node Exporter:

     kubectl create namespace prometheus-node-exporter

  3. Install the Node Exporter using Helm:

     helm install prometheus-node-exporter prometheus-community/prometheus-node-exporter --namespace prometheus-node-exporter

Add a Job to Scrape Metrics on nodeip:9001/metrics in prometheus.yml:

Update your Prometheus configuration (prometheus.yml) to add a new job for scraping metrics from nodeip:9001/metrics. You can do this by adding the following configuration to your prometheus.yml file:

  - job_name: 'Netflix'
    metrics_path: '/metrics'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['node1Ip:9100']

Replace 'your-job-name' with a descriptive name for your job. The static_configs section specifies the targets to scrape metrics from, and in this case, it's set to nodeip:9001.

Don't forget to reload or restart Prometheus to apply these changes to your configuration.

To deploy an application with ArgoCD, you can follow these steps, which I'll outline in Markdown format:

Deploy Application with ArgoCD

  1. Install ArgoCD:

    You can install ArgoCD on your Kubernetes cluster by following the instructions provided in the EKS Workshop documentation.

  2. Set Your GitHub Repository as a Source:

    After installing ArgoCD, you need to set up your GitHub repository as a source for your application deployment. This typically involves configuring the connection to your repository and defining the source for your ArgoCD application. The specific steps will depend on your setup and requirements.

  3. Create an ArgoCD Application:

    • name: Set the name for your application.

    • destination: Define the destination where your application should be deployed.

    • project: Specify the project the application belongs to.

    • source: Set the source of your application, including the GitHub repository URL, revision, and the path to the application within the repository.

    • syncPolicy: Configure the sync policy, including automatic syncing, pruning, and self-healing.

  4. Access your Application

    • To Access the app make sure port 30007 is open in your security group and then open a new tab paste your NodeIP:30007, your app should be running.

Conclusion

By implementing a DevSecOps approach with tools like Prometheus and Grafana, you gain a comprehensive view of your application's security, performance, and health. This allows for proactive management, ensuring a secure and well-functioning application throughout its lifecycle. Remember, DevSecOps is an ongoing process, so continuously refine your approach as your application evolves and make sure to cleanup the resources used while doing the process to cut off ongoing charges from the vendor. Happy learning.

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