2 days (16 hours total)
Focus: complex pipelines, automation patterns, advanced runner usage, GitOps patterns, security scans, deployments.
Day 1 – Advanced Pipeline Design & Orchestration
1. GitLab CI Architecture Deep Dive
Pipeline engine, DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) mechanics, job dependency resolution, artifacts → cache flow.
2. Multi-Stage & Multi-Project Pipelines
Chained pipelines, parent/child pipelines, cross-project triggers, orchestrating microservices.
3. Rules, Workflow & Conditional Logic
rules: vs only/except, pipeline-level rules, conditional deploys, protected refs logic.
4. Parallel Execution & Matrix Builds
Parallel jobs, matrix strategies, splitting tests, fan-out/fan-in patterns.
5. Advanced Artifacts & Caching
Cache scoping, immutable caches, build reuse, artifact expiry tuning, large artifact optimization.
6. Secure Variables & Secrets
Protected variables, masked variables, group/instance-level secrets, dynamic secrets fetch (Vault/JWT).
7. Custom Docker Images
Optimized CI images, multi-stage Docker builds, caching layers, using container registries efficiently.
Day 2 – Deployment Automation, Security, Observability & Scaling
8. Environments & Deployments
Review apps, dynamic environments, deployment tiers, environment locks, approvals.
9. Advanced Deployment Strategies
Blue/green, canary, feature flags, rollout schedules, controlled production deploys.
10. Kubernetes Integration
Helm charts, GitLab agent for Kubernetes, kubeconfig injection, K8s-native CI deployments.
11. GitOps Workflows
Branch-driven operations, environment repositories, pull-request deploy flow, anti-patterns.
12. Security & Compliance Pipelines
SAST, DAST, Secret Detection, Dependency Scanning, License Compliance, security gate patterns.
13. Observability & Pipeline Debugging
Pipeline analytics, job-level tracing, runner debugging, log enhancement, artifacts for debugging.
14. Scaling CI Infrastructure
Runner autoscaling with Docker Machine, Kubernetes runners, concurrency control, resource governance.
15. Pipeline Optimization & Cost Reduction
Caching strategies, selective pipelines, skipping redundant jobs, artifact minimization, pipeline duration tuning.