Building and Pushing Docker Images with AWS CodeBuild

Overview

Adopting a robust DevOps pipeline in today’s fast-paced development environment is crucial for delivering high-quality software quickly.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a suite of services that seamlessly integrate with popular DevOps tools, enabling teams to automate the building and deployment of Docker containers.

In this guide, we will set up a continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipeline using AWS CodeBuild to build a Docker image and push it to the Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR).

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Introduction

In this blog, we will go through the end-to-end process of building and pushing Docker images using AWS DevOps tools, empowering developers to streamline containerized application development, deployment, and management on Amazon Web Services.

Prerequisites

Before diving into the blog, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

An AWS account with the necessary permissions to create and manage AWS CodeBuild projects, Amazon ECR repositories, and AWS IAM roles.
AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) is installed and configured with your credentials.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Create an Amazon ECR Repository

Start by creating an Amazon ECR repository to store your Docker images. This can be done through the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI.

AWS CLI Command:

$ aws ecr create-repository --repository-name your-repo-name

1	$ aws ecr create-repository --repository-name your-repo-name

Step 2: Set up the AWS CodeBuild Project

Navigate to the AWS CodeBuild console.
Click on “Create build project.”

step2

Configure the build project.
Project name: Choose a name for your project.
Source provider: Select the source provider (GitHub, Bitbucket, etc.) and connect your repository.

step2b

Environment image: Choose a managed image (e.g., aws/codebuild/standard:5.0) with Docker support.

step2c

Buildspec: Create a yml file in your source repository to define build steps.

Example buildspec.yml:

yamlCopy code
version: 0.2
phases:
  install:
    commands:
      - nohup /usr/local/bin/dockerd --host=unix:///var/run/docker.sock --host=tcp://127.0.0.1:2375 --storage-driver=overlay2 &
      - timeout 15 sh -c "until docker info; do echo .; sleep 1; done"
  pre_build:
    commands:
      - echo Logging in to Amazon ECR...
      - aws --version
      - AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=ap-south-1
      - echo $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION
      - aws ecr get-login-password --region ap-south-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin ***********.dkr.ecr.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com
      - REPOSITORY_URI=*********.dkr.ecr.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/cicd
  build:
    commands:
      - echo Build started on `date`
      - docker images
      - docker build -t testimage .
      - echo $REPOSITORY_URI
      - echo $REPOSITORY_URI:testimage
      - docker tag testimage:latest $REPOSITORY_URI:testimage
  post_build:
    commands:
      - echo Build completed on `date`
      - echo Pushing the Docker image...
      - docker push $REPOSITORY_URI:testimage
      - echo Writing image definition file...
      - echo Done
artifacts:
  files: imagedefinitions.json

yamlCopy code

version: 0.2

phases:

install:

commands:

- nohup /usr/local/bin/dockerd --host=unix:///var/run/docker.sock --host=tcp://127.0.0.1:2375 --storage-driver=overlay2 &

- timeout 15 sh -c "until docker info; do echo .; sleep 1; done"

pre_build:

commands:

- echo Logging in to Amazon ECR...

- aws --version

- AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=ap-south-1

- echo $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION

- aws ecr get-login-password --region ap-south-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin ***********.dkr.ecr.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com

- REPOSITORY_URI=*********.dkr.ecr.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/cicd

build:

commands:

- echo Build started on `date`

- docker images

- docker build -t testimage .

- echo $REPOSITORY_URI

- echo $REPOSITORY_URI:testimage

- docker tag testimage:latest $REPOSITORY_URI:testimage

post_build:

commands:

- echo Build completed on `date`

- echo Pushing the Docker image...

- docker push $REPOSITORY_URI:testimage

- echo Writing image definition file...

- echo Done

artifacts:

files: imagedefinitions.json

Define environment variables:
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: Set to your AWS region.
ECR_REPO_URL: Set to your ECR repository URL.

Step 3: Grant Permissions

Ensure the CodeBuild service role has the necessary permissions to interact with Amazon ECR. Attach the AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryPowerUser policy to the CodeBuild service role.

Step 4: Trigger the Build

Trigger the CodeBuild project manually or set up a webhook to trigger builds automatically on code changes.

You will get the output below once the Build and push are completed.

step4

Conclusion

Congratulations! You’ve successfully set up a CI/CD pipeline for building and deploying Docker images with AWS DevOps. This pipeline allows you to automate building Docker images, pushing them to Amazon ECR, and integrating seamlessly with your development workflow. As you continue to enhance your application, consider extending this pipeline to include additional stages, such as testing and deployment to Amazon ECS or Kubernetes clusters. This scalable and efficient DevOps pipeline empowers teams to deliver software confidently and quickly.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding Amazon ECR and we will get back to you quickly.

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FAQs

1. What is Amazon ECR, and why should I use it for storing Docker images?

ANS: – Amazon ECR is a fully managed Docker container registry that makes it easy for developers to store, manage, and deploy Docker container images. It integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, providing a secure and scalable solution for storing and retrieving Docker images. Using Amazon ECR ensures reliable access to container images during the deployment process.

2. Why choose AWS CodeBuild for building and pushing Docker images?

ANS: – AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed continuous integration service that scales automatically and eliminates the need to manage and build servers. It supports building Docker images directly, and when combined with Amazon ECR, it provides a streamlined and efficient process for building, testing, and deploying Dockerized applications.

3. How do I configure AWS CodeBuild to build and push Docker images into Amazon ECR?

ANS: – The configuration involves setting up a buildspec file in your source code repository. This file defines the build steps, including Docker image creation and pushing to Amazon ECR. AWS CodeBuild integrates with your source code repository and executes these steps based on triggers, such as code commits.

WRITTEN BY Karthik Kumar P V

Karthik Kumar Patro Voona is a Research Associate (Kubernetes) at CloudThat Technologies. He Holds Bachelor's degree in Information and Technology and has good programming knowledge of Python. He has experience in both AWS and Azure. He has a passion for Cloud-computing and DevOps. He has good working experience in Kubernetes and DevOps Tools like Terraform, Ansible, and Jenkins. He is a very good Team player, Adaptive and interested in exploring new technologies.