VEXXHOST Logo
Purple pattern background

Project Gating with Zuul - An infographic Overview

Mohammed NaserMohammed Naser

Project gating with Zuul gating attempts to prevent changes that introduce regressions from being merged. Read on to know more.

Project Gating with Zuul - An infographic Overview

Project gating with Zuul gating attempts to prevent changes that introduce regressions from being merged. This keeps the mainline of development open and working for all developers, and only when a change is confirmed to operate without disruption is it merged.

Here is a closer look at project gating with Zuul and Zuul as a prominent CICD tool.

Zuul - the CICD Tool

Zuul brings you an open-source, open-design tool for merging code, ensuring that no broken code is merged into the main branch. Zuul was first developed in 2012 for CI testing. Its purpose was to enable users and contributors from different institutions to collaborate efficiently and effectively in varied projects. The tool was designed so that developers have the means to test serialized future states faster when executing serial testing. Zuul is named after the mythical creature from the movie “Ghostbusters,” The logo resembles the Temple of Gozer from the same film.

Zuul has several key features that differentiate it from other CI/CD tools, but the one at the forefront of its development is project gating. Zuul's automation ranges from simple commit checks to the entire release process; therefore, its services are applicable throughout the DevOps journey.

Project Gating with Zuul

Many software development projects merge the developers' changes into the repository and later identify regressions resulting from those changes. This process is often done by running a test suite with a CI system and is followed by more patches for bug fixes. When the development mainline is broken, it can concern developers and can result in lost productivity, especially when there are a larger number of contributors or contributions.

The process of project gating with Zuul attempts to prevent changes that introduce regressions from being merged. This keeps development mainline open and functioning for all developers. Only with a confirmed change comes to operate without disruption is it merged. Many projects undertake an informal gating method where developers with mainline commit access ensure that a test suite runs before merging a change. With more developers, changes, and comprehensive test suites, that process does not scale well and wastes time. Project gating with Zuul can help automate this process, emphasizing ensuring large numbers of changes are tested correctly.

Multi-Repository Dependencies

Ensuring flexibility for developers is essential for an efficient CI/CD tool as it can give significant benefits. Zuul is one such tool that functions on a Git-driven philosophy and therefore reads most of its configurations from git repositories.

Having multi-repository dependencies comes with benefits for all Zuul users,

  1. Multiple repositories make it easy to access subsets of repositories on a “need to code” basis.
  2. Each repository can have its process of being deployed, making continuous delivery and deployment easier.
  3. Developers take advantage of multiple development platforms to create Adhoc continuous integration tests for precisely what they are working on at the moment.
  4. Developers also can work across project boundaries.
  5. Cross community continuous integration testing is also supported via multi-repo.
  6. With the option of GitHub Enterprise, all repository data can be stored on your organization's local network and integrated with your organization's authentication system.

Managed Zuul from VEXXHOST

Our Managed Zuul offering is available to our public and private cloud customers and anyone who has their infrastructure supported by OpenStack, Openshift, Kubernetes, or AWS EC2. Our offering's vast reach is due to Zuul's support of multiple cloud infrastructure providers.

VEXXHOST knows project gating with Zuul firsthand as it has been tested on our cloud, all the while using it internally for continuous integration. VEXXHOST is excited to empower organizations to make the most of this helpful project gating tool. As experienced cloud computing providers, we know the importance of new and beneficial features. At VEXXHOST, we provide cloud solutions for a multitude of clients worldwide. We provide OpenStack-based clouds, including public clouds and dedicated and highly secure private cloud environments, ensuring utmost security and agility.

Take advantage of our limited-time deal just to set up a one-time, OpenStack-based private cloud deployment - at 50% off! The cloud will be running on the latest OpenStack release, Wallaby, which allows you to run Kubernetes and VMs in the same environment and deploy in your data centers with your hardware. Furthermore, all these will be deployed and tested in under a month!

What are you waiting for? Learn more!

Share on social media

Virtual machines, Kubernetes & Bare Metal Infrastructure

Choose from Atmosphere Cloud, Hosted, or On-Premise.
Simplify your cloud operations with our intuitive dashboard.
Run it yourself, tap our expert support, or opt for full remote operations.
Leverage Terraform, Ansible or APIs directly powered by OpenStack & Kubernetes