CI/CD Configuration Delivery Decoupling for Faster Runtime Updates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing CI/CD pipelines face inefficiencies in propagating configuration changes, leading to excessive time overhead, wasted resources, and infrastructure risks due to bundling configuration changes with code updates, lacking efficient mechanisms for timely delivery in scenarios that require rapid deployment.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic CI/CD pipeline that decouples configuration changes from code changes, allowing real-time updates to subscribed components, involving configuration file processing, validation, and deployment through a workflow engine, utilizing a file processor and write-through caching to optimize the delivery process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If configuration changes are bundled with code changes in full pipeline deployment, then updates can be propagated through the complete CI/CD process, but excessive time overhead and wasted compute resources occur due to re-integrating and re-building unchanged code
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments configuration changes from code changes, creating separate update streams. Configuration updates are processed independently through a streamlined path that bypasses full code integration and building steps, while code updates continue through the traditional CI/CD pipeline. This segmentation eliminates the wasteful re-processing of unchanged code while ensuring configuration changes are still reliably propagated to production.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts configuration changes from the bundled update package and handles them separately. A configuration update mechanism is implemented that identifies, isolates, and processes only configuration-related changes without dragging along unchanged code components. This extraction approach reduces propagation time by focusing resources only on the actual changes that need to be deployed.
2Stability of the object's composition
If full pipeline deployment is used for configuration changes, then all components are updated consistently, but infrastructure risk increases due to create and replace operations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic update strategy where configuration changes are applied selectively to specific components that actually need updating, rather than forcing a blanket create-and-replace operation on all infrastructure. The system dynamically determines which components require updates based on the configuration change content, applying changes only where necessary to maintain consistency while minimizing infrastructure disruption.
3Manufacturing precision
If configuration changes are processed through the complete CI/CD pipeline, then validation and testing are thorough, but compute resources are wasted on re-integrating unchanged code
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial validation action by performing configuration-specific validation and testing without executing the complete validation suite intended for full code changes. The system performs targeted validation checks that are sufficient for configuration updates alone, skipping redundant validation steps for unchanged code components. This approach maintains adequate validation quality while significantly reducing compute resource consumption.
4Productivity
If a self-service framework is implemented for configuration updates, then deployment efficiency can be improved, but time and cost investment beyond software development scope is required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates configuration update capabilities into the existing CI/CD pipeline infrastructure, making the pipeline multi-functional. The same pipeline that handles code changes is enhanced to also handle configuration changes independently. This universal approach avoids the need for a separate self-service framework, achieving deployment efficiency improvements while leveraging already-invested infrastructure and avoiding additional complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are disclosed for providing a CI/CD pipeline that decouples delivery of product configuration changes from code and similar changes, otherwise bundled/handled together with such configuration changes, for delivery to a running application in production. An exemplary method may include configuring components of CI/CD application in production to subscribe to application updates during runtime; processing an update to the application; processing/handling the update to process only configuration changes for propagation to subscribed components; validating the configuration changes; and instructing a workflow engine to: determine whether the configuration changes are needed for each component, update the components in runtime memory, if so, and provide the validated changes as an update in a next processing cycle to deploy such changes during the runtime.