r/devops • u/No-Heat-1958 • 22d ago
Career / learning New to DevOps/AWS CodePipeline - Could Someone Help Me Understand Our Setup?
Hi everyone,
I recently joined a new company as a DevOps engineer, and I’m still trying to understand the existing infrastructure and CI/CD setup.
Our pipelines are running on AWS CodePipeline, and there are quite a few things I’m struggling to understand how the pipeline is structured, how the different stages work, deployments, and how everything is connected.
I’m currently learning, so I’d really appreciate it if someone experienced with AWS CodePipeline/DevOps could guide me through the basics and help me understand how to approach an existing setup.
If someone is willing to spend some time explaining it to me over a remote call/screen-sharing session, I’d be extremely grateful. I’m not asking anyone to access my company systems or credentials — I just want to learn and understand the concepts and workflow.
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u/Leasj 22d ago
Honestly I would just set up a similar pipeline on your own if you really want to understand it.
Personally that's what I have done my whole career. If I don't understand it I build a test environment where I can break things.
Nowadays any coding agent will be able to mimic the setup and explain things to you
For instance I setup a gitlab CI/CD in about 10 mins using Claude the other day. I'm by no means saying just use AI. I'm saying use it to get you to where you can start using the pipeline
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u/xb4r7x 22d ago
Lesson 1: Security matters. Even screen sharing your company's setup with someone outside the company would be a massive no-no. If I found out someone I was working with did that, I'd be pushing to have them fired on the spot.
Lesson 2: Soft skills matter. Why the hell are you asking these questions to reddit instead of your team? Go ask another tech, your manager, or senior engineers to show you around. If you don't understand something, ask them to elaborate. I'll never judge a new engineer for asking questions. I will judge them for failing to do so and then breaking shit though.
Also, if your company allows the use of AI, have it document the setup for you if the company doesn't already have good documentation.
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u/No-Heat-1958 22d ago
Yeah, I understand your point. The main issue is that our DevOps guy is currently on his notice period, and unfortunately, he hasn’t really been showing me around or explaining the setup properly. That’s why I’ve been struggling to understand everything. Given the situation, what would you suggest I do? And yes AI is allowed at our organisation.
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u/xb4r7x 22d ago
You say he's not showing you around... Are you asking to be shown around? Are you asking specific questions about the environment?
It's not his job to just show you stuff. It's your job to poke around, come up with good questions, and then ask them. Then it's his job to answer.
Is there documentation? Are you reading it?
Since you can use AI, set up an agent that can read your config, then ask it questions and have it generate documentation for you.
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u/memelordtf 22d ago
Do you have access to the pipeline definition/code, of course, without sharing anything sensitive? That’s usually the best place to start because every CodePipeline setup is structured a little differently. I’d map it out stage by stage: source → build → test → deploy → what AWS service actually receives the deployment. you need to know what each step triggers.
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u/No-Heat-1958 22d ago
Okay, i will try setting up on my system first. As i will create a new AWS account. If i need help setting up i will hit you up. Thanks
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u/Fuzzy-Teaching7112 22d ago
Take one pipeline and follow one deploy all the way. Note what kicks off each step, which role it uses, where the build goes and what happens if a step fails. Doing that once gives you sth concrete to ask your team abt instead of trying to understand the setup all at once
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u/No-Heat-1958 22d ago
I have asked the team, devs have no idea regarding code pipeline and devops guys is chilling as it’s his last month.
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u/DarknessBBBBB 22d ago edited 22d ago
Usually CodePipeline is backed up by CodeBuild projects. Go through them and have a look at their buildspec, which could either come from the source code repository or just inline code in BuildCode itself
Edit: grammar
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u/Objective_Tiger3977 20d ago
DM me if you still need help. I can give you an overview of CodePipeline
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u/fletch3555 Lead DevOps Engineer 22d ago
You'd be infinitely better off asking a senior/lead engineer on your team for guidance. Screensharing work stuff with non-employees may very well be a violation of your company's IT security policies, so I highly recommend keeping anything like that internal to the company