We are now going to setup a branch called stage and commit our GitLab job control file.

Step 1 - Commit code to local stage branch

Make sure you are in the root directory of the project folder

cd ~/workspace/ndfclab/nac

Step 2 - Create and Checkout a Local Branch Called stage

git checkout -b stage

Step 3 - Double Check Local stage Branch Changes

First issue the git status . command to see the list of files that have been modified in the previous lab tasks.

git status .

    On branch stage
    Changes not staged for commit:
      (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
      (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
            modified:   requirements.yml

    Untracked files:
      (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
            .gitlab-ci.yml
            test.yml
            validate.yml

    no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

Step 4 - Add New Gitlab Job Control File and Verify Playbook For Commit

git add .

Step 5 - Commit Code

Now commit the code to your github repo stage branch.

git commit -m "Add PipeLine"

    [stage e477eeb] Add PipeLine
    4 files changed, 264 insertions(+)
    create mode 100644 .gitlab-ci.yml
    create mode 100644 test.yml
    create mode 100644 validate.yml

Step 6 - Push Local Branch stage to Remote

git push --set-upstream origin stage 

    Enumerating objects: 6, done.
    Counting objects: 100% (6/6), done.
    Delta compression using up to 8 threads
    Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done.
    Writing objects: 100% (5/5), 1.84 KiB | 940.00 KiB/s, done.
    Total 5 (delta 1), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
    remote: 
    remote: To create a merge request for stage, visit:
    remote:   http://10.15.0.159/Pod01_2025_01/LTRDCN-3439/-/merge_requests/new?merge_request%5Bsource_branch%5D=stage
    remote: 
    To 10.15.0.159:Pod01_2025_01/LTRDCN-3439.git
    * [new branch]      stage -> stage
    Branch 'stage' set up to track remote branch 'stage' from 'origin'.

Step 7 - Check the Code on Gitlab

Return to GitLab in your browser. In the branch drop-down, select your stage branch:

1. Navigate back to repo by clicking Code
2. Then click Repository





3. Click main
4. Click stage branch





5. Review stage branch commits

Step 8 - Check to Ensure the Lint Stage was Run

As soon as the code was committed to the stage branch, Ansible Lint validation was triggered, open pipelines:

1. Click Build on the side menu
2. Then click Pipelines



Only the lint stage is triggered when committing the code to the stage branch, the green circle with a check icon indicates the pipeline succeeded. To see details of the job click Passed under the Status column:



This shows the ansible_lint job ran successfully for the initial setup commit.



If you want to see detailed logs of the job run you can click the ansible_lint job.



If you want to see detailed logs of the NAC Validate job that was ran, you can click the nac_validate job on the right hand side under Related jobs.



To see the detailed logs of the last yamllint job that was ran you can click the yamllint job on the right hand side under Related jobs.

Step 9 - Create a Merge Request (Also known as a Pull Request)

Now we need to create merge request to verify/test the configuration against the NDFC staging environment fabric.

1. Click Merge requests on the side menu
2. Then click the blue New merge request button located in the center of the page





3. Select stage as Source branch
4. Select main as Target branch
5. Then click Compare branches and continue





6. Leave all of the fields with the default settings, then click Create merge request





7. Click the blue circle with a half moon icon next to Merge request pipeline to navigate to pipeline page





8. The pipeline will start executing; if any pipeline fails, you can click the step to check the error message





9. While the pipeline is running, you can click on Job dependencies then click on the Show dependencies slider to see which jobs must be executed before the next jobs can be ran





10. The pipeline should complete and all jobs should have passed denoted by the green circle with a check icon