Tutorial - Automatic deploy from Gitlab CI to own virtual private server (VPS)

May 23, 2021

main Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pChVWAVY7RU

Generate SSH keys on VPS

login to VPS via SSH
cd ~/.ssh
key-gen (without a password)
cat id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
open private key file (e.g. cat id_rsa) and save it on your local machine.

Create an application that can be containerized with docker

for example with angular ng new deployment-test

create a Dockerfile in the root of the project for example like this

FROM node:14.15.1 as build
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN npm ci
RUN npm run build:frontend:fifa-presentation

FROM nginx:1.19.2-alpine as deploy
RUN apk --no-cache add bash=~5.0
COPY nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
WORKDIR /usr/share/nginx
COPY --from=build /app/dist/apps/fifa ./html

I personally use the following nginx.conf

worker_processes  1;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name  localhost;

        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        index  index.html index.htm;
        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;

        gzip on;
        gzip_min_length 1000;
        gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private auth;
        gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

        location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
        }
    }
}

setup Gitlab-repo
push your code to gitlab

Enable settings for Deployment in Gitlab

in the root-view of your repo, goto Settings -> Repository
expand Section Deploy tokens
insert gitlab-deploy-token as Name
check read_registry checkbox
goto Settings -> CI/CD
expand Variable section
you need to create two variables and one file
Press Add Variable, Key: MASTER_HOST, Value: the IP-Adress of your VPS, Press Add Variable
Press Add Variable, Key: MASTER_SSH_USER, Value: the user for whom you created the ssh key (e.g. root), Press Add Variable
Press Add Variable, Key: MASTER_SSH_KEY, Value: your private SSH key that you created and saved to your local machine in the first step
1. :warning: you must alter the type field to File, then press Add Variable

Create Gitlab CI file

go into the root folder of your project
create gitlab-ci.yml
we need to define two stages
- build (build the dockerfile)
- deploy (move it to the server and serve it there)

the gitlab-ci.yml-configuration that I prefer looks like this

stages:
- build
- deploy

build:
    before_script:
        - 'docker login -u "$CI_REGISTRY_USER" -p "$CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD" $CI_REGISTRY'
    image: 'docker:latest'
    script:
        - 'docker image build --tag registry.gitlab.com/<your-username>/<the-name-of-your-gitlab-repo>/<tag>:latest .'
        - 'docker push registry.gitlab.com/<your-username>/<the-name-of-your-gitlab-repo>/<tag>:latest'
    services:
        - 'docker:dind'
    stage: build

deploy:
    image: kroniak/ssh-client
    stage: deploy
    script:
        - chmod 400 $MASTER_SSH_KEY
        # Login to Gitlab Container registry
        - ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i $MASTER_SSH_KEY "${MASTER_SSH_USER}@${MASTER_HOST}" "docker login -u ${CI_DEPLOY_USER} -p ${CI_DEPLOY_PASSWORD} ${CI_REGISTRY}"
        - ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i $MASTER_SSH_KEY "${MASTER_SSH_USER}@${MASTER_HOST}"'cd <directory-on-your-server-that-contains-a-docker-compose-file> && docker pull registry.gitlab.com/<your-username>/<the-name-of-your-gitlab-repo>/<tag>:latest && docker-compose up -d'

Home

Generate SSH keys on VPS

Create an application that can be containerized with docker

Enable settings for Deployment in Gitlab

Create Gitlab CI file