A port of the Gitlab AutoDevOps Workflow to GitHub Actions

This repository contains reusable workflows that try to achieve the same result as the

• build
• custom test and
• deploy

stages of the Gitlab AutoDevOps workflow.

Usage

To use this you add a starter.yaml to .github/workflows in your GitHub repository with something like this:

name: workflows starter
# env: is empty, see setup-env and the outputs there
on:
  push: {}
  workflow_dispatch: {}
jobs:
  setup_workflow_env:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
# Optionally specify the environment that should be used on this branch
    # environment: review/dev
    outputs:
# It seems you have to specify the environment twice (passed to reusable workflow)
# as there is no way yet to get the active environment
      # environment: review/dev
# or see the switch on ref_name script below
      environment: ${{ steps.get_environment_from_git_ref.outputs.environment }}
      environment_short: ${{ steps.get_environment_from_git_ref.outputs.environment_short }}
      image_name: your-image-name
# Please note that the next line only works correctly with repositories that don't contain
# upper case characters. If you have such a repo name please replace ${{ github.repository }}
# with org/repo-name (all lower case).
# E. g. dariah-eric/OpenAtlas-Discovery -> dariah-eric/openatlas-discovery
      registry_root: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}/
      default_port: "5000"
# Usually you don't deal with all commits since the repository was created.
# Increase if you e.g don't find a tag you want to display in the application
      fetch-depth: 10
      submodules: "true"
#      herokuish_base_image: ghcr.io/acdh-oeaw/herokuish-for-cypress/main:latest-22
      APP_NAME: your-app-name
# This together with the branch name is also used as the namespace to deploy to
      APP_ROOT: "/"     
      # SERVICE_ID: "99999" # Better use GtiHub environment variables for this
      # PUBLIC_URL: "https://some-stuff.acdh-ch-dev.oeaw.ac.at" # Use GitHub environment variables for a stable custom public url
      # POSTGRES_ENABLED: "false" # needs to be set to true to enable a postgres db installed next to the deployed app
# You should not need to have to change anything below this line
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    steps:
      - name: Get environment from git ref
        id: get_environment_from_git_ref
        run: |
          echo "Running on branch ${{ github.ref_name }}"
          if [ "${{ github.ref }}" = "refs/heads/main" ]; then
            echo "environment=production"
            echo "environment=production" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
            echo "environment_short=prod" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          else
            echo "environment=review/${{ github.ref_name }}"
            echo "environment=review/${{ github.ref_name }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
            echo "environment_short=$(echo -n ${{ github.ref_name }} | sed 's/feat\(ure\)\{0,1\}[_/]//' | tr '_' '-' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | cut -c -63 )" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          fi
  generate_workflow_vars:
    needs: [setup_workflow_env]
    environment:
      name: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.environment }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Generate PUBLIC_URL if not set
        id: generate_public_url
        run: |
          kube_ingress_base_domain="${{ vars.KUBE_INGRESS_BASE_DOMAIN }}"
          public_url="${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.PUBLIC_URL || vars.PUBLIC_URL }}"
          if [ "${public_url}x" == 'x' ]
          then public_url=https://${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.environment_short }}.${kube_ingress_base_domain}
          fi
          echo "public_url=$public_url" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
    outputs:     
      PUBLIC_URL: ${{ steps.generate_public_url.outputs.public_url }}
  _1:
    needs: [setup_workflow_env, generate_workflow_vars]
    uses:  dariah-eric/gl-autodevops-minimal-port/.github/workflows/build-cnb-and-push-to-registry.yaml@main
    secrets: inherit
# if you run this outside of of an org that provides KUBE_CONFIG etc as a secret, you need to specify every secret you want to pass by name
    with:
      environment: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.environment }}
      registry_root: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.registry_root }}
      image_name: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.image_name }}
      source_image: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.source_image }}
      default_port: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.default_port }}
      PUBLIC_URL: ${{ needs.generate_workflow_vars.outputs.PUBLIC_URL }}
      fetch-depth: ${{ fromJson(needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.fetch-depth) }}
      submodules: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.submodules }}
  _2:
    needs: [setup_workflow_env, generate_workflow_vars]
    uses:  dariah-eric/gl-autodevops-minimal-port/.github/workflows/herokuish-tests-db-url.yaml@main
    secrets: inherit
# if you run this outside of dariah-eric yo uneed to specify every secret you want to pass by name
    with:
      environment: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.environment}}
      registry_root: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.registry_root }}
      image_name: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.image_name }}
      default_port: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.default_port }}
      fetch-depth: ${{ fromJson(needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.fetch-depth) }}
      herokuish_base_image: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.herokuish_base_image }}
      POSTGRES_ENABLED: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.POSTGRES_ENABLED }}
      PUBLIC_URL: ${{ needs.generate_workflow_vars.outputs.PUBLIC_URL }}
      submodules: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.submodules }}
  _3:
    needs: [setup_workflow_env, generate_workflow_vars, _1, _2]
    uses: dariah-eric/gl-autodevops-minimal-port/.github/workflows/deploy.yml@main
    secrets: inherit
# if you run this outside of dariah-eric yo uneed to specify every secret you want to pass by name
#      KUBE_CONFIG: ${{ secrets.KUBE_CONFIG }}
#      KUBE_INGRESS_BASE_DOMAIN: ${{ secrets.KUBE_INGRESS_BASE_DOMAIN }}
#      POSTGRES_USER: ${{ secrets.POSTGRES_USER }}
#      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.POSTGRES_PASSWORD }}
#      POSTGRES_DB: ${{ secrets.POSTGRES_DB }}
#      K8S_SECRET_A_VAR_NAME: ${{  }}
    with:
      environment: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.environment}}
      fetch-depth: ${{ fromJson(needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.fetch-depth) }}
      DOCKER_TAG: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.registry_root }}${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.image_name }}
      APP_NAME: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.APP_NAME }}-${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.environment_short }}
      APP_ROOT: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.APP_ROOT }}
      SERVICE_ID: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.SERVICE_ID }}
      PUBLIC_URL: ${{ needs.generate_workflow_vars.outputs.PUBLIC_URL }}
      POSTGRES_ENABLED: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.POSTGRES_ENABLED == 'true'}}
      default_port: "${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.default_port}}"
      submodules: ${{ needs.setup_workflow_env.outputs.submodules }}

You can pass many parameters variables like in gitlab or use GitHub's special read protected write only secrets. You can also use environments for having different parameters. For example KUBE_NAMESPACE or HELM_UPGRADE_EXTRA_ARGS can be set as project or environment variables. Deployment specific variables like KUBE_INGRESS_BASE_DOMAIN need to be set on the project level. Note: At least one variable and one secret need to be set on the project level else deploy.yaml will end with an error.

Variables and Secrets

GitHub has two ways of storing data with a repository but not in the gitted code:

• Secrets are meant for data that is to be kept secret all as much as possible
  Examples would be:
  • Database passwords
  • API secrets
  • Maybe API Keys/Access IDs
  • Access token
  • Even encoded files such as a Kubernetes configuration
• Variables are a newer edition, that do provide a means to store some additional data that can be publicly available
  Examples would be:
  • the public URL of a deployment
  • an ID of a deployment
  • the K8s namespace the deployment uses
  • API Keys/Access IDs

Also the same mechanism as in gl is implemented to pass Secrets and Variables to the build process and the running deployment (as a K8s Secret).

Variables and secrets can be set on three levels in GitHub:

1. Organization level (Org)
2. Repository level (Repo)
3. Environment level (Env)

A Variable or Secret in a higher level overrides a Variable or Secret with the same name in a lower level.

Note: GitHub Environment Variables are not automaticall Workflow environment variables (vars context vs. env context)

Name	Required	Type	Level	Description
KUBE_CONFIG	✅	Secret	Org	base64 encoded K8s config file. Usually set at the Org level and shared by all (public) repositories.
C2_KUBE_CONFIG	✅	Secret	Org	If you deploy using the workflow for the second cluster the C2_ variant is used
KUBE_INGRESS_BASE_DOMAIN	✅	Variable	Org/Repo/Env	The DNS suffix used when generating URLs for the service
C2_KUBE_INGRESS_BASE_DOMAIN	✅	Variable	Org/Repo/Env	If you deploy using the workflow for the second cluster the C2_ variant is used
KUBE_NAMESPACE	✅	Variable	Repo/Env	The K8s namespace the deployment should be installed to
PUBLIC_URL	✅	Variable	Env	The URI that should be configured for access to the service
SERVICE_ID	✅	Variable	Env	A K8s label ID is attached to the workload/deployment with this value (usually a number)
POSTGRES_ENABLED		Variable	Repo/Env	Boolean that determines if a PostgreSQL database is installed with the deployment but using a separate helm chart. Default is false.
POSTGRES_VERSION		Variable	Repo/Env	Version (tag) of PostgreSQL to deploy. Default is 9.6.16 (for historical gl reasons)
POSTGRES_HOST		Variable	Repo/Env	Hostname of an external PostgreSQL service
POSTGRES_USER		Variable	Env	Username for the PostgreSQL database. Will be configured for the new PostgreSQL deployment if POSTGRES_ENABLED is true
POSTGRES_PASSWORD		Secret	Env	Password for the PostgreSQL database. Will be configured for the new PostgreSQL deployment if POSTGRES_ENABLED is true
POSTGRES_DB		Variable	Env	Name of the PostgreSQL database to use. Will be created in the new PostgreSQL deployment if POSTGRES_ENABLED is true
DATABASE_URL		Secret	Env	Credentials for a database passed to the running workload in a URL form (db_type://username:password@db_host/db_name). This is automatically genereated for PostgreSQL database installed with the deployment. Store as a Secret as it usually contains the password.
HELM_UPGRADE_EXTRA_ARGS		Variable	Repo/Env	Used to set a few values from the Helm charts value.yaml using --set command line parameters to helm. If you have to set more or nested values better use a auto-deploy-values.yaml file in the git repository. Store as a Secret if you --set sensitive information (not recommended)
K8S_SECRET_<ENV_VAR_NAME>		Variable/Secret	Repo/Env	Passes ENV_VAR_NAME to the build process and to the running workload using a K8s secret
LC_K8S_SECRET_<ENV_VAR_NAME>		Variable/Secret	Repo/Env	Passes env_var_name to the build process and to the running workload using a K8s secret. GitHub does not allow Variables or Secrets to contain lower case letters (yet)

Note: Some of the settings stored in variables above are also recognized as Secrets for legacy reasons. There is however no point in using them like this. Also some of the variables can be set in the suggested starter.yaml. This is only a useful place to set such variables if you don't work with environments.

Example DATABASE_URLs:

• postgres://deployment:abcd098ABCD:5432@dbserver.example.org/deployment
• postgres://$POSTGRES_USER:$POSTGRES_PASSWORD@$POSTGRES_HOST:5432/$POSTGRES_DB
• mariadb://deployment:abcd098ABCD:3306@dbserver.example.org/deployment
• mysql://deployment:abcd098ABCD:3306@dbserver.example.org/deployment

For the POSTGRES_ variables see also the gl docs.

Customizing the deployment

The auto-deploy-app helm chart from gl we use can be tweaked in many ways with a values.yaml file.

If you store your settings as .github/auto-deploy-values.yaml or .gitlab/auto-deploy-values.yaml in the root of your repoitory it will be picked up by the deployment script and used to customize the auto-deploy-app chart.

If you need to further customize deployment (like deploying an extra service like solr with your application) you can store a bundled helm chart in a directory chart in your repository and that will be used instead of the generic auto-deploy-app chart from this repository.

See also the gl documentation.

TODO

Nothing right now

Source of the auto-deploy-app

The auto-deploy-app helm chart is part of the Gitlab cluster-integration auto-deploy-image repository

This helm chart should be updated onco in a while.

Note: At least one Secret and one Variable is required for the workflows in this repository to work. Usually at least a K8s config as secret and a KUBE_INGRESS_BASE_DOMAIN are set so this limitation is rarely encountered.