Knowledge Base

Today, software development processes are based on fast and reliable deployment cycles. Manual deployment processes are time-consuming, error-prone, and not scalable. This is where GitHub Actions comes into play. GitHub Actions is a powerful continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) tool that allows you to create automated workflows directly in your GitHub repository. This article will delve into the automated deployment of a Node.js API using GitHub Actions. Our goal is to ensure that the reader has both theoretical knowledge and can easily perform practical applications.

1. Introduction: The Importance of Automated Deployment and the Role of GitHub Actions

In modern software development processes, deployment, the stage after the code is written, is a critical step where the application meets the users. Traditional manual deployment methods take up a significant amount of developers' time and carry the risk of human error. Automated deployment, on the other hand, provides a solution to these problems, allowing development and operations teams (DevOps) to work more efficiently. GitHub Actions is one of the popular tools that provides this automation.

1.1. Benefits of Automated Deployment

• Speed: New features and fixes are delivered to users faster.
• Reliability: The risk of human error is reduced, and deployment processes become more consistent.
• Efficiency: Developers can focus on writing code instead of dealing with deployment operations.
• Scalability: Increasing deployment needs can be met without manual intervention.
• Ease of Rollback: Automated deployment systems offer the ability to easily roll back a faulty deployment.

1.2. What is GitHub Actions?

GitHub Actions is a CI/CD platform offered by GitHub. Through workflows defined via YAML files, you can automatically perform a series of tasks. These tasks include running tests, code analysis, creating Docker images, and deployment. GitHub Actions provides a wide range of platform and tool support, adapting to different project needs.

1.3. Why GitHub Actions?

• Free Tier: Offers free usage for open-source projects.
• Ease of Integration: Works directly integrated with the GitHub repository.
• Wide Community Support: There are many ready-made actions and workflow templates available.
• Flexibility: Compatible with different programming languages and platforms.
• Scalability: Easily scalable according to increasing project needs.

2. Required Tools and Preparations

To automatically deploy a Node.js API with GitHub Actions, specific tools and preparations are needed. This section will detail the necessary prerequisites and setup steps.

2.1. Accounts and Access Rights

• GitHub Account: You must have a GitHub account.
• Deployment Environment Account: You must have an account for the environment you will deploy to (e.g., AWS, Azure, Heroku).
• API Keys and Credentials: You need to securely store the API keys and credentials required to access the deployment environment (GitHub Secrets).

2.2. Node.js and npm/yarn

• Node.js: Node.js, which is necessary for your API to run, must be installed.
• npm or yarn: You need to use one of the npm or yarn package managers to manage dependencies.

2.3. Project Structure

Having a specific structure for your project will simplify the deployment process. The recommended project structure is as follows:

my-node-api/
├── .github/workflows/  # GitHub Actions workflows
│   └── deploy.yml
├── src/               # API source codes
│   ├── index.js
│   └── ...
├── package.json       # Project dependencies and scripts
├── .gitignore          # Files not to be tracked by Git
└── README.md

2.4. GitHub Secrets

It is not safe to store API keys, database passwords, and other sensitive information directly in the GitHub repository. Therefore, you need to store this information as GitHub Secrets. GitHub Secrets are encrypted environments and can only be accessed by GitHub Actions workflows.

To set up GitHub Secrets:

1. Go to the "Settings" tab in your GitHub repository.
2. Find and click the "Secrets" section.
3. Create a new secret by clicking the "New repository secret" button.
4. Enter the secret name and value.

3. Creating a GitHub Actions Workflow

GitHub Actions workflows are defined by YAML files located under the `.github/workflows` directory. In this section, we will create an example workflow required to automatically deploy a Node.js API.

3.1. Creating a YAML File

Create a file named `deploy.yml` under the `.github/workflows` directory. This file will define the deployment workflow.

3.2. Basic Structure of the Workflow

The basic structure of the YAML file is as follows:

name: Node.js API Deployment

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main  # Which branch to trigger on push

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '16.x'

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Run Tests
        run: npm test

      - name: Deploy
        run: |
          # Deployment commands will go here
          echo "Deployment Successful!"

3.3. Detailed Description of the Workflow

• name: Specifies the name of the workflow.
• on: Specifies the events that will trigger the workflow. In this example, `push` events to the `main` branch will trigger it.
• jobs: Defines the jobs to be run in the workflow. In this example, there is only one job named `deploy`.
• runs-on: Specifies the virtual environment in which the job will run. In this example, `ubuntu-latest` is used.
• steps: Defines the steps to be executed within the job. Each step can be an action or a command.
• uses: Used to use a ready-made action. For example, the `actions/checkout@v3` action checks out the code from the repository.
• run: Used to run shell commands. For example, the `npm install` command installs dependencies.

3.4. Deployment Step

The deployment step contains the commands required to deploy your application to the target environment. These commands will vary depending on the environment you are deploying to. For example, you can use the Heroku CLI to deploy to Heroku.

- name: Deploy
  run: |
    heroku login
    heroku git:remote -a my-heroku-app
    git push heroku main

In this example, the `heroku login` command logs in to Heroku, the `heroku git:remote` command adds a remote to the Heroku application, and the `git push heroku main` command sends the code to Heroku.

4. Workflow Examples Based on Deployment Environment

It is possible to deploy to different deployment environments with GitHub Actions. In this section, workflow examples will be presented according to popular deployment environments.

4.1. Deployment to Heroku

Heroku is a cloud-based application platform. To deploy to Heroku, you can follow these steps:

1. Create a Heroku account.
2. Install the Heroku CLI.
3. Create an application on Heroku.
4. Add a secret named `HEROKU_API_KEY` to GitHub Secrets. This secret should contain your Heroku API key.
5. Use the following workflow:

name: Deploy to Heroku

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '16.x'

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Run Tests
        run: npm test

      - name: Deploy to Heroku
        run: |
          git remote add heroku https://git.heroku.com/your-heroku-app-name.git
          git push heroku main:main -f

4.2. Deploy to AWS EC2

AWS EC2 is a virtual server service offered by Amazon Web Services. To deploy to EC2, you can follow these steps:

1. Create an AWS account.
2. Create a virtual server on EC2.
3. Create the SSH keys required to connect to the EC2 server via SSH.
4. Add secrets named `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`, `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`, and `SSH_PRIVATE_KEY` to GitHub Secrets.
5. Use the following workflow:

name: Deploy to AWS EC2

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '16.x'

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Run Tests
        run: npm test

      - name: Deploy to AWS EC2
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.EC2_USERNAME }}
          key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          script: |
            cd /path/to/your/app
            git pull origin main
            npm install
            pm2 restart your-app-name

4.3. Deploy with Docker

Docker is a platform that allows you to package and distribute applications in containers. To deploy with Docker, you can follow these steps:

1. Create a Docker account.
2. Create a Dockerfile for your project.
3. Add secrets named `DOCKER_USERNAME` and `DOCKER_PASSWORD` to GitHub Secrets.
4. Use the following workflow:

name: Deployment with Docker

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Docker
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2

      - name: Login to Docker
        uses: docker/login-action@v2
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}

      - name: Build and Push Docker Image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v3
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: your-docker-username/your-app-name:latest

5. Test Automation Integration

An important part of the automated deployment process is test automation. Testing the code before deployment ensures early detection of errors and improves the quality of the application.

5.1. Defining Test Scripts

You need to define test scripts in your project's `package.json` file. For example:

{
  "name": "my-node-api",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "jest"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.17.1"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "jest": "^27.0.0"
  }
}

In this example, the `test` script uses the `jest` test framework. When the `npm test` command is run, Jest tests will be executed.

5.2. Adding a Test Step to the GitHub Actions Workflow

To add a test step to the GitHub Actions workflow, you can run the `npm test` command using the `run` command. For example:

- name: Run Tests
  run: npm test

If the tests fail, the workflow will stop and the deployment will not take place. This prevents faulty code from being deployed.

5.3. Publishing Test Results

To publish test results in the GitHub Actions interface, you can use third-party actions. For example, the `dorny/test-reporter` action allows you to transfer results from different test frameworks to GitHub Actions.

6. Rollback Strategies

Although automated deployment processes minimize errors, sometimes a faulty deployment can occur. In this case, it is important to perform a rollback operation quickly.

6.1. Why is Rollback Necessary?

• Faulty Code: There may be unexpected errors in the deployed code.
• Incompatibility: The new version may be incompatible with existing systems.
• Performance Issues: The new version may cause performance issues.

6.2. Rollback Strategies

• Rollback to the Last Successful Deployment: The simplest method is to revert to the previous successful deployment. This is often a feature offered by the deployment environment.
• Code Revert: You can create a new deployment by reverting the faulty commit.
• Blue/Green Deployment: Using two different environments (blue and green), you can test the new version in the green environment and, if there are no problems, direct traffic to the green environment. In case of an error, you can redirect traffic back to the blue environment.

6.3. Rollback Automation with GitHub Actions

It is possible to automate rollback processes with GitHub Actions. For example, you can create a workflow that automatically reverts to the previous successful deployment when an error is detected.

7. Security Considerations

Ensuring security in automated deployment processes is critical. Sensitive information (API keys, passwords, etc.) must be stored securely and transferred to the deployment environment securely.

7.1. Importance of GitHub Secrets

As mentioned earlier, it is not safe to store sensitive information directly in the GitHub repository. Therefore, you should store this information as GitHub Secrets. GitHub Secrets are encrypted environments and can only be accessed by GitHub Actions workflows.

7.2. Access Control

You need to carefully manage the people who have access to the GitHub repository. You should only grant access to the necessary people. You also need to ensure the security of the accounts that have access to the deployment environment.

7.3. Code Review

Reviewing the changes made to the code before deployment ensures that security vulnerabilities and errors are detected early. Code review is a critical step in terms of security.

7.4. Dependency Security

You should regularly check the security of the dependencies you use in your project. By updating dependencies with security vulnerabilities, you can increase the security of your application.

8. Monitoring & Alerting

Monitoring the performance and health of the application after deployment is important to detect potential problems early. Monitoring and alerting systems detect unexpected behavior of the application and allow you to intervene quickly.

8.1. Monitoring Metrics

The basic metrics that should be monitored are:

• CPU Usage: Monitoring the server's CPU usage helps you identify performance issues.
• Memory Usage: Monitoring the server's memory usage helps you identify memory leaks and insufficient memory issues.
• Disk Usage: Monitoring the server's disk usage helps you identify disk space issues.
• Network Traffic: Monitoring the server's network traffic helps you identify abnormal traffic spikes and security threats.
• Error Rate: Monitoring the application's error rate helps you track the frequency and severity of errors.
• Response Time: Monitoring the application's response time helps you identify performance issues.

8.2. Alarm Systems

Alarm systems automatically send alerts when certain metrics exceed a specific threshold. These alerts can be sent via different channels such as email, SMS, or Slack.

8.3. Monitoring Tools

Popular monitoring tools include:

• Prometheus: An open-source monitoring and alerting system.
• Grafana: An open-source tool used to visualize data.
• New Relic: A cloud-based performance monitoring platform.
• Datadog: A cloud-based monitoring and security platform.

9. Real-Life Examples and Case Studies

This section will present real-life examples and case studies on automated deployment of Node.js API with GitHub Actions.

9.1. E-commerce Platform

An e-commerce platform uses GitHub Actions to ensure that new features and fixes are quickly delivered to users. Thanks to GitHub Actions, when developers push their code to the `main` branch, tests are automatically run and the code is deployed to Heroku. This significantly speeds up the deployment process and reduces the risk of deploying faulty code.

9.2. SaaS Application

A SaaS application uses GitHub Actions to deploy to different environments for different customers. Thanks to GitHub Actions, a separate workflow is defined for each customer, and deployment specific to each customer's environment is ensured. This has made the deployment process more flexible and scalable.

10. Frequently Asked Questions

• 10.1. Is GitHub Actions free?
• GitHub Actions is free for open source projects. For private projects, there is a certain usage limit. If you exceed this limit, you will have to pay.
• 10.2. Which platforms does GitHub Actions support?
• GitHub Actions supports Linux, Windows, and macOS platforms.
• 10.3. Which programming languages does GitHub Actions support?
• GitHub Actions supports any programming language. You can use any programming language and tools you want in your workflows.
• 10.4. What can I do with GitHub Actions?
• With GitHub Actions, you can automate many processes such as running tests, code analysis, creating Docker images, deployment, and infrastructure management.
• 10.5. How do I learn GitHub Actions?
• To learn GitHub Actions, you can review GitHub's official documentation, online training, and sample projects.

11. Conclusion and Summary

GitHub Actions is a powerful and flexible tool for the automated deployment of Node.js APIs. In this article, we examined in detail what GitHub Actions is, how to use it, and how to configure it for different deployment environments. We discussed the benefits of automated deployment, test automation integration, rollback strategies, security considerations, and monitoring/alarm systems. I hope this article has been a useful resource for developers who want to automatically deploy Node.js APIs with GitHub Actions.

Important Notes:

• Regularly update your GitHub Actions workflows and scan for security vulnerabilities.
• Manage GitHub Secrets carefully and keep your sensitive information safe.
• Regularly monitor the performance and health of your application and configure alarm systems.
• By doing code reviews, ensure that errors and security vulnerabilities are detected early.