Build and deploy node.js app automatically using CI/CD

Prerequisites: A Gitlab Runner must be available in the project or group. Your code must be in the repo on Gitlab instance or cloud.

This guide enables automation in the build and deployment process. Tested frameworks with this solution are: SvelteKit, Express.JS, Next.JS.

Use case

If a node.js application has regular feature updates or bug fixes, it can be tedious to deploy them manually.
Here you can find an example pipeline of how building and deploying the website using Docker containers could work.
However, if you only want to upload the files to your web server via (S)FTP, you can combine this guide and the following one: Upload files automatic... | LNC DOCS (lucanoahcaprez.ch)

Architecture

The building and deploying steps should be possible via a pipeline. First, a container is created via the Gitlab Runner, which builds the code. This container is then finalized and uploaded to a registry.

Once the Docker image has arrived in the registry, the building container is destroyed. The next step is then to use docker-compose and the corresponding image that we created previously on the production server.

Pipeline

The following code could be an example pipeline that first builds and containerizes the application and then deploys it using docker-compose. Save the following code as a ".gitlab-ci.yml" document in the main level of your GIT project.

Note that you need to specify the Docker hosts for the build process and for the production release. In addition, you must provide the following variables correctly in the project or in the group.

• $REGISTRY_URL
• $REGISTRY_USERNAME
• $REGISTRY_PASSWORD

More on Gitlabs CI/CD variables can be found here: Upload files automatic... | LNC DOCS (lucanoahcaprez.ch)

stages:
  - containerize
  - deploy

containerize:
  variables:
      DOCKER_HOST: tcp://<yourdockerbuildmachine>:2375
  image: docker
  stage: containerize
  services:
    - docker:dind
  script:
    - apk add --update nodejs npm
    - npm i
    - npm run build
    - docker build -t $REGISTRY_URL/<yourprojectname> .
    - echo $REGISTRY_PASSWORD | docker login https://$REGISTRY_URL -u $REGISTRY_USERNAME --password-stdin
    - docker push $REGISTRY_URL/<yourprojectname>
    - ls -la .
  only:
    - master
    - main
    
deploy:
  variables:
    DOCKER_HOST: tcp://<yourdockerhostingmachine>:2375
  image: docker
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - docker-compose up -d
  only:
    - master
    - main

Deployment configuration

Save these files in addition to the .gitlab-ci.yml configuration at the top level.

docker-compose.yml

When publishing, docker-compose uses a configuration file. This must be located in the top directory of the GIT repo. This configuration can be extended as required and only serves as a basis for publishing.

version: '3'
services:
  node:
    image: '<yourregistryurl>/<yourprojectname>:latest'
    container_name: <yourprefereddockername>
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - '<hostport>:3000'

Dockerfile

The last file that is required is the Dockerfile. This file tells the build process what the docker container should ultimately look like. Here is a generic Dockerfile that builds a node app and makes it available on port 3000.

FROM node:18-alpine

RUN mkdir -p /usr/app/
WORKDIR /usr/app/

COPY ./ ./

RUN npm install
RUN npm run build

EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "build/index.js"]