Create CI/CD Pipeline for Node JS application on Gitlab

May 21, 2024 Guest Author

Nowadays, everyone desires automation processes. For example, when we develop our REST APIs in Node.js, if you need to deploy them on an AWS EC2 instance, you could do it manually. However, how often do you want to repeat this manual deployment? Instead of manual deployment, we can implement a CI/CD pipeline that automatically handles this each time you merge code into your deployment branch.

Create Sample Node JS application
Publish code on Gitlab
Write CI/CD pipeline
Setup Environment variables
Set variable on Gitlab
Conclusion
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Create Sample Node JS application

Here, we create one node js application which will return a json object.

// Import required modules  
const express = require('express');  

// Create an Express application  
const app = express();  
const port = 3000;  

// Define a route that returns a JSON object  
app.get('/api/sample', (req, res) => {  

// Define your sample JSON object  
const jsonObject = {  
message: 'This is a sample JSON object',  
data: {  
name: 'Aditya Patel',  
age: 30,  
email: 'aditya.patel@example.com'  
} }; 
 
// Send the JSON object as response  
res.json(jsonObject);  
});  

// Start the server  
app.listen(port, () => { 
 console.log(`Server is listening at http://localhost:${port}`);  
});

Publish code on Gitlab

Create account on Gitlab

Commands to publish or push your code.

git init
git add remote origin http://gitlab.com/test-node-js.git
git add .
git commit –m “Initial server created in Node JS.”
git push origin

Write CI/CD pipeline

stages: 

- test 

- deploy 

 

test: 

stage: test 

before_script: 

- apt-get update -qy && apt-get install -y rsync && apt-get install -y openssh-client 

- mkdir ~/.ssh 

- echo "$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY" > ~/.ssh/id_rsa 

- chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa 

- ssh-keyscan -H $AWS_PUBLIC_IP >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts  

script: 

- rsync -avz --delete --exclude='.git/' . $AWS_USER_NAME@$AWS_PUBLIC_IP:/var/www/temp 

- ssh $AWS_USER_NAME@$AWS_PUBLIC_IP 'cd /var/www/temp && npm install' 

 

deploy: 

stage: deploy 

needs: 

- test 

before_script: 

- apt-get update -qy && apt-get install -y rsync && apt-get install -y openssh-client 

- mkdir ~/.ssh 

- echo "$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY" > ~/.ssh/id_rsa 

- chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa 

- ssh-keyscan -H $AWS_PUBLIC_IP >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts  

script: 

- rsync -avz --delete --exclude='.git/' . $AWS_USER_NAME@$AWS_PUBLIC_IP:/var/www/dev 

- ssh $AWS_USER_NAME@$AWS_PUBLIC_IP 'cd /var/www/dev && pm2 stop app && npm install && pm2 start app'

Note: Here, I am using docker runner in Gitlab to run the jobs.

Setup Environment variables

$AWS_USER_NAME
$AWS_PUBLIC_IP
$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

Examples:

$AWS_USER_NAME: aditya
$AWS_PUBLIC_IP: 13.256.55.256
$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY (This is .pem file which will you get from AWS Dashboard.)

Example value of .pem file is:

Set variable on Gitlab

Go to your repository then navigate to Settings > CI/CD > Variables

Set Variable On Gitlab

Congratulations 🥂 🥳 you’ve successfully automated your deployment process.

Conclusion

By employing this process, we reduce our reliance on human resources and avoid wasting time on deployments, allowing us to focus on other tasks. Also, it promotes team organization and provides a more effective approach for project managers to align things accordingly.

So, are you looking to enhance productivity and team collaboration? Then partner with a leading mobile app development company like The One Technologies to streamline your processes and achieve project alignment efficiently!

Author Bio

Aditya Patel is an Associate Software Engineer at The One Technologies, specializing in web and mobile app development. He embarked on his IT journey in 2022 during his college years, diving into web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Passionate about leveraging technology for societal good, Aditya is particularly drawn to projects benefiting farmers that streamline agricultural processes and improve livelihoods. Looking ahead, he aspires to establish his own IT company, committed to user-centric design and fostering a positive societal impact.