Setting Up CI/CD for EC2 Deployment GitHub Actions for Node.js

Setting Up CI/CD for EC2 Deployment

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) automates the process of building, testing, and deploying your Node.js app to EC2. This guide uses GitHub Actions.

What Is CI/CD?

• Continuous Integration (CI) Automatically build and test on every push
• Continuous Deployment (CD) Automatically deploy to production after tests pass

Benefits

1. Consistency Same deployment process every time
2. Speed Deploy in minutes, not hours
3. Safety Tests run before deployment
4. Rollback Easy to revert to a previous version
5. No manual errors Everything is automated

Step 1: Create the GitHub Actions Workflow

Create a file at .github/workflows/deploy.yml in your repository:

name: Deploy to EC2

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Run tests
        run: npm test

      - name: Deploy to EC2
        uses: appleboy/[email protected]
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ubuntu
          key: ${{ secrets.EC2_SSH_KEY }}
          script: |
            cd /home/ubuntu/devtinder-backend
            git pull origin main
            npm install
            pm2 restart devtinder-api
            pm2 save

Step 2: Add GitHub Secrets

Go to your GitHub repository → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret:

1. EC2_HOST Your EC2 public IP or domain (e.g., 12.34.56.78)
2. EC2_SSH_KEY The contents of your .pem key file (open it in a text editor and copy everything)

To get the SSH key content:

cat your-key.pem
# Copy everything including BEGIN and END lines

Step 3: How the Workflow Works

1. Trigger On every push to the main branch
2. Checkout Gets the latest code
3. Setup Node.js Installs Node.js 20 on the GitHub runner
4. Install dependencies Runs npm install
5. Run tests Runs npm test (add tests to your project)
6. Deploy SSHs into EC2, pulls the latest code, installs dependencies, and restarts PM2

Step 4: Advanced Workflow with Build Step

If you have a build step (e.g., TypeScript compilation):

      - name: Build
        run: npm run build

      - name: Deploy to EC2
        uses: appleboy/[email protected]
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ubuntu
          key: ${{ secrets.EC2_SSH_KEY }}
          script: |
            cd /home/ubuntu/devtinder-backend
            git pull origin main
            npm install
            npm run build
            pm2 restart devtinder-api
            pm2 save

Step 5: Add Environment Variables to EC2

If your app needs new environment variables, SSH into EC2 and update .env manually:

ssh -i your-key.pem ubuntu@your-ip
cd devtinder-backend
nano .env
# Add new variables
pm2 restart devtinder-api

For automated env updates, use GitHub Secrets and write them during deployment:

      - name: Deploy to EC2
        uses: appleboy/[email protected]
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ubuntu
          key: ${{ secrets.EC2_SSH_KEY }}
          envs: MONGODB_URI, JWT_SECRET
          script: |
            cd /home/ubuntu/devtinder-backend
            git pull origin main
            npm install
            echo "MONGODB_URI=$MONGODB_URI" > .env
            echo "JWT_SECRET=$JWT_SECRET" >> .env
            pm2 restart devtinder-api

Step 6: Test the Pipeline

1. Make a change to your code
2. Commit and push to main:

   git add .
   git commit -m "feat: update something"
   git push origin main

3. Go to GitHub → Actions tab
4. Watch the workflow run
5. Verify the deployment on your EC2 instance

Step 7: Add Slack Notifications (Optional)

      - name: Notify Slack
        if: always()
        uses: 8398a7/action-slack@v3
        with:
          status: ${{ job.status }}
          channel: '#deployments'
        env:
          SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK }}

The Takeaway

CI/CD with GitHub Actions automates deployment to EC2. Create a workflow that triggers on push to main, runs tests, SSHs into EC2, pulls the latest code, installs dependencies, and restarts PM2. Store EC2 host and SSH key as GitHub Secrets. This ensures consistent, fast, and safe deployments with no manual SSH needed.