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Deploy Cloud Run Using Gitlab CI

In this article, I would guide through deploying serverless containerized applications to Cloud Run, using GitLab CI and Cloud Build.

Cloud Run is a managed compute platform that enables you to run stateless serverless containers that automatically scales.

Cloud Build is a service that executes your builds on Google Cloud Platform infrastructure.

GitLab CI service is a part of GitLab that build and test the software whenever developer pushes code to application repo.

Prerequisites​

  • Create a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project, or use an existing one.
  • Create a GitLab Repo.
  • Enable the Cloud Run API.
  • Enable the Cloud Build API.
  • Clone the sample codes or setup your own codes with a Dockerfile.

Creating a Service Account for Google Cloud Build​

  • On Google Cloud, navigate through Cloud Build > Settings.
  • Under Service account permissions, ensure that Cloud Run & Service Accounts are ENABLED , this allows you deploy to Cloud Run.

  • Since I have given Cloud Build sufficient permissions, I can create a Cloud Build service account on IAM & Admin > Service Accounts. I’ll create a service account ([email protected]) and give it the Cloud Build Service Agent. On the created service account page, click on Add Key > JSON.

Configure GitLab CI to use Service Accounts​

On the GitLab repo, navigate through Setting > CI/CD > Variables.

As seen above, I created a variable for GCP_PROJECT_ID whose value is the Google Cloud Project ID and GCP_SERVICE_KEY whose value is the contents of the JSON service account earlier created.

Continuous Deployment to Cloud Run​

With just some few steps left, my application would be continuously deployed to Cloud Run directly from our GitLab repo.

My application also has a Dockerfile which is configured to run on port 8080 (the default port for Cloud Run).

Finally, I created a cloudbuild.yaml file which contains the commands to build & deploy by Cloud Build and .gitlab-ci.yml file which triggers the deployment processes when code is pushed.

Here’s a preview of my Cloud Build CI file:

steps:
    # build the container image
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
    args: [ 'build', '-t', 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/demo-app', '.' ]
    # push the container image
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
    args: [ 'push', 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/demo-app']
    # deploy to Cloud Run
  - name: "gcr.io/cloud-builders/gcloud"
    args: ['run', 'deploy', 'erp-ui', '--image', 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/demo-app', '--region', 'europe-west4', '--platform', 'managed', '--allow-unauthenticated']

Here’s a preview of my GitLab CI file:

image: docker:latest

stages:
  - deploy

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  image: google/cloud-sdk
  services:
    - docker:dind
  script:
    - echo $GCP_SERVICE_KEY > gcloud-service-key.json # Google Cloud service accounts
    - gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file gcloud-service-key.json
    - gcloud config set project $GCP_PROJECT_ID
    - gcloud builds submit . --config=cloudbuild.yaml