GitHub Actions deploy nodejs to DigitalOcean Droplet

on-merge-deploy-to-do.md

Github deployment

Requirements:

• DigitalOcean Droplet (Ubuntu 20.04+) should be created
• Github repository

Prepare DO Droplet Server:

• ssh root@DROPLET_IP

• sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

• change PasswordAuthentication from no to yes

• sudo systemctl restart ssh

• adduser deployer

• usermod -aG sudo deployer

• exit

• ssh deployer@DROPLET_IP

• ssh-keygen

• ssh-keyscan -t rsa github.com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts

• cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub and copy the output

• go to https://github.com/settings/ssh/new and paste your id_rsa.pub value

• cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

• cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2

• chmod 700 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 640 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2

• go to and create a new secrets in repository settings page: https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY/settings/secrets/actions/new:

• secret name: HOST, secret value: YOUR_DROPLET_IP

• secret name: USERNAME, secret value: deployer

• copy value from cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa and paste it as a new secret name: KEY, secret value: PASTE_YOUR_VALUE_HERE

Github repository

Create a new file in your repository .github/workflows/on-main-push-deploy-do.yml and add following:

name: Deploy to DigitalOcean Droplet
'on':
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to DigitalOcean Droplet
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{secrets.HOST}}
          username: ${{secrets.USERNAME}}
          key: ${{secrets.KEY}}
          script: |
            export NVM_DIR=~/.nvm
            source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
            rm -rf test
            mkdir test
            cd test
            git clone git@github.com:username/projectname
            echo 'Deployment to digital ocean finished'

Commit and push to the remote repository and go check out the ACTIONS tab for the jobs.

YOUR_DROPLET_ID -> YOUR_DROPLET_IP?

YOUR_DROPLET_ID -> YOUR_DROPLET_IP?

Yes, it's Droplet IP. I've updated the gist

This was mostly perfect for me. I had a few small issues:

• ssh deployer@DROPLET_IP - this didn't work for me. I had to add my root public key to authorized_keys
• https://github.com/USERNAME/USERNAME/settings/secrets/actions/new should be https://github.com/USERNAME/REPONAME/settings/secrets/actions/new
• The RSA key didn't work when I tried to SSH with GH Actions. When I switched to an ed25519 key it worked perfectly. There's more info about why here: https://github.com/appleboy/ssh-action

Thanks for the gist!

This really helped.

https://github.com/USERNAME/USERNAME/settings/secrets/actions/new: should be https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY/settings/secrets/actions/new

Love the gist by the way, very helpful

I did not add the public key to https://github.com/settings/ssh/new and it works just fine

Thank. Helped me find a typo in my deploy script.

Thanks. Crack

Thanks