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New to the Devop world so my terminology may be limited or incorrect. I have a self-hosted gitlab server. I had a "hello world" container project that spun up a "hello world" golang app. I was able to get the CI/CD pipeline set up that would build the container, push it to the self hosted gitlab container registry, and deploy it to a running Linode server. My next step is to docker compose the golang container with nginx and certbot. If I ssh into the server and clone the repository, it runs. Now I am trying to deploy the compose to a Linode server. That is where I am currently at the posting of the question(s).

(1) One way would be to use ssh in the pipeline to "git pull" and build/up the compose file just like I did running locally on the remote docker host.

(2) After trying to do some research on the subject, I ran across something about "docker context". It looks like I could point my runner running the pipeline to point the remote docker host, and then the build/up command would be working on that server. I started a "hello world" pipeline to test that idea, but now I "think" I am fighting a CI/CD issue. Just to test the syntax of the command, I copied/pasted it into the command line on the remote server, I know it needs to be ran on the runner it was just an easy place to test the syntax, it does not throw an error. This is a protected branch and is therefore feels like it needs to mask part of the command. Is that my problem?

So my docker context command is

testcontext-job:
  stage: testcontext
  image: docker:latest
  script:
    - docker context ls
    - export DOCKER_HOST
    - docker context create remote ‐‐docker host=ssh://[email protected]
    - docker context ls

Output of the job.

I tried to narrow down the questions, hoping to give context to better questions. If option 1 is an accepted practice, I will not waste more time chasing the "docker context" rabbit.

Maybe I need to look at a 3rd option. :-)

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  • 1
    Welcome to DevOps! Can you try using another context name instead of "remote"?? Something like "my-remote"?? Commented Aug 8, 2024 at 7:16

1 Answer 1

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Approach 1: SSH and Remote Docker Commands

This approach involves SSHing into your Linode server and manually running git pull and docker-compose up commands. This is a straightforward method but can be cumbersome to automate and manage.

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - ssh [email protected] "cd /path/to/your/project && git pull && docker-compose up -d"

Approach 2: Docker Context

Using Docker Context allows you to manage Docker endpoints easily and execute commands on remote Docker hosts without manually SSHing into them

testcontext-job:
  stage: testcontext
  image: docker:latest
  script:
    - docker context create remote --docker "host=ssh://[email protected]"
    - docker context use remote
    - docker context ls

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  image: docker:latest
  script:
    - docker context use remote
    - docker-compose up -d

Be careful

Don't forget the quotations in your docker create context comment.

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  • What about SSH Key to allow gitlab CI to connect to your ssh client (context)? Commented Jan 25 at 5:18

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