NextJS Auto Deployment

This guide will help you set up a Next.js project to automatically deploy to an EC2 instance using GitHub Actions.

Quick Start

Use the following if you already have a project deployed on EC2. Otherwise, follow the detailed guide.

PM2 Setup

// EC2
sudo apt update
npm install pm2 -g

sudo ln -s "$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(nvm version)/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/node"
sudo ln -s "$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(nvm version)/bin/npm" "/usr/local/bin/npm"
sudo ln -s "$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(nvm version)/bin/pm2" "/usr/local/bin/pm2"

// project directory
pm2 start npm -n deploy -- start

for custom port pm2 start npm -n deploy -- start -- -p 3001

Adding SSH Key to GitHub

1. Generate a SSH key in EC2 (skip if already have one):

ssh-keygen -m PEM

2. Move the public key to authorized_keys:

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

3. Copy the private key content:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa
// Copy the content manually

4. In GitHub, navigate to Repository > Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions and create the following three secrets:

   • EC2_HOST: Public IP of your EC2 instance

   • EC2_USERNAME: Username to SSH into EC2

   • EC2_PRIVATE_KEY: Paste the private key content generated earlier.

Action Setup

Add the following code to .github/workflows/deploy.yml in your project:

name: Deploy App to EC2

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

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

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Build
        run: npm run build

      - name: Rename .next to .next2
        run: mv .next .next2

      - name: Send .next2 to EC2
        uses: appleboy/scp-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.EC2_USERNAME }}
          key: ${{ secrets.EC2_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          source: .next2
          target: opub-deploy
      - name: Update with new Build
        uses: appleboy/[email protected]
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.EC2_USERNAME }}
          key: ${{ secrets.EC2_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          script: rm -rf opub-deploy/.next; mv opub-deploy/.next2 opub-deploy/.next; pm2 restart opub-deploy

Replace all instances opub-deploy with your project name in EC2.

Detailed Guide

GitHub Repository Setup

Create a GitHub repository, for example: opub-deploy.

Local Development Setup

1. Generate a Next.js project:

npx create-next-app@latest opub-deploy
cd opub-deploy
npm install

2. Add the following code to .github/workflows/deploy.yml in your project:

name: Deploy Next.js to EC2

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

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

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Build
        run: npm run build

      - name: Rename .next to .next2
        run: mv .next .next2

      - name: Send .next2 to EC2
        uses: appleboy/scp-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.EC2_USERNAME }}
          key: ${{ secrets.EC2_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          source: .next2
          target: opub-deploy
      - name: Update with new Build
        uses: appleboy/[email protected]
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.EC2_USERNAME }}
          key: ${{ secrets.EC2_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          script: rm -rf opub-deploy/.next; mv opub-deploy/.next2 opub-deploy/.next; pm2 restart deploy

Replace all instances opub-deploy with your project name in EC2.

3. Initialize a Git repository:

git init
git add .
git branch -M main
git remote add origin [email protected]:CivicDataLab/opub-deploy.git
git commit -m "first commit"
git push -u origin main

Server Setup

EC2 Setup

1. Create an EC2 instance with Ubuntu 20.04.
2. Create a new key pair and download the .pem file.
3. Create a new security group with the following inbound rules:
   1. SSH (22) from anywhere
   2. HTTP (80) from anywhere
   3. HTTPS (443) from anywhere
   4. Custom TCP (3000) from anywhere
4. Connect to the EC2 instance using SSH:

ssh -i "path/to/key.pem" username@publicIP

Add packages

Install Node.js and npm using NVM:

sudo apt update

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"

Install PM2 globally:

npm install pm2 -g

Create symbolic links

sudo ln -s "$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(nvm version)/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/node"
sudo ln -s "$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(nvm version)/bin/npm" "/usr/local/bin/npm"
sudo ln -s "$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(nvm version)/bin/pm2" "/usr/local/bin/pm2"

Add Repository

Clone your GitHub repository and navigate to its directory:

git clone https://github.com/CivicDataLab/opub-deploy.git
cd opub-deploy

Install the dependencies and start the server:

npm install
npm run build
pm2 start npm -n deploy -- start

for custom port pm2 start npm -n deploy -- start -- -p 3001

Adding SSH Key to GitHub

1. Generate a SSH key:

ssh-keygen -m PEM

2. Move the public key to authorized_keys:

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

3. Copy the private key content:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa
// Copy the content manually

4. In GitHub, navigate to Repository > Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions

5. Create the following three secrets to allow GitHub to SSH into EC2:

   • EC2_HOST: Public IP of your EC2 instance

   • EC2_USERNAME: Username to SSH into EC2

   • EC2_PRIVATE_KEY: Paste the private key content generated earlier.

Conclusion

Now, every time you push to the main branch, the GitHub Actions workflow will build the project and deploy it to the EC2 instance without any manual intervention and downtime.