deploy-node-app

deploy-node-app

Deploy your node.js app to Kubernetes or Docker with a single command. No config required.

Supports any Kubernetes cluster, including the following:

• Google Kubernetes Engine
• Amazon EKS
• DigitalOcean Kubernetes
• KubeSail (completely free Kubernetes hosting)
• Custom Clusters

Instructions

Just run npx deploy-node-app in your node project.

Prerequisites

• Docker
• NodeJS / npm - NPM includes the npx utility needed to run this package without being installed
• kubectl - required for creating your deployment, and recommended for managing your deployment after created

What does this tool do?

After answering a few questions about your app, this tool can:

1. Create a Dockerfile (if needed)
2. Build a Docker image
3. Create a Kubernetes deployment file
4. Deploy your app on a Kubernetes cluster
   • Configure a free namespace on KubeSail (if desired)

Usage and examples

Usage: deploy-node-app [env]

Options:
  -V, --version              output the version number
  -n, --no-build             Don't build and push docker container
  -d, --no-deploy            Don't deploy to kubernetes
  -O, --overwrite            Overwrite local files
  -s, --skip [metamodule]   name of metamodule to skip
  -f, --format [type]        Output config format [k8s|compose] (default: "compose")
  -o, --output [filename]    File for config output. "-" will write to stdout. Default is docker-compose.yaml or deployment.yaml depending on format
  --generate-default-env     Generates default environment variables, like database passwords
  --generate-local-ports-env Generates environment variables for connecting to docker-compose services
  -h, --help                 output usage information

By default, deploy-node-app will write a few files to your directory, depending on the chosen output. You will be prompted if any files need to be updated or overwritten (use --overwrite to ignore prompts).

Simplest Usage

Simply run npx deploy-node-app in your Node.js repository. The tool will attempt to prompt you when it needs answers to questions, but should happily support almost all Node.js applications, including static front-end's created by create-react-app.

Local Development

deploy-node-app can deploy to either a Docker or Kubernetes installation locally:

Deploying to local docker-compose:

deploy-node-app local -f compose

• Writes a local Dockerfile
• Scans dependencies for metamodules, adding services automatically
• Writes a local docker-compose.yaml based on your needs
• Builds container image
• Pushes container image to chosen repository
• Calls docker-compose up ...

deploy-node-app local -f k8s

• Writes a local Dockerfile
• Scans dependencies for metamodules, adding services automatically
• Writes a local kustomization.yaml file based on your needs
• Builds container image
• Pushes container image to chosen repository
• Calls kubectl apply -k ...

Meta Modules

Metamodules are NPM modules with a bit of metadata which allows deploy-node-app to properly provision backend services. For example, installing @metamodules/postgres github installs both the Node.js pg driver and a Docker/Kubernetes powered Postgres instance! It also helps bind and auto-generate environment variables - for example, the Postgres metamodule automatically generates and saves a random database password on installation! We consider metamodules the next logical step for npm modules - they do not define just the drivers your app needs, but also the services that those drivers connect to.

Deploy-node-app will automatically write Kubernetes or Compose configuration based on installed metamodules. Try npm install @nodeapp/redis and then re-run deploy-node-app! A local redis container will be started for you with a pre-configured driver!

Read more about metamodules here

Create Node App

deploy-node-app aims to be able to deploy almost anything written in JavaScript, including back-ends, static-sites (like those created by create-react-app), and code-bases that do both. However, in order to get started even faster, we've also created create-node-app - which we consider a first-class citizen of DNA. create-node-app combines create-react-app and a solid Node.js backend boiler plate, along with everything required for deploy-node-app to just work. This tool is in beta, and we would greatly appreciate any feedback!

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deploy-node-app is maintained by

KubeSail - as easy as Heroku, as powerful as Kubernetes

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Contributing

If you feel that this tool can be improved in any way, feel free to open an issue or pull request! We'd absolutely love to add additional metamodules as well - so let us know what services you use with Node.js and we'll build you a metamodule!