Deploy to Google Cloud

Introduction

In this tutorial you will learn how to deploy a full-stack application to the cloud.

The 3 big cloud providers are AWS, Azure and Google Cloud (GCP). I had to choose one for this guide, so I went with Google Cloud. The way deployment is done differs some between cloud providers, but the broad concepts are transferable. I believe that learning how to set it up on one provider will make it easier to figure out on another.

The tutorial is split into two parts. They are indented to be completed in order.

Prerequisites

Google Cloud CLI

You need to set up the CLI tool for Google Cloud, if you haven't already.

Install the gcloud CLI

Then run this command in your terminal:

gcloud init

Firebase CLI

• Install the Firebase CLI

Then login with:

firebase login

Database

You will need PostgreSQL database instance that are accessible online.

You could create one for free over at aiven. Or, if you don't mind spending some of your credit, you could create a Cloud SQL instance on Google Cloud.

Note: for production use it is a good idea to use the same hosting provider.

You need a connection string to connect to the database. When you create your database, you will likely see the connection string it in URI format.

jdbc:username@password://hostname:5432/database?sslmode=require

Or:

jdbc:postgresql://hostname:5432/database?ssl=require&user=username&password=password

In .NET, a connection string is specified differently.

Server=hostname;DB=database;UID=username;PWD=password;PORT=5432;SslMode=require

Notice that you got a hostname, database, username and password in both cases.

You use this Connection-string Converter.

Getting started

1. Click on the green "Use this template" button at the top
2. Then select "Create a new repository"

3. Click "Create repository from template"
4. Type a repository name and click "Create Repository"
5. Make a local clone the repository following the instructions here
6. Open your local clone in WebStorm, Rider or another editor

Prepare the back-end

For the setup to work, you need to add this to the Program.cs file.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.HttpOverrides;

// Just below the line that says:
// var app = builder.Build();
// Add this:

app.UseForwardedHeaders(
    new ForwardedHeadersOptions
    {
        ForwardedHeaders = ForwardedHeaders.XForwardedFor | ForwardedHeaders.XForwardedProto
    }
);

This is needed to the back-end will respond correctly to forwarded requests.

Part 1 - Build container locally

For the back-end you will build a container image on you local machine. Then push the image to Artifact Registry and deploy to Cloud Run.

For the front-end you will build the front-end locally and then deploy to Firebase Hosting.

Follow instructions here

Part 2 - Continuous delivery

In this part you will do something similar, but the focus will automation. You will learn how to do deployment in a way that can be built into a CI/CD pipeline/workflow.

Automating the deployment process makes sure that deployments are done consistently. It also enables the deployment of new features quicker, provided there is good quality control in place.

Follow instructions here

Clean up

After you have completed both parts, it might be a good idea to clean up the resources that you've created during this guide.

Resources created are:

• Cloud Run service
• Cloud Build trigger
• Artifact Registry repository
• Firebase Project
• Secret Manage secret (AppDb)
• IAM service accounts
• Your clone of the repository

If you are not using the Google Cloud project on for anything else, then you could just remove the entire project.

You can find an overview of the resources you use at Google Cloud in the Asset Inventory

If you don't want to use Cloud Build again, consider removing Google Cloud Build from your Authorized GitHub Apps.

Closing thoughts

Manually deploying an application can be tedious and error-prone. It is therefore a good idea to automate the process.

It is also possible to use GitHub Actions for automated deployment instead of Cloud Build. See example.