Serverless Scraping: Deploying with local bash and GitHub Actions

Serverless apps can be deployed in several ways, in this article, we gonna try deploying in the 2 easiest ways possible.

1. #Serverless App Setup

   • Signup at app.serverless.com as in the images below.

   

   • Create a new app in the Serverless dashboard:

   

   • Install Serverless cli using the below command ( If you did not have node or npm installed check out this tutorial ).

   npm install -g serverless
   
   # check with 
   serverless -v
   
   # output:
   # Framework Core: 3.28.1
   # Plugin: 6.2.3
   # SDK: 4.3.2

   • Select existing project and run the below command in the root of your project (checkout sample project here, I am using aws-node-typescript sample.):

   npm install 
   
   serverless --org=<username>

   • Login with the Serverless Dashboard account and authorize the serverless cli as below:

   

   • Continue to the next step on cli and Select AWS Access Role and Authorize your AWS account in your Serverless Dashboard.

   

   • Finally, you will see success on cli as below:

   

2. #Local Deployment

   After all setup, you can finally run the below command to deploy

   # to deploy default set env
   serverless deploy
   
   # to deploy <stage> env
   serverless deploy --stage <stage>
   
   # to deploy production env
   serverless deploy --stage production

   

   You can also remove and free all cloud resources from local by using the below command:

   serverless remove

   

3. #GitHub Action Deployment

   serverless/github-action Action wraps the Serverless Framework to enable common Serverless commands.

   • To deploy via serverless/github-action you need either the SERVERLESS_ACCESS_KEY from step 1, or you can directly deploy to AWS using AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY.

   #Getting SERVERLESS_ACCESS_KEY

   • To get the SERVERLESS_ACCESS_KEY go to Serverless Dashboard -> Org Settings -> Access Keys and add a new key and copy it to use as the GitHub Action access key. The direct URL would be something like: https://app.serverless.com/your-username/settings/accessKeys

     

   #Getting AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

   • Or you can directly deploy to AWS from GitHub Action using AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, to get these secrets go to AWS Console and create a user. The path is Security credentials (in upper-right corner menu) -> Users.

     

   • Then open created user, in my case serverless user and create new Access keys from Security Credentials tab.
   • Finally, add the applicable secret as environment variables from the GitHub secrets from GitHub Project -> Settings -> Secrets and variables -> Actions and add a New repository secret.

   • Create a .github/workflows/deploy-live.yml file same as the below details:

     https://github.com/openwishlist/preview/blob/main/.github/workflows/deploy-live.yml#L1-L31

                         
                             name: Serverless AWS Deploy
     
     on:
       push:
         branches:
           - main
     
     jobs:
       deploy:
         name: deploy
         runs-on: ubuntu-latest
         strategy:
           matrix:
             node-version: [16.x]
         steps:
         - uses: actions/checkout@v3
         - name: Use Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}
           uses: actions/setup-node@v3
           with:
             node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
         - run: npm ci
         - name: serverless deploy --stage live
           uses: serverless/github-action@v3.1
           with:
             args: deploy
           env:
             SERVERLESS_ACCESS_KEY: ${{ secrets.SERVERLESS_ACCESS_KEY }}
             PUPPETEER_SKIP_CHROMIUM_DOWNLOAD: true
             # or if using AWS credentials directly
             # AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
             # AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
                         
                     

   • The above workflow trigger when the code is merged into the main branch. You can change the trigger to run the action on pull request creation as below:

     on:
       pull_request:
         branches:
           - main

   • In the end, raise a PR on the main branch or push changes to the main branch and see your action deploying your app to AWS.

     

4. #Debugging

   • Error: unable to get local issuer certificate error on serverless --org=<username>. Disable Node.js SSL check temporarily by using the below command.

   export NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0

#References:

• https://www.serverless.com/framework/docs/providers/aws/guide/deploying
• https://github.com/serverless/github-action
• https://github.com/openwishlist/preview