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Deployment

Last updated: 27 Nov 2020

Deploy Terraform

We use Terraform for configuring GOV.UK infrastructure in AWS.

One-time setup

1. Check that you have sufficient access

Which changes you can deploy depends on the level of access you have to our AWS environments.

  • govuk-users can't deploy anything.
  • *-powerusers can deploy anything except IAM.
  • *-administrators can deploy anything.

You can find which class of user you are infra-security project in govuk-aws-data.

2. Install gds-cli

gds-cli is the preferred way of obtaining AWS credentials.

As of version v2.15.0 of gds-cli, you can use it to deploy terraform via Jenkins.

3. Get GitHub Credentials

You need to obtain your GitHub credentials by creating a read-only GitHub personal access token. This GitHub personal access token should be created with the read:org scope only.

Take care to store and handle the token securely. If you accidentally share your token, revoke it immediately and follow the instructions for reporting a potential data security incident.

Deploying Terraform

Always plan first, check that the output is what you expect, then apply.

There are 2 ways of deploying terraform:

  1. gds-cli as of version v2.15.0
  2. deploy.rb script in govuk-aws repository

1. gds-cli

To deploy terraform using gds-cli, you should run:

GITHUB_USERNAME=<github_username> GITHUB_TOKEN=<github_token> \
gds govuk terraform -e <environment> -p <project> -s <stack> -a <action> -r <aws_role>

Where:

  1. <github_username> is the name of your GitHub account
  2. <github_token> is the GitHub token that you created as described above
  3. <environment> is the govuk environment you want to deploy to. E.g. integration,staging
  4. <project> is the terraform project that you want to deploy. E.g. app-gatling
  5. <stack> is the govuk stack you want to deploy to. E.g. blue (which is usually for app- projects), govuk (which is usually for infra- projects)
  6. <action> is the terraform action you want to perform. E.g. plan, apply
  7. <aws_role> is the govuk aws role you want to use for terraforming. E.g. govuk-integration-admin

After you deploy, you can visit the deploy Jenkins job to see the job running or queued.

2. deploy.rb script in govuk-aws

The Ruby script tools/deploy.rb in the govuk-aws repository takes care of requesting temporary AWS credentials with an assumed role and queuing the deployment Jenkins job.

You can use it by running:

GITHUB_USERNAME=<your GitHub username> \
  GITHUB_TOKEN=<your GitHub personal access token> \
  gds aws <your role e.g. govuk-integration-admin> -- \
  ~/govuk/govuk-aws/tools/deploy.rb blue app-backend integration plan

You will need to change the arguments to the deploy.rb script. E.g.

  • app-backend should be the name of the project you want to deploy
  • blue is for app- projects, govuk is for infra- projects usually
  • integration is the starting point, then staging, etc.

Once the script has run, visit the deploy Jenkins job to see the job running or queued.

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