Deploying to Google Cloud Run with GitLab CI/CD: A Step-by-Step Guide

Google Cloud Run is a powerful platform that allows developers to run stateless HTTP containers without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. With GitLab CI/CD, you can automate your build, test, and deployment process to Cloud Run, making it a perfect match for modern application development.

In this article, I will walk you through the process of setting up a GitLab CI/CD pipeline to deploy your code to Google Cloud Run.

NOTE: If you want to use Github Actions instead of Gitlab CI/CD, see my other article here.

Let’s continue….

Prerequisites

Before we get started, make sure that you have the following:

• A Google Cloud account
• A GitLab account with a repository containing your code
• The Google Cloud SDK installed on your local machine
• Docker installed on your local machine

Step 1: Create a Google Cloud Run Service

First, we need to create a Google Cloud Run service that will host our application. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open the Google Cloud Console and navigate to the Cloud Run page.
2. Click the “+ Create Service” button.
3. Choose your preferred region and select the “Deploy one revision from an existing container image” option.
4. Enter a name for your service and select the container image you want to deploy.
5. Click “Create” to create your Cloud Run service.

Step 2: Authenticate the Google Cloud SDK

To deploy your code to Cloud Run, you need to authenticate the Google Cloud SDK on your local machine. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open your terminal and run the following command:

gcloud auth login

2. Follow the prompts to log in to your Google Cloud account.

Step 3: Create a GitLab CI/CD Pipeline

Now that we have our Cloud Run service set up and authenticated the Google Cloud SDK, we can create a GitLab CI/CD pipeline to automate our deployment process.

1. In your GitLab repository, create a new file called .gitlab-ci.yml.
2. Add the following code to the file:

image: docker:latest  

services:  
  - docker:dind  

before\_script:  
  - docker login -u $CI\_REGISTRY\_USER -p $CI\_REGISTRY\_PASSWORD $CI\_REGISTRY  

deploy:  
  image: google/cloud-sdk:latest  
  script:  
    - gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=google-creds.json  
    - gcloud config set project $PROJECT\_ID  
    - gcloud builds submit --tag gcr.io/$PROJECT\_ID/$CI\_PROJECT\_NAME:$CI\_COMMIT\_SHA  
    - gcloud run deploy --image=gcr.io/$PROJECT\_ID/$CI\_PROJECT\_NAME:$CI\_COMMIT\_SHA --platform=managed --region=$CLOUD\_RUN\_REGION --allow-unauthenticated --update-env-vars=VAR1=value1,VAR2=value2 --quiet  
  only:  
    - master

3. Replace $PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project ID and $CLOUD_RUN_REGION with your preferred region.

4. Add any environment variables you need to the --update-env-vars flag.

5. Commit and push your changes to your GitLab repository.

Step 4: Configure GitLab CI/CD Variables

Finally, we need to configure some variables in GitLab CI/CD to authenticate our Google Cloud account and registry. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In your GitLab repository, navigate to “Settings” > “CI/CD” > “Variables”.
2. Add the following variables:

• GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS - the contents of your Google Cloud service account key file.
• PROJECT_ID - your Google Cloud project ID.
• CI_REGISTRY_USER - your GitLab username.
• CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD - your GitLab personal access token.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You now have a fully automated GitLab CI/CD pipeline that deploys your code to Google Cloud Run. With this setup, you can focus on writing code and let GitLab and Google Cloud handle the rest.

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