"spin deploy": Allow deployments without CI/CD

[jaydrogers]

👉 Describe the problem

• The current version of Spin requires using GitHub Actions or GitLab CI for deployment, adding more knowledge requirements to get started
• Many users getting started are very confused on how to run deployments

👥 Problem evidence & reach

Some users have expressed interest in removing this requirement: https://discord.com/channels/910287105714954251/1195096786776359064

🥰 Describe the "impact" on users?

• New users can deploy a server on their own very easily

🏆 How to solve this problem

Solution Overview

We can reduce the knowledge requirements by allowing users to run spin provision (to configure and prepare their server for Docker), then spin deploy to locally deploy their image to their servers.

This proposed method eliminates a few headaches:

• Users don't need to learn GitHub Actions or the deep inner workings on how a Docker Registry works
• This configuration is a lot easier to debug since its working with systems directly in the user's control

Note

This method is intended to be used for very simple set ups. For most environments, it will be recommended to use GitHub Actions or GitLab CI (or comparable) to deploy applications

Deployment Process

1. Initialize Project (create files)
2. Configure (ensure Spin configs are set)
3. Build (ensure tag is set correctly, ensure env exists within application)
4. Transfer (use docker image save: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/docker-tip-97-save-and-load-docker-images-from-a-zip-file)
5. Run docker stack deploy to initialize the transfer

💯 How do we validate the problem is solved?

• Users can run spin provision (to configure their server) then spin deploy to deploy their stack

[jaydrogers]

Hey @danmatthews,

You had a really good question that I wanted to bring out on this thread:

To answer your question:
If the user uses GitHub Actions to deploy, it does two major things:

1. Deployments can run without any user interaction
2. GitHub Packages is running as a registry, and GitHub Actions uses it in a way that reduces a lot of headache with the user configuring their own Docker Registry.

Main Points:

• 👉 If the user chooses to run spin deploy, it will require a Docker registry to be running that both the workstation and the server has access to
• 👉 I assume users will want a private registry, which even adds more complexity (that's why my original thought was to have the user just use GitHub Actions)

[danmatthews]

Thanks @jaydrogers will keep an 👁️ on this issue.

[jaydrogers]

@danmatthews: I discovered a way on how I might be able to do this without GitHub Actions or any other CI/CD system.

@simonj: I know you had a hell of a time getting GitHub Actions to work. The method proposed above would eliminate the need for learning GitHub Actions and dealing with all the limitations you were running into before.

I am interested in hearing your thoughts if you guys have any on my proposal above.

[jaydrogers]

🥳 Big update

This has been developed and is available with Spin 2.0+

https://serversideup.net/open-source/spin/docs/command-reference/deploy