Automating AWS CDK Infrastructure Deployment with GitHub Actions

Introduction

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) are essential practices for modern software development. Automating the deployment of AWS CDK infrastructure using GitHub Actions can streamline your workflow, reduce manual errors, and ensure consistent deployments. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through setting up a CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions to automate AWS CDK deployments.

Why Automate CDK Deployments?

Automating CDK deployments offers several benefits:

• Consistency: Ensures that infrastructure is deployed in a consistent manner across different environments.
• Speed: Speeds up the deployment process by automating repetitive tasks.
• Reliability: Reduces the risk of human error, making deployments more reliable.
• Scalability: Easily scales deployment processes as your infrastructure grows.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have the following:

1. AWS Account: Sign up for an AWS account if you don’t have one.
2. GitHub Repository: Create a GitHub repository for your CDK project.
3. AWS CLI and CDK Installed: Install the AWS CLI and AWS CDK on your local machine.

Step 1: Set Up Your CDK Project

First, set up your AWS CDK project. Here’s a simple example of a CDK project that creates an S3 bucket:

Project Structure

my-cdk-project/
├── bin/
│   └── my-cdk-project.ts
├── lib/
│   └── my-cdk-project-stack.ts
├── test/
├── .gitignore
├── cdk.json
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

CDK Code

bin/my-cdk-project.ts

import * as cdk from 'aws-cdk-lib';
import { MyCdkProjectStack } from '../lib/my-cdk-project-stack';

const app = new cdk.App();
new MyCdkProjectStack(app, 'MyCdkProjectStack');

lib/my-cdk-project-stack.ts

import * as cdk from 'aws-cdk-lib';
import { Construct } from 'constructs';
import * as s3 from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-s3';

export class MyCdkProjectStack extends cdk.Stack {
  constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props?: cdk.StackProps) {
    super(scope, id, props);

    new s3.Bucket(this, 'MyBucket', {
      versioned: true,
      removalPolicy: cdk.RemovalPolicy.DESTROY,
    });
  }
}

Step 2: Commit Your Code to GitHub

Initialize a Git repository, add your CDK project files, and push them to your GitHub repository:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo.git
git push -u origin main

Step 3: Create GitHub Actions Workflow

Create a GitHub Actions workflow file to automate your CDK deployment. This file should be located in .github/workflows/ and can be named deploy.yml.

.github/workflows/deploy.yml

name: Deploy CDK

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - name: Checkout repository
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Set up Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v2
      with:
        node-version: '14'

    - name: Install dependencies
      run: npm install

    - name: Configure AWS credentials
      uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v1
      with:
        aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
        aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
        aws-region: us-east-1

    - name: Install AWS CDK
      run: npm install -g aws-cdk

    - name: Deploy CDK stack
      run: cdk deploy --require-approval never

Explanation

• Checkout repository: Uses the actions/checkout@v2 action to check out your repository.
• Set up Node.js: Uses the actions/setup-node@v2 action to set up Node.js.
• Install dependencies: Runs npm install to install your project’s dependencies.
• Configure AWS credentials: Uses the aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v1 action to configure AWS credentials.
• Install AWS CDK: Installs the AWS CDK globally.
• Deploy CDK stack: Runs cdk deploy to deploy your CDK stack without requiring manual approval.

Step 4: Add AWS Credentials to GitHub Secrets

For GitHub Actions to deploy your CDK stack, you need to add your AWS credentials to GitHub Secrets:

1. Go to your GitHub repository.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click on Secrets in the left sidebar.
4. Click on New repository secret.
5. Add AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY with your AWS credentials.

Step 5: Trigger Deployment

With everything set up, push a change to the main branch to trigger the GitHub Actions workflow. GitHub Actions will automatically deploy your CDK stack to AWS.

Example Command to Trigger Deployment

echo "// Making a minor change" >> README.md
git add README.md
git commit -m "Trigger deployment"
git push origin main

Conclusion

Automating AWS CDK deployments using GitHub Actions can significantly improve your development workflow. By following the steps outlined in this post, you can set up a CI/CD pipeline that ensures consistent, reliable, and fast deployments of your cloud infrastructure. Embrace automation and take your AWS CDK projects to the next level!