Deploy Dev Stack

A GitHub Action for deploying development environments to AWS using CloudFormation and Helm.

Overview

This action automates the deployment of development stacks by:

1. Validating the release name and Docker image
2. Creating AWS infrastructure via CloudFormation
3. Deploying the application to EKS using Helm

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
release-name	Release name (must start with dev-)	Yes	-
tag	Docker image tag to deploy	Yes	-
service-name	Service name (e.g., hello-k8s)	Yes	-
helm-release-path	Path to HelmRelease YAML for values	No	.k8s/non-prod/{service-name}-helm-release.yaml
namespace	Kubernetes namespace	No	bisnow-apps
eks-cluster	EKS cluster name	No	bisnow-non-prod-eks
ecr-registry	ECR registry URL	No	560285300220.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
aws-account	AWS account for role assumption	No	bisnow
cloudformation-template	Path to CloudFormation template	No	./aws-resources.yaml
helm-chart-version	Helm chart version	No	4.1.5
helm-set-values	Additional Helm --set values, one per line	No	-

Outputs

Output	Description
hostname	The deployed application hostname
release-name	Full Helm release name

Usage

- name: Deploy dev environment
  uses: bisnow/github-actions-deploy-dev-stack@v1
  with:
    release-name: dev-123
    tag: v1.2.3
    service-name: my-service
    # helm-release-path defaults to .k8s/non-prod/my-service-helm-release.yaml

Complete Example

name: Deploy to Dev

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      dev-number:
        description: 'Dev environment number'
        required: true

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Deploy dev stack
        uses: bisnow/github-actions-deploy-dev-stack@v1
        with:
          release-name: dev-${{ github.event.inputs.dev-number }}
          tag: ${{ github.sha }}
          service-name: hello-k8s
          # helm-release-path uses default: .k8s/non-prod/hello-k8s-helm-release.yaml
          namespace: bisnow-apps
          eks-cluster: bisnow-non-prod-eks

Using Custom Helm Values

The helm-set-values input allows you to override Helm chart values at deployment time. This is commonly used to configure environment-specific settings like SQS queue URLs:

- name: Deploy dev stack with custom SQS queues
  uses: bisnow/github-actions-deploy-dev-stack@main
  with:
    release-name: dev-1
    tag: rc-47
    service-name: hello-k8s
    helm-release-path: .k8s/non-prod/hello-k8s-helm-release.yaml
    helm-set-values: |
      workers.default.keda.queueURL=https://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/560285300220/dev-1-hello-k8s-default
      workers.default.args={artisan,queue:work,sqs,--sleep=3,--tries=3,--queue=dev-1-hello-k8s-default}

Each line in helm-set-values is passed as a separate --set flag to the Helm upgrade command.

What It Does

1. Validates Release Name: Ensures the release name starts with dev-
2. Validates Image: Checks that the specified Docker image exists in ECR
3. AWS Authentication: Assumes the appropriate AWS role
4. CloudFormation Deployment: Creates or updates AWS resources (IAM roles, etc.)
5. Kubectl Configuration: Configures kubectl to connect to the EKS cluster
6. ECR Login: Authenticates Helm with ECR registry
7. Helm Deployment: Deploys the application with extracted values and dynamic configuration

Generated Resources

The action creates the following resources:

• Hostname: {release-name}-{service-name}.non-prod.bisnow.cloud
• IAM Role: arn:aws:iam::560285300220:role/{release-name}-{service-name}
• CloudFormation Stack: {release-name}-{service-name}
• Helm Release: {release-name}-{service-name}

Notes

• Release names must start with dev- (e.g., dev-1, dev-23, dev-feature-branch)
• The action waits up to 10 minutes for Helm deployment to complete
• Values are extracted from the HelmRelease YAML and merged with runtime overrides
• Tags are applied to CloudFormation resources for tracking (cdci, Environment, Service)

Dependencies

This action uses the following actions:

• bisnow/github-actions-validate-release@v1.1
• bisnow/github-actions-assume-role-for-environment@v2.1
• aws-actions/aws-cloudformation-github-deploy@v1

Versioning

This action uses rolling major version tags. You can pin to:

• A specific version: @v3.1.0 (exact, never changes)
• A major version: @v3 (recommended, gets bug fixes and new features)

When a new semantic version tag (e.g., v3.2.0) is pushed, a GitHub Actions workflow automatically updates the corresponding major version tag (v3) to point to the new release.