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.