QuickStart: OpenShift, TypeScript and Postgres/PostGIS

The DevOps Quickstart is a fully functional set of pipeline workflows and a starter application stack intended to help Agile DevOps teams hit the ground running. Currently OpenShift is supported with plans for AWS (Amazon Web Services). Pipelines are run using GitHub Actions.

Features:

• Pull Request-based pipeline
• Sandboxed development deployments
• Gated production deployments
• Container publishing (ghcr.io) and importing (OpenShift)
• Security, vulnerability, infrastructure and container scan tools
• Automatic Dependabot dependency patching with Pull Requests
• Enforced code reviews and pipeline checks
• Templates and setup documentation
• Starter TypeScript application stack

Workflows

Pull Request Opened

Runs on pull request submission.

• Provides safe, sandboxed deployment environments
• Build action pushes to GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io)
• Build triggers select new builds vs reusing builds
• Deployment includes curl checks and optional penetration tests
• Other checks and updates as required

Pull Request Closed

Runs on pull request close or merge.

• Cleans up OpenShift objects/artifacts
• Merge promotes successful build images to TEST

Merge to Main

Runs on merge to main branch.

• Code scanning and reporting to GitHub Security overview
• Zero-downtime* TEST deployment
• Penetration tests on TEST deployment
• Zero-downtime* PROD deployment
• Labels successful deployment images as PROD

* excludes database changes

Unit Tests

Runs on pull request submission or merge to main.

• Unit tests (should include coverage)
• Optionally, report results to Sonarcloud

Starter Application

The starter stack includes a frontend, backend and postgres database. The frontend and backend are buld with NestJS. They currently do very little, but provide placeholders for more functional products. See subfolder for source, including Dockerfiles and OpenShift templates.

Features:

• TypeScript strong-typing for JavaScript
• NestJS frontend and backend
• Postgres or PostGIS database
• backup-container provided by BCDevOps

Postgres is default. Switch to PostGIS by copying the appropriate Dockerfile to ./database:

cp ./database/postgis/Dockerfile ./database

Test and develop locally with Docker Compose:

docker-compose up -d

Example APIs, UIs and Metabase/Oracle Templates

Templates for APIs, UIs and Metabase/Oracle can be used to kickstart or extend projects. Please visit our collaborators' NR Architecture Templates repository for more information.

Getting Started

Initial setup is intended to take four hours or less. This depends greatly on intended complexity, features selected/excluded and outside cooperation.

Prerequisites

The following are required:

• BC Government IDIR accounts for anyone submitting requests
• GitHub accounts for all participating team members
  • Sign Up is free
• Membership in the BCGov GitHub organization
  • Provide GitHub IDs to BCGov's Just Ask
• Project namespaces:
  • OpenShift - Register a New Project

GitHub Repository from Template

Create a new repository using this repository as a template.

• Select bcgov/nr-quickstart-typescript under Repository template
• Check Codecov | Code Coverage to grant access
• Jira cannot be unchecked (I try every time!)

GitHub Secrets, Variables and Environments

Variables and secrets are consumed by workflows. Environments provide their own sets of secrets and variables, overriding default sets.

Repository Secrets and Variables

Repository secrets and variables are available to all workflows, except pull requests triggered by Dependabot.

Secrets are hidden from logs and outputs, while variables are visible. Using secrets exclusively can make troubeshooting more difficult.

Click Settings > Secrets and Variables > Actions > Secrets > New repository secret

Click Settings > Secrets and Variables > Actions > Variables > New repository variable

Environment

Environments are groups of secrets and variables that can be gatekept. This includes limting access to certain users or requiring manual approval before a requesting workflow can run. Environment values override any default values.

Click Settings > Environments > New environment

Environments provide a number of features, including:

• Required reviewers
• Wait timer
• Deployment branches

Secret and Variable Values

Secrets

GITHUB_TOKEN

Default token. Replaced every workflow run, available to all workflows.

• Consume: {{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

OC_TOKEN

OpenShift token, different for every project/namespace. This guide assumes your OpenShift platform team has provisioned a pipeline account.

• Consume: {{ secrets.OC_TOKEN }}

Locate an OpenShift pipeline token:

1. Login to your OpenShift cluster, e.g.: Gold or Silver
2. Select your DEV namespace
3. Click Workloads > Secrets (under Workloads for Administrator view)
4. Select pipeline-token-... or a similarly privileged token
5. Under Data, copy token
6. Paste into the GitHub Secret OC_TOKEN (see above)

SONAR_TOKEN and Other Sonar Tokens

If SonarCloud is being used each application will have its own token. Single-application repositories typically use ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}, but monoreposities will have multiple, like ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN_BACKEND }} and ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN_FRONTEND }}.

BC Government employees can request SonarCloud projects from bcdevops/devops-requests by creating a SonarCloud request/issue. This template expects a monorepo, so please ask for that and provide component names (e.g. backend, frontend).

Variables

OC_SERVER

OpenShift server address.

• Consume: {{ vars.OC_SERVER }}
• Value: https://api.gold.devops.gov.bc.ca:6443 or https://api.silver.devops.gov.bc.ca:6443

OC_NAMESPACE

OpenShift project/namespace. Provided by your OpenShift platform team.

• Consume: {{ vars.OC_NAMESPACE }}
• Value: format abc123-dev | test | prod

Repository Configuration

Pull Request Handling

Squash merging is recommended for simplified history and ease of rollback. Cleaning up merged branches is recommended for your DevOps Specialist's fragile sanity.

Click Settings > General (selected automatically)

Pull Requests:

• [uncheck] Allow merge commits
• [check] Allow squash merging
  • Default to pull request title
• [uncheck] Allow rebase merging
• [check] Always suggest updating pull request branches
• [uncheck] Allow auto-merge
• [check] Automatically delete head branches

Packages

Packages are available from your repository (link on right). All should have visibility set to public for the workflows to run successfully.

E.g. https://github.com/bcgov/nr-quickstart-typescript/packages

Branch Protection

This is required to prevent direct pushes and merges to the default branch. These steps must be run after one full pull request pipeline has been run.

1. Select Settings (gear, top right) -> Branches (under Code and Automation)
2. Click Add Rule or edit an existing rule
3. Under Protect matching branches specify the following:
   • Branch name pattern: main
   • [check] Require a pull request before merging
     • [check] Require approvals (default = 1)
     • [check] Dismiss stale pull request approvals when new commits are pushed
     • [check] Require review from Code Owners
   • [check] Require status checks to pass before merging
     • [check] Require branches to be up to date before merging
     • Status checks that are required:
       • Select checks as appropriate, e.g. Build x, Deploy y
   • [check] Require conversation resolution before merging
   • [check] Include administrators (optional)

Adding Team Members

Don't forget to add your team members!

1. Select Settings (gear, top right) -> Collaborators and teams (under Access)
2. Click Add people or Add teams
3. Use the search box to find people or teams
4. Choose a role (read, triage, write, maintain, admin)
5. Click Add

Natural Resources Kickstarter

Members of the BC Government's Natural Resource minisistries are strongly recommended to follow the recommendations in their Kickstarter Guide. The linked document is generated from Confluence, so some links may be internal-only (sorry!).

Natural Resources Kickstarter Guide

Feedback

Please contribute your ideas! Issues and Pull Requests are appreciated.

Acknowledgements

This Action is provided courtesty of the Forestry Suite of Applications, part of the Government of British Columbia.