Deployment with Deployer
Overview
Automized deployments shouldn't be a pain and have several advantages, like lower failure rates and reproducible builds. Also, they increase overall productivity because actual testing can get more attention.
This article explains the fundamental steps to deploy Shopware 6 to a certain infrastructure, focussing on continuous deployment using GitLab CI and Deployer (a deployment tool written in PHP).
Video
Continuous Deployment: Automizing Shopware 6 deployments (Developer Tutorial) - YouTube
Prerequisites
Please make sure you already have a working Shopware 6 instance running and that your repository is based on the Shopware production template because this article relies on some scripts to exist in your repository.
Preparations before the first deployment
Deployer has a default directory structure in which it organizes releases, shared files across releases (e.g., certificates, configuration, or media files) and the symlink to the current release.
The structure looks like this:
├── .dep
├── current -> releases/1
├── releases
│ └── 1
└── shared
├── .env
└── config
└── ...
Suppose you haven't used such a structure yet, it is recommended to move the current document root contents to a different location because you will have to copy some existing files into the shared
folder after your first deployment with Deployer.
For more information, refer to Migrating existing instance to Deployer structure.
Webserver configuration
Ensure to set the document root of the domain to /var/www/shopware/current/public
, assuming /var/www/shopware
is the path you are uploading Shopware to, but this can, of course, differ. The most important part of this path is current
, which is the symlink to the currently active release.
Because current
is a symlink, please also make sure your web server is configured to resolve/follow symlinks correctly.
GitLab runner requirements
GitLab pipelines are processed by runners. Once a pipeline job is created, GitLab notifies a registered runner, and the job will then be processed by that runner.
The GitLab runner must have the following packages installed:
- PHP (see supported versions in the System Requirements)
- NodeJS
- Node Package Manager (npm)
- OpenSSH
This example uses the docker image shopware/development:latest
. This image meets all requirements.
Deployment steps
1. Cloning the repository
The very first step in the pipeline is cloning the repository into the runner's workspace. GitLab does that automatically for every started job.
2. Installing dependencies
All the dependencies of your project must be installed. Shopware 6 uses Composer for managing PHP dependencies and Node Package Manager (NPM) for frontend related dependencies.
Initially, only the Composer dependencies need to be installed by running the following commands:
$ composer install --no-interaction --optimize-autoloader --no-suggest
$ composer install -d vendor/shopware/recovery --no-interaction --optimize-autoloader --no-suggest
This step is defined in the Install dependencies
job in the .gitlab-ci.yml
:
Install dependencies:
stage: build
image: shopware/development:latest
script:
- composer install --no-interaction --optimize-autoloader --no-suggest
- composer install -d vendor/shopware/recovery --no-interaction --optimize-autoloader --no-suggest
cache:
key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
paths:
- vendor/
policy: push
3. Building assets
INFO
From this step on, all other steps are handled by Deployer defined in the deploy.php
.
To compile and copy assets, the Shopware production template provides a script, which is located under bin/build-js.sh
. This script installs the NPM dependencies and builds assets needed for the Administration, Storefront, and plugins.
It is important to know that you need a database connection to execute this script because before compiling the assets, the console command bin/console bundle:dump
is executed. This command creates the file var/plugins.json
, which contains information about the asset paths of all activated plugins.
If you don't want to build the assets on the target server (for performance reasons), you could execute the bundle:command
on the target server and download the generated plugins.json
into your runner's workspace before executing bin/build-js.sh
.
This step is defined to be executed on the target server in the sw:build
job in the deploy.php
and will be executed before transferring the files to the target server:
task('sw:build', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && bash bin/build-js.sh');
});
4. Transferring the workspace
For transferring the files to the target server, please configure at least one host in the deploy.php
:
host('SSH-HOSTNAME')
->stage('production')
->user('SSH-USER')
->set('deploy_path', '/var/www/shopware') // This is the path, where deployer will create its directory structure
->set('http_user', 'www-data') // Not needed, if the `user` is the same user, the webserver is running with
->set('writable_mode', 'chmod');
This step is defined in the deploy:update_code
job in the deploy.php
:
task('deploy:update_code', static function () {
upload('.', '{{release_path}}');
});
5. Applying migrations
The migrations need to be applied on the target server.
DANGER
If you are deploying to a cluster with multiple web servers, please make sure to run the migrations only on one of the servers.
This step is defined in the sw:database:migrate
job in the deploy.php
, which is part of the sw:deploy
task group:
task('sw:database:migrate', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && bin/console database:migrate --all');
});
6. Warming up caches
If you have the HTTP cache enabled in your .env
file, it is recommended to warm up the caches so that the first user, who visits the recently deployed version, doesn't have to wait until the page is rendered for the first time.
This step is defined in the sw:cache:warmup
job in the deploy.php
:
task('sw:cache:warmup', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && bin/console cache:warmup');
run('cd {{release_path}} && bin/console http:cache:warm:up');
});
7. Creating the install.lock
file
Before putting the new version live, ensure to create an empty file install.lock
in the root of the build workspace. Otherwise, Shopware will redirect every request to the Shopware installer because it assumes that Shopware isn't installed yet.
This task is defined in the sw:touch_install_lock
job in the deploy.php
, which is part of the sw:deploy
task group:
task('sw:touch_install_lock', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && touch install.lock');
});
8. Switching the document root
After all the steps are done, Deployer will switch the symlinks destination to the new release.
This task is defined in the deploy:symlink
default job in the deploy.php
.
Deployer output
This is the output of dep deploy production
:
$ dep deploy production
✔ Executing task deploy:prepare
✔ Executing task deploy:lock
✔ Executing task deploy:release
✔ Executing task deploy:update_code
✔ Executing task deploy:shared
✔ Executing task sw:touch_install_lock
✔ Executing task sw:build
✔ Executing task sw:database:migrate
✔ Executing task sw:theme:compile
✔ Executing task sw:cache:clear
✔ Executing task deploy:writable
✔ Executing task deploy:clear_paths
✔ Executing task sw:cache:warmup
✔ Executing task deploy:symlink
✔ Executing task deploy:unlock
✔ Executing task cleanup
Successfully deployed!
Migrating existing instance to Deployer structure
After the very first deployment with Deployer, you have to copy some files and directories from your existing Shopware instance into the directory structure, that was created by Deployer.
Let's agree on the following two paths for the examples:
- You have copied your existing Shopware instance to
/var/www/shopware_backup
. - You have set the
deploy_path
in thedeploy.php
to/var/www/shopware
.
Now, look at the shared_files
and shared_dirs
configurations in the deploy.php
. Simply copy all the paths into /var/www/shopware/shared
. For the configuration of the deploy.php
the commands would be the following:
cp /var/www/shopware_backup/.env /var/www/shopware/shared/
cp -R /var/www/shopware_backup/custom/plugins /var/www/shopware/shared/custom
cp -R /var/www/shopware_backup/config/jwt /var/www/shopware/shared/config
cp -R /var/www/shopware_backup/config/packages /var/www/shopware/shared/config
cp -R /var/www/shopware_backup/files /var/www/shopware/shared
cp -R /var/www/shopware_backup/var/log /var/www/shopware/shared/var
cp -R /var/www/shopware_backup/public/media /var/www/shopware/shared/public
cp -R /var/www/shopware_backup/public/thumbnail /var/www/shopware/shared/public
cp -R /var/www/shopware_backup/public/sitemap /var/www/shopware/shared/public
Sources
Have a look at the following files. All steps are provided with helpful comments.
.gitlab-ci.yml
# This file defines the GitLab CI/CD pipeline.
# For more information, please visit the GitLab CI/CD docs: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/README.html
variables:
GIT_STRATEGY: clone
# Stages define _when_ to run the jobs. For example, stages that run tests after stages that compile the code.
# If _all_ jobs in a stage succeed, the pipeline moves on to the next stage.
# If _any_ job in a stage fails, the next stage is not (usually) executed and the pipeline ends early.
stages:
- build
- deploy
# This variable holds all commands that are needed to be able to connect to the target server via SSH.
# For this you need to define two variables in the GitLab CI/CD variables:
# - SSH_PRIVATE_KEY: The contents of the SSH private key file. The public key must be authorized on the target server.
# - DEPLOYMENT_SERVER: Just the hostname of the target server (e.g. shopware.com, don't include schema or paths)
.configureSSHAgent: &configureSSHAgent |-
eval $(ssh-agent -s)
echo "$SSH_PRIVATE_KEY" | tr -d '\r' | ssh-add -
mkdir -p ~/.ssh
ssh-keyscan $DEPLOYMENT_SERVER >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
Install dependencies:
stage: build
image: shopware/development:latest
script:
- composer install --no-interaction --optimize-autoloader --no-suggest
- composer install -d vendor/shopware/recovery --no-interaction --optimize-autoloader --no-suggest
# This tells the GitLab Runner to upload (`policy: push`) the `vendor` directory, which contains all Composer
# dependencies to GitLab after the job has finished so that it can be re-used in other jobs.
cache:
key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
paths:
- vendor/
policy: push
Deploy:
stage: deploy
image: shopware/development:latest
only:
- master
before_script:
# First, we need to execute all commands that are defined in the `configureSSHAgent` variable.
- *configureSSHAgent
# To use Deployer for our deployment, it needs to be installed globally via Composer.
- composer global require deployer/deployer
script:
# This command starts the workflow that is defined in the `deploy` task in the `deploy.php`.
# `production` is the stage that was defined in the `host` in the `deploy.php`
- dep deploy production
# This tells the GitLab Runner to download (`policy: pull`) the `vendor` directory, which contains all Composer
# dependencies into the runner's workspace before the job starts.
# The cache entry was created by the `Install dependencies` job.
cache:
key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
paths:
- vendor/
policy: pull
deploy.php
<?php
namespace Deployer;
require_once 'recipe/common.php';
set('application', 'Shopware 6');
set('allow_anonymous_stats', false);
set('default_timeout', 3600); // Increase the `default_timeout`, if needed when tasks take longer than the limit.
// For more information, please visit the Deployer docs: https://deployer.org/docs/configuration.html
host('SSH-HOSTNAME')
->stage('production')
->user('SSH-USER')
->set('deploy_path', '/var/www/shopware')
->set('http_user', 'www-data') // Not needed, if the `user` is the same user, the webserver is running with
->set('writable_mode', 'chmod');
// For more information, please visit the Deployer docs: https://deployer.org/docs/configuration.html#shared_files
set('shared_files', [
'.env',
]);
// For more information, please visit the Deployer docs: https://deployer.org/docs/configuration.html#shared_dirs
set('shared_dirs', [
'custom/plugins',
'config/jwt',
'files',
'var/log',
'public/media',
'public/thumbnail',
'public/sitemap',
]);
// For more information, please visit the Deployer docs: https://deployer.org/docs/configuration.html#writable_dirs
set('writable_dirs', [
'custom/plugins',
'config/jwt',
'files',
'public/bundles',
'public/css',
'public/fonts',
'public/js',
'public/media',
'public/sitemap',
'public/theme',
'public/thumbnail',
'var',
]);
// This task uploads the whole workspace to the target server
task('deploy:update_code', static function () {
upload('.', '{{release_path}}');
});
// This task remotely creates the `install.lock` file on the target server.
task('sw:touch_install_lock', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && touch install.lock');
});
// This task remotely executes the `bin/build-js.sh` script on the target server.
task('sw:build', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && bash bin/build-js.sh');
});
// This task remotely executes the `theme:compile` console command on the target server.
task('sw:theme:compile', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && bin/console theme:compile');
});
// This task remotely executes the `cache:clear` console command on the target server.
task('sw:cache:clear', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && bin/console cache:clear');
});
// This task remotely executes the cache warmup console commands on the target server so that the first user, who
// visits the website doesn't have to wait for the cache to be built up.
task('sw:cache:warmup', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && bin/console cache:warmup');
run('cd {{release_path}} && bin/console http:cache:warm:up');
});
// This task remotely executes the `database:migrate` console command on the target server.
task('sw:database:migrate', static function () {
run('cd {{release_path}} && bin/console database:migrate --all');
});
/**
* Grouped SW deploy tasks
*/
task('sw:deploy', [
'sw:touch_install_lock',
'sw:build',
'sw:database:migrate',
'sw:theme:compile',
'sw:cache:clear',
]);
/**
* Main task
*/
task('deploy', [
'deploy:prepare',
'deploy:lock',
'deploy:release',
'deploy:update_code',
'deploy:shared',
'sw:deploy',
'deploy:writable',
'deploy:clear_paths',
'sw:cache:warmup',
'deploy:symlink',
'deploy:unlock',
'cleanup',
'success',
])->desc('Deploy your project');
after('deploy:failed', 'deploy:unlock');