SSH login without password #

The aim to login from our host machine, to the virtual private server, uitilizing the public/private key pair and ssh

Adding your identity with ssh-add on the host machine #

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa # add the identity

Enter passphrase for /Users/brthlmy/.ssh/id_rsa:
Identity added: /Users/brthlmy/.ssh/id_rsa (/Users/brthlmy/.ssh/id_rsa)

$ ssh-add -L # see identities

ssh-rsa cfOS7u8AnrlrTes9ybnX/-IT9GHlwPRwVEwjTVohX6... /Users/brthlmy/.ssh/id_rsa

Securely copy the public key to the virtual private server from the host machine #

$ ssh-copy-id brthlmy@33.258.11.2

/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 1 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys
brthlmy@33.258.11.2's password:

Number of key(s) added:        1

Now try logging into the machine, with:   "ssh 'brthlmy@33.258.11.2'"
and check to make sure that only the key(s) you wanted were added.

Login into virtual private server, without entering the password #

If everything went well, we can now login in by doing:

$ ssh brthlmy@33.258.11.2

brthlmy@33.258.11.2: cat ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
ssh-rsa cfOS7u8AnrlrTes9ybnX/-IT9GHlwPRwVEwjTVohX6... /Users/brthlmy/.ssh/id_rsa

In the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys folder of the brthlmy user on the virtual private server, the public key is added, this is equalivent to the ssh-add -L command that we used on the host machine, when we added the identity to ssh.

Creating a deployment private/public keypair #

Since we are going to add the private key to the github repository credentials, we will create a private/public keypair for a deployment user and copy that key also into the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the virtual private server.

On the host computer create a deploy private/public keypair for the deployment #

https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C 'example+deploy@example.com'

Generating public/private ed25519 key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/brthlmy/.ssh/id_ed25519): /Users/brthlmy/.ssh/id_example-deploy
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in id_example-deploy
Your public key has been saved in id_example-deploy.pub
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:CP08KO3WZfUk9SZtQ2dN+ExxhtUJS3aQJIaq8daZO/2mnaPh9Yy1 example+deploy@example.com
The key's randomart image is:
+--[ED25519 256]--+
|        .        |
|       + .       |
|      . B .      |
|     o * +       |
|    X * S        |
|   + O o . .     |
|    .   E . o    |
|       . . o     |
|        . .      |
+----[SHA256]-----+

Adding the id_example-deploy to the identities on the host machine #

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_example-deploy

Enter passphrase for /Users/brthlmy/.ssh/id_example-deploy:
Identity added: /Users/brthlmy/.ssh/id_example-deploy (example+deploy@example.com)

Use ssh-copy-id to securely copy the public key to the virtual private server from the host machine #

$ ssh-copy-id brthlmy@33.258.11.2

Great, the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys now contains, two public keys on the virtual private server!

Setup and configure github action workflow to upload the private repository #

OUTDATED https://dev.to/knowbee/how-to-setup-continuous-deployment-of-a-website-on-a-vps-using-github-actions-54im

https://github.com/appleboy/ssh-action

Create github workflow action in the private repository #

In the private cmplxsmpl.com repository we will create a github action workflow file.

$ mkdir -p .github/workflows/
$ vim .github/workflows/deploy.yml

Copy and paste the content in the .github/workflows/deploy.yml

name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: executing remote ssh commands using password
      uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.4
      with:
        host: $
        username: $
        key: $
        passphrase: $
        port: $
        script: |
          ls

The above deploy.yml will login into the virtual private server using the private key. For this to work, we will need to define the following secrets in the private github repository.

Head over to your Secrets > Actions in the private github repository, eg. https://github.com/your-organization/your-repository/settings/secrets/actions

Click on New repository secret and add the github secrets.

On the host machine, copy the private key from ~/.ssh/id_example-deploy

$ pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_example-deploy

And add the remaining github secrets.

4. Verify that the github action works

We update the .github/workflows/deploy.yml and push the code to the master branch. Under the Action tab, you should see the workflow excecuting with the output:

*Output*
======CMD======
ls -ahl

======END======
out: total 2K
out: drwxr-xr-x 6 ... ... 4.0K Aug 10 09:54 .
out: drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Jul  4 20:11 ..
out: -rw------- 1 ... ... 3.8K Aug 10 13:31 .bash_history
out: -rw-r--r-- 1 ... ...  220 Jul  4 20:11 .bash_logout
==============================================
✅ Successfully executed commands to all host.
==============================================

Allrighty, we have a deploy.yml setup, that is able to excecute commands on the remote host.

Building a basic static site with 11ty #

• Create Simple minimal 11ty PR

• Define the deployment steps

• Update the deploy.yml workflow

Documentation:

• https://github.com/actions/setup-node
• https://github.com/actions/checkout
• https://classic.yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/install/#toc-yarn-install-pure-lockfile
• https://nehalist.io/building-and-deploying-gatsby-sites-with-github-actions/

name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:

    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v3

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

    - name: Install dependencies
      run: yarn install --pure-lockfile

     - name: Build
       run: yarn run build

    - name: Copy folder content recursively to remote
      uses: garygrossgarten/github-action-scp@release
      with:
        verbose: true
        local: _site
        remote: .
        host: $
        port: $
        username: $
        privateKey: $
        passphrase: $