GitHub Actions - Complete CI/CD Pipeline

Two Specialized Workflows

terraform.yml

Infrastructure Deployment - Deploy and manage Azure infrastructure (VMs, Networks, Storage) with multi-environment support

Infrastructure as Code

View Workflow on GitHub

deploy-website.yml

Website Deployment - Auto-deploy HTML/CSS/JS to NGINX servers on push, with manual promotion to higher environments

Continuous Deployment

View Workflow on GitHub

Workflow 1: Infrastructure Deployment

Complete Infrastructure Deployment Architecture

Security Features

OIDC Authentication - No secrets stored
PIN Protection via Dashboard (7925)
State Locking with Azure Blob leases
Environment Isolation - Separate states
GitHub Secrets Management

Reliability Features

Lock Detection & Wait (up to 5 minutes)
60-minute Timeout Protection
Continue-on-error for lock checks
Always-run Cleanup verification
Reconfigure Backend every run

Operational Features

4 Actions: Show, Plan, Deploy, Destroy
Environment Protection Rules
Dashboard Integration
Real-time Feedback & Live Logs
GitHub Step Summary with outputs

Flexibility Features

On-Demand Manual Execution
Runtime Environment Selection
Action Selection without code changes
Branch Selection capability
Multi-environment (Dev/QA/UAT/Prod)

Deployment Phases Breakdown

Phase 1: Initialization

Duration: 0-30 seconds

Checkout repository (terraform/ & .github/)
Azure OIDC Login (federated identity)
Setup Terraform 1.6.6
Set environment variables (ARM_*, TF_VAR_*)

Phase 2: State Management

Duration: 30-45 seconds

Check state lock (Azure Blob lease status)
Wait for lock release (max 5 min, 10s intervals)
Terraform init -reconfigure
Terraform validate (syntax & dependencies)

Phase 3: Terraform Execution

Duration: 45 seconds - 8 minutes

Show (~30s): Display current state (read-only)
Plan (~45-90s): Calculate infrastructure changes
Deploy (~4-8min): Create all Azure resources
Destroy (~3-7min): Remove all resources

Phase 4: Finalization

Always runs

Generate GitHub step summary
Display environment, action, and status
Verify state lock released
Show resource outputs (IPs, FQDNs, names)

                            
                                Resources Created per Environment
                            
                            Resource Group: rg-{prefix}-{env}
Virtual Network: vnet-{prefix}-{env} (10.0.0.0/16)
Network Security Group: nsg-{prefix}-{env} (HTTP/HTTPS/SSH)
Public IP: pip-{prefix}-{env} (Static with DNS)
Storage Account: st{prefix}{env}01 (LRS, Hot tier)
Network Interface: nic-{prefix}-{env}
Virtual Machine: vm-{prefix}-{env} (Ubuntu 20.04 + NGINX)

                        

Workflow 2: Website Deployment

Complete Website Deployment Architecture

Automation Features

Auto-Deploy on Push to main (DEV only)
Path-Based Triggering (website/**)
Smart Environment Targeting
Zero Manual Intervention
Fast Deployment (30-40 seconds)

Safety Features

Automatic Backup before deployment
Staged Deployment (tmp → final)
Permission Management (www-data:755)
NGINX Service Verification
Deployment Validation checks

Deployment Features

SSH/SCP Secure Transfer
No Downtime (atomic file moves)
Complete Content Sync (HTML + Images)
Backup Retention in /backup/
Multi-Environment Support

Monitoring Features

Deployment Info Display
File Verification (before & after)
NGINX Status Check
GitHub Step Summary with URLs
Failure Notifications with rollback info

Deployment Phases Breakdown

Phase 1: Preparation

Duration: 0-10 seconds

Checkout repository (website/ folder)
Display deployment info (env, branch, commit)
Setup SSH key (chmod 600)
Add VM host to known_hosts
Verify files to deploy (list HTML & images)

Phase 2: Backup

Duration: 10-15 seconds

Create /var/www/html/backup/ directory
Copy existing HTML files to backup
Copy existing images folder to backup
Purpose: Enable rollback capability

Phase 3: Deployment

Duration: 15-30 seconds

SCP all 9 HTML files to VM /tmp/
SCP images/ folder to VM /tmp/
Move HTML files: /tmp/*.html → /var/www/html/
Remove old images & move new images
Set ownership: www-data:www-data
Set permissions: 755

Phase 4: Verification

Duration: 30-35 seconds

List /var/www/html/ contents
Verify all HTML files present
Verify images folder exists
Check NGINX service status (active/running)

Phase 5: Summary

Duration: 35-40 seconds

Generate GitHub step summary
Show environment, trigger type, status
Display server IP/hostname
Provide access URLs for all pages
Include deployment timestamp

Files Deployed (9 HTML Pages + 6 Images)

HTML Files:

index.html, GitHub.html, Terraform.html
actions.html, copilot.html, dashboard.html
demo.html, gh-ado2gh.html, AgenticAI.html

Images:

actions.png, dashboard.png, deploy_app.png
deploy_infra.png, infra.png, terraform.png

Try the Dashboard

Experience these workflows in action! Use the interactive dashboard to deploy infrastructure and website with just a few clicks.

Open Dashboard