GitHub Actions

GitHub is a popular git-based source-control platform.

GitHub Actions is GitHub’s cloud-based continuous integration server.

The GitHub-hosted runners require your Octopus Server to be accessible over the Internet. Otherwise you must self-host your runners.

Integrating with GitHub Actions

Octopus Deploy has several custom GitHub Actions available:

All of the Actions are compatible with following runner types:

Windows
MacOS
Linux
Self-Hosted Runners

GitHub Actions secrets

You can use encrypted secrets in your workflow (available from the Settings ➜ Secrets menu of your GitHub repository), which is a great place to store sensitive information such as your Octopus Deploy API keys (which is not something you should store in your source control).

For example:

Variable name	Description
`OCTOPUSSERVERURL`	The Octopus Server URL you wish to push the final package to
`OCTOPUSSERVERAPIKEY`	The Octopus Deploy API Key required for authentication
`OCTOPUSSERVER_SPACE`	The Space to push packages to

GitHub Actions configuration

When you create your first GitHub Action for your repository, GitHub stores the actions as workflows in the .github/workflows folder in your repository. You need to modify those files to run the build, pack, and/or push package commands.

Triggering a build

A build within GitHub Actions can be triggered in a few different ways such as:

Pull requests on a branch
Push
Schedule
On-demand

All build triggers are defined in the on section of the GitHub Actions YAML file.

Pull requests

To configure your build to be triggered from a pull request on a branch, add a pull_request element to the on section of the YAML file. Branches are listed in an array so you can define more than one. In this example, the build can be triggered from a pull request on the main branch:

name: MyBuild

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

Push

A common method for triggering a build is to initiate the build whenever something is pushed to the repository. Adding push will trigger a build whenever a push is made to the repository:

name: MyBuild

on:
  push:

Schedule

A GitHub Actions build can also be triggered on a schedule. Schedules are defined using the unix cron format. The following example configures the build to execute at 7AM every day:

name: MyBuild

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 07 * * *"

If your repo has been inactive for over 60 days, cron jobs will stop building.

On-demand

It’s also possible to manually trigger a GitHub Actions build on-demand. To configure manual builds, add workflow_dispatch to your build file:

name: MyBuild

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

Adding workflow_dispatch will enable the Run workflow button that will allow manual runs.

Building with GitHub Actions

GitHub Actions builds consist of jobs which in turn consist of steps. By default, GitHub Actions jobs will run in parallel with each other while the steps within a job are executed sequentially. It’s possible to configure jobs to run sequentially using the jobs.<job_id>.need keyword. See the GitHub documentation on Using jobs in a workflow for more details.

Before defining the steps for your job, you must first tell GitHub Actions what type of runner to use. The GitHub documentation explains the different types to choose from.

name: MyBuild

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 07 * * *"
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

Example .NET Core build

The following example demonstrates a GitHub Actions build of our example application, OctoPetShop. This application is written in .NET Core and consists of four components:

OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database - Database updates using DBUp
OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web - Web front end
OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService - Product service API
OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService - Shopping cart service API

To build this application, you’ll need the following steps:

Checkout the source code
Configure the runner with the appropriate version of .NET core
Restore any NuGet packages required by the solution
Build the solution
Create folders to store published/compiled artifacts
Publish each project to their respective artifact folders

Below is an example GitHub Actions workflow which includes these steps:

name: MyBuild

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 07 * * *"
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Set Version
      run: echo "PACKAGE_VERSION=$(date +'%Y.%m.%d').$GITHUB_RUN_NUMBER" >> $GITHUB_ENV
    - name: Setup .NET Core
      uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
      with:
        dotnet-version: 6.0.x
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: dotnet restore
    - name: Build
      run: dotnet build --configuration Release --no-restore
    - name: Create artifacts folder
      run: |
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database"
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web"
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService"
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService"
    - name: Publish OctoPetShopDatabase
      run: dotnet publish OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore --output "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database"
    - name: Publish OctoPetShopWeb
      run: dotnet publish OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore --output "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web"
    - name: Publish OctoPetShopProductService
      run: dotnet publish OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore --output "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService"
    - name: Publish OctoPetShopShoppingCartService
      run: dotnet publish OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore --output "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetshop.ShoppingCartService"

Packaging artifacts

To package your artifacts for deployment, configure your build to use the OctopusDeploy/install-octopus-cli-action developed by Octopus Deploy by adding the following step (previous steps excluded for brevity):

    - name: Install Octopus CLI
      uses: OctopusDeploy/install-octopus-cli-action@v1

      with:
        version: latest

Adding this Action allows your build to use the commands from the Octopus command line interface (CLI). Using the pack command, you can package your artifacts for deployment. The following example packages the OctoPetShop components built above:

    - name: Install Octopus CLI
      uses: OctopusDeploy/install-octopus-cli-action@v1

      with:
        version: latest
    - name: Package OctoPetShopDatabase
      run: |
        octo pack --id="OctoPetShop.Database" --format="Zip" --version="$PACKAGE_VERSION" --basePath="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database" --outFolder="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"
    - name: Package OctoPetShopWeb
      run: |
        octo pack --id="OctoPetShop.Web" --format="Zip" --version="$PACKAGE_VERSION" --basePath="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web" --outFolder="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"
    - name: Package OctoPetShopProductService
      run: |
        octo pack --id="OctoPetShop.ProductService" --format="Zip" --version="$PACKAGE_VERSION" --basePath="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService" --outFolder="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"
    - name: Package OctoPetShopShoppingCartService
      run: |
        octo pack --id="OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService" --format="Zip" --version="$PACKAGE_VERSION" --basePath="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetshop.ShoppingCartService" --outFolder="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"

Pushing artifacts to Octopus Server

Once the artifacts are packaged, use the OctopusDeploy/push-package-action Action to push the packages to the Octopus Server built-in repository. The following example pushes the packages created from the previous pack operation:

    - name: Push OctoPetShop packages
      uses: OctopusDeploy/push-package-action@v1
      with:
        api_key: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERAPIKEY }}
        server: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERURL }}
        packages: "artifacts/OctoPetShop.Database.${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}.zip,artifacts/OctoPetShop.Web.${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}.zip,artifacts/OctoPetShop.ProductService.${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}.zip,artifacts/OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService.${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}.zip"
        space: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVER_SPACE }}

Creating a release

To create a release, use the OctopusDeploy/create-release-action. This action also contains the ability to deploy the newly created release. Use either the progress or wait_for_deployment options to have the build wait for the deployment to complete and report success or failure. Using progress will display messages from Octopus itself whereas wait_for_deployment will simply wait for Octopus to report success or failure:

    - name: Create and deploy release
      uses: OctopusDeploy/create-release-action@v1
      with:
        api_key: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERAPIKEY }}
        server: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERURL }}
        space: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVER_SPACE }}
        project: "Octo Pet Shop"
        deploy_to: "Development"
        progress: true

The variable PACKAGE_VERSION must be referenced like ${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }} for both push-package-action and create-release-action

Complete build example

The previous sections displayed only the portions relevant to the topic being discussed. The entire build YAML for the Octo Pet Shop is located below:

Click here to view the entire example build YAML

name: MyBuild

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 07 * * *"
  workflow_dispatch:
    logLevel:
      description: 'Log level'
      required: true
      default: 'warning'

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Set Version
      run: echo "PACKAGE_VERSION=$(date +'%Y.%m.%d').$GITHUB_RUN_NUMBER" >> $GITHUB_ENV
    - name: Setup .NET Core
      uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
      with:
        dotnet-version: 2.2.207
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: dotnet restore
    - name: Build
      run: dotnet build --configuration Release --no-restore
    - name: Test
      run: dotnet test --no-restore --verbosity normal
    - name: Create artifacts folder
      run: |
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database"
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web"
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService"
        mkdir "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService"
    - name: Publish OctoPetShopDatabase
      run: dotnet publish OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore --output "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database"
    - name: Publish OctoPetShopWeb
      run: dotnet publish OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore --output "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web"
    - name: Publish OctoPetShopProductService
      run: dotnet publish OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore --output "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService"
    - name: Publish OctoPetShopShoppingCartService
      run: dotnet publish OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore --output "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetshop.ShoppingCartService"
    - name: Install Octopus CLI
      uses: OctopusDeploy/install-octopus-cli-action@v1
      with:
        version: latest
    - name: Package OctoPetShopDatabase
      run: |
        octo pack --id="OctoPetShop.Database" --format="Zip" --version="$PACKAGE_VERSION" --basePath="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Database" --outFolder="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"
    - name: Package OctoPetShopWeb
      run: |
        octo pack --id="OctoPetShop.Web" --format="Zip" --version="$PACKAGE_VERSION" --basePath="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.Web" --outFolder="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"
    - name: Package OctoPetShopProductService
      run: |
        octo pack --id="OctoPetShop.ProductService" --format="Zip" --version="$PACKAGE_VERSION" --basePath="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetShop.ProductService" --outFolder="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"
    - name: Package OctoPetShopShoppingCartService
      run: |
        octo pack --id="OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService" --format="Zip" --version="$PACKAGE_VERSION" --basePath="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts/OctopusSamples.OctoPetshop.ShoppingCartService" --outFolder="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/artifacts"
    - name: Push OctoPetShop packages
      uses: OctopusDeploy/push-package-action@v1
      with:
        api_key: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERAPIKEY }}
        server: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERURL }}
        packages: "artifacts/OctoPetShop.Database.${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}.zip,artifacts/OctoPetShop.Web.${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}.zip,artifacts/OctoPetShop.ProductService.${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}.zip,artifacts/OctoPetShop.ShoppingCartService.${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}.zip"
        space: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVER_SPACE }}
    - name: Create and deploy release
      uses: OctopusDeploy/create-release-action@v1
      with:
        api_key: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERAPIKEY }}
        server: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERURL }}
        space: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVER_SPACE }}
        project: "Octo Pet Shop"
        deploy_to: "Development"
        progress: true

Run a runbook

In addition to common build steps, we also have an action that can Run a Runbook.

  - name: Run a runbook in Octopus Deploy
    uses: OctopusDeploy/run-runbook-action@1.0.1
    with:
      api_key: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERAPIKEY }}
      environments: 'Development'
      project: 'Octo Pet Shop'
      runbook: 'Restart IIS App pool'
      server: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVERURL }}
      space: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUSSERVER_SPACE }}
      show_progress: 'true'

Push Build Information

Build information contains a link to the build which produced the package, details of the source commits related to the build, and issue references parsed from the commit messages.

Build information is generated and pushed to Octopus with the OctopusDeploy/push-build-information-action step:

  - name: Generate Octopus Deploy build information
    uses: OctopusDeploy/push-build-information-action@v1
    env:
      OCTOPUS_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUS_API_TOKEN }}
      OCTOPUS_HOST: ${{ secrets.OCTOPUS_SERVER_URL }}
    with:
      version: ${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }}
      packages: OctoPetShopWeb
      overwrite_mode: OverwriteExisting

Example GitHub Actions Repo:

View a working GitHub Actions examples on our samples GitHub repository.

GitHub Action Integrations v3

GitHub Action Integrations v3 no longer requires the Octo CLI to function. This new native approach brings many benefits to the table, including but not limited too:

Smaller actions
Faster runtimes
Performance benefits through the Executions API

Migration Guides

Migrations guides can be found on each GitHub Action Integration Repo.

New GitHub Actions

The following GitHub actions have been created in collaboration with Github Action v3.

Deploy Release

Incorporate the following actions in your workflow to deploy a release in Octopus Deploy using an API key, a target instance (i.e. server), and a project:

env:

steps:
  # ...
  - name: Deploy a release in Octopus Deploy 🐙
    uses: OctopusDeploy/deploy-release-action@v3
    env:
      OCTOPUS_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY  }}
      OCTOPUS_URL: ${{ secrets.SERVER }}
      OCTOPUS_SPACE: 'Outer Space'
    with:
      project: 'MyProject'
      release_number: '1.0.0'
      environments: |
        Dev
        Test
      variables: |
        Foo: Bar
        Fizz: Buzz

Deploy Release Tenanted

env:

steps:
  # ...
  - name: Deploy a release in Octopus Deploy 🐙
    uses: OctopusDeploy/deploy-release-tenanted-action@v3
    env:
      OCTOPUS_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY  }}
      OCTOPUS_URL: ${{ secrets.SERVER }}
      OCTOPUS_SPACE: 'Outer Space'
    with:
      project: 'MyProject'
      release_number: '1.0.0'
      environment: 'Dev'
      tenants: |
        'Some Tenant A'
        'Some Tenant B'
      tenant_tags: |
        'setA/someTagB'
        'setC/someTagD'
      variables: |
        'Foo: Bar'
        'Fizz: Buzz'

Await Task

Incorporate the following actions in your workflow to wait for a task to complete in Octopus Deploy:

env:

steps:
  # ...
  - name: Await task in Octopus Deploy 🐙
    uses: OctopusDeploy/await-task-action@v3
    env:
      OCTOPUS_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY  }}
      OCTOPUS_URL: ${{ secrets.SERVER }}
      OCTOPUS_SPACE: 'Outer Space'
    with:
      server_task_id: ${{ fromJson(steps.some_previous_deployment_step.outputs.server_tasks)[0].serverTaskId }}

Create Nuget Package

Create NuGet package(s) to push to Octopus Deploy.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v3

  # create a NuGet package from files in the "reports" folder; create package in "packaging" folder
  - name: Create a NuGet package 🐙
    uses: OctopusDeploy/create-nuget-package-action@v3
    with:
      package_id: 'DemoPackage'
      version: '1.0.0'
      output_folder: 'packaging'
      base_path: reports
      files: |
        **/*.*
      nuspec_description: package description
      nuspec_authors: |
        author 1
        author 2
      nuspec_release_notes: |
        This is a multiline
        release note

Create Zip Package

Create Zip package(s) to push to Octopus Deploy.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v3

  # create a Zip package from files in the "reports" folder; create package in "packaging" folder
  - name: Create a Zip package 🐙
    uses: OctopusDeploy/create-zip-package-action@v3
    with:
      package_id: 'DemoPackage'
      version: '1.0.0'
      output_folder: './packaging'
      base_path: reports
      files: |
        **/*.*

Install Octopus CLI Action v3

Although the CLI is not required for GitHub Actions v3, the install Octopus CLI Action v3 will now install the new Octopus CLI.

If you require the use of the original Octo CLI, you can use OctopusDeploy/install-octopus-cli-action@v1.

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Page updated on Sunday, January 1, 2023

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