How to properly deploy to host from gitlab-ci (+docker)? - docker

Question

Situation
I have one server: 192.168.1.2. This server has a gitlab installed on it alongside with a docker linked to a gitlab-runner. Keep in mind that we are talking about the same server.
I have a script at /etc/cfupdate.py, which is, you can tell, a Python script. I would like to have this file up in my repository with auto-deployment.
Note: The file is owned by deploymgr, a user created just for this purpose. It has rw access.
Attempt #1
.gitlab-ci.yml:
image: python:latest
before_script:
- echo "Starting script exec."
after_script:
- echo "CI Script Complete."
test-run:
stage: build
script:
- echo "Setting up..."
- pip3 install requests
- python3 "cfupdate.py"
deploy:
stage: deploy
script:
- docker cp $HOSTNAME:$PWD/cfupdate.py /etc/
only:
- master
After a quick research, docker is actually made for process and resource isolation. That's why it's impossible to access the host.
PS: And docker is a host-only command.
Attempt #2
Running a Webhook at build finish. This is a possibly working solution, but I would like to have a better one, which can be contained in .gitlab-ci.yml.
Attempt #3
Given the following .gitlab-ci.yml (only deploy part):
deploy:
stage: deploy
script:
- scp 'cfupdate.py' deploymgr#192.168.1.2:/etc/
only:
- master
I tried to ssh myself to the host, and using scp, copy the file, but with no luck, as the user has a password. I don't really want to use sshpass -p to pass the password, although it is savable in the Secret Variables section of GitLab. Also tried with ssh-keygen and ssh-copy-id, still needs password, and as we know, docker's SSH keys (PS indeed including all other files) are not saved, they are destroyed immediately upon the docker's shutdown.
Attempt #4
deploy:
stage: deploy
script:
- curl --form "fileupload=#cfupdate.py" 192.168.1.2:[port]/upload.php
only:
- master
This way, (haven't really tried it) it also could work, but I'm still looking for a better way. As you can see, this is a really make-do way and if we would be talking about lots of files, this method wouldn't serve well.
Any ideas? Or any suggestions about GitLab? Maybe it has a built-in function for deployment that I don't know about?

Answer 1

I've ran through numerous docs involving docker, gitlab-ci, etc., but they didn't help me. Though, I've successfully devised a working solution:
deploy:
stage: deploy
before_script:
- apt-get update
- apt-get -y install rsync sshpass
script:
- echo "Deploying to staging server..."
- "sshpass -e rsync -vvvurz --progress -e 'ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null' . deploymgr#192.168.1.2:/etc/cfupdate/"
only:
- master

Answer 2

Maybe you can consider using shell executor instead of docker executor for this particular repo so you can write plain sh script like this:
deploy:
stage: deploy
script:
- cp cfupdate.py /etc/cfupdate.py
only:
- master