Devise gem initialization with AWS OpsWorks - ruby-on-rails

Question

Background Info: I have made a Ruby on Rails application that utilizes the ruby gem Devise. When using the gem I have configured the gem's secret key in OpsWorks console as an environment variable.
When running the before_migrate.rb deployment hook I run the command rake assets:precompile. But I receive an error in the deployment log.
execute "rake assets:precompile" do
cwd release_path
command "bundle exec rake assets:precompile"
environment "RAILS_ENV" => rails_env
end
Error executing action run on resource 'execute[rake
assets:precompile]'
Mixlib::ShellOut::ShellCommandFailed
Expected process to exit with [0], but received '1'
---- Begin output of bundle exec rake assets:precompile --trace ---- STDOUT: STDERR:
** Invoke assets:precompile (first_time)
** Invoke assets:environment (first_time)
** Execute assets:environment
** Invoke environment (first_time)
** Execute environment rake aborted! Devise.secret_key was not set. Please add the following to your Devise initializer:
config.secret_key = '*****'
I know the environment variables are eventually being set because in my before_migrate.rb file I output the environment variables to log. When I hard code the config.secret_key everything works correctly.
Question: When using OpsWorks do the initializers config/initializers/* from my project get run before any of the environment variables get set? Is there another way around this without hard coding keys or SSHing into every instance?

Answer 1

You would be able to access the environment variable in the chef recipe by,
node[:deploy]['<YOUR_APP_SHORT_NAME>'][:environment_variables][:SECRET_KEY_BASE]
So you can write a recipe to put secrets.yml or something.yml with the environment value.
Create a template,
your_cookbook/templates/default/secret.yml.erb
secret_key: <%= node[:deploy]['<YOUR_APP_SHORT_NAME>'][:environment_variables][:SECRET_KEY_BASE] %>
You can place the secret.yml in /data/YOUR_APPLICATION_SLUG_NAME/shared/config by a recipe.
your_cookbook/recipes/default/secret.rb
template "/data/#{<YOUR_APP_SLUG_NAME}/shared/config/secrets.yml" do
source "secrets.yml.erb"
owner 'OWNER'
end
And make sure that you are symlinking the secrets.yml in shared/config folder to your release path in before_migrate.rb in your deploy hooks.
your_code_path/deploy/before_migrate.rb
run "ln -nfs /data/<YOUR_APP_SLUG_NAME>/shared/config/secrets.yml #{release_path}/config/secrets.yml"
And have the recipe your_cookbook::secret in your deploy life cycle event.
Now you would have generated secrets.yml in your code path/config. You have to load that yaml and set it in config/initializer/devise.rb
config.secret_key = <SECRET KEY FROM THE YML GENERATED>