/devops-patterns

name: devops-patterns
description: DevOps patterns for infrastructure, CI/CD, and deployment automation. Use when configuring Docker containers, CI/CD pipelines, cloud deployments, Kubernetes, and monitoring. Covers GitHub Actions, Docker, Vercel, Railway, AWS, Terraform, and observability.

DevOps Patterns

Modern DevOps patterns for infrastructure and deployment automation.

Platform Selection

Frontend Hosting

| Platform | Best For | Pricing | |----------|----------|---------| | Vercel | Next.js, React | Free tier, $20/user pro | | Netlify | Static, Jamstack | Free tier, $19/user pro | | Cloudflare Pages | Edge-first | Generous free tier |

Backend Hosting

| Platform | Best For | Pricing | |----------|----------|---------| | Railway | Rapid deployment | $5 hobby, $20 pro + usage | | Fly.io | Global edge | Pay-as-you-go (~$3/small VM) | | Render | Managed services | Free tier, $7+ for services | | AWS ECS | Enterprise scale | Usage-based |

When to Use What

| Scenario | Recommendation | |----------|----------------| | Startup/MVP | Railway or Render | | Next.js app | Vercel | | Global low-latency | Fly.io | | Enterprise/complex | AWS or GCP | | Cost-sensitive | Fly.io or self-hosted |

Reference Files

| Topic | Load | Use When | |-------|------|----------| | Docker | `references/docker-patterns.md` | Containerization | | CI/CD | `references/ci-cd.md` | GitHub Actions, pipelines | | Cloud deployment | `references/cloud-deployment.md` | Vercel, Railway, AWS | | Kubernetes | `references/kubernetes.md` | K8s manifests, Helm | | Monitoring | `references/monitoring.md` | Prometheus, Grafana, logging | | IaC | `references/infrastructure-as-code.md` | Terraform, Pulumi |

Quick Start Patterns

Dockerfile (Node.js)

FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM node:20-alpine AS runner
WORKDIR /app
RUN addgroup -g 1001 -S nodejs && adduser -S nodejs -u 1001
COPY --from=builder --chown=nodejs:nodejs /app/dist ./dist
COPY --from=builder --chown=nodejs:nodejs /app/node_modules ./node_modules
USER nodejs
EXPOSE 3000
HEALTHCHECK CMD wget -q --spider http://localhost:3000/health || exit 1
CMD ["node", "dist/main.js"]

GitHub Actions (CI)

name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run lint
      - run: npm run test
      - run: npm run build

Docker Compose (Development)

version: '3.8'
services:
  app:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@db:5432/app
      - REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: postgres
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
      POSTGRES_DB: app
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine

volumes:
  postgres_data:

Environment Strategy

┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Local Development                       │
│ - docker-compose up                    │
│ - .env.local                           │
├────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Preview/Staging                         │
│ - Auto-deploy on PR                    │
│ - Unique preview URLs                  │
│ - Separate database                    │
├────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Production                             │
│ - Deploy on main merge                 │
│ - Blue-green or rolling                │
│ - Production secrets                   │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘

CI/CD Principles

1. **Fast feedback** - Quick tests first, fail fast 2. **Parallel execution** - Speed up pipelines 3. **Dependency caching** - Reduce build time 4. **Environment secrets** - Never commit credentials 5. **Automated deployments** - Push-to-deploy workflow 6. **Preview environments** - Test before merge

Security Checklist

• [ ] Secrets in vault (not in code)
• [ ] Non-root container user
• [ ] Image vulnerability scanning
• [ ] HTTPS/TLS everywhere
• [ ] Least privilege IAM
• [ ] Environment isolation
• [ ] Audit logging enabled

Container Best Practices

1. **Multi-stage builds** - Smaller final images 2. **Alpine/distroless base** - Minimal attack surface 3. **Non-root user** - Security isolation 4. **Health checks** - Container health monitoring 5. **.dockerignore** - Exclude unnecessary files 6. **Layer caching** - Optimize build order