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As a backend developer, I always believed that writing code is only half the job. The real challenge begins when you need to deploy, automate, scale, and maintain it reliably.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through my entire CI/CD journey, where I built a production-ready pipeline using:

• GitHub Actions for CI/CD

• Docker for containerization

• AWS EC2 for hosting

• Nginx as a reverse proxy

• Free domain + HTTP

This setup is what I now confidently use for real production systems.

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Problem Statement

Manually deploying applications caused multiple issues:

• SSH into server every time

• Build errors on server

• Inconsistent environments

• Downtime during deployments

Goal:

Push code → pipeline runs → app builds → deploys automatically → live with zero downtime

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High-Level Architecture

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AWS EC2 Setup (Foundation)

🔹 EC2 Instance

• OS: Amazon Linux 2

• Instance: t2.micro (free tier)

• Security Group:

🔹 Connect to EC2

ssh -i shopx_rsa_key.pem ec2-user@3.81.27.12x

this will show something like this :

🔹 Install Essentials

sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install docker git -y
sudo service docker start
sudo usermod -aG docker ec2-user

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Dockerizing the Spring Boot Application

🔹 Dockerfile

FROM eclipse-temurin:17-jdk
WORKDIR /app
COPY target/app.jar app.jar
EXPOSE 9000
ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-jar", "app.jar"]

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Create Free Domain with DuckDns

Sign in to → https://www.duckdns.org/

select desired domain and add your Ec2 Public ipv4

hit this curl on shell before that add token from your account as shown in img.

curl "https://www.duckdns.org/update?domains=yourdomain&token=YOUR_TOKEN&ip="

this will return OK

now you are done!

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Nginx Reverse Proxy Setup

A reverse proxy is a server that sits in front of backend servers and forwards client requests to them, handling things like routing, security, and load balancing.

🔹 Install Nginx

sudo yum install nginx -y
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

🔹create Nginx Config

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/shopx

🔹 Nginx Config

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:9000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

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GitHub Actions – CI/CD Pipeline

🔹 Workflow File

.github/workflows/deploy.yml

name: CI-CD Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [ "master" ]

jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Set up JDK
        uses: actions/setup-java@v3
        with:
          java-version: '21'
          distribution: 'temurin'

      - name: Build JAR
        run: mvn clean package -DskipTests

      - name: Build Docker Image
        run: docker build -t sameers377/shopx_backend:latest .

      - name: Login to DockerHub
        run: echo ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }} | docker login -u ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }} --password-stdin

      - name: Push Docker Image
        run: docker push sameers377/shopx_backend:latest

      - name: Deploy to EC2
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v1.0.3
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.EC2_USER }}
          key: ${{ secrets.EC2_KEY }}
          script: |
            ./deploy.sh

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8️⃣ Domain & HTTPS Setup

🔹 Domain Mapping

• Domain → EC2 Public IP

• DNS A-record

🔹 SSL (Let’s Encrypt)

sudo yum install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx

Now traffic is:

 http://shopx-ecommerce.duckdns.org → Nginx → Spring Boot

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What I Learned

• CI/CD is a developer responsibility

• Docker + GitHub Actions = powerful combo

• Nginx is underrated but critical

• Deployment confidence boosts development speed

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Note on using AI

AI didn’t write my journey - it mentored me in refining my rough work into clarity.

— > Written by Sameer Shaikh | +918999596143