Automate Full CI/CD to Cube with GitLab Runner: Step‑by‑Step Guide

In the previous episode we demonstrated how to package a Java application as an image and deploy it to Cube using a demo website. This episode shows how to integrate Cube’s API into a GitLab CI pipeline to achieve fully automated continuous deployment from code push to Cube.

Key Steps

Install and register a GitLab Runner with admin privileges; use the Shell executor and ensure the runner user can run Docker commands (sudoer rights are sufficient for non‑production).

Create a custom update_cube command (source code examples are available in the community group or via the upcoming UCLI tool).

Prepare a Cube YAML template: generate a Cube resource, remove runtime‑specific fields, replace the image tag with a placeholder, and store it in the repository, e.g. <PROJECT_ROOT>/yaml/my_cube_template.yaml.

Define a GitLab CI configuration that builds the Docker image, pushes it, and triggers the Cube update. Example .gitlab-ci.yml:

apiVersion: v1beta1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  provider:
    containerCount: 1
    region: cn-sh2
    resource:
      cpu: 500
      memory: 1024
    subnetId: subnet-XXX
    vpcId: uvnet-XXX
    zone: cn-sh2-01
spec:
  containers:
    - env:
        - name: <ENV_VAR_KEY>
          value: <ENV_VAR_VALUE>
      image: 'uhub.service.ucloud.cn/gary/cloudgame-image:<IMAGE_TAG>'
      name: cube03
      resources:
        limits:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 1Gi
      volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /etc/appconfig
          name: config
  restartPolicy: Always

variables:
  MAVEN_CLI_OPTS: "--batch-mode"
  MAVEN_OPTS: "-Dmaven.repo.local=.m2/repository"

cache:
  paths:
    - .m2/repository/
    - target/

buildToIntegration:
  stage: build
  except:
    - tags
  script:
    - mvn $MAVEN_CLI_OPTS package
    - sudo docker build -t uhub.service.ucloud.cn/gary/cloudgame-image:SNAP-$CI_PIPELINE_ID .
    - sudo docker push uhub.service.ucloud.cn/gary/cloudgame-image:SNAP-$CI_PIPELINE_ID

deployToIntegration:
  stage: deploy
  except:
    - tags
  script:
    - cat yaml/my_cube_template.yaml | sed "s/<IMAGE_TAG>/SNAP-$CI_PIPELINE_ID/" > /tmp/cube_SNAP-$CI_PIPELINE_ID.yaml
    - /cubeclient/update_cube -yamlfile /tmp/cube_SNAP-$CI_PIPELINE_ID.yaml -cube <cube_XXXXX>

After pushing code to GitLab, the pipeline automatically builds the image, pushes it to the registry, substitutes the image tag in the Cube template, and updates the Cube instance.

Feel free to leave comments or questions for further assistance.