Master Lightweight CI/CD with Drone and Gogs: Step-by-Step Docker Deployment

Drone Overview

Drone is a container‑based continuous integration tool that uses simple YAML configuration files to define complex build, test, and deployment tasks. It is lightweight, consumes less than 1 GB of memory, and has gained over 22K stars on GitHub.

Gogs Installation

Gogs provides a lightweight Git service. Install it via Docker:

docker pull gogs/gogs

docker run -p 10022:22 -p 10080:3000 --name=gogs \
  -e TZ="Asia/Shanghai" \
  -v /mydata/gogs:/data \
  -d gogs/gogs

After the container starts, access http://192.168.5.78:10080 to create a repository and push the mall-tiny-drone source code.

Drone Installation

Download the Drone server and runner images:

# Drone server
docker pull drone/drone:1
# Drone runner
docker pull drone-runner-docker:1

Run the Drone server container with required environment variables:

docker run \
  -v /mydata/drone:/data \
  -e DRONE_AGENTS_ENABLED=true \
  -e DRONE_GOGS_SERVER=http://192.168.5.78:10080 \
  -e DRONE_RPC_SECRET=dronerpc666 \
  -e DRONE_SERVER_HOST=192.168.5.78:3080 \
  -e DRONE_SERVER_PROTO=http \
  -e DRONE_USER_CREATE=username:macro,admin:true \
  -e TZ="Asia/Shanghai" \
  -p 3080:80 \
  --restart=always \
  --detach=true \
  --name=drone \
  drone/drone:1

Run the Drone runner container:

docker run -d \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -e DRONE_RPC_PROTO=http \
  -e DRONE_RPC_HOST=192.168.5.78:3080 \
  -e DRONE_RPC_SECRET=dronerpc666 \
  -e DRONE_RUNNER_CAPACITY=2 \
  -e DRONE_RUNNER_NAME=runner-docker \
  -e TZ="Asia/Shanghai" \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  --restart always \
  --name runner-docker \
  drone/drone-runner-docker:1

Key server and runner parameters are explained in the article (e.g., DRONE_GOGS_SERVER, DRONE_RPC_SECRET, DRONE_SERVER_HOST, etc.).

Using Drone

Access the Drone UI at http://192.168.5.78:3080/ and log in with the Gogs account. Sync the repository, set it to Trusted, and save. A webhook is automatically created in Gogs; pushing code triggers the pipeline.

If a pipeline fails because a secret (e.g., ssh_password) is missing, add the secret in the Gogs repository settings and retry.

Writing the Pipeline Script

The pipeline is defined in .drone.yml. Below is a complete example with comments:

kind: pipeline # object type (pipeline, secret, signature)
type: docker   # pipeline executor (docker, kubernetes, exec, ssh, ...)
name: mall-tiny-drone # pipeline name

steps:
  - name: package
    image: maven:3-jdk-8
    volumes:
      - name: maven-cache
        path: /root/.m2
      - name: maven-build
        path: /app/build
    commands:
      - mvn clean package
      - cp target/mall-tiny-drone-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar /app/build/mall-tiny-drone-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
      - cp Dockerfile /app/build/Dockerfile
      - cp run.sh /app/build/run.sh

  - name: build-start
    image: appleboy/drone-ssh
    settings:
      host: 192.168.5.78
      username: root
      password:
        from_secret: ssh_password
      port: 22
      command_timeout: 5m
      script:
        - cd /mydata/maven/build
        - chmod +x run.sh
        - ./run.sh

volumes:
  - name: maven-build
    host:
      path: /mydata/maven/build
  - name: maven-cache
    host:
      path: /mydata/maven/cache

The run.sh script builds the Docker image for the SpringBoot application and runs it; its details are linked in the original tutorial.

Conclusion

Compared with Jenkins’ heavy graphical interface, Drone’s script‑based pipelines are simpler and more transparent. Drone is lightweight, consumes little memory, and provides fast response, making it an attractive alternative for automated deployment.

Reference

Official documentation: https://docs.drone.io/