JournalAI: End-to-End DevOps & Cloud Deployment Guide

Abstract

JournalAI is a modern Next.js application with Supabase integration, designed to demonstrate full-stack DevOps automation, containerization, Kubernetes orchestration, and cloud deployment using Azure Container Instances. This documentation provides a detailed, IEEE-style guide for developers and DevOps engineers, covering every step from local development to production deployment.

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Table of Contents

1. Project Overview
2. Local Development
3. Git & GitHub Workflows
4. CI/CD Automation
5. Docker & Docker Hub
6. Kubernetes Deployment
7. Azure Container Instances (ACI)
8. Secrets Management
9. Results & Monitoring
10. References

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1. Project Overview

JournalAI is a Next.js 15.5.2 web application using Supabase for backend services. The project is structured for rapid prototyping and robust cloud deployment.

Key Features:

• Next.js frontend
• Supabase integration
• Automated CI/CD with GitHub Actions
• Containerization with Docker
• Kubernetes manifests for scalable deployment
• Azure ACI cloud hosting

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2. Local Development

Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/vinithreddybanda/journalai.git
cd journalai
npm install

Run locally:

npm run dev

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3. Git & GitHub Workflows

All code changes are managed via Git and GitHub. The repository uses feature branches and pull requests for code review.

Figure 1: GitHub Actions workflow overview.

Common Commands:

git add .
git commit -m "Your message"
git push origin main

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4. CI/CD Automation

CI/CD is powered by GitHub Actions. The workflow (.github/workflows/ci-simple.yml) automates linting, testing, Docker image build, and push to Docker Hub.

Workflow Highlights:

• Lint, type-check, and test on every push
• Build Docker image with Supabase secrets
• Push image to Docker Hub

Figure 2: Example of repository secrets for CI/CD.

Sample Workflow Snippet:

jobs:
	build-and-push:
		steps:
			- name: Build Docker image
				run: |
					docker build \
						--build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL }} \
						--build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY }} \
						-t ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}/journalai:latest .
			- name: Push Docker image
				run: docker push ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}/journalai:latest

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5. Docker & Docker Hub

The app is containerized using a multi-stage Dockerfile. Images are published to Docker Hub for portability.

Figure 3: Docker Hub repository for container images.

Build & Push Locally:

docker build -t vinithreddybanda/journalai:latest .
docker push vinithreddybanda/journalai:latest

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6. Kubernetes Deployment

Kubernetes manifests (journalai-deployment.yaml, journalai-service.yaml) enable scalable deployment on local clusters (Docker Desktop) or cloud.

Deployment Steps:

kubectl apply -f journalai-deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f journalai-service.yaml
kubectl get pods
kubectl get svc

Figure 4: Kubernetes deployment manifest.

Figure 5: Kubernetes pods status.

Figure 6: Kubernetes nodes overview.

Figure 7: Kubernetes services configuration.

Figure 8: Kubernetes cluster running state.

Accessing the App: Find the NodePort and open in browser: http://localhost:<NodePort>

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7. Azure Container Instances (ACI)

For cloud deployment, the Docker image is run in Azure Container Instances.

Deployment Command:

az container create --resource-group my-rg --name journalai-container --image vinithreddybanda/journalai:latest --ports 3000 --dns-name-label journalai-aci-demo --location centralindia --os-type Linux --cpu 1 --memory 1.5 --environment-variables NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=<your_url> NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=<your_key> GROQ_API_KEY=<your_groq_key>

Results: Figure 9: Azure Container Instance deployment result.

Additional Images

Contributor Overview

Figure 10: Project contributors on GitHub.

Access: Azure provides a public FQDN, e.g., http://journalai-aci-demo.centralindia.azurecontainer.io:3000

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8. Secrets Management

Secrets (Supabase keys, DockerHub credentials, Azure credentials) are managed via GitHub repository secrets and passed securely to workflows and containers.

Example:

env:
	NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL }}
	NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY: ${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY }}
	GROQ_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.GROQ_API_KEY }}

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9. Results & Monitoring

Monitor deployments via Azure Portal, kubectl logs, and GitHub Actions status.

Sample Log Command:

kubectl logs <pod-name>

ACI Monitoring: Check status and logs in Azure Portal or with:

az container show --resource-group my-rg --name journalai-container --output table

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10. References

• Next.js Documentation
• Supabase Documentation
• GitHub Actions
• Docker Documentation
• Kubernetes Documentation
• Azure Container Instances