Deploy a Project on GCE

Use the Google Compute Engine service in Google Cloud to create a VM.

Recommended spec: e2-small — 2 vCPU, 2 GiB RAM, 20 GB Disk (~$14/month)

You can use the browser-based SSH from Google Cloud Console, or connect from your local machine.

Local SSH Setup

Step 1 — Generate an SSH key pair on your local machine:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your@email.com"

Give the key a name (e.g. gce-dev-key) and leave the password blank.

This produces two files:

• –gce-dev-key — private key (keep this on your machine)
• –gce-dev-key.pub — public key (add this to GCE)

Step 2 — Add the public key to Google Cloud:

1. –Search "SSH" in the Google Cloud Console
2. –Click SSH Keys
3. –Paste the contents of gce-dev-key.pub

The key is automatically added to every VM in the project, so you can connect to any VM with the same private key.

Step 3 — Connect:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/gce-dev-key <username>@<external_IP_of_VM>

sudo apt-get update

# Install Git
sudo apt-get install -y git
git --version

# Install Docker
sudo apt install -y docker.io
docker --version

# Install Docker Compose
sudo apt install -y docker-compose
docker-compose --version

# Enable Docker on startup
sudo systemctl enable docker

# Allow your user to run Docker without sudo
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and reconnect so the Docker group membership takes effect.

mkdir ~/project

Step 1 — Generate an SSH key pair on the VM:

cd ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your@email.com"

Name the key github_key and leave the password blank.

Step 2 — Add the public key to GitHub:

Copy the contents of github_key.pub and paste it into: GitHub → Profile Settings → SSH and GPG Keys → New SSH Key

Step 3 — Configure SSH to use this key for GitHub:

nano ~/.ssh/config

Paste the following:

# GitHub configuration
Host github.com
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github_key

Step 4 — Test the connection:

ssh -T git@github.com

Expected output:

Hi <your-username>! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

cd ~/project
git clone git@github.com:<your-org>/<your-repo>.git
cd <your-repo>

Create a .env file in the project root with the required environment variables.

git branch         # check current branch
git checkout dev   # switch to your target branch
git log            # verify the latest commits

export COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT=300
NODE_ENV=production docker-compose up -d --build

docker ps

docker logs <container_id>

Once the project is running, you can set up a CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions to automate builds and deployments whenever you push to your target branch.