Gitlab CI dynamic environment URI

Question

I'm running Gitlab locally on my own server with ip 192.168.100.10.

I try to write gitlab-ci.yml for deploying a project to satge server with different ip like 192.168.208.8.

I want to create dynamic Gitlab environment URL, for example 192.168.208.8:$RANDOM_PORT, but Gitlab does not fill $RANDOM_PORT in this code here:

deploy-stage:
  stage: deploy-stage
  script:
    - docker pull ${DESTINATION_REPOSITORY}:${TAG_COMMIT_VERSION} 
    - export RANDOM_PORT=$(shuf -i 1000-9999 -n 1);
    - echo $RANDOM_PORT  # echo 5075 and $RANDOM_PORT not empty
    - docker run -d --name ${TAG_COMMIT_VERSION} -p $RANDOM_PORT:80 ${DESTINATION_REPOSITORY}:${TAG_COMMIT_VERSION}
  environment :
     name: main-stage
     url: 192.168.208.8:$RANDOM_PORT  # in this line random port in null

This is my gitlab-ci.yml file :

variables:
  BRANCH_NAME: ${CI_COMMIT_BRANCH}-
  TAG_COMMIT_VERSION: ${BRANCH_NAME}${CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA}
  TAG_VERSION: latest
  DESTINATION_REPOSITORY: $NEXUS_URL/my-project-name

image: docker:latest

services:
  - docker:dind

stages:
  - build
  - docker-image
  - deploy-stage
  

build:
  stage: build
  image: node:16.10.0-alpine
  script:
    - npm install 
    - npm run build
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - build/
      - nginx.conf
    expire_in: 1 hour    

docker-image:
  stage: docker-image
  dependencies:
    - build
  script:
    - echo "building docker image ......"
    - docker build --pull -t ${DESTINATION_REPOSITORY}:${TAG_COMMIT_VERSION} .
    - docker push ${DESTINATION_REPOSITORY}:${TAG_COMMIT_VERSION}

deploy-stage:
  stage: deploy-stage
  script:
    - docker pull ${DESTINATION_REPOSITORY}:${TAG_COMMIT_VERSION} 
    - export RANDOM_PORT=$(shuf -i 1000-9999 -n 1);
    - echo $RANDOM_PORT  # echo 5075 and $RANDOM_PORT not empty
    - docker run -d --name ${TAG_COMMIT_VERSION} -p $RANDOM_PORT:80 ${DESTINATION_REPOSITORY}:${TAG_COMMIT_VERSION}
  environment :
     name: main-stage
     url: 192.168.208.8:$RANDOM_PORT # in this line random port in null

I try this line 192.168.208.8:$RANDOM_PORT and expected to create this value: 192.168.208.8:5075

Answer 1

It is possible to set a dynamic environment url in Gitlab(depending on version of Gitlab you are using)

What variable you set in script section cannot be accessed outside.

Make use of

artifacts:reports:dotenv

Introduced in GitLab 12.9

The dotenv report collects a set of environment variables as artifacts.

Gitlab parses the deploy.env report artifact, registers a list of variables as runtime-created, sets $RANDOM_PORT to the environment URL.

deploy-stage:
  stage: deploy-stage
  script:
    - docker pull ${DESTINATION_REPOSITORY}:${TAG_COMMIT_VESRION}
    - RANDOM_PORT=$(shuf -i 1000-9999 -n 1); 
    - echo $RANDOM_PORT
    - echo "RANDOM_PORT=$RANDOM_PORT" >> deploy.env
    - docker run -d --name ${TAG_COMMIT_VESRION} -p $RANDOM_PORT:80 ${DESTINATION_REPOSITORY}:${TAG_COMMIT_VESRION}
  artifacts:
    reports:
      dotenv: deploy.env
  enviroment :
     name: main-stage
     url: 192.168.208.8:$RANDOM_PORT