Chapter 40: Automating SSH Deployments in CI/CD Pipelines
In this chapter, you'll learn how to use SSH in GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins pipelines for secure deployments, secrets management, and remote server access.
In the previous chapter, you learned how to write robust SSH automation scripts that handle non-interactive sessions correctly, capture output cleanly, check exit codes, and run operations in parallel across server fleets. Those scripting patterns are the foundation everything in this chapter builds on.
A CI/CD pipeline is essentially an automation script with more structure and better tooling around it. However, there's one important difference. The machine running your pipeline is not your personal computer.
Instead, it's usually a temporary cloud-based container or virtual machine that is created just for the job and then discarded.
Because of this, the pipeline doesn't have your SSH keys or your personal configuration. It needs a secure way to authenticate with your servers without storing passwords or private keys in your code repository.
Setting up SSH correctly in this environment takes a little extra work, and it's something many teams struggle with when they're getting started.