EssayBot UI Deployment

EssayBot UI uses GitHub Actions for automated CI/CD deployment to the A6000 server.

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Environment Overview

Property	Production (PROD)	UAT
Branch	main	dynamic-update
Server Path	/var/www/Essaybot-UI	/var/www/Essaybot-UI-UAT
PM2 Namespace	prod	uat
PM2 App Name	essaybot-ui	essaybot-ui-uat
Log Directory	/var/www/Essaybot-UI/logs	/var/www/Essaybot-UI-UAT/logs
Env File	.env.prod	.env.uat
API URL	https://api.essaybot.dashlab.studio	https://uat.api.essaybot.dashlab.studio

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Deployment Triggers

Automatic Deployment

Branch	Environment
Push to main	Production
Push to dynamic-update	UAT

Manual Deployment

Trigger via GitHub Actions workflow_dispatch:

1. Go to Actions → Deploy EssayBot UI
2. Click Run workflow
3. Select environment: UAT or PROD
4. Optionally specify a custom branch

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Environment Variables

Variable	Description
NODE_ENV	Always production
NAMESPACE	prod or uat
PORT	Application port (from secrets)
NEXT_PUBLIC_ESSAYBOT_API_URL	Backend API URL
NEXT_PUBLIC_ENVIRONMENT	PROD or UAT
NEXT_PUBLIC_DASH_PORTAL_URL	DASH Portal URL
LOG_LEVEL	info (prod) / debug (uat)

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GitHub Secrets Required

Secret	Description
GH_PAT	GitHub Personal Access Token
TEAMS_WEBHOOK_URL	Microsoft Teams notification webhook
PORT_PROD	Production port number
PORT_UAT	UAT port number
ESSAYBOT_API_URL_PROD	Production API URL
ESSAYBOT_API_URL_UAT	UAT API URL
NEXT_PUBLIC_DASH_PORTAL_URL_PROD	Production DASH Portal URL
NEXT_PUBLIC_DASH_PORTAL_URL_UAT	UAT DASH Portal URL

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Deployment Pipeline

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    UI DEPLOYMENT PIPELINE                       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                 │
│  1. Setup Environment                                           │
│     └── Determine PROD/UAT based on branch                      │
│                                                                 │
│  2. Setup Log Directory                                         │
│     └── Create logs folder, cleanup old logs (>30 days)         │
│                                                                 │
│  3. Teams Notification (Starting)                               │
│                                                                 │
│  4. Backup Current Deployment                                   │
│     └── Creates timestamped backup (excludes node_modules)      │
│                                                                 │
│  5. Pull Latest Code                                            │
│     └── git fetch → checkout → reset --hard                     │
│                                                                 │
│  6. Create Environment File                                     │
│     └── Generate .env.prod or .env.uat from secrets             │
│                                                                 │
│  7. Install Dependencies                                        │
│     └── npm ci (or npm install as fallback)                     │
│                                                                 │
│  8. Build Next.js Application                                   │
│     └── Clear .next cache → npm run build                       │
│                                                                 │
│  9. Restart PM2 Service                                         │
│     └── Zero-downtime reload or fresh start                     │
│                                                                 │
│  10. Health Check                                               │
│      └── Verify service is running on expected port             │
│                                                                 │
│  11. Cleanup                                                    │
│      └── Keep only 3 most recent backups                        │
│                                                                 │
│  12. Teams Notification (Success/Failure)                       │
│                                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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PM2 Commands

Check Status

# Production
pm2 status --namespace prod

# UAT
pm2 status --namespace uat

View Logs

# Production
pm2 logs essaybot-ui --namespace prod

# UAT
pm2 logs essaybot-ui-uat --namespace uat

Restart Service

# Production
pm2 restart essaybot-ui --namespace prod

# UAT
pm2 restart essaybot-ui-uat --namespace uat

Stop Service

# Production
pm2 stop essaybot-ui --namespace prod

# UAT
pm2 stop essaybot-ui-uat --namespace uat

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Manual Deployment (SSH)

If you need to deploy manually via SSH:

# 1. SSH into A6000 server
ssh deploy@<server-ip>

# 2. Navigate to project directory
cd /var/www/Essaybot-UI      # PROD
cd /var/www/Essaybot-UI-UAT  # UAT

# 3. Pull latest code
git fetch --all
git checkout main            # PROD
git checkout dynamic-update  # UAT
git reset --hard origin/main # PROD
git reset --hard origin/dynamic-update # UAT

# 4. Install dependencies
npm ci

# 5. Build
npm run build

# 6. Restart PM2
pm2 restart essaybot-ui --namespace prod      # PROD
pm2 restart essaybot-ui-uat --namespace uat   # UAT

# 7. Save PM2 state
pm2 save

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Rollback

On deployment failure, the pipeline automatically:

1. Restores the latest backup from /var/www/Essaybot-UI/backups/
2. Sends failure notification to Teams

Manual Rollback

# List available backups
ls -lt /var/www/Essaybot-UI/backups/

# Restore specific backup
cd /var/www/Essaybot-UI
tar -xzf backups/backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz -C .

# Restart service
pm2 restart essaybot-ui --namespace prod

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Backup Retention

• Automatic cleanup: Keeps only 3 most recent backups
• Log cleanup: Removes logs older than 30 days
• Backup location: <project-dir>/backups/
• Backup format: backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz

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Troubleshooting

Service Not Starting

# Check PM2 logs
pm2 logs --lines 50 --namespace prod

# Check if port is in use
lsof -i :<PORT>

# Verify .env file exists
cat /var/www/Essaybot-UI/.env

Build Failures

# Clear Next.js cache
rm -rf .next

# Clear node_modules and reinstall
rm -rf node_modules
npm ci

# Rebuild
npm run build

Health Check Failures

# Test locally
curl -f http://localhost:<PORT>

# Check PM2 process status
pm2 jlist | jq '.[] | select(.namespace == "prod")'