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AWS Community Builders profile image Mhamad El Itawi
Mhamad El Itawi for AWS Community Builders

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CI/CD for Beginners: Deploy a Static HTML Site to AWS EC2 with GitHub Actions

#devops #aws #cicd #webdev

CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment) is one of the most valuable skills a developer can learn today. In this guide, you'll learn how to set up a CI/CD pipeline that automatically deploys your HTML website to an AWS EC2 instance using GitHub Actions.

By the end, every time you push code to GitHub, your website will update automatically!

🧰 Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following ready:

  • AWS Account
  • A GitHub account

🛠️ Step 1: Create and Prepare Your EC2 Instance

🔹 1.1 Launch the EC2 Instance

  • Head over to the EC2 Console.
  • Click "Launch Instance".
  • Fill in the form:
    • Name: MyStaticSite
    • AMI: Amazon Linux 2
    • Instance Type: t2.micro (Eligible for Free Tier)
    • Key Pair: Create or use existing (download the .pem file)
    • Security Group: Allow:
      • SSH (port 22)
      • HTTP (port 80)
  • Click "Launch".

🔹 1.2 Connect to Your Instance

  • Move the PEM file to a secure location (optional) 
mv ~/Downloads/your-key.pem ~/.ssh/
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  • Set correct permissions on the key file 
chmod 400 ~/.ssh/your-key.pem
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  • SSH into your EC2 instance 
ssh -i ~/.ssh/your-key.pem ec2-user@your-ec2-public-ip
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If you're using Ubuntu, replace ec2-user with ubuntu.
🔑 Replace:
your-key.pem → with your actual file name
your-ec2-public-ip → with your EC2 instance’s public IP or DNS (You can find them when you click on your instance in AWS console)

🔹 1.3 Install a Web Server and grant user privilege

Amazon Linux 2:

sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install -y httpd
sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd
sudo chown ec2-user /var/www/html
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Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y apache2
sudo systemctl start apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo chown ubuntu /var/www/html
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Test it: open your EC2 public IP in your browser — you should see the Apache test page.

📁 Step 2: Push Your HTML Code to GitHub

Here's a simple structure for your project:

.
├── index.html
└── .github
    └── workflows
        └── deploy.yml
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Example index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>Hello CI/CD</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>This was deployed using GitHub Actions!</h1>
</body>
</html>
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Commit and push this code to your GitHub repository.

⚙️ Step 3: Create GitHub Actions Workflow

In your GitHub repo, create the file: .github/workflows/deploy.yml

name: Deploy to EC2

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main # or 'master', based on your repo’s default branch

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Copy files via SCP
        uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.EC2_USER }}
          key: ${{ secrets.EC2_KEY }}
          source: "index.html"
          target: "/var/www/html"
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This GitHub Action will trigger on every push to the main (or master, depending on your repo) branch and securely copy your index.html file to your EC2 instance using SSH.

🔐 Step 4: Add Secrets to GitHub

Go to your GitHub repository → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret

Add the following secrets:

  • EC2_HOST → your EC2 public IP
  • EC2_USER → usually ec2-user (Amazon Linux) or ubuntu (Ubuntu)
  • EC2_KEY → paste the contents of your private key .pem file

⚠️ Never commit .pem files or expose them in public repos. GitHub Secrets are encrypted, but use IAM roles or session-based credentials for production setups.

🚀 Step 5: Push Your Code and Deploy

Now commit and push to GitHub:

git add .
git commit -m "Initial CI/CD setup"
git push origin main # or 'master' if your repo uses that
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Head over to the Actions tab in your GitHub repo — you'll see the deploy job running.

When it's finished, go to http://<your-ec2-public-ip>. Your site should be live with the new HTML!

🎉 You're Done!

Congrats! You’ve set up your first CI/CD pipeline using:

  • GitHub Actions for automation
  • EC2 as your deployment target
  • SCP/SSH for secure transfer Now, anytime you update your HTML and push to main (or master), your changes go live automatically.

🔍 What Happens Behind the Scenes

Let’s break down what’s really going on when you push your code and GitHub Actions deploys it to EC2:

  1. GitHub Detects a Push to main
    • GitHub watches for changes to your repository.
    • When you push to the main branch, it checks .github/workflows/deploy.yml.
    • This file tells GitHub: “Hey, run this workflow when there’s a push.”
  2. GitHub Actions Spins Up a Runner
    • GitHub spins up a temporary virtual machine (Ubuntu in our case).
    • This is where your workflow steps run.
  3. Your Code Is Cloned
    • The actions/checkout step grabs your repo’s latest code.
  4. Secure Copy (SCP) Sends Files to EC2
    • The appleboy/scp-action uses scp under the hood.
    • It connects to your EC2 instance using your SSH key (EC2_KEY) and username.
    • Then it uploads your index.html to the EC2 server — typically in /var/www/html.
  5. EC2 Serves the Updated HTML
    • Your Apache or Nginx web server is already running on EC2.
    • It’s watching the /var/www/html directory.
    • When the new index.html is uploaded, it automatically starts serving the new version.

🔹 Local equivalent:

Let’s look at what you’d do manually without CI/CD, so you can better appreciate what GitHub Actions automates.

# GitHub Actions: checkout step
git clone https://github.com/your-username/your-repo.git
cd your-repo

# GitHub Actions: SCP upload step
scp -i your-key.pem index.html ec2-user@your-ec2-ip:/var/www/html
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🔹 Summary of the Flow 

GitHub Repo  ---push--->  GitHub Actions
     ↓                         ↓
 deploy.yml              Ubuntu Runner
                               ↓
                       SSH into EC2 via key
                               ↓
                   Upload index.html via SCP
                               ↓
               Apache serves your site update
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🧠 Bonus Ideas

  • Add support for multiple environments (e.g., staging, production)
  • Use Nginx instead of Apache for better performance
  • Install SSL with Let’s Encrypt (Certbot)
  • Automate EC2 provisioning with Terraform or CloudFormation

🙌 Final Thoughts

CI/CD doesn't have to be complicated. Starting with small projects like this builds the foundation for automating deployments in real-world applications.

🌐 Got stuck? Drop a comment below and I’ll help you out — or connect with me on LinkedIn!

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