Quickstart
Here's a step-by-step guide to adopting Release in your organization.
Create a Release account.
Upgrade to a paid plan.
Integrate your cloud provider.
Link a domain.
Create a cluster.
Connect your source control provider.
Create your application.
Step 1: Create a Release account
Visit app.releasehub.com and sign up using your email address or a single sign-on provider such as GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, or Google.
Take a look at our Create an Account documentation if you need more information about this step.
Step 2: Upgrade to a paid plan
If you're just getting started, this step is optional.
After signing up, you'll have access to a limited free account, which you can use to explore Release and see how it works.
For production hosting on your Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account, you'll need to sign up for a paid plan. Email us at upgrade@releasehub.com or contact us using the chat button on our website to arrange this.
Step 3: Integrate your cloud provider
If you're on a paid plan, integrate Release with your cloud provider.
In Account Settings, navigate to Clusters, and press Create new cloud provider integration. Currently, we support AWS and GCP.
When prompted to log in to your cloud provider, you should use an account with enough privileges to create and destroy clusters, manage permissions, manage DNS settings, and other provider-specific functionality that Release will need to function.
Take a look at the following docs for more help with integrating your cloud provider:
Step 4: Link your domain
If you don't already have a domain, you should register one through your cloud provider (for example, Route53 if you're using AWS).
You can also use a domain registered through a third-party provider such as GoDaddy (follow our external DNS guide), but it's easier if you use your cloud provider directly.
To link your domain to Release, go to Settings -> Domains -> Create new domain.
Enter your domain and take note of the nameservers that Release will display. If you're using a third-party domain provider, configure your domain to point to these name servers.
Finally, verify your domain by pressing the Verify button.
Step 5: Create a cluster
Once you have a linked and verified domain, you can create your first cluster. Navigate to Settings -> Clusters and choose Create new cluster under your cloud provider.
For more help with this, see Create a cluster.
Step 6: Connect your source control provider
Release will pull code from your source control provider (such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket) to deploy your application.
You may have integrated a source provider account when you signed up for Release using SSO, but you can further configure your source control provider to give Release access to the correct repositories and edit other settings, like whether Release automatically comments on your pull requests.
To get started, click on your profile picture in Release, then on Manage Profile.
You can connect GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab.
If you're connecting GitHub, you'll be given the option to grant Release access to all of your repositories or only specific repositories.
Once you've created the connection, you'll be able to view your repositories when creating a new app from Release and select the one that you want to deploy using Release.
Step 7: Create and deploy an application
To test that everything works, you can deploy one of our ready-to-go example applications.
Select an example application and fork it to your integrated source control account. Then press Create new app from your Release dashboard and choose the repository you forked.
Where to next
Now you can configure and monitor your applications through your Release dashboard. If necessary, you can still access your AWS account and Kubernetes cluster directly, but for most use cases, you can enjoy our simplified controls and sensible defaults.
To get the most out of Release, you should:
Prepare your applications for use with Release. See Prepare to use Release.
Understand the Application Template file that lets you configure most aspects of Release.
Read our Application guide to understand the details of how Release works.
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