How Do You Manage Dev/Test/Production Environments? 244
An anonymous reader writes "I am a n00b system administrator for a small web development company that builds and hosts OSS CMSes on a few LAMP servers (mostly Drupal). I've written a few scripts that check out dev/test/production environments from our repository, so web developers can access the site they're working on from a URL (ex: site1.developer.example.com). Developers also get FTP access and MySQL access (through phpMyAdmin). Additional scripts check in files to the repository and move files/DBs through the different environments. I'm finding as our company grows (we currently host 50+ sites) it is cumbersome to manage all sites by hacking away at the command prompt. I would like to find a solution with a relatively easy-to-use user interface that provisions dev/test/live environments. The Aegir project is a close fit, but is only for Drupal sites and still under heavy development. Another option is to completely rewrite the scripts (or hire someone to do it for me), but I would much rather use something OSS so I can give back to the community. How have fellow slashdotters managed this process, what systems/scripts have you used, and what advice do you have?"
You are not a n00b (Score:5, Insightful)
You may be a new system administrator, but you are not a n00b.
A n00b wouldn't realize he was a n00b.
Re:Start an OSS Project (Score:1, Insightful)
Or... if you want a solution that's actually ever completed: go with some of the other suggestions ;)
Re:How slashdot does it (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not that far from the truth in MANY places and projects I've seen.
I've actually come to the conclusion, that on many govt/DoD projects, that the dev. environment in fact becomes the test and production environment!!
I learned that it really pays, when spec'ing out the hardware and software that you need, to get as much as they will pay for for the 'dev' machines....because, it will inevitably become the production server as soon as stuff is working on it, the deadline hits, and there is suddenly no more funding for a proper test/prod environment.
Re:Separate SVN deploys (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Most important thing in my book (Score:1, Insightful)
And don't forget: it's DTAP:
Development -> Test -> ACCEPT -> Production
and vv.
Re:Mod Parent Up! (Score:4, Insightful)
Where eln failed is in how his post turned into nothing more than a personal attack against the parent story poster. In the open source world there are users, documenters, developers and visionaries. And guess what - a majority of those are users and most users will never contribute to your project.
Simply attacking the guy with crass, harsh statements is not in the vein of "The Gift Culture."
So, yes, eln's comment is a troll comment.
As for a "moral obligation?" That's laughable. If you give someone something for free don't expect them to do anything for you. Maybe that person doesn't have the time to invest in giving back at the moment. Making inflammatory comments will certainly push them away from your base of constituents. And that means less users. So attacking people who don't know is counter-productive and does not serve the OSS causes or beliefs.
If the someone feels to compelled to "give" or "give back" to the open source community - in whatever manner - count the community fortunate. Expecting anything is counter to the ideals of "The Gift Culture."
Please reread ESR's book.
Re:Most important thing in my book (Score:4, Insightful)
Testing with real data is not necessarily a good practice. Consider sensitive data, such as social security numbers. Auditors may ding your development practices for providing developers access to information they do not need. You need realistic data, not necessarily the real data. If you're bringing real data from prod back to test and dev, consider having something scrub the data.
Re:You are not a n00b (Score:5, Insightful)
Or maybe they're not over public internet, or are tunneled, or they're sftp and he just calls it ftp? We dunno.