Lather, Rinse, Release - WDCNZ 2013

Why you'd want an automated release process, and how to build one. Find bugs early, get code out faster, and get a good night's sleep.

Transcript

1. Lather, Rinse, Release. Donald Gordon
2. Hi! I’m Donald Gordon. Senior Operations Developer, Xero.
3. Lather, Rinse, Release: Endlessly • Release Engineering lite for web devs • Release is the end goal of development • Release is what your users wait for • Do it faster • Do it often • Do it without gnawing your fingernails
4. Release Engineering for Web Devs • High level • Process-lite • Microsoft? Open Source / Linux? No problem. • Get around to it! • Lots of low hanging fruit
5. Why do I need any of this? • What’s causing you pain? • What’s slowing you down? • What keeps your CEO awake at night? • “Company threatening events”
6. What do we need? • Source Control • Build • Test • Deploy
7. Fail fast! • Test your assumptions • Fail builds, rather than tests • Fail tests, rather than QA • Fail QA before your code goes live
8. Builds
9. Builds • Repeatable builds are important • Repeatable builds are trustworthy • Hermetic builds are auditable • Builds on developer workstations are not trustworthy • Manual tests: exactly what’s going into production • Confidently apply tiny patches to live • Fail fast
10. Builds • TeamCity / Hudson / Jenkins / … • Build server hygiene: Be a tidy kiwi • Be a really OCD, disciplined kiwi • Pre-tested commits
11. Deployment
12. Automated Deployment: why? • Human error • “Let’s just edit this in production” • Automate configuration changes • Your workstation is an environment, too
13. Requirements for Deployment • Cut over or staggered rollout? • Per-environment settings • Password management • Infrastructure management?
14. Deployment Tools • MSDeploy • Chef / Puppet • DIY
15. Environments should be similar • Fail fast • HTTPS everywhere • Database usernames • Similar URL scheme • Software Load Balancer • Use a proxy
16. Appendices
17. Generic Ops Advice • Keep it simple • Let someone else live on the bleeding edge • Even if you’re small, you can still be disciplined • You will need this if you grow • Does every developer need Adminstrator/root access? • At least they won’t need to use it often
18. Homework • Automate your builds • Invest in automation • Start small, your automation is a work-in-process • A release is everyone’s concern • Don’t wake up in a cold sweat
19. Questions? @deadlyllama See me in the break!