Managing deployments in continuous build environments...

[Jeff <pr...@gmail.com>]

The results of my searching on this topic haven't yielded a clear answer.
Most talk only of using the Maven or Ant Tomcat plugin to deploy with the
assumption that the old webapp is overwritten and not much discussion on
making things work where additional "tweaks" may be needed.

Maybe we are doing it in a non-standard way.  Is there a best practice
(process/tools) for handling web application deployments in a continuous
integration/deployment pipeline environment across multiple nodes?

We are just starting to implement this type of process.  Currently, the WAR
file names have the build number included.  The build is deployed to the
tomcat server via the Ant Tomcat Task plugin to a new context (based on
build#).  This allows us to deploy the new application without affecting the
old one.

Once the new build of the webapp is deployed, the tomcat root
context ("ROOT" folder) is switched (via a symlink) to point to the new
application context. This is has been a manual effort thus far and not too
big of a deal, but with a continuous build/deployment process, we'd like to
remove the need for manual intervention as well as add support to multiple
front-end nodes.

The symlink option is nice in a way because it gives us the ability to
quickly revert to an older build in case of problems.

Is there a better way to manage this?  How do you/others handle it?

We are currently using ANT 1.8.x for our build script and GO as the
Continuous Deployment Management Platform.  I'm sure we aren't the first to
do this.

Any pointers/resources are appreciated!

-- 
Jeff Vincent
predatorvi@gmail.com
See my LinkedIn profile at:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/rjeffreyvincent
I ♥ DropBox <http://db.tt/9O6LfBX> !!

RE: Managing deployments in continuous build environments...

["Caldarale, Charles R" <Ch...@unisys.com>]

> From: Jeff [mailto:predatorvi@gmail.com] 
> Subject: Managing deployments in continuous build environments...

> Is there a best practice (process/tools) for handling web 
> application deployments in a continuous integration/deployment
> pipeline environment across multiple nodes?

You might want to look into the Tomcat 7 parallel deployment mechanism:

http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/config/context.html#Parallel_deployment

I'm sure that's not a complete answer, but it might be a starting point.

 - Chuck


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