disposable testing environments: there's nothing like production except production
DESCRIPTION
Application environment and content are both critical to practical and useful test environments. Running your Confluence or JIRA instance in a VM allows for easy creation of sandboxes, or copies, of your production environment. Done correctly, having a snapshot copy of your environment opens up many possibilities - such as testing upgrades, testing plugins, or running 'what-if' scenarios. Your servlet container, attachments directory, database, and plugin configurations are all important to your instance and must be considered when creating a copy of production. Eyefinity will also share a real-life report of the ease, and unexpected consequences, of exporting users and content from one instance of Confluence and importing them in to another instance of Confluence when VM copying may not be available or desired. Expect to hear: - Real-life examples - Gotchas - Steps anyone can follow - Considerations important to most Confluence instances.TRANSCRIPT
Monday, June 18, 12
Architect, EyefinityJay Ballinger
There's nothing like production, except production
Disposable testing environments
Monday, June 18, 12
What does your
sandbox look like?
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The path to a production sandboxEvaluate your current sandbox
A sandbox scenario
Benefits of a disposable production sandbox
Gotchas with using a production copy
Suggestions for successful sandboxes
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How sandboxes are bornYour testing/staging attempt.
The first install before doing it for real.
A private just for us admins.
Restored from a backup.
Leftover instance by another team.
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• Testing new plugins
• Playing with permissions
• Thinking about themes
• Wondering "what if"
How useful is your non-production sandbox?
Useful
Monday, June 18, 12
• Testing new plugins
• Playing with permissions
• Thinking about themes
• Wondering "what if"
How useful is your non-production sandbox?
• Undo a mistake
• Investigate a problem
• Understanding upgrades
• What to expect when you make a change 'for real'
Useful Not Useful
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A real-life scenario...
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Moving a Space...
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Moving a Space...
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There is no safe, first-class way to copy a space.
Moving a Space...not exactly easy
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It gets worse...We should upgrade at thesame time we import the 'other' Confluence.
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Two risky operations.Perfect need for a sandbox.
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How much downtime is needed for this maintenance?In what order should this be done?What to do if it all goes wrong?What will it look like when all done?
Only production can answer these
?Monday, June 18, 12
#summit12
There's nothing is like production, except production.
Monday, June 18, 12
Production-sized databaseProduction-sized attachmentsProduction-sized complexityProduction-sized problems
Production provides...
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Elements of the sandbox
Servlet Container& webapp
Database homeindexes & attachments
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Simple setupOne server instance
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Confluence can run in a VMCopy entire 'machine'Make an exact copyTake snapshots
Virtual Machine to the rescue
might even be your backup strategy, eh?
for rollback/undo after a mistake
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IP address and portsPlugins - like email checker as an exampleBase URLs Trusted applicationsFile space for images of the VM
Virtual Machine gotchas
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Very different url / name / portAnnouncement banner screaming THIS IS NOT REALTry to match production performanceAutomate the VM copy action
Suggestions for sandbox
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Snapshots and Rollbacks
Write cookbook for repeatable steps
Rehearse upgrade
Record timing on steps
Answer production questions
Confidence
Benefits of disposable VMs
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Thank you!
Monday, June 18, 12