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Use ZFS to establish a deployment cycle
Friday, December 22. 2006
I thought a little bit about using ZFS for an controlled deployment lifecycle. Itīs a first version, but should show the idea behind it and what you can do with a filesystem, capable of doing unlimited snapshots:
Imagine you are responsible for a website. For example, you work for the website http://www.sundragons.de.You would start with creating some filesystems for your work. As you start, you would create a directory for your development:
As you are cautious, a script snapshots your work once a day right at midnight. So you can get files out of older versions.
After a while, you want to show the website to your customers. A webserver accessible only for your customers refers to the directory /storage/projects/sundragons/preproduction.
The customer says "Cool, lets start with it!". You only rename the filesystem and the production webserver links to /storage/projects/sundragons/production
After your customer leaved the door, you do some cleanup
Later at the same day, the customer wants some changes, as he thinks that orange was a bad idea, and he wants a calm grey as a background.
Customer is king, and heck ... you told him that orange looks really bad. No problem. You generate a new development structure from you actual production version.
You edit your website
You bring up the preproduction site:
The customers says "Now itīs perfect". And you bring it into production.
And the cycle can start over and over again. And as the snapshots wander with the promoted clone, you can see, how your work evolved with the time.
Imagine you are responsible for a website. For example, you work for the website http://www.sundragons.de.You would start with creating some filesystems for your work. As you start, you would create a directory for your development:
bash-3.00# zfs create storage/projects
bash-3.00# zfs create storage/projects/sundragons
bash-3.00# zfs create storage/projects/sundragons/development
bash-3.00# cd /storage/projects/sundragons/development/As you are cautious, a script snapshots your work once a day right at midnight. So you can get files out of older versions.
bash-3.00# zfs snapshot storage/projects/sundragons/development@20061219
bash-3.00# zfs snapshot storage/projects/sundragons/development@20061220
bash-3.00# zfs snapshot storage/projects/sundragons/development@20061221After a while, you want to show the website to your customers. A webserver accessible only for your customers refers to the directory /storage/projects/sundragons/preproduction.
bash-3.00# zfs clone storage/projects/sundragons/development@20061221 storage/projects/sundragons/preproductionThe customer says "Cool, lets start with it!". You only rename the filesystem and the production webserver links to /storage/projects/sundragons/production
bash-3.00# zfs rename storage/projects/sundragons/preproduction storage/projects/sundragons/productionAfter your customer leaved the door, you do some cleanup
bash-3.00# zfs promote storage/projects/sundragons/production
bash-3.00# zfs destroy -r storage/projects/sundragons/developmentLater at the same day, the customer wants some changes, as he thinks that orange was a bad idea, and he wants a calm grey as a background.
Customer is king, and heck ... you told him that orange looks really bad. No problem. You generate a new development structure from you actual production version.
bash-3.00# zfs snapshot storage/projects/sundragons/production@developmentstart20061222
bash-3.00# zfs clone storage/projects/sundragons/production@developmentstart20061222 storage/projects/sundragons/development
bash-3.00# zfs promote storage/projects/sundragons/developmentYou edit your website
bash-3.00# cd /storage/projects/sundragons/development/
bash-3.00# ls
blah.gif index.html oerks.gif
bash-3.00# vi index.htmlYou bring up the preproduction site:
bash-3.00# zfs snapshot storage/projects/sundragons/development@20061222
bash-3.00# zfs clone storage/projects/sundragons/development@20061222 storage/projects/sundragons/preproductionThe customers says "Now itīs perfect". And you bring it into production.
bash-3.00# zfs destroy storage/projects/sundragons/production
bash-3.00# zfs rename storage/projects/sundragons/preproduction storage/projects/sundragons/productionAnd the cycle can start over and over again. And as the snapshots wander with the promoted clone, you can see, how your work evolved with the time.
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Hi,
I'm not very deep into zfs. So please excuse me if I'm telling complete nonsense here. Using snapshots in the development workspace looks very promising. But as a developer you really want the features of traditional SCM/VCS systems. How does this fit together? I can imagine to use zfs features likes snapshots for repository space, but for workspace?
I'm not very deep into zfs. So please excuse me if I'm telling complete nonsense here. Using snapshots in the development workspace looks very promising. But as a developer you really want the features of traditional SCM/VCS systems. How does this fit together? I can imagine to use zfs features likes snapshots for repository space, but for workspace?
+1
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Here Joerg Moellenkamp developed an idea for using ZFS as kind of "version control system" e. g. for a website. IMHO a pretty neat idea!
Tracked: Dec 22, 23:38
Okay, hmw is right with his objections, that a real software developer would use CVS or something similar, but more capable. But this isnīt really the use case i thought of. Most administrators make their changes to the system on the live system. When the
Tracked: Dec 24, 13:51
Okay, hmw is right with his objections, that a real software developer would use CVS or something similar, but more capable. But this isnīt really the use case i thought of. Most administrators make their changes to the system on the live system. When the
Tracked: Dec 24, 13:54