Smarter Deployments withOctopus Deploy

Thibaud Gravrand

Thibaud Gravrand

• .Net Developer for 7 years

• R&D Manager for Netsize, a Gemalto Company

• http://fr.linkedin.com/in/tgravrand

• https://twitter.com/dolomitt

How did we deploy before ?

• Let’s go for a simple xcopy – why should I need more than that ?

• Some zips here and there

• Attempt of deployment from CI ?

But there are inconvenients

• I think my script will not work in production but let’s try !

• When did we release the last version ?

• I think we did not deliver the same version…

• I forgot one dll, I’ll just add it quickly without being noticed

Let’s write down how we like ourdeployments• Should be a repeatable process

• Should be fully automated

• Should support strong versioning

• Should tackle complex distributed deployments

• Should not forget what we did, who did it and when

• Should take care of development and production environments

• Should allow responsabilities split between teams

• Should be fast !!

Octopus Deploy

• Developed by Paul Stovell since 2011

• Dedicated solution for Windows Platforms

• Heavily relies on nuget package software

Architecture

• Nuget Repository• Built-in or external

• Central Server• Relies on RavenDB

• Tentacles (slaves)

How does it work ?Broken down in 7 Steps

Step 1 – Declare Environment

• Declare Machines

• Associate Environment and Role

• Typical Environments• DEV, INT, QA, STAGE, UAT, PREPROD, PROD

• Typical Roles• Front End, Back End FrontEndFrontEnd

BackEndBackEnd

Asymetric Setup

BackEndBackEnd

FrontEndFrontEnd

DEV

BackEndBackEnd

FrontEndFrontEnd

PROD

BackEndBackEnd BackEndBackEnd

FrontEndFrontEndFrontEndFrontEnd

BackEndBackEnd

FrontEndFrontEnd

UAT

Step 2 - Create Package of your application

• Simply add OctoPack Nuget Package to your projects

• Publish Package to Nuget Repository• Either built-in or external Nuget Repo

• Typically pushed from TeamCity, Jenkins and other CI

• Supported types of projects• Web Application• Windows Service• Windows Executable

Step 3 – Create Project in Octopus Deploy

• Describe your project quickly

• Define Versioning Policy• Arbitrary & Incremental

• From Main Nuget Package Version

• Define Deployment Policy• Copy missing or all packages to tentacles

Step 4 – Create Deployment Process

• Describe each step of deployment for your application / solution

• Heavily relies on Powershell 2.0

• Steps can be :• Setup IIS Site• Run executable• Run Powershell Script• Customize Configuration• Approval Flow (Email)

• Steps can be run in parallel

Step 5 – Define Variables

• Describe variables for each environment

• Variables are associated to scopes and will be evaluated at deploymenttime

• Configuration Files will be transformed according to variable values

• Scopes can be linked to :• Environment• Machine• Step number

Example of Variable Definitions

Variable Value Scope

DatabaseServer dev028db DEV

DatabaseServer qa028db QA

DatabaseServer Prod028db1 PROD;Machine1

DatabaseServer Prod028db2 PROD;Machine2

DNS dev.octopus.com DEV

DNS qa.octopus.com QA

DNS www1.octopus.com PROD;Machine1

DNS www2.octopus.com PROD;Machine2

Step 6 – Create Release

• Creating a release will make a snapshot of :• Variables

• Steps

• Powershell Scripts

• Package References

• Release can be based on several nupkg files

Example of Release Content

Step 7 – Deploy Release

• Choose a release

• Choose an environment

• Deploy !

• Each step is being executed sequentially

• Configuration Files are being transformed• Web.Config Transform Feature similar to Visual Studio

• Key Value Replacement

Deployment against Environments

BackEndBackEnd

FrontEndFrontEnd

DEV

BackEndBackEnd

FrontEndFrontEnd

PROD

BackEndBackEnd BackEndBackEnd

FrontEndFrontEndFrontEndFrontEnd

BackEndBackEnd

FrontEndFrontEnd

UAT

Deployment Patterns

• Rolling deployments

• Canary deployments

• Blue-green deployments

• Isolated Octopus Deploy servers

How to integrate into your buildpipeline ?

How to integrate into your build pipeline ?

Flavor of Continuous Delivery

Build Run Unit Tests Deploy to DEVRun Sanity

CheckPromote to

INT

Run Full Integration

TestsPromote to QA

Run ManualTests

Promote to PROD

Some drawbacks

• Manual Rollbacks

• One instance of a project on a tentacle client

• Packages limited to 10 megabytes

• Might be difficult to handle exotic configuration files

Features - Last but not least

• Full Audit Log

• Strong REST API

• Nuget Repository

• Retention Policies

• Permission Model

• Lifecycle Management

• Azure Deployments

• Scheduled Deployments

Advanced Scenarios

• Let’s talk to Nagios or OP/5 to tell them I’m updating some services

• Let’s deploy in PCI-DSS environments

Roadmap

• Linux Deployments through SSH

• Remote Delta Compression

• Offline Deployment

• Replace RavenDB with SQL Server

Resources

• https://demo.octopusdeploy.com/app

• DotNetRocks, episode 1002: Interview with Paul about OctopusDeploy.

• DotNetRocks, episode 966: Nick discusses structured logging, with an overview of Octopus at the start.

• Herding Code, episode 143: Paul Stack discusses continuousintegration, and mentions Octopus at 20:23. Scott talks about hisexperiences with Octopus.

Thank you !