D
David Heinemeier Hansson
SwitchTower is a utility for executing commands in parallel on
multiple machines. It lets you (among many other things) deploy
distributed applications with a single command.
When your application is young you may be deploying it to a single
machine, which runs the web server, app server, and database all
together. In this situation, deploying manually is not unbearably
painful. But as your application grows you may find yourself needing
to deploy your application to two web servers, four app servers, and
two database servers, atomically. This is where SwitchTower steps in
as a pain-killer.
*Getting Started*
Suppose you have an existing Rails application that you want to deploy
to a cluster of machines. SwitchTower attempts to make the entire
process as painless as possible:
* Install SwitchTower. This is as simple as @gem install switchtower@.
* Decorate your application with the necessary SwitchTower files. Just
do @switchtower --apply-to /path/to/your/app@.
* Tell SwitchTower where your application code sits and what machines
it should deploy to. Just edit @config/deploy.rb@ and fill in the
blanks.
* Set up your machines so they are ready to receive your application.
It's as easy as @rake remote_exec ACTION=3Dsetup@.
* Lastly, deploy your application! Just type @rake deploy@ and let the
good times roll.
*Other Capabilities*
In addition to simply moving your application to the various boxes,
SwitchTower attempts to make the task of maintaining your deployment
simpler. Suppose something goes wrong while checking out your
code--SwitchTower will detect that and roll back the change, _on all
deployed machines_. This means it is much harder to wind up with your
application out of sync on the various boxes.
Other things SwitchTower can do, out of the box:
* Database migrations on your production database
* Enable/disable the web interface (only works with Apache currently)
* Restart your application on the application servers
SwitchTower also makes it very simple to override and extend the
standard tasks, and to write your own. The tasks use a simple language
similar to Rake that allows you to automate many different tasks.
*More Information*
Want to know more about SwitchTower? There's an entire user manual
full of useful tidbits at http://manuals.rubyonrails.com/read/book/17.
--
David Heinemeier Hansson
http://www.loudthinking.com -- Broadcasting Brain
http://www.basecamphq.com -- Online project management
http://www.backpackit.com -- Personal information manager
http://www.rubyonrails.com -- Web-application framework
multiple machines. It lets you (among many other things) deploy
distributed applications with a single command.
When your application is young you may be deploying it to a single
machine, which runs the web server, app server, and database all
together. In this situation, deploying manually is not unbearably
painful. But as your application grows you may find yourself needing
to deploy your application to two web servers, four app servers, and
two database servers, atomically. This is where SwitchTower steps in
as a pain-killer.
*Getting Started*
Suppose you have an existing Rails application that you want to deploy
to a cluster of machines. SwitchTower attempts to make the entire
process as painless as possible:
* Install SwitchTower. This is as simple as @gem install switchtower@.
* Decorate your application with the necessary SwitchTower files. Just
do @switchtower --apply-to /path/to/your/app@.
* Tell SwitchTower where your application code sits and what machines
it should deploy to. Just edit @config/deploy.rb@ and fill in the
blanks.
* Set up your machines so they are ready to receive your application.
It's as easy as @rake remote_exec ACTION=3Dsetup@.
* Lastly, deploy your application! Just type @rake deploy@ and let the
good times roll.
*Other Capabilities*
In addition to simply moving your application to the various boxes,
SwitchTower attempts to make the task of maintaining your deployment
simpler. Suppose something goes wrong while checking out your
code--SwitchTower will detect that and roll back the change, _on all
deployed machines_. This means it is much harder to wind up with your
application out of sync on the various boxes.
Other things SwitchTower can do, out of the box:
* Database migrations on your production database
* Enable/disable the web interface (only works with Apache currently)
* Restart your application on the application servers
SwitchTower also makes it very simple to override and extend the
standard tasks, and to write your own. The tasks use a simple language
similar to Rake that allows you to automate many different tasks.
*More Information*
Want to know more about SwitchTower? There's an entire user manual
full of useful tidbits at http://manuals.rubyonrails.com/read/book/17.
--
David Heinemeier Hansson
http://www.loudthinking.com -- Broadcasting Brain
http://www.basecamphq.com -- Online project management
http://www.backpackit.com -- Personal information manager
http://www.rubyonrails.com -- Web-application framework