Slides for the "Deployment is the new build" presentation by Andrew Phillips (XebiaLabs) at the Devopsdays 2011 conference in Boston.

1. Deployment is the new build
Andrew Phillips

2. Deployment is like the new build

3. Deployment is like the new build
Deployment is the new build

4. Devops and Deployment
Q: What does a talk like
“Deployment is the new build”
have to do with Devops* anyway?
*yes, I know…

5. Devops and Deployment
A: We’re here because of shared
experience that delivering value
requires a holistic view of software
development and maintenance

6. The Road to Value

7. The Road to Value
We have ideas…

8. The Road to Value
…think about how to
implement them…

9. The Road to Value
…write source code…

10. The Road to Value
…test the source code…

11. The Road to Value
…convert source code into
deliverables…

12. The Road to Value
…make those deliverables
accessible to users…

13. The Road to Value
…test the deliverables
some more…

14. The Road to Value
…make them available to
end users…

15. The Road to Value
GOTO TOP

16. The red bit

17. The red bit
• We have ideas…
• …think about how to implement them…
• …write source code…
• …test the source code…
• …convert source code into deliverables…
• …make those deliverables accessible to users…
• …test the deliverables some more…
• …make them available to end users…
• GOTO TOP

18. Why the red bit?
Because our industry as a
whole does this part
really badly

19. Why the red bit?
Because, if we take a holistic
approach to software
delivery, we often identify this
as a key area to improve

20. di-'plȯi-mәnt
• Deployment: taking the components that make up a
release (typically a specific version of an application)
and getting them correctly set up in an infrastructure
environment so that the release is accessible to (end)
users

21. di-'plȯi-mәnt
• Deployment: taking the components that make up a
release (typically a specific version of an application)
and getting them correctly set up in an infrastructure
environment so that the release is accessible to (end)
users
Let’s talk “on-demand” environments and virtual appliances later

22. Deployment today
Here be demons

23. Deployment here today
do now maybe
this this
this
then then this
that that again
then then
this this phew!

24. The Road to Value

25. Remember this?
make

26. Remember this?

27. Remember this?
Here be demons

28. Build today
GO!

29. Build today
How did this happen?

30. How did this happen?
1. Reusable commands
2. Models
3. Conventions++

31. Reusable commands
• Recognising recurring low-level building blocks
• Replacing copy’n’paste snippets with reusable
libraries
• Chunking sequences of low-level commands
Thinking Ant here

32. Models
• Common chunks work with common types of
data
• Formalise data chunks into a domain model
• Formalise chunks of work into phases
• Use language-/domain-specific defaults
Thinking Maven here

33. Conventions++
• Modifying a rigid convention-based system is
cumbersome
• Domain-/language-specific defaults and flow
works out-of-the-box
• Hook in with full control where you need to
Thinking Gradle here

34. How did this happen?
• Not driven by industry standards! Just
observation of common patterns
• Changing out-of-the-box processes to match
user expectation < user expectation changing
to match out-of-the-box processes
• “Mandatory” standards are quite flexible in
practice

35. Deployment today
In here: “Reusable commands”
or a bit beyond

36. Deployment today
In here: “Reusable commands”
or a bit beyond
Out there: make (if you’re lucky)

37. Deployment tomorrow?
GO!

38. Getting to GO!
• Develop a common model
• (Re)discover vanilla
• Support a “clean build”

39. Common model
• Packages
• Environments
• Deployments

40. Common model
• Version everything
• Interoperability
• “Something to work with”

41. Re(discover) vanilla
• It Just Works™
• KISS, YAGNI & more alphabet soup
• Grandmother’s secrets

42. Re(discover) vanilla
• Value reusability
• Improve maintainability
• Minimize “ripple” changes

43. “clean build”
• Incremental as the goal
• Clean as the fallback

44. “clean build”
• Time To Rebuild < Time To Fix
• Prerequisite: versioning
• Prerequisite: known state for durable
resources

45. Deployment is like the new build
Deployment is the new build

46. Virtual appliances
• Deliverable: ready-to-run system
• “Press Play to start”
• Model:
 Package: virtual app
 Environment: hypervisor/platform

47. Making virtual appliances
• Deployment “ahead of time”
 TBD: dealing with customization
• Deployment at build time

48. Making working virtual appliances
• Trust?
• Eyeball?
• Run and monitor?
• ...?

49. Spoiled by CI
• Great expectations
 Unit testing
 Integration testing
 Pattern, style, compliance etc. checkers
 Docs, change logs, reports etc.
 …

50. The new CI?
 Unit testing ► file verification, ping
 Integration testing ► QA tests,
application monitoring, DTrace
 Pattern, style, compliance etc. checkers
► policy engines, configuration checkers
 Docs, change logs, reports etc.
 …

51. Test ≠ Test
• Test the configuration, not the
configurator
• Test the variable, not the template
• Test what, not how

52. The new CI?
• Food for thought
 Quality builds
 Dependent jobs
 Platform agents
 Virtual app repositories
…

53. Building source code…that’s so 2011

54. Thank you!