Capistrano: organizing folders for different environments - capistrano

I'm approaching to Capistrano and I want to understand better how I have to organize the folder structure on the server.
Let's suppose I have two branch:
master
develop
That are visible respectively on:
www.example.org
develop.example.org
Actually (no-Capistrano), on the server I have:
/home/sites/example.org/www
/home/sites/example.org/develop
But, with Capistrano, I will have only /home/sites/example.org/current.
How can I manage the "production/development" situation with Capistrano?
Thanks

You can override the deployment folder in your environment config. For example, you have the default deployment location in config/deploy.rb using set :deploy_to, '/home/sites/example.org/www'. Then you set up config/develop.rb and config/production.rb (these names are arbitrary and don't need to map to the branch names):
server 'servername', user: 'username', roles: %w(app db web)
set :deploy_to, '/home/sites/example.org/develop'
In general, anything you set in deploy.rb can be overridden in deploy/[env].rb.

Related

How to read multiple config file from Spring Cloud Config Server

Spring cloud config server supports reading property files with name ${spring.application.name}.properties. However I have 2 properties files in my application.
a.properties
b.properties
Can I get the config server to read both these properties files?
Rename your properties files in git or file system where your config server is looking at.
a.properties -> <your_application_name>.properties
a.properties -> <your_application_name>-<profile-name>.properties
For example, if your application name is test and you are running your application on dev profile, below two properties will be used together.
test.properties
test-dev.properties
Also you can specify additional profiles in bootstrap.properties of your config client to retrieve more properties files like below. For example,
spring:
profiles: dev
cloud:
config:
uri: http://yourconfigserver.com:8888
profile: dev,dev-db,dev-mq
If you specify like above, below all files will be used together.
test.properties
test-dev.properties
test-dev-db.prpoerties
test-dev-mq.properties
Note that the provided answer assumes your property files address different execution profiles. If they dont, i.e., your properties are split into different files for some other reason, e.g., maintenance purposes, divided by business/functional domain, or any other reason that suits your needs, then, by defining a profile for each such file, you are just "abusing" the profile feature, for achieving your goal (multiple property files per app).
You could then ask "OK, so what is the problem with that?". The problem is that you restrain yourself from various possibilities that you would otherwise have. If you actually want to customize your application configuration by profile you will have to create pseudo, sub, profiles for that since the file name is already a profile. Example:
Your application configuration could be customized by different profiles, which you use inside your springboot application (e.g. in #Profile() annotation), let them be dev, uat, prod. You can boot your application setting different profiles as active, e.g. 'dev' vs 'uat', and get the group of properties that you desire. For your a.properties b.properties and c.properties file, if different file names were supported, you would have a-dev.properties b-dev.properties and c-dev.properties files vs a-uat.properties b-uat.properties and c-uat.properties files for 'dev' and 'uat' profile.
Nevertheless, with the provided solution, you already have defined 3 profiles for each file: appname-a.properties appname-b.properties, and appname-c.properties: a, b, and c. Now imagine you have to create a different profile for each... profile(! it already shows something goes wrong here)! you would end up with a lot of profile permutations (which would get worse as files increase): The files would be appname-a-dev.properties, appname-b-dev.properties, app-c-dev.properties vs appname-a-uat.properties, appname-b-uat.properties, app-c-uat.properties, but the profiles would have been increased from ['dev', ' uat'] to ['a-dev', 'b-dev', 'c-dev', 'a-uat', 'b-uat', 'c-uat'] !!!
Even worse, how are you going to cope with all these profiles inside your code and more specifically your #Profile() annotations? Will you clutter the code space with "artificial" profiles just because you want to add one or two more different property files? It should have been sufficient to define your dev or uat profiles, where applicable, and define somewhere else the applicable property file names (which could then be further supported by profile, without any other configuration action), just as it happens in the externalized properties configuration for individual springboot apps
For argument completeness, I will just add here that if you want to switch to .yml property files one day, with the provided profile-based naming solution, you also loose the ability to define different "yaml document sections per profile" inside the same .yml file (Yes, in .yml you can have one property file yet define multiple logical yml documents inside, which its usually done for customizing the properties for different profiles, while having all related properties in one place). You loose the ability because you have already used the profile in the file name (appname-profile.yml)
I have issued a pull request with a minor fix for spring-cloud-config-server 1.4.x, which allows defining additionally supported file names (appart from "application[-profile]" and "{appname}[-profile]", that are currently supported) by providing a spring.cloud.congif.server.searchNames environment property - analogous to spring.config.name for springboot apps. I hope it gets reviewed and accepted.
I came across the same requirement lately with a little more constraint that I am not allowed to play around the environment profiles. So I wasn't allowed to do as the accepted answer. I'm sharing how I did it as an alternative to those who might have same case as me.
In my application, I have properties such as:
appxyz-data-soures.properties
appxyz-data-soures-staging.properties
appxyz-data-soures-production.properties
appxyz-interfaces.properties
appxyz-interfaces-staging.properties
appxyz-interfaces-production.properties
appxyz-feature.properties
appxyz-feature-staging.properties
appxyz-feature-production.properties
application.properties // for my use, contains local properties only
bootstrap.properties // for my use, contains management properties only
In my application, I have these particular properties set that allow me to achieve what I needed. But note I have the rest of needed config as well (enable cloud config, actuator refresh, eureka service discovery and so on) - just highlighting these for emphasis:
spring.application.name=appxyz
spring.cloud.config.name=appxyz-data-soures,appxyz-interfaces,appxyz-feature
You can observe that I didn't want to play around my application name but instead I used it as prefix for my config property files.
In my configuration server I configured in application.yml to capture pattern: 'appxyz-*':
spring:
cloud:
config:
server:
git:
uri: <git repo default>
repos:
appxyz:
pattern: 'appxyz-*'
uri: <another git repo if you have 1 repo per app>
private-key: ${git.appxyz.pk}
strict-host-key-checking: false
ignore-local-ssh-settings: true
private-key: ${git.default.pk}
In my Git repository I have the following. No application.properties and bootstrap because I didn't want those to be published and overridden/refreshed externally but you can do if you want.
appxyz-data-soures.properties
appxyz-data-soures-staging.properties
appxyz-data-soures-production.properties
appxyz-interfaces.properties
appxyz-interfaces-staging.properties
appxyz-interfaces-production.properties
appxyz-feature.properties
appxyz-feature-staging.properties
appxyz-feature-production.properties
It will be the pattern matching pattern: 'appxyz-*' that will capture and return the matching files from my git repository. The profile will also apply and fetch the correct property file accordingly. The prioritization of value is also preserved.
Furthermore, if you wish to add more file in your application (say appxyz-circuit-breaker.properties), we only need to do:
Add the name pattern in the spring.cloud.config.name=...,appxyz-circuit-breaker
The add the copies of the file locally and also externally (in the git repo.
No need to add/modify more or restart your configuration server later on. For new application, it's like a one time registration thing to add an entry under the repos of application.yml.
Hope it helps in one way or another!
In your application bootstrap.properties, you have to specify like below:
spring.application.name=a,b

Deployment with Chef

I am using the chef resource "deploy_revision" to deploy a python code on my nodes. I started this initially for a dev environment but now slowly there is a need for this to expand and i am not sure - if this is a good choice. Below is the code.
data_bag = Chef::EncryptedDataBagItem.load("#{node.chef_environment}", "#{node.chef_environment}")
deploy_revision "/opt/mount/#{node[:application_name]}" do
repo "#{node[:application_repo]}"
user "deployer"
keep_releases 10
action :deploy
migrate false
symlink_before_migrate.clear
create_dirs_before_symlink
purge_before_symlink.clear
symlinks.clear
symlinks {}
notifies :restart, "service[abc]"
end
This pulls down the new code whenever there is one, during the automatic chef-run every 30mins on the nodes. This is cool but not so cool in other nodes which are not a part of the development environment. I have 4 environments:
dev
test
stage
prod
If i create 4 remote branches on the git, Is there a way on how to make this deploy from specific branch on specific environments? Something like, the dev nodes deploy the dev remote branch, test deploys the test remote branch and so on.. This way, i can put a gate on the auto deploys that happening every 30mins. i referred the chef docs, there is this "deploy_branch" but i not sure it just says its the same as "deploy_revision".
https://docs.chef.io/resource_deploy.html#layout-modifiers
There is an attribute branch available as per the chef document. So adding the attribute like is what i need?
deploy_revision "/opt/mount/#{node[:application_name]}" do
repo "#{node[:application_repo]}"
user "deployer"
branch "node.chef_environment"
keep_releases 10
action :deploy
migrate false
symlink_before_migrate.clear
create_dirs_before_symlink
purge_before_symlink.clear
symlinks.clear
symlinks {}
notifies :restart, "service[abc]"
end
Then, i came across this bug report (closed): https://tickets.opscode.com/browse/CHEF-5084. It seems to be specifying branches with the attribute, "revision". So, can i use this attribute with the node environment as the parameter? Like this
revision "node.chef_environments"
If you guys, think deployment using chef is not a good idea. Do you think- i should look out for Capistrano?
we do this all the time. Just add:
deploy_revision '/path' do
...
revision node['chef_environment']
...
end
Or in our case, we calculate the branch from the chef_environment
deploy_revision '/path' do
...
revision node['chef_environment'].match(/develop|staging|production|test/)[0]
...
end
This is how it worked for me.
deploy_revision "/opt/mount/#{node[:application_name]}" do
repo "#{node[:application_repo]}"
user "deployer"
revision node.chef_environment
keep_releases 10
action :deploy
migrate false
symlink_before_migrate.clear
create_dirs_before_symlink
purge_before_symlink.clear
symlinks.clear
symlinks {}
notifies :restart, "service[abc]"
end

capistrano (v3) deploys the same code on all roles

If I understand correctly the standard git deploy implementation with capistrano v3 deploys the same repository on all roles. I have a more difficult app that has several types of servers and each type has its own code base with its own repository. My database server for example does not need to deploy any code.
How do I tackle such a problem in capistrano v3?
Should I write my own deployment tasks for each of the roles?
How do I tackle such a problem in capistrano v3?
All servers get the code, as in certain environments the code is needed to perform some actions. For example in a typical setup the web server needs your static assets, the app server needs your code to serve the app, and the db server needs your code to run migrations.
If that's not true in your environment and you don't want the code on the servers in some roles, you could easily send a pull request to add the no_release feature back from Cap2 in to Cap3.
You can of course take the .rake files out of the Gem, and load those in your Capfile, which is a perfectly valid way to use the tool, and modify them for your own needs.
The general approach is that if you don't need code on your DB server, for example, why is it listed in your deployment file?
I can confirm you can use no_release: true to disable a server from deploying the repository code.
I needed to do this so I could specifically run a restart task for a different server.
Be sure to give your server a role so that you can target it. There is a handy function called release_roles() you can use to target servers that have your repository code.
Then you can separate any tasks (like my restart) to be independent from the deploy procedure.
For Example:
server '10.10.10.10', port: 22, user: 'deploy', roles: %w{web app db assets}
server '10.10.10.20', port: 22, user: 'deploy', roles: %w{frontend}, no_release: true
namespace :nginx do
desc 'Reloading PHP will clear OpCache. Remove Nginx Cache files to force regeneration.'
task :reload do
on roles(:frontend) do
execute "sudo /usr/sbin/service php7.1-fpm reload"
execute "sudo /usr/bin/find /var/run/nginx-cache -type f -delete"
end
end
end
after 'deploy:finished', 'nginx:reload'
after 'deploy:rollback', 'nginx:reload'
# Example of a task for release_roles() only
desc 'Update composer'
task :update do
on release_roles(:all) do
execute "cd #{release_path} && composer update"
end
end
before 'deploy:publishing', 'composer:update'
I can think of many scenarios where this would come in handy.
FYI, this link has more useful examples:
https://capistranorb.com/documentation/advanced-features/property-filtering/

Capistrano in Open Source Projects and different environments

I consider to use Capistrano to deploy my rails app on my server. Currently I'm using a script, which does all the work for me. But Capistrano looks pretty nice and I want to give it a try.
My first problem/question now is: How to use Capistrano properly in open source projects? I don't want to publish my deploy.rb for several reasons:
It contains sensible informations about my server. I don't want to publish them :)
It contains the config for MY server. For other people, which deploy that open source project to their own server, the configuration may differ. So it's pretty senseless to publish my configuration, because it's useless for other people.
Second problem/question: How do I manage different environments?
Background: On my server I provide two different environments for my application: The stable system using the current stable release branch and located under www.domain.com. And a integration environment for the develop team under dev.domain.com running the master branch.
How do I tell Capistrano to deploy the stable system or the dev system?
The way I handle sensitive information (passwords etc.) in Capistrano is the same way I handle them in general: I use an APP_CONFIG hash that comes from a YAML file that isn't checked into version control. This is a classic technique that's covered e.g. in RailsCast #226, or see this StackOverflow question.
There are a few things you have to do a little differently when using this approach with Capistrano:
Normally APP_CONFIG is loaded from your config/application.rb (so it happens early enough to be usable everywhere else); but Capistrano cap tasks won't load that file. But you can just load it from config/deploy.rb too; here's the top of a contrived config/deploy.rb file using an HTTP repository that requires a username/password.
require 'bundler/capistrano'
APP_CONFIG = YAML.load_file("config/app_config.yml")
set :repo_user, APP_CONFIG['repo_user']
set :repo_password, APP_CONFIG['repo_password']
set :repository, "http://#{repo_user}:#{repo_password}#hostname/repositoryname.git/"
set :scm, :git
# ...
The config/app_config.yml file is not checked into version control (put that path in your .gitignore or similar); I normally check in a config/app_config.yml.sample that shows the parameters that need to be configured:
repo_user: 'usernamehere'
repo_password: 'passwordhere'
If you're using the APP_CONFIG for your application, it probably needs to have different values on your different deploy hosts. So have your Capistrano setup make a symlink from the shared/ directory to each release after it's checked out. You want to do this early in the deploy process, because applying migrations might need a database password. So in your config/deploy.rb put this:
after 'deploy:update_code', 'deploy:symlink_app_config'
namespace :deploy do
desc "Symlinks the app_config.yml"
task :symlink_app_config, :roles => [:web, :app, :db] do
run "ln -nfs #{deploy_to}/shared/config/app_config.yml #{release_path}/config/app_config.yml"
end
end
Now, for the second part of your question (about deploying to multiple hosts), you should configure separate Capistrano "stages" for each host. You put everything that's common across all stages in your config/deploy.rb file, and then you put everything that's unique to each stage into config/deploy/[stagename].rb files. You'll have a section in config/deploy.rb that defines the stages:
# Capistrano settings
require 'bundler/capistrano'
require 'capistrano/ext/multistage'
set :stages, %w(preproduction production)
set :default_stage, 'preproduction'
(You can call the stages whatever you want; the Capistrano stage name is separate from the Rails environment name, so the stage doesn't have to be called "production".) Now when you use the cap command, insert the stage name between cap and the target name, e.g.:
$ cap preproduction deploy #deploys to the 'preproduction' environment
$ cap production deploy #deploys to the 'production' environment
$ cap deploy #deploys to whatever you defined as the default

How to deploy to multiple redundant production servers with "cap deploy"?

Capistrano is working great to deploy to a single server. However, I have multiple production API servers for my web application. When I deploy, my code needs to get deployed to every API server at once. Specifying each server manually is NOT the solution I am looking for (e.g. I don't want to do "cap api1 deploy; cap api2 deploy").
Is there a way, using Capistrano, to deploy to all servers at once, with just a simple "cap deploy"? I'm wondering what changes I would need to make to a typical deploy.rb file, whether I'd need to create a separate file for each server, and whether and how the Capfile would need to be changed. Also, I need to be able to specify a different deploy_to path for each server. And ideally, I wouldn't have to repeat things in different config files for different servers (eg. wouldn't have to specify :repository, :application, etc. multiple times).
I have spent hours searching Google on this and looking through tutorials, but I have found nothing helpful.
Here is a snippet from my current deploy.rb file:
set :application, "testapplication"
set :repository, "ssh://domain.com//srv/hg/#{application}"
set :scm, :mercurial
set :deploy_to, "/srv/www/#{application}"
role :web, "domain.com"
role :app, "domain.com"
role :db, "domain.com", :primary => true, :norelease => true
Should I just use the multistage extension and do this?
task :deploy_everything do
system "cap api1 deploy"
system "cap api2 deploy"
system "cap api2 deploy"
end
That could work, but I feel like this isn't what this extension is meant for...
It seems like you might be interested in the "Multiple Servers" heading on the Getting Started page. Is that what you're after?