How Do You Manage Dev/Test/Production Environments?

An anonymous reader writes "I am a n00b system administrator for a small web development company that builds and hosts OSS CMSes on a few LAMP servers (mostly Drupal). I've written a few scripts that check out dev/test/production environments from our repository, so web developers can access the site they're working on from a URL (ex: site1.developer.example.com). Developers also get FTP access and MySQL access (through phpMyAdmin). Additional scripts check in files to the repository and move files/DBs through the different environments. I'm finding as our company grows (we currently host 50+ sites) it is cumbersome to manage all sites by hacking away at the command prompt. I would like to find a solution with a relatively easy-to-use user interface that provisions dev/test/live environments. The Aegir project is a close fit, but is only for Drupal sites and still under heavy development. Another option is to completely rewrite the scripts (or hire someone to do it for me), but I would much rather use something OSS so I can give back to the community. How have fellow slashdotters managed this process, what systems/scripts have you used, and what advice do you have?"

Comments

How slashdot does it

[sopssa]

How have fellow slashdotters managed this process, what systems/scripts have you used, and what advice do you have?"

I do the same as Slashdot.org does - Make the changes on live code, except a little downtime and weird effects and then try to fix

it - while actually never fixing it. After all the results are not that significant:

- if someone posts about it on a thread, mods will -1 offtopic it and no one will hear your complain
- many people will "lol fail" at the weird effects, like when kdawson decides to merge two different stories together

Re:You are not a n00b

[hydroponx]

OR they're Link.....

Slashdot and this company ...

[Krishnoid]

Just roll them into one. It's even got a catchy name.