On Thu, 24 Feb 2005, Neil Bothwick wrote:
On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 13:28:56 -0500 (EST), Christopher Fisk wrote:
Not sure about the paid support, but (IMO) the correct way to rollout an
update to your servers is to get another machine with the same software setup that you can test on. If you have a webpage or app that you need to upgrade, then do it on your test machine, then roll out an update to your gentoo machine. This is true for almost all types of systems. Yes, buying another machine will cost you little bit, but the first time it prevents downtime, it's practically paid for.
This also has the advantage of not having to load up your production servers with compilation. Use the --buildpkg option when installing on the test server and --usepkg on the production machine. Just make sure PKGDIR points to the same shared directory on all machines.
Well, PKGDIR doesn't have to be the same directory, you could just move them over manually. This ensures that your system has less points of possible compromise.
I'd like to give another advantage of this system. The test machine can become a type of "hot spare" if something happens to the original server. Thus giving you another layer of backup for your system. If you have a nightly backup that is loaded onto the test server daily you'll be all set in the case of emergency.
And, this is getting off topic now, but if you have a backup solution in place, you really should go through the disaster recovery procedure of that backup procedure so when the emergency does happen, you are sure you know how to implement the fix =). I've seen that come back to bite people in the ass before.
Christopher Fisk -- BOFH Excuse #45: virus attack, luser responsible -- [email protected] mailing list
