[wp-hackers] Configuring WordPress Environment / Server

[Adam van den Hoven]

I am not an ops guy, but I think there is a workable solution to be had.

I would build the dev environment around vagrant (http://vagrantup.com).
Basically you can include your dev environment in the code repo letting you
start up a new dev envrionment as easily as

git clone git:example.com/clientfoo.git
cd clientfoo
vagrant up

and boom your dev environment is up and running. You should be able to
write your dev scripts such that it will grab the latest mysql backup from
the client so you should be good (media might be an issue but I think using
something like S3 for uploads would work... or just copy the contents of
the upload directory).  This github project includes a vagrant setup for
wordpress so it might be worth looking at:
https://github.com/iteh/vagrant-demos

One of the nice things about vagrant is that its built largely using either
Puppet (http://puppetlabs.com/)or Chef (http://www.opscode.com/chef/) to
get things setup and you can use those same scripts to build your
production environments.

I can't vouch for this myself, but it seems to me to be the way to go.

Adam

On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 8:02 AM, Jeffrey Nolte <jnolte at getmoxied.net> wrote:

> > My only suggestion is to decide promptly what are you going to do:
> > 1. write code
> > 2. manage/host environments
> >
> > Because if you are doing #1, it's easy, just go with whatever setup you
> want as Mike suggested, separately in case of every client. When it comes
> to production deployments, get a cloud solution like pagodabox.com and
> "give the keys to the client".
> > The reason I suggest this, is because usually, you will need to scale
> and optimize after some time, and once again, if you are going to do #1 you
> will need to solve problems your team wasn't hired to solve (and will
> usually ain't going to solve those very well).
> >
> > But if you are going with #2, I would start by reviewing the hosting
> provider and resources you plan spending on that. After what, hire a good
> sysadmin (start with a part time collaboration if needed) that will be able
> to assist you any time in such questions.
> >
> > The problem here is that a lot of people think that hosting WordPress is
> that easy (buy a vps and `apt-get install _l(n/a)mp_`). The short story is
> that if it was like that, companies like Automattic and Page.ly would never
> existed. That's why *it's wrong* to think so.
>
> We actually need to do 1 and 2 as we will be managing these sites for our
> clients.  My thoughts are not that WP hosting is that easy hence my
> constructing these email to get some insight.  In the event we need to hire
> someone to help out with the management of the servers we will do so, at
> this point I think it will be a slow process and in the meantime we can
> learn some of the ins and outs of hosting WordPress.  I should have
> mentioned that this is more for a team rather than one person.
>
> Thanks for your insight, I have checked out Pagoda box and awaiting an
> invite, I am sure this may be able to help me with my decision.
>
> Thanks again!
>
> Jeff
>
> _______________________________________________
> wp-hackers mailing list
> wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
>