Slides from my talk at HackCyprus Summit 2017. It's about how web application deployment evolved, where it is now, and where it is going. Sort of.

1. Evolution of deploy.sh
Leonid Mamchenkov

2. About
Leonid Mamchenkov
● System administrator, web developer
● 20+ years of experience
■ Primetel
■ FxPro
■ Easy Forex
■ Qobo
● Open Source fan and advocate
■ Linux (Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat)
■ PHP (bash, perl)
■ MySQL
■ Nginx
■ Git
■ Vim
Qobo Ltd
● Established in February 2013
● Offices in Nicosia, Limassol, London
● Web design, development, hosting
■ WordPress
■ WooCommerce
■ Amazon AWS
● Software development
■ CakePHP
■ Qobrix Platform
■ CRM Systems
■ Intranets
■ Portals
■ Integrations

3. What is deployment?
Application
● Code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP)
● Assets (images, fonts)
● Configuration (credentials, defaults, runtime)
● Database (schema, content)
Infrastructure
● Hardware
● Operating system
● Filesystem, networking
● Services
Deployment: installing, updating or removing the application to or from a particular infrastructure.
Software deployment is all of the activities that make a software system available for use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_deployment

4. Why is deployment automation important?
Speed
● Faster deployment
● Frequency
● Feedback loop
Release early, release often!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Release_early,_release_often
Quality
● Fewer human error
● Consistency
● Predictability
Cost
● Machine vs. human
● Reuse
● Troubleshooting

5. Evolution of the Web (last 20 years)
Overall:
● More users
● More data
● More devices
● More features
● More expectations
Technologies:
Static HTML, Cookies, SSI, CGI, SSL, XML,
RPC, API, AJAX, RSS, Web 2.0, Mobile Web,
WebSockets, IoT, Big Data, cloud computing,
and more ...
As the web evolved, so did the deployment of the web applications.

6. Prehistoric days : before deploy.sh
Application
● Very small and basic.
● Often, just a few static HTML and image files.
● Sometimes, an occasional CGI script.
Infrastructure
● Shared hosting with limited access.
● Single server.
● No version control.
● No SSH access.
Deployment: manual upload via FTP or some sort of web-based control panel.
If you are still here, at least look at some FTP deployment / smart upload tools, like SmartFTP.

7. The birth of deploy.sh
#!/bin/bash
rsync -re ssh . leonid@example.com:~/public_html/
ssh leonid@example.com << EOF
cd ~/public_html/
chown -R leonid.nobody {logs,tmp,uploads}
mysql -u leonid example_com < db/mysql.sql
EOF
echo “All Done”
Basic automation
● Simple, step-by-step
● Mostly shell
● No specialized tools
● Basic remote access
● No error handling
● Very specific
● Not portable
● No concurrency control
● No trail
● No changesets
● No documentation
● Often insecure

8. Version control / The birth of build.sh
#!/bin/bash
ssh leonid@example.com << EOF
cd ~/public_html/
git pull origin master
./bin/build.sh
EOF
echo “All Done”
Improvements
● More reliable file synchronization
● Much faster on larger projects
● Basic permissions management
● Changesets
● Git/Subversion hooks
● Basic concurrency control
● More portability
● Often better security
● Submodules, exports, etc.
Separation of concerns between deployment
and build processes. Deployment seems
simple and easy. Build process - not so
much.

9. The explosion of build tools
<?php
class DbCreate extends AbstractCommand {
public function mysqlDbCreate($host, $port, $name, $user, $pass) {
$this->taskMysqlDbCreate()
->host($host)->port($port)
->user($user)->pass($pass)
->db($name)->run();
}
}
Improvements
● Specialized syntax
● Dependency management
● Improved error handling
● Improved output / verbosity
● Improved portability
● Reusable tasks and modules
● Documentation
Tools
GNU make, CMake, Apache Ant,
Phing, Rake, Phake, Capistrano,
Robo, Deployer, many others.

10. More specialized tools : build parts
<?php
use SymfonyComponentFinderFinder;
$iterator = Finder::create()->files()->name(‘*.php’)->in(‘./src’);
$sami = new SamiSami($iterator, [
‘title’ => ‘My Project’,
‘build_dir’ => ‘build/docs/source’,
‘cache_dir’ => ‘build/docs/source/cache’,
]);
return $sami;
Build specialization
● Testing frameworks
● Asset management
● Documentation
● Dependency management
Tools
phpUnit, JUnit, Nightwatch JS, Sass,
LESS, minify, phpDocumentor,
Doxygen, Sami, composer, npm,
bower, gulp, grant, yarn, and many
more.

11. More specialized tools : database management
<?php
use MigrationsAbstractMigration;
class AddEmailFieldToUsers extends AbstractMigration {
public function change() {
$table = $this->table(‘users’);
$table->addColumn(‘email’, ‘string’, [‘limit’ => 255]);
$table->update();
}
}
Database management
● Versioned schema
● SQL abstraction
● Cross-platform / cross-engine
● Testable changes
● Upgrade and rollback
● Initial data import / seeders
● Data manipulation
● Documentation improvements
● Conflict resolution
Tools
Doctrine, Phinx, DBDeploy, etc.

12. configure.sh? Infrastructure as Code
---
- name: Nginx and PHP setup
hosts: web-servers
roles:
- geerlingguy.nginx
- geerlingguy.php
- geerlingguy.php-mysql
- geerlingguy.composer
- geerlingguy.letsencrypt
Server provisioning, virtualization,
orchestration, configuration
management
● Automation
● Documentation
● Testable installations
● Concurrency
● Reusable configurations
● Consistency
Tools
Ansible, Puppet, Chef, Salt, Docker,
Kubernetes, Amazon AWS, Heroku,
and many more.

13. What’s going on?
Application
Infrastructure
Build
System Administrator
Developer
Deploy
Configure

14. DevOps : ChatOps
Application Infrastructure
Build
Developers, SysAdmins, QA, PMs
Deploy Configure
/deploy install example.com live v2.0

15. Remote Triggers : Use existing or build your own
Chat
● HipChat, Slack, Rocket.Chat, IRC
● Bots, /commands, @mentions
Bug Trackers / PM Tools
● Redmine, Request Tracker, JIRA
● Custom ticket types, statuses, workflows
Continuous Integration / Delivery
● TravisCI, BitBucket Pipelines, Jenkins
● Workflows, pipelines, stages
Source Code Repositories
● GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab
● Hooks, events

16. Remote Triggers : Webhooks
HipChat
Redmine
Jenkins
GitHub
JSON Your
API
/usr/bin/sudo
● Configure
● Deploy
● Build

17. HipChat Example : Slash Command

18. HipChat Example : API
<?php
$payload = $this->app->request->getBody();
$payload = json_decode($payload, true);
$user = $payload[‘item’][‘message’][‘from’][‘id’];
$user = hipchatToUnix($user);
$command = $payload[‘item’][‘message’][‘message’];
$command = preg_replace(‘#^/deploy #’, ‘’, $command);
# $command = “update example.com live v2.0”
exec(“/usr/bin/sudo -u $user /usr/local/bin/deploy.sh $command”);
Keep in mind
● Security! Security! Security!
● JSON contains context
● Handle failure
● Handle timeouts
● Log excessively!
● Check existing implementations
There is more than one way to do it.

19. Things can get rather complex
Deployment Stages
● Install
● Update
● Rollback
● Remove
Different Environments
● Development
● Test
● Staging / Pre-production
● Live / Production
Layered Infrastructure
● Web servers
● Database servers
● Load balancers
● Caching / proxy servers
Atomic Deployments
● Multiple deployed versions
● Common assets, user uploads
● Database migrations
● Caching

20. KISS : Keep it simple, stupid
● Communicate! Deployment is part of the culture, not just technology.
● Opt for existing solutions and best practices. Do not reinvent the wheel.
● Opt for gradual changes. One step at a time. And baby steps too!
● Smaller, independent units are easier to handle. But don’t overdo it.
● Confidence is the key.
● Keep up! After all, technology constantly evolves.

21. The End.
Thank You

22. Questions?
Leonid Mamchenkov
http://mamchenkov.net
leonid@mamchenkov.net
https://twitter.com/mamchenkov
Qobo Ltd
https://qobo.biz/ and https://qobrix.com
info@qobo.biz and careers@qobo.biz
https://github.com/QoboLtd