Slides for talk on mistake people make when deploying web applications originally given by Ben Dixon (@talkingquickly) at Refresh conference in Tallinn, 2015

1. What I got wrong when
somebody asked me to
deploy a web app

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A Typical Web App
Web Server
(nginx, apache)
Application Server
(unicorn, puma)
Database Server
(MySQL, Postgres)

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….
},
"postgresql" : {
"password" : {
"postgres" : "$1$mMK9HNoN$r42n7Q8fKsZabbknlT1Zt1"
}
},
"run_list":
[
"role[server]",
"role[nginx-server]",
"role[postgres-server]"
]
}

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Internal Monitoring
Monit, Nagios, God etc
Is X within bounds Y
If no, do Z
If still not within bounds Y
Wake somebody up

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Internal Monitoring
check process nginx with pidfile
/var/run/nginx.pid
start program = "/etc/init.d/nginx start"
stop program = "/etc/init.d/nginx stop"
if failed host 127.0.0.1 port 80 then restart
if 15 restarts within 15 cycles then timeout

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External Monitoring
The ultimate integration test
Should exercise the full stack
Beware caches
Pingdom, Uptime Robot (simple)
Runscope (Full API)

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Centralised Log Aggregation
See what was happening, everywhere, at a
given time
Logstash + Kibana (DIY)
Papertrail, Loggly (SaaS)

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Things that broke

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Things that broke
Running out of disk space

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Things that broke
Running out of disk space
Executing commands manually

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Things that broke
Running out of disk space
Executing commands manually
Expiring Domains and SSL Certs

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Things that broke
Running out of disk space
Executing commands manually
Expiring Domains and SSL Certs
Unmonitored Backups

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Things that broke
Running out of disk space
Executing commands manually
Expiring Domains and SSL Certs
Unmonitored Backups
Performance Monitoring after the fact

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Things that broke
Running out of disk space
Executing commands manually
Expiring Domains and SSL Certs
Unmonitored Backups
Performance Monitoring after the fact
Alert Overload

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Any Questions
Twitter: @TalkingQuickly
Github: TalkingQuickly
Website: TalkingQuickly(.co.uk)
….. you get the idea