Stg site to play with

[sam]

Hi Paul

I'm trying to set up a stage site, just to test rearranging the homepage blocks.

I created a site on the "Transition Network D6 S012 Booker" Platform, but I just get an empty pressflow site: ​http://stgsam.transitionnetwork.org/

Can I use your stg site to test the block arrangement instead: ​https://booker-stage-20140501.transitionnetwork.org/

Or could you let me know what might be going wrong?

Thanks

Sam

[paul]

Hi Sam,

Feel free to use my stage site.

I am cloning this site now, to see If I get a empty pressflow site ..

[paul]

I managed to cloned the site successfully again. I know, sorry ..

​https://booker-stage-20140501-2.transitionnetwork.org/

Here's what I did:

1. Go the stage platform. (Transition Network D6 S012 Booker / ​https://tn.puffin.webarch.net/hosting/c/platform_TransitionNetworkD6S012)
2. Click on the site I want to clone. (​https://tn.puffin.webarch.net/hosting/c/booker-stage-20140501.transitionnetwork.org)
3. Sacrifice 3 kittens - to the God of your choice.
4. Click on the "run" button against the clone action: a modal dialogue window present itself; leave the plaform as the - current plaform - and click on the clone button
5. Wait ..
6. Voila

I guess you must have done something different?

Paul

[ed]

Paul can you point us to the documentation about this (and double check it's all there)? We'll cover this next week, but it's good to see it now - and for you to double check the documentation before the meet too ..

[paul]

Ed,

The documentation for cloning a site on Aegir can be be found in the documentation on Aeigir:

Cloning a site
​http://community.aegirproject.org/node/24

I found reading the documentation on Aeigir, and listening to the audio tutorial (on Aegir) from Jim -taking notes- helpful in getting oriented.

I have gone through all of our wiki documentation and found the documentation to be vey helpful. It's probably also complete - with the exception of those areas that are already highlighted by Jim.

Just thinking about the call. I'm still new to Aeigir so there is very good chance I could suck in any questions and answers session :) I think I could probably best help others by taking questions on the mailing list, I'll then have an opportunity to reflect and consult the documentation / wiki as required. Actually, maybe be Jim would be better on the call than me? If he could be available .

Best, Paul

[paul]

It'll be interesting to hear what Sam did different, because that may indicate something ..

Some thoughts:

With anything that looks difficult I always like to zoom out, and then zoom back in slowly. There is nothing that can't be understood in laymen terms. There's a lot of voodoo language with Aegir - so you just have be clear you understand the lingo.

In terms that we can all agree on, we know we have website that has code and a database, and that we often have to bring in new code (e.g new features, security updates) and update the database - so that it works with the new code. So the idea is, we could maintain a document which keeps a list all the modules / themes we have installed, any patches that are applied , .. so that if we wanted to make an exact copy of the website, all we would need is the document (also call a makefile) and a copy of the database, and some kind of administrative interface (platform) that can put these together with some input from you. Aegir gives you these administrative interfaces.

So when in Aegir speak someone says, they have "cloned" the website on the "platform", this means, they have made a copy of the website using the *same* administrative interface; which means the website was built from the same document (makefile) as the original.

And if after an update someone says, they have have built a new platform and "migrated" the site to the new platform, this means that they have updated the document (makefile) and built a *new administrative interface* and then using this administrative interface have built a website with an updated version of the document (makefile) and the database from the site that we being updated.

Keywords: clone, migrate, platform , makefile

Hope this help. (Damn, that took longer than 15 minutes :) )

[paul]

Notes that I took for Jim's talk ...

Directory structure:
/data/disk/tn/static/PLATFORM?/sites (platform sites)

Site level

Clone: Make a copy of a site on a platform.
Migrate: pick up a site and move it to another platform, … … switch the nginx config. (e.g core updates)

Create a domain alias with dev - allows you to view the site without caching enabled, and shows errors to the screen.

if *Redirect domain aliases to main domain* is turned on this will need to be disabled to see the dev sites. Turned on for SEO.

*.transitionnnetwork.org
*.*.transitionnnetwork.org .. pointing at Puffin server.

Doing a core update …
Update makefile,
Build platform ,
Clone stage site on the same platform
Migrate site to the new platform

Updating custom module / theme on the stage site you can delete the static copy and do a git clone to get a working copy

Currently working on master branch. Not currently branching?

[ed]

Thanks Paul,

I'd say that the skype would not be a 'Q&A' and 'howto', but a check-in on how it is working, how we will work from now on, and the other BOA ticket that Chris wants to talk about.

[paul]

Thanks Ed

Aeigir is working. I have been able to do everything that I have needed to do, so far.

It's an interesting question how things should work going forward. I think the main problem with Aeigir seems to be managing the software? and secondly some inertia in using it? I would be happy to consider any developer setup. Maybe a setup that revolves around terminal access to a developers home directory on the server, could work for everyone?

[ed]

Hi Paul, yes it is - and why we need to be together as a group to discuss it.

It's also important to establish what TN needs and the likely architecture for TNv3 as part of that conversation, which Annesley will be working on.

I don't think we'll sort something out this week, but it's important we see the need to work on it as a group, and how we'll do that.

[paul]

Sounds like a good plan. Thanks Ed.

[paul]

@Sam

This can probably be closed. Are you having any current problems creating a stage site?