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Deployment - the final (.Net) frontier


[Update 19th Apr 2012] - mission complete!...v2.4.0 of Wolfpack has been released and this includes a new set of plugins that can automatically download a NuGet package then execute a deployment tool (eg: DropkicK, MSBuild.exe) - it can even run NUnit tests (via the console runner).



[Original Post]
Another day, another project and deployment raises its head...

Thinking that this problem must have been cracked by now I had a look around the .Net landscape and found two interesting solutions.
  • Octopus Deploy - a .Net convention based deployment system using NuGet packages, loosely based on AppHarbour's approach.
  • DropkicK (aka DK) - another awesome initiative from Dru Sellers et al.
I like the simplicity of Octopus but also like DK's  fluent code based deployment.

Hmmm, this has got me thinking - Wolfpack could easily be adapted to be used as a deployment agent.

Wolfpack can already monitor a NuGet feed for new package releases and currently sends an alert if a new version of a package is detected; a small modification would enable it to instead pull down and install the package. The package format would be NuGet and it would use DK to do the "install" (included in the package itself, Tools folder with some convention to find the DK deployment implementation dlls).

You would create a NuGet feed per environment you need to deploy to. Each target machine would be running Wolfpack (akin to an Octopus "Tentacle") which would be configured to monitor the associated (correct environment) NuGet feed. "Deployment" would simply consist of publishing the package to the feed, from this point on it would be automated by Wolfpack, detect, download, deploy -> after which Wolfpack would publish an alert to let you know what the outcome was (success/fail) plus some stats.

Would I ever build this Wolfpack feature? I dunno, lets see...it's not a lot of code and it would give me an excuse to really play with DropkicK!

Anyone interested in a deployment mashup with Wolfpack + NuGet + DropkicK?


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Comments

Anonymous said…
Yes!

This would be very interesting. Currently doing some work with Octopus, but it seems a bit .. finicky at the moment while the codebase is still stabilizing..
14 Oct 2011, 10:06:00
Unknown said…
Wow - rapid feedback!

Wolfpack is pretty stable so that's a bonus.

I'd mash in Sidewinder, my NuGet downloader/installer project to get the package from the feed (in response to Wolfpack detecting a new version) then all it would need to do is execute dk.exe...simple!

Ok, so I'll start work on this - it looks too easy to get something up and running not too!

Cheers,

James
14 Oct 2011, 10:38:00
Harry McIntyre said…
Interesting idea - keep us posted!
8 Nov 2011, 18:26:00
Unknown said…
I've got some alpha code for a new wolfpack publisher plugin that will download the nuget package (once it has detected a new version) and then attempts to execute DK, this is pretty much code complete apart from tracking the DK result.

However it's fairly untested as the test DK package I am using doesn't seem to work (no deployment found error) so haven't progressed much further.

The code is in the wolfpack contrib repository, just get the latest source. You will need to build it then configure wolfpack with the nuget release healthcheck and the new nuget deployment publisher (to download and execute DK). I haven't created the nuget package for the deployment publisher yet so install is manual for now.

Once I get a working DK package I will build the new plugin as a nuget package and create the wiki page for it.

If you want to try it out before then drop me a line and I'll help you out setting it up.

Cheers,

James
10 Nov 2011, 10:05:00
Harry McIntyre said…
Hi James, I would be interested in hearing a bit more about this deployment mechanism. My address is mcintyre321 @t gmail d.t com

Look forward to hearing from you!
6 Dec 2011, 12:23:00
Unknown said…
Well it only took 6 months to get this completed...v2.4 of Wolfpack (+ deployment contrib project) can now automate your deployments (& testing) - feedback welcome!
19 Apr 2012, 20:42:00
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