Articles tagged with "deployment"

If you don't have access to the file system on the server for a Drupal site, when a security issue like Drupalgeddon2 comes along, you are entitled to panic! Many sites are run by a combination of teams, so sometimes you really don't have control over the server... but that might even mean there is another way to apply fixes. If you've been tasked with updating such a site (I was!), it's worth checking if the server has been misconfigured in such a way to actually allow you to patch Drupal, via Drupal!

A heavy caveat first: we would never...

Drupalgeddon2 happened! We got all but two of our projects updated within an hour, with those remaining trickier two fully patched another hour later. The key was planning the right process using the right tools. We actually use these tools for regular deployments every day, but speed was essential for this security update. Here's what we did, since some of you may be interested.

1. Our on-call developers split up the various sites/environments/projects that would need updating amongst themselves, using a simple online shared spreadsheet.

2. Ahead of time, we prepared pull requests for sites that simply use Drush make...

These three tools ([drush make][drush_make], [Aegir][aegir] and [Dropbox][dropbox]) have come together to produce a release system that means I don't have to ssh into a remote server to deploy a new version of site. This means that I can do releases really, really simply, and actually with nothing more than a web browser[^1]. Let me explain:

Drush make

If you aren't using [Drush make][drush_make], then you should look into it. Essentially you specify a manifest of all the code that makes up you project and then you can ask drush make to assemble the code for you. It has...