It’s some time now after my last post. Quit busy the last months and years so I decided to create a new post, not about Android but about a new tool I’m currently using on my work at eFocus. The new tool is called Octopus Deploy and I must say I am deeply impressed by the power and the possibilities of this great piece of software.
Octopus Deploy is actually all about NuGet packages and Powershell, if you know these technologies, you are ready to rock and roll!!!
The beginning
For years we’ve worked with TeamCity as our main build and deploy tool. But working for a fast growing internet company means a growing number of clients hence a growing number of build configurations and a fast growing build queue.
So, deploying a new release to production for client often resulted in long waiting times due to the build queue. So, my advice to all developers, don’t run your unit tests during the day. During the day, a build configuration should not take more than a couple of minutes. Configuration that take more time, please schedule these during the night!!!
Besides these queue problems we were using a tool which is actually not created for deploying software. I think it’s the best tool in building software, running tests but it lacks some deployment possibilities for example workflow, process notifications etc.
We have created great deployment configurations using combinations of MsBuild, MsDeploy and Powershell but deploying with TeamCity is like C# programming in Sublime Text, a great tool, but not suiting the job.
So, my colleagues in Amsterdam started a search for a new tool which could take the deployment tasks from TeamCity. The search took half a year, testing tools like Puppet, Chef, Salt but none of these tool were offering what we were looking for. We’ve discussed all the possibilities with our Java developers who were already using Teamcity, Jenkins and some built-in tools which were available in the software they were using.
There was just a single tool left what was actually looking very promising. It would live among TeamCity and was able to take all the deployment tasks of our busy build server(TeamCity). This tool was Octopus Deploy.
In my next posts I will dive into this great deployment tool!