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Automating development environments and deployment with Otto

Ottomatic

Article from ADMIN 31/2016

By Tim Schürmann

One command launches a complete development environment, another deploys your own web application on the production server – all without a single configuration file. The brand-new Otto seeks to make this web developer dream come true.

New web applications often work reliably on the developer's machine and everything looks great – until the developer deploys the web page on a public web server, that is. All of a sudden it fails to deliver images because of strict access permissions, while the app complains about missing PHP libraries. Why is it that the engine always starts to stall when the most important release deadline is just around the corner? A tool named Otto [1] promises an elegant solution to this dilemma.

Delivery Hero

Otto first sets up a tailored development environment on the programmer's system. When called upon to do so, it bundles the finished application onto a virtual machine and automatically launches it on a production system or in a cloud. Otto not only ensures that all the required libraries, frameworks, and services exist, it also protects the production system against attacks.

Does your project need a database? Again, this is no problem: Otto installs the database and automatically sets it up to meet your requirements. In everything it does, Otto orients its approach on trusted best practices. Otto is even smart enough to identify some of the required dependencies based on the source code.

After the developer has finished revising the application, all it takes is a single command at the command line to transfer the application to the production system. In this way, Otto actively supports the principles of continuous integration [2] or continuous delivery [3], allowing developers to extend their projects quickly, add new features, and deliver the goods. Because they handle classical administrative tasks in this process, they then naturally enter the realm of DevOps

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