Deployment Automation

Deployment Automation provides you following benefits:

The integration of the Deployment Automation module, developed by Novomind, into FirstSpirit extends the CMS to automate numerous functions, which would be performed by the operators resp. system administrators manually otherwise:

  • Automate your deployments between development, test and production environment and take advantage of using resources more efficiently and cost-saving.
  • Minimize the risk of deployments – rollouts launched by the Deployment Automation are working safe, correct and are highly reliable.
  • Speed up the deployment lead time up to 500%. Automated execution of deployment runs approximately six times faster, replacing manual execution without the need of any supervision while deployment execution.
  • Modularity of the application increases flexibility – no further customizing is required. Adjust the deployment according to your needs on a modular block concept.
  • "Configure and forget" – configure your default deployment only once and reuse the settings for each deployment.
    • Use the Deployment Automation also as a development tool and utilize all the functions in your development environments (e. g. Eclipse, NetBeans)

What is a deployment?

The FirstSpirit CMS Deployment is a process of installing the deployment packet on the target FirstSpirit system. Precisely, deployment packet contains new or changed features, templates and content related to FirstSpirit projects. Usually, this deployment packet is provided by a marketing agency/software service provider or some other third party providers. This deployment process involves more technical steps, which requires excellent knowledge and hands on FirstSpirit system. The default deployment process involves a lot of manual steps, which prone to increase in the probability of errors, which results in a broken system unfortunately.

This is the point of time, where the module Deployment Automation acts as a boon for the FirstSpirit administrator. With Deployment Automation, almost 90% of the manual steps have been automated and has been implemented in a way to handle different error prone situations. Therefore the probability of errors are reduced to almost to null. Moreover, the deployment process time is reduced drastically, such that, when the manual deployment takes 4 hours, deployment automation takes only around 45 minutes. The robust Deployment Automation gives the administrator to perform CMS deployment process unattended. As, it can be done even unattended, deployment process expects only the basic knowledge of the FirstSpirit system.

Complete feature set

Project Backup/Restore

• Creation of project backups

• Import of project backups (restore)

Maintenance Mode

• Starting of the maintenance mode with user-messaging and estimated duration

• Finishing of the maintenance mode

Close sessions

• Finishing of the active server sessions (not the master session)

• Server monitoring sessions and dummy sessions will not be finished

Content Transport

• Content transport arranging and download

• Content transport installing of projects

CorporateContent

• Creating and deleting of CorporateContent packages

• Adding of templates and media, which are not included in a CorporateContent package (e.g. new templates)

• Blacklist- and whitelist function to limit the amount of elements to be added to the CorporateContent package

• Creating and publishing of new CorporateContent versions to the slave-projects

Rearrange structure

• Synchronizing of folder- and file structure in the slave-Projects to the structure of the CC Master

• Adopt changed templatestore tree structure of the CC master to the slave-projects (synchronize of the CC master with slave-projects)

Modul installation

• Installing one or more modules (in parallel) on the server

Module configurator

• Shifting of different module configuration files on the server

Restart server

• Server restart after x seconds of waiting or immediately

• Sending of warning messages to all logged-in users

• Waiting for server-bootup

Release stores

• Release a specific element in a store, all elements in a specific sub-tree, a complete store or release the whole store simultaneously