Semantic Web Company
Deployment Automation
Challenge
- More than 100 dedicated customer servers worldwide.
- Deploying new instance manually took more than two hours.
- Errors happened frequently.
- A lot of manual work to get the job done and afterwards additional time spent on troubleshooting and fixing errors.
Solution
- Automation of deployment with Cloudomation.
- 8 hours of effort for developing automation script.
Result
- Deploying new instance takes 5 minutes.
- Error-free deployment.
- Full audit trail of deployment.
- Anyone can deploy new instances, not just System Administrators.
- Parallel deployments possible.
- New automated process fully accepted by the employees.
- Increased Customer service quality.
- Reduced significantly time-to-market to onboard new customers.
What was Automated?
Automated Deployment and Software Installation
An AWS machine is created, including the setup of security groups, network and hard drive configuration. The operating system and required dependencies are installed and configured. The software product is then installed and configured and user accounts are created. The login credentials are sent to the system administrator for verification, who then forwards them to the customer.
- Spin up AWS machine of specific type.
- Configure security groups.
- Configure network.
- Configure hard disk.
- Set up operating system.
- Install, update, and configure libraries.
- Download, set up and configure software product.
- Create account for customer on software product.
- Send notification email with login credentials to System Administrator, who does a final check and then forwards the credentials to the customer.
How did we Develop the Automation?
One System Administrator from Semantic Web Company and one Automation Specialist from Cloudomation sat together one afternoon. The System Administrator didn’t know Python. With support from our expert, he was able to develop the automation script himself. He now owns the process and can extend and adapt it on his own.
What are the Next Steps?
- Extend the automated process for additional deployment options, e.g. on different environments and with different components.
- Add steps before and after the process, e.g. a quick test after deployment finished, and direct send out of credentials to the customer.
- Automate roll-out of updates and other maintenance processes.
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