Deployme: Tellme's Package Management and Deployment System

摘要

Many administrators use a central software repository because managing distributed packages is difficult. Deployme is our solution to manage the package update lifecycle across a large number of independently configured hosts. Deployme is highly flexible and has been extended to handle many different types of packages. Deployme packages include standard UNIX tools, local applications, web site content, and voice site content. Most packages require fast, frequent deployment. Deployme has a web-based user interface that allows less technical users to deploy on their own. Deployme also restarts appropriate server processes, a feature which was much more difficult than we expected. We discuss other lessons learned from the first implementation and planned improvements for the future.