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VectorBase Releases. Dan Lawson, All Sites. A release cycle for VectorBase. Regular release every 2 months In place since June 2010 Latest release is the 10th incarnation Review the aims of the release cycle Evolution of the release procedure Tracking/Organisation of a release
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VectorBase Releases Dan Lawson, All Sites
A release cycle for VectorBase • Regular release every 2 months • In place since June 2010 • Latest release is the 10th incarnation • Review the aims of the release cycle • Evolution of the release procedure • Tracking/Organisation of a release • New hardware • Assessing releases • Current site responsibilities VectorBase 2012 2
Aims of the release cycle for VectorBase • Regular releases encourage • (More) rapid update of data content • Pre-sites for new organism data • Updates for code base • As VectorBase is semi-parasitic there is a need to be reasonable current with Ensembl web code base • Benefit from external development (useability, functionality) • De-mystify the procedure of making a release • Instill a service provision mentality for part of the project VectorBase 2012 3
Timeline of release improvements • VectorBase used to release on an ad-hoc schedule based on data cues • Staff turnover rapidly made this process troublesome because of php hooks into the Ensembl web code • Effectively VectorBase could not update its browser code • ND developers visited EBI in May 2009 to overcome this bottleneck • at this point we were running e! 46 code with e!54 databases • Scott & Dan discussions in a Rennes cafe, Nov 2009 • EBI to configure browser, ND to install • Apr-May 2010. EBI configures and tests new browser code • First VectorBase release in June 2010 VectorBase 2012 4
Timeline of release improvements • Problems with browser installation at ND continued and from the VB_2010-10 release EBI both configured and installed the browser on ND servers • Ongoing small issues with server configuration, dns addresses etc. • Mid 2011; proposal to use Virtual Machines (VMs) to encapsulate the browser code • Late 2011; Refinement of what is to be included in each VM, troubleshooting transfer and deployment of VMs from EBI to ND • End of 2011; New linux hardware comes online. Should provide performance improvements in terms of raw speed but also resolve some compatability issues between browser code and legacy Mac servers VectorBase 2012 5
Release coordination • Release coordination is achieved via the Tuesday Developer calls and makes use of the project wiki and JIRA systems • Uses semantic wiki extension of MediaWiki (SMW) to track deliverables and progress within a release • Uses JIRA versions to document and track issues arising from a release • Developer calls are the main forum to communicate issues and updates within the group VectorBase 2012 6
Overview of release VectorBase 2012 7
Release coordination on Project Wiki VectorBase 2012 8
Summary overview VectorBase 2012 9
Summaries and reports VectorBase 2012 10
Overview of release VectorBase 2012 11
Assessing releases • The VectorBase site is complex • Many dependencies, not all of which are documented • The project needs to have some concept of: • Monitoring serve uptime and potential issues without relying on the user community to notify us • Expand knowledge and ability to rectify issues • Incremental improve ability to identify issues with release before going live VectorBase 2012 12
Monitoring infrastructure • VectorBase has tested some systems for monitoring server uptime (e.g. nagios) • Improved documentation, SOP for site maintenance VectorBase 2012 13
Assessing a release • Use of predefined tests to check site • Use of checklists to confirm pages/views are correct • Always test new organism or gene set • Test random organism for a release (we can’t do all of them!) • Use of testing suites such as Selenium • Under used, should be developed and ran more frequently VectorBase 2012 14
Use of Virtual Machines (VMs) • “completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system” • With reference to the Ensembl browser code • Configuration and testing of installation on linux server • Encapsulation inside a VM • Disk image sent to ND for deployment on their servers • Should be no compatability issues • Advantages • Significantly easier deployment at ND • Should reduce system architecture issues • Disadvantages • Potentially harder to make small corrections to deployment VectorBase 2012 15
Should I stay or should I go • What should be within the VM? • Browser web code and configuration/plugins • MySQL database server (data) • BioMart • Funcgen • PopBio • Considerations • Testing an installation is time consuming • Testing is only truly possible when the whole site is deployed VectorBase 2012 16
New hardware at Notre Dame, Linux servers VectorBase 2012 17
Release Shangri-La • VM built by EBI • Genome browser webcode and configuration • MySQL server with all relevant databases • VM built by ND • Current php/postgres site (includes static content, CAP) • BioMart • VM built by Imperial • Functional genomics (potentially) • PopBio (potentially) VectorBase 2012 18
Release wish list for next 6 months • The current release is the first one on the new linux servers. We need to monitor this and potentially review resource allocation (genome browsers are memory hungry) • Renew efforts with regard to project wiki tracking/coordination • Extend and make more visible Selenium tests for the site • When we encounter a bug/issue we should be thinking can I emulate this as a Selenium test. If yes then this should be shared and added to the regular suite of tests to be run. We are not saturated where running tests has become onerous. • Better reporting of server monitoring. Do we have stats for server uptime etc. Should we be internally discussing these? VectorBase 2012 19
Release wish list for next 6 months • Agree (and adhere to) mechanism of building dev/pre/live. • Production/Live (Twilight) is essentially read-only • Rotate Galactica and Futurama between staging/pre and development • Development site needs to have components being tested • Staging/pre site needs to be a complete deployment • Release procedure then becomes synch/copy of VMs to the production server, dev server becomes staging and staging becomes new dev. • EBI will maintain genome browser and MySQL server within a VM on the staging server • ND will develop main site on dev server and support main site and BioMart on the staging server VectorBase 2012 20