Deploying Rails Projects Process

Deployment process:

Lead Time:
Email notice to Ryan 1-2 week ahead of deployment date
Email reminder to Ryan 1-2 days ahead of deployment date
Ryan will email developer the best time for him to deploy

Include in Email:
For Code Changes: The branch / URL for code base
For Config Change: Any updates or requirements for rails, gems. Any other config changes
For Database Changes: When migrations need to be ran. If you need copies or changes to the db

When Creating a Rails project, Ryan Will;
Always create test, production and dev database

When Deploying a project, Ryan will:
Make the requested changes
Check the log files on the server cluster - are they the apache ones? Are they created on all servers?
Email developer when completed and ask them to test.
Be available to respond to issues until developer responds with email saying all is good to go

When Deploying a project, developer will:
Give Ryan the needed lead time and the needed information
Test the project immediately once Ryan has made the changes. This could be testing the interface or running unit or functional tests on the server to make sure all is good.
Email Ryan with progress reports and when the deployment is a success. 

Action Items: 

Kim Will:
Research freezing gems
Research Capistrano
Work with Ryan to use Capistrano for the next Ockham release

Ryan Will:
Create Staging Server
Work with Kim on using Capistrano

Terry Will:
Research mod_rails as an alternative