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In this talk, Andy Pfister presents insights on managing Rails applications in on-premise environments, shaped by his company's collaboration with Doco Team, experts in digital archiving. The session emphasizes the complexities and lessons learned when running Rails apps on customer infrastructure, particularly for systems that are offline or require specific database and operating system configurations. **Key Points Discussed:** - **Understanding the Client’s Needs:** Doco Team faced challenges in running their custom software on-premise, prompting simplif to explore deeper solutions beyond simple deployment scripts. - **Database Support:** The application needed compatibility with various database systems including MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. Pfister discusses using Rails' Active Record for database communication and highlights specific challenges, such as charset information in MySQL and column size discrepancies across databases. - **Operating System Compatibility:** The presentation covers how Ruby code can largely be kept the same across Windows and Linux, with essential adaptations for Windows environments. Pfister explains the significance of Ruby Version Manager (RVM) for version control on Windows and the necessity of including build tools for gem installations. - **Continuous Integration (CI):** CI was paramount in ensuring that multiple database systems and environments worked seamlessly. Pfister shares their experience using Azure Pipelines for testing and maintaining code integrity across platforms. - **Offline Installation:** Addressing the requirement for offline software installations, the team opted for a comprehensive zip package that contains the Ruby interpreter, application code, dependencies, and a PowerShell installation script to automate setup. - **Update Management:** Pfister emphasizes the complexities in managing updates for on-premise installations, often dictated by customer policies. The company settled on a yearly update schedule to meet client needs and maintain development efficiency. **Conclusions and Takeaways:** - The experience underlines the importance of adaptability in deployment strategies, especially when dealing with on-premise infrastructures. - Establishing a regular update cycle is crucial as continuous deployment can be impractical in this context, requiring careful planning and customer communication. - Continuous integration practices play a vital role in supporting diverse environments and ensuring application stability throughout the development and deployment processes. In summary, Pfister's insights provide valuable knowledge for developers looking to manage Rails applications in complex on-premise settings.
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