[rt-users] Reproducible RT Configuration management

[James A. Peltier]

We script the base install including the setup of the base PERL/CPAN stuff, the installation of the base RT base system using the typical make + make install and then we run scripts to populate the RT database using scripts.  We have chosen _not_ to alter the base initial data file because we don't want to have to keep track of any changes that may happen from version to version.

Since the database is provided by our database group we initialize the database in the following way

   /opt/rt4/sbin/rt-setup-database --dba-password=$RT_DB_PASS --action init --skip-create

This creates the database shell with just the default content to get a functioning RT install.  We then enable full text searching using

  /opt/rt4/sbin/rt-setup-fulltext-index --dba ${RT_DB_USER} --dba-password ${RT_DB_PASS} --table=AttachmentsIndex --column=ContentIndex --index-type=GIN

followed by installing any plugins that we need to install using a git checkout + make + make install + make initdb (if required).  We version control all the configuration files and drop them into place when needed.

So far this has allowed us to get a fully reproducible base installation of RT.  We then apply our scripts to add custom fields, populate their values, make changes to initial data configurations such as default templates and scrips, etc.

This makes for an easy way to create the base RT with all our customizations.  We only run this if we're running tests to ensure that starting from scratch still works as expected, otherwise we make a backup of the database and just restore that because it's _so much faster_.

----- Original Message -----
| 
| Hi,
| 
| I've had a look through the list archives and seen a couple of mentions
| of this but nothing recent and thought I'd ask again in case there is
| something new out there.
| 
| What are people doing to manage reproducable deployments of RT other
| than just dumping the database of a production machine and loading on a
| development one.
| 
| I am using puppet currently to deploy RT.
| 
| Puppet does a good job of getting RT installed and running.
| 
| I am struggling with how to manage the RT configuration itself, the
| stuff that is done from within the web interface or from initialdata
| using rt-setup-database.
| 
| We use vagrant for the development environment and the ideal situation
| is that running "vagrant up" will bring up a copy of RT running the
| latest config.
| 
| I want all changes on the production machines done not by the web
| interface but in some sort of reproducable way.
| 
| What I have so far is a hacked up solution using a custom script to call
| rt_setup_database and using my own custom fragments to init the data.
| 
| The main issue here is I wanted it to be idempotent so if called from
| puppet no harm is done if it has already made the change.
| 
| So far I'm doing ugly things like using the @Init section to check if a
| particular change exists in the database already and not making it if it
| does.  This also prevents adding multiple entries for things when the
| code is run multiple times.
| 
| My solution is working although it feels clunky.
| 
| I guess one better option would be a full puppet implementation modeling all
| of
| Rt's configuration.  That just felt like a job far too big to tackle :(.
| 
| Does anyone have any suggestions or stories of how they are managing
| this situation?
| 
| Kind regards
| Bart
| --
| 
| Bart Bunting - URSYS
| PH: 02 87452811
| Mbl: 0409560005
| ---------
| RT 4.4 and RTIR Training Sessions https://bestpractical.com/training
| * Los Angeles - September, 2016
| 

-- 
James A. Peltier
IT Services - Research Computing Group
Simon Fraser University - Burnaby Campus
Phone   : 604-365-6432
Fax     : 778-782-3045
E-Mail  : jpeltier at sfu.ca
Website : http://www.sfu.ca/itservices
Twitter : @sfu_rcg
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