Bringing other environments into synch

Hello,

Please can you advise me on what options are available to us when attempting to create a new environment that matches our production eB environment?

Challenges are:

  1. Production environment has 4 server (2 app, 2 web). Target environment will start off as an all-in-one training environment.
  2. Production envirionment has several hot fixes, patches and updates which may not have a clear audit trail that allows us to confidently run on training.
  3. Production environment has sever customisations which training currently doesn't have.

What are the options available to get a training environment set up to match our production when considering that the training environment is quite vanilla?

Many thanks

  • The question that you need to ask is do you really need to replicate the environment exactly?

    For Production environments, the amount of RAM, and the separation of services across a number of different servers makes sense, and is set up with large numbers of users in mind.

    Whether this non-production environment is for testing or training, the volume will be hard to replicate without automated programs running.

    The 2 web servers certainly seem excessive for a non-production environment, if all you want to do is log on to test functionality.  If you want 2 web servers to test a cluster environment for example, then that is different.

    With regard to the eB Application Servers, the install of eB, hotfixes, and customizations should be the same for both servers.  What happens once you have installed the software is deciding which services you want to run on each server.  Under normal circumstances, I would even be tempted to suggest that one server could manage Web and Application activities.  

    However, I know that in your case it is not as simple as that, and custom jobs are dependent on non-eB software pre-requisites.  I know that Word 2007 is required for one customization, and Word 2010 for another, so the customizations need to be deployed on specific servers.  Moving forward to new releases I hope that these pre-requisites can be re-aligned.

    Therefore, you will need to have two Application Servers in this new environment if you want to test both of these customizations referred to above.  The web components can be added to just one of these servers though.  If you realize that some of the customizations would not typically be used for training, then you can make that call as to whether you only need one server for your training environment.

    With regard to hotfixes, as a general rule, what Bentley now try to do is supersede hotfixes by including all previous fixes within the latest hotfix.  i.e. most users will be able to say they have eB version x with a single hotfix applied.  Unfortunately, again this is not so straight forward for you, given that specific functionality (AssetPainter, Document Validation) can been created for you specifically, and has been supplied in hotfixes that are not available for other users.  These hotfixes will be incorporated within 15.6.1 when released, and that is when the wider eB population will have first exposure to this functionality.  Until then, it is important that you keep your own configuration of eB documented.  

    Hotfixes themselves, once documented, are actually easy to keep on top of.  The areas which are not so straight forward are the customizations.  Whether they have originated from Bentley Professional Services, other consultancy firms providing you with consultancy services, or departments within your organization.  Each custom engine might be requiring files to be added within templates in order to work.  Engines themselves will need to be assigned to the new servers within the SMC.

    And I think that this will be your biggest challenge.  If you have a backup of your production database as a starting point for your training database, then it will be relatively easy.  Certainly easier than having a more vanilla database, as any pre-requisites that are specified in the database may not be there, and full understanding of what it is you need to achieve will be required.  If necessary we can help you with that.

    As with the hotfixes, customizations should be straight forward activities to deal with.  But only if they are correctly documented.  I know you have customizations documented, and with 15.6.1 available soon, I believe that maybe this is the time to go through your documentation with a fine toothcomb to confirm it is up to date.

    Please feel free to contact me directly on the more subtle points of this thread.

    Regards,

    Rich



    Answer Verified By: Suhran Miranbeg 

  • Rich,

    Thank you very much for your comprehensive answer - I will spend some time to understand how best to move forward and review with colleagues here and may be in touch if we come across difficulties.

    Thanks again,