Testing versus Remote Server

[mduke]

Is there no way to automate or streamline the advancement from confirming a file is fine on the testing server to uploading to the remote (production) server? AFAICT, it seems I have to manually upload the files to the production server if I have a testing server defined. (I am using dynamic content; I know about .tmp files, but see more for why that's not what I want). From what I can see, the best I can do is switch to the desired server via site dropdown menu and use the synchronize function.

Perhaps the remote/testing config is not what I should be doing, but the point for me was to not only have a place to try stuff out, but also use the testing server as a temporary production server on those occasions that the production server must be taken offline. (If I understand SVN right, that's not a viable solution either; besides, I have the server backed up using 3 different applications). So, I want my testing server files to be a carbon copy of my remote server files, including latest version.

Suggestions?

[Angelic_friends15D5]

setup WAMP on your computer.  Be sure to save your files to the WAMP/www folder on your C: drive.

you can then choose to test locally through Dreamweaver and work out everything locally before deploying to a public server.

Google setup WAMP server and it'll walk you through everything.  I think it's MAMP for Apple.

[mduke]

Yah, thanks, I had already considered that for testing purposes, but unfortunately I also want to maintain a current backup server to account for those instances when the production server goes offline (so, I just have network ops change the domain pointer to the testing server's IP and minimize down time).

The local MAMP would not work for this.

Marcus Duke

Web Developer/Info Specialist

UW Aquatic & Fishery Sciences

[Ben M · Accepted solution]

The testing server is typically just for testing and you really should never turn a testing server into a live server.  DW can handle multiple remote servers, but as far as I know, even with CS5.5, you can only upload to one remote server at a time.  Given that the servers you are referring to are in the same datacenter, it should be possible to setup a second server for redundancy so that if one crashes the other picks up the load.  However, I would say that this is not the proper forum for getting help on setting up redundancy in a datacenter.  If your two servers are in 2 different datacenters that's a whole other discussion.  I wish there was more I knew about the topic, but I'm really not familiar with the network setup of websites of that scale.

[mduke]

Yah, thanks, Snakeyez02. I think you're pretty much right about this. The servers are on the same subnet, so I might be able to figure out some other solution.