What is Octopus Deploy?
Join me as I look at what Octopus Deploy is and answer some common questions.
I joined Octopus Deploy in October 2021 and I've been often asked who are Octopus Deploy and what do they do. So I thought I'd try and answer some of those questions. 😊
Table of Contents
What is Octopus Deploy?
Octopus Deploy can help you with a number of things:
- Release management
- Deployment Automation
- Operations Runbooks
With release management you can easily audit or see where you are with certain versions of your software. What version is your Dev environment run versus Production?
Octopus Deploy can help to simplify the deployment of your software. If you have a bunch of steps and things you need to do before each deployment, or even after deployment, Octopus Deploy can help you automate that.
It can also support deployment patterns such as rolling, blue/green, canary, multi-tenancy and beyond.
The runbooks capabilities gives you control over your infrastructure and applications. You can set up runbooks for routine maintenance or have them deploy or destroy infrastructure.
Is Octopus Deploy is free?
Octopus Deploy has a trial license that you can get started with for 30 days.
It's also worth noting if you are a Microsoft MVP or Friends of Redgate you are able to get a free license, just reach out to MVP@octopus.com and we can get that sorted for you. 👍
Is Octopus Deploy a CI tool?
Octopus Deploy doesn't attempt to be a Continuous Integration (CI) tool. There are already solutions out there for teams to pick from when they are looking to automatically build, test and integrate code changes from a shared repository.
You can use Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, TeamCity, etc for these features and then use Octopus for release management, deployments and operations.
How do I set up Octopus Deploy?
Octopus Deploy can be set up in two fundamental ways, you can sign up for the Cloud service which is a "DevOps Automation as-as-service" offering. 😉
Octopus Deploy takes care of the servers and storage, you just take care of automating your builds.
The other option is to host Octopus Deploy on servers, either in your own datacentre or private cloud. With this option you are in complete control. From what servers host your Octopus Deploy infrastructure to how your deployments are run.
Where can I use Octopus Deploy?
Octopus Deploy can support your environment where ever it is. Whether it's on Azure or AWS, or GCP or in your own datacentre.
What is an Octopus Deploy Deployment Target?
Deployment targets are, most of the time, virtual machines you deploy to. So that could be a web or application server you are deploying your code to through Octopus Deploy. It could also be an Azure Web App, Kubernetes cluster or other such resource.
Reach out
I hope that has helped clear up some of the questions I've had over the past few months, if you have any further questions or you'd like me to help you with your first Octopus deployment please do reach out and I'll be happy to help.