Duplicating QS entire production environment

[Gestion-PSD]

Hi all,

We're thinking on upgrade or QS+NP environment (5+1 vm servers, plus DC, DFS and separated Postgres), but Direction is mistrusted about to do it directly in a Production (PRO) environment, so they suggested us to duplicate PRO on a mirror separated development environment (DEV).

The idea is to have two mirroring enviroments in order to test upgrades and so in DEV before do it in PRO.

What is the best/faster approach? (pros and cons):

• A) Create the whole vm architecture and install & configure QS after
• B) Duplicate the vms in a completely separated net

Is there any configuration in QS out of QMC and .config files?

We think that if we can create a separated net for DEV, it wolud be easier to do option B whitout change any config or, at least, changing IPs but not hostnames. It is possible? 

Thanks ind advance.

[Stoyan_Terziev]

Hello Gestion,

Upgrades for QS have a full out-of-the-box backward compatibility provided you are not using legacy or house-made extensions. There is no licence-less form of duplicating your environment to my knowledge so this may end up fairly costly unless you truly want to create a fully operational Dev/Test environment.

NP however depends on the version upgrade. If you are upgrading to NP17 - you can consider this as a totally new software more than an upgrade to NP 16. (Bonus here is the compatibility between the two which can run simultaneously on the same OS).

The topic however goes in much more depth and outcome depends on the particularities of the current QS/NP implementation you have.

I hope that helps and good luck on your research!

Edit: I realized I didn't exactly answer your question, so here is my shallow take on it:

I'd do a full replication on a separated net which I'd later use as a Test/Dev environment for changes and upgrades further to come.

Kind regards,

S.T.

[Gestion-PSD]

Thanks for your fast reply.

The main background issue is to confirm that the upgrade (from april'18 to november'19) will run OK in our environment before do it in PRO.

Later, when DEV will be running OK, we're going to use it to test more functionalities, new app developments and so on and so forth.

My question is about to how to create the new DEV environment, copy-pasting the machines as they are right now, or create a new environment as it was a brand-new one, and later replicate the configuration of PRO in order to have a mirror-like DEV enviroment.

EDIT: The decision of build a DEV enviroment has already been made, so it only remains to know how to build it.

Regards,

Luján (Gestion-psd)

[Stoyan_Terziev]

Hi Luján,

Since QS doesn't have the 'duplication feature' included, and because it is license based, I'd recommend you do exact image of the system configuration and the OS (I'm guessing you have images of the setup) and run manual installation from scratch so it mimics the setup in your PROD environment. 

That'd be the second option in your list.

Regards,

S.T.

[Gestion-PSD]

Thanks again, Stoyan.

I think your proposal is in the middle of mine ones. We'll evaluate options and elevate it to whose to take decisions.

By the way, adding more information to the case: Has QS any configuration out of QMC and .config files?

Regards,

Luján.

[Stoyan_Terziev]

Hi Luján,

The basic QS configuration can only be replicated using the QMC only. However, QS is open to communication with external resources such as config files, triggers, data connections,  identity provider connections etc. Those (if known) need to be also replicated.

I'd say it really depends on the depth of your implementation.

Chances are there is nothing out of QMC but no guarantee until we take a look.

Kind regards,

S.T.