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| --- | ||
| owner_slack: "#govuk-developers" | ||
| owner_slack: "#govuk-platform-engineering" | ||
| title: GOV.UK's environments (integration, staging, production) | ||
| section: Infrastructure | ||
| type: learn | ||
| layout: manual_layout | ||
| parent: "/manual.html" | ||
| --- | ||
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| GOV.UK has several environments with different purposes. | ||
| GOV.UK has several environments with different purposes. By _environment_, we | ||
| mean: | ||
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| For a quick view of what's where, you can use the [release app](https://release.publishing.service.gov.uk). | ||
| - a self-contained, running instance of all the software components of GOV.UK | ||
| - the AWS account and VPC network which hosts that instance of GOV.UK | ||
| - the configuration (settings) for that instance of GOV.UK | ||
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| ## Continuous integration (CI) | ||
| This document describes each GOV.UK environment and its uses. | ||
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| Runs tests for applications. | ||
| There are three GOV.UK environments hosted in AWS: integration, staging and | ||
| production. Individual developers also run GOV.UK locally on laptops or | ||
| workstations. | ||
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| The [Release dashboard](https://release.publishing.service.gov.uk/) shows which | ||
| application versions have been rolled out in each environment. | ||
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| ## Local development environments | ||
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| Software developers working on GOV.UK generally either use [govuk-docker] or | ||
| run the applications directly on their machines alongside copies of the | ||
| necessary databases. | ||
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| In future, we hope to improve [govuk-helm-charts] to be able to run the whole | ||
| GOV.UK stack locally. This should make it easier for new contributors to get | ||
| started on GOV.UK, encourage open-source engagement and reduce friction for | ||
| developers. | ||
|
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| ## Integration | ||
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| Used by GOV.UK product teams to test changes to software. | ||
| GOV.UK product teams use the _integration test_ environment for: | ||
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| - manual software testing, where automated test coverage is not yet sufficient | ||
| and/or the [govuk-docker] local development environment is insufficient | ||
| - automated end-to-end/system tests ([Smokey]) which determine whether a | ||
| software release is automatically promoted to the staging environment | ||
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| Right now this environment is also used by content editors at GDS and in other departments | ||
| to preview their content changes. This functionality should be replaced by draft preview | ||
| functionality as part of the publishing platform. | ||
| Currently, the integration environment is also used by content editors at GDS | ||
| and in other departments as a workaround to preview certain types of content | ||
| changes. This usage needs to be replaced by proper preview functionality in the | ||
| Publisher applications so that all end-user usage happens in production. | ||
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| Integration is hosted on [AWS][govuk-in-aws]. | ||
| There are no guarantees about availability of the integration environment and | ||
| support is on a best-effort basis only. | ||
|
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| ## Staging | ||
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| Used by GOV.UK product teams while deploying changes to ensure that they behave correctly | ||
| in a production-like environment. This means that staging must be similar to production | ||
| so that we're able to test things like the performance impact of changes. | ||
| GOV.UK Platform Engineering team uses the staging environment for: | ||
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| Staging is hosted on [AWS][govuk-in-aws]. | ||
| - verifying changes to cluster configuration or cloud infrastructure, such as | ||
| Kubernetes cluster upgrades | ||
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| Access to Staging is restricted to office IPs, so you'll need to [be | ||
| on the VPN][gds-vpn]. | ||
| AWS configuration can be found in | ||
| [govuk-aws-data](https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-aws/blob/master/terraform/projects/infra-security-groups/cache.tf). | ||
| GOV.UK product teams occasionally use the staging environment for: | ||
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| ## Production | ||
| - testing of major changes which need to run on a full copy of production data | ||
| - testing that involves measuring system performance or resource usage, for | ||
| example load testing and stress testing | ||
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| The staging environment is currently also a gate for automatic deployment of | ||
| new releases to production. | ||
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| The thing that runs the website for real people. | ||
| Front ends in the staging environment are reachable from GDS network addresses | ||
| only. This is to prevent content in staging being mistakenly linked to. If you | ||
| are working outside a GDS office, you will need to connect via the [VPN] in | ||
| order to view the website on the staging environment. Apps that require you to | ||
| log in via GOV.UK Signon do not require the VPN. | ||
|
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| ## Production | ||
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| Production is hosted on [AWS][govuk-in-aws]. | ||
| The production environment runs the versions of the applications which serve content to the general public. | ||
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| [gds-vpn]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O1LmLByDLlKU4F1-3chwS8qddd2WjYQgMaaEgTfK5To/edit | ||
| [govuk-in-aws]: /manual/govuk-in-aws.html | ||
| [govuk-docker]: https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-docker/ | ||
| [govuk-helm-charts]: https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-helm-charts/ | ||
| [Smokey]: /repos/smokey | ||
| [VPN]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O1LmLByDLlKU4F1-3chwS8qddd2WjYQgMaaEgTfK5To/preview |