Aegir

half-way through a big refactor. todo; move things from here to other places.

Aegir is a site management distribution.

Overview

Aegir uses Drupal multisite features to share one Drupal codebase install as a 'platform' between sites. Distributions are equal to platform+site, i.e., turnkey solutions. Content can be shared (migrated) between sites using an updated or different platform (with the same content modules, natch).

A platform and site distribution is created from a .make and .info by the Drush Provision plugin that powers the backend of Aegir. The Profiler library is installed with the .make and uses a .info file to specify modules to be initialised, including site sections/etc. from the Features module plus configuration settings via the Strongarm module. Provision initialises a site on that platform and installs the platform+site in Aegir.

Features and theme are stored using Git, --working-copy can be used to build a dev site then content can be migrated from live for testing. Dev platform is perfected, then rebuilt as live without --working-copy.

todo; use hosting_site_git and working-copy patch

Dev/production workflow

Drupal deployments & workflows with version control, drush_make, and Aegir (mig5, Oct 28 2009)
Using drush hosting-import to auto-create your platform node (and other entities) (mig5, Jan 11 2011) - Updated workflow on Aegir mailing list
From Zero to Distribution using Features, Profiler, and Drush Make (dimitri, March 9, 2011)

Stack

Relating to installing Aegir on bare servers.

See: BOA - 'Barracuda, Octopus, Aegir' bash install script.

Also;

Provision

php /var/aegir/drush/drush.php @hostmaster hosting-cron --debug

Manage your Aegir system from the command-line

Hostmaster

Migrate sites from one Aegir to another (Apache)

remote_import - Drush extension that allows you to fetch remote sites from remote Aegir servers
- http://drupal.org/project/hosting_remote_import hosting_remote_import] - module that provides a UI for remote_import

Importing a site

Clone sites

http://community.aegirproject.org/node/24

Aegir provides an easy method of making entire copies of a site. This includes the actual site files, modules and so on, as well as a copy of the actual database. This feature is called 'Clone' in Aegir, because it is a method of duplicating a site with a new URL or 'site name'.

The feature is very closely linked to the Migrate feature because it is almost the same, except that rather than move the site, it leaves the existing site in place and just copies it to a new name. For this reason, enabling the Clone feature also enables the Migrate feature.

Migrating and updating platforms

Aegir contrib

http://community.aegirproject.org/contrib-modules

http://community.aegirproject.org/node/75

Access

https://github.com/computerminds/aegir_http_basic

http://drupal.org/project/provisionacl - Drush module, granular shell access for users

Backups

http://drupal.org/project/provision_reinstall
- http://drupal.org/project/hosting_reinstall

http://drupal.org/project/hosting_backup_gc - allows you to specify how long Aegir should retain backups for

Migration between Aegirs

Remote import - Provision, Remote import - Hostmaster - Drush extension allows you to fetch remote sites from remote Aegir servers.

Managing workflow

http://drupal.org/project/hosting_queue_runner - tasks are run as soon as possible instead of waiting for a cron run. This makes Aegir appear much more responsive. [1]

https://github.com/computerminds/aegir_make_working_copy - provides git working copy option un hostmaster gui for dev sites. - broken [2]

http://drupal.org/project/hosting_site_git - hostmaster+provision
http://drupal.org/project/provision_git - backend only

Hosting Features - provides a Task to Hostmaster that provides integration with a site's Features. It is currently in development but works for the most important task: Update & Commit Features