CONTINUOUS DEPLOYMENT SYSTEM FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

• US 20140189641A1
• Filed: 03/04/2014
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Anderson, Keith H., Kenyon, John L., Hollis, Benjamin R., Edwards, Jill, Reid, Brad
• Granted Patent: US 9,454,351 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/110
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3668 Software testing software testing in telephone exchanges H04M3/242, testing of hardware G06F11/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44526 Plug-ins; Add-ons

Abstract

Examples of a continuous deployment system are provided that manage and track releases of software code, where some or all of the steps between check-in and deployment to production can be automated. Such systems can reduce the amount of developer effort needed to deploy a package, as developers may not have to be responsible for scheduling package builds, clicking deployment buttons, or manually running tests. The system can take care of all or some of that work.

Claims

1. A method for deploying software, the method comprising:

under control of a continuous deployment system comprising computing hardware;

receiving first source code modifications to a source code package;

automatically building a first software package having the first source code modifications, the first software package comprising executable program instructions;

automatically initiating one or more software tests against the first software package to determine whether to deploy the first software package, wherein automatically initiating one or more software tests comprises locking a testing environment on which the first software package operating to prevent additional deployments to the testing environment during testing;

approving the first software package for promotion to a deployment environment when the one or more software tests are passed by the first software package, wherein the deployment environment comprises computer hardware and wherein the first software package is promoted through a plurality of stages prior to the promotion to the deployment environment; and

in response to approving the first software package, causing the first software package to be deployed to the deployment environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the first software package to be deployed comprises:

determining a time window operative on the first software package; and

deploying the first software package during a time when the time window is open.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically rolling back to a previously deployed version of the first software package when the one or more software tests are failed by the first software package.

4. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

approving a second software package having second source code modifications for promotion to the deployment environment when the one or more software tests are passed by the second software package, where in the second software package is promoted through the plurality of stages prior to the promotion to the deployment environment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first software package and the second software package are built into a first application and a second application.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising approving the first software package and the second software package for promotion in response to receiving from an input device an indication of a manual approval from a user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a user-selectable approve feature is presented on a presentation device associated with the continuous deployment system.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising approving the second software package for promotion by automatically determining that the second software packages is associated with a later revision number than the first software package.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising approving the second software package for promotion by automatically determining the second software packages has passed more software tests included in the one or more software tests than the first software package.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein method is further configured to identify changes in source code collections by checking whether the deployed software package has a lower revision number than a revision number associated with the first software package.

11. A system for deploying software, the system comprising:

a computer interface configured to receive source code modifications for a source code package; and

a software deployment manager comprising computer hardware, the deployment manager configured to;

automatically build a first software package having the source code modifications;

automatically initiate one or more software tests against the first software package to determine whether to promote a modified software package, wherein to automatically initiate the one or more software tests the deployment manager is configured to lock a testing environment on which the first software package is operating to prevent additional deployments to the testing environment during testing;

approve the first software package for promotion to a deployment environment when the one or more software tests are passed by the first software package, wherein the first software package is promoted through a plurality of stages prior to the promotion to the deployment environment; and

cause the first software package to be deployed to the deployment environment.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the deployment manager is further configured to:

approve a second software package having second source code modifications for promotion to the deployment environment when the one or more software tests are passed by the second software package, where in the second software package is promoted through the plurality of stages prior to the promotion to the deployment environment.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the system further comprises storage nodes configured to store source code related data, the source code related data comprises one or more of code changes, code versions, versioning data, change history, code backups, code metadata, developer identifications, and continuous deployment system events.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer interface comprises a pipeline interface configured to report progress of deployment of the software.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the pipeline interface is further configured to rollback to a previously deployed version of the first software package when the one or more software tests are failed by the first software package.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the deployment environment is determined based on promotion configurations provided by a user.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the deployment manager is further configured to identify changes in source code collections by checking whether the deployed software package has a lower revision number than a revision number associated with the first software package.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of stages is involved with at least one software test that is different from software tests in other stages.

19. Non-transitory computer storage having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to:

in response to receipt of source code modifications to a source code package, automatically build an executable software package having the source code modifications;

deploy the executable software package software package to a deployment environment;

automatically initiate one or more software tests on the executable software package to determine whether to deploy the executable software package;

approve the executable software package for promotion to a deployment environment when the one or more software tests are passed by the software package, wherein the executable software package is promoted through a plurality of stages prior to the promotion to the deployment environment and automatically rollback to a previously deployed version of the software package when the one or more software tests are failed by the software package; and

cause the executable software package to be deployed to a second deployment environment based at least partly on determining that the executable software package includes latest approved revisions.

20. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 19, wherein each of the plurality of stages is involved with at least one software test that is different from software tests in other stages.