I see many posts recently about deployment frustrations and alternatives.
I would like to get feedback on an alpha stage alternative I’ve been developing : Habitat For Meteor.
Briefly, Habitat For Meteor…
Adds to your Meteor application the tools you need to wrap it into a Habitat deployment package, and bump Git release numbering.
Provides a single command to build a deployment package and publish it to a Habitat Depot.
Sets up a remote host with the Habitat deployment environment prepared and ready for use.
Provides a single command to pull a deployment package from a depot and deploy it to your remote host, along with NodeJS, Nginx (with certificates), MongoDB (or any other database you need with Apollo) and the necessary connections between them.
This sounds really interesting. Haven’t had a chance to read the whole readme yet but will tomorrow.
I’ve been through the pains of deployment and have pretty much resigned to not bothering with my own hosted option, just pay for someone else to do it. Now that Arunoda has stepped away from maintaining MUP something else was due to take its place.
I’m really pleased that your are interested in what I’ve done!
The one-time setup process is quite a bear, what with needing API keys for GitHub, SSH keys of the server, SSL certs for Nginx, Origin keys for Habitat, blabbity, blabbity, blah.
However, once you get them all doing their job, the benefits are huge and will only improve as the ecosystem of Habitat packages expands. You’ll be able to depend on someone, some where updating and upgrading them for you, while the depot keeps prior versions in case of problems.
Most of the discussion about deployment in this forum seems to be between managed hosting or roll your own, but there’s an third category. As I say in the README, not everyone has the luxury of choosing where and how they host their apps and many must conform to quite onerous deployment protocols handed down from above. Habitat is created by Chef, who already have a long trajectory at the center of DevOps systems and services, so a Meteor app able to install and run itself, under Habitat supervision, has a greatly broadened range of possible deployment vectors.
The cool thing is, once past the initial configuration trauma, even a lone freelancer with a $12/mth VPS* has effortless continuous deployment at their finger tips.
¡* please pardon the plug. I’ve used these guys for years and they’re SO good.