Virtual Machines and Web Development |
|
I can not think of a more useful tool to come down the pike in recent years than the landing of light, fast, efficient and ... working... Virtual Machine appliances. In fact, for the development of web applications, its a basic must for anyone serious about putting together professional level software packages for their clients. Just about every ISP out there on the Internet is running something just a little bit different than everyone else. Different versions of PHP, MySQL, Apache -- different mods and additions installed, different layouts, the whole list of variables is huge and growing. While most of these variables are not incredibly important, as they don't affect much of the common needs of a business application, some of them are very important, and uncommon to either exist or absent. When I have a new client, the first thing I do is get the server information from their ISP, then, using Virtual Machine Creator from VMWare, I build a server which duplicates their web server area exactly. From this point, I have a development area which will not give me any surprises when I install the application or fix onto their live server on completion of the project. The setup and development of the servers into a Virtual Machine is much easier than it sounds, especially when we are able to install onto a Linux VM. Once set up, the Virtual Machine runs on my laptop or desktop (I can easily move it back and forth between the two or even keep it on an external drive). The server is then started, and from this point, it is exactly like I am working on a remote server, including FTP, and other file transfer applications. When a different client requires something created for them, I close the one Virtual Server, open up the VM for the other client, and keep going. If there is a trouble or annoyance in this process, it is simply keeping a log of what is installed on these servers... but .. then, there is always phpinfo() for those of us who demand low annoyance in our lives. VMWare has a huge directory of ready-made Virtual Appliances, featuring servers already setup with packages like Joomla, PHPBB and other common software (and some not so common) which can be downloaded and used as training/testing/exploring machines. Quote this article on your site To create link towards this article on your website, copy and paste the text below in your page. Preview : Powered by QuoteThis © 2008
|
Created by Glenn Hefley Internet Marketing