Run multiple release steps in parallel against a single Tentacle

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1

We have a process that requires deploying 20+ NServiceBus handlers (Windows Services) to a single server. Currently, we have a “Deploy NuGet Package” step in Octopus for each NServiceBus handler, and each of these 20 deploy steps run sequentially.

The server is powerful enough to support deploying and starting multiple NServiceBus handlers at once.

We are using TeamCity, so I’ve wondered about setting up 20 different deployments in TeamCity that target 20 different releases in Octopus Deploy – while that sounds like a bit of a nightmare to maintain, I’m not sure it would even work. Can a single Tentacle process multiple deployments in parallel? Is there some other way we could parallelize this within Octopus?

2

Hi Dan,

Unfortunately at the moment, steps are run sequentially (if a single step targets 10 machines, those 10 deployments happen in parallel, but the step itself is still sequential). The only workaround I can think of would be to:

  1. Create each service as a separate project, or
  2. Package them all together into a single NuGet package, so they are all deployed and configured at the same time (though you wouldn’t be able to use our built-in Windows Service configuration options)

We’ll have a think about what would be involved in letting these steps run in parallel.

Paul

3

It would be good if you could think about this. We have a similar situation as well where multiple services should be updated and doing it in parallel would make deployment faster (thus downtime shorter).

4

Hi Wouter,

Thanks for the reply. This is something we plan to do in 2.6 - you can see it listed here:

Hope that helps!
Paul

5

Thank you!

Let me tell you a story, we have a manual release process that takes quite a bit of effort maintain. People have accepted this is just how it works, but I installed octopus, and configured our first application, without asking anyone.

Within the past 2 weeks or so, all dev and ops people have learned the advantage. Because up to this point we had to invest nothing, we did not have to get management approval and the first project is proving that it all works on one application with three stages. Ops has now decided to install tentacles on the prod machines and really like the control they can still maintain. They also see how many small releases our team does.

We manage a few 100 servers and 20+ applications. Soon we will start adding more and involve management to get the unlimited tier. Without the first free tier I would not have been able to do this quite this quickly. So your model works!

Thank you for a great product and keep up the good work!

Best regards,

Wouter

---- Paul Stovell tender2+d16beff01e0641beba7b7ab2004522e375616200c@tenderapp.com wrote ----

6

Hi Wouter,

Thanks so much for the kind words, and I’m really glad the free version helped you with your proof of concept - that’s exactly why we have a free version and it’s great to hear that it works. All the best on your automation journey!

Paul