We are currently using Amazon’s AWS load balancing that starts up new instances of servers whenever there’s a need. The problem is that the image used to create new instances must have the most recent version of a website installed in order to be of any use. I’ve written a windows service that automatically polls a location for updates to a windows service/website and then updates the service/websites automatically. However, I was thinking of using Octopus to update the servers instead. However it’s only one way from the server to the tentacles. I was thinking the tentacles could be configured to automatically connect to a deployment server to check that it has the latest version and automatically update itself based on the version number of the setup environment.
It’s probably a tall order and doesn’t fit with your current design goals. But just thought I’d suggest it anyway.