Code updates and Infrastructure upgrades have been mostly automated so that these operations can happen rapidly. This happens via multiple github repositories and actions.
Playbooks
Playbooks are composed of an action or series of actions that constitute a a common process.
Test a new version of WordPress and/or nginx
A scheduled process is responsible for periodically checking for a new version of WordPress and nginx. This process will deploy the image to the wordpress-wordpress-run:latest image tag, from which a test suite will be run comparing the dev and latest versions, at the end of which digital-latest.apps.silver.devops.gov.bc.ca will be a copy of production with the latest version of wordpress running on it.
Check the results of the screenshot tests, and do some user testing of the site. Once satisfied with the upgrade, you can change the test and production image tags in openshift and bring down the pods in those deployments. Once the deployments are restarted with new pods, the new version of wordpress will be in place.
Workflows
Spin up a new wordpress instance
A new WordPress site can be created by executing the Create Wordpress Instance
workflow. This will create all the necessary openshift resources in the specified environment
, who’s names will be prefixed by the site-name
input and the URL will be digital-site-name
apps.silver.devops.gov.bc.ca. The controlling infrastructure-as-code is implemented with kustomized, and can be found in the wordpress-deploy-digimod repository. The action will also copy the wordpress cli to the container and perform a site install.
Update the theme
You can deploy the latest theme from the bcgov-wordpress-block-theme-digimod repository with the Deploy Plugins
workflow. The will deploy to the specified environment
for digital-site-name
apps.silver.devops.gov.bc.ca.
Update digimod plugins
You can deploy the latest plugins from the wordpress-digimod repository with the Deploy Plugins
workflow. The will deploy to the specified environment
for digital-site-name
apps.silver.devops.gov.bc.ca.
Update a single plugin
You can deploy the a specific plugin from the wordpress-digimod repository with the Deploy Plugin
workflow. The will deploy the plugin
to the specified environment
for digital-site-name
apps.silver.devops.gov.bc.ca.
Run the test suite
Perform a full site export and test
You can perform a full end-to-end test with the Full Test
workflow. This test deploys a new instance of wordpress, recreates the production website, and performs screenshot tests to compare the site before and after the latest version of the themes and plugins are deployed to see if the site will be affected by development changes. This will run:
Create Wordpress Instance
Replicate Production
Sitemap Screenshots
Deploy theme
Deploy plugins
Verify Screenshots
Perform a test of a Wordpress upgrade
We check for wordpress and nginx upgrades with a manually triggered github actions workflow. This is a more complex process that involves several workflows over two repositories.
Every Monday at midnight, a workflow from the wordpress-deploy-digimod repository compares the version found in the dockerfile of the build configuration for wordpress, and compares it to the latest version found in dockerhub. If these are not the same, it updates the dockerfile in the repository.
A second workflow is then triggered when the dockerfile is updated, which builds the image and updates the image in openshift, under the ‘latest’ tag.
A third workflow in the wordpress-digimod repository operates on a cron job scheduled at 1AM on Monday, one hour after the first workflow is executed. It checks the status of the second workflow; if it is successful, it deploys the new version of wordpress to digital-latest. It first deploys from the dev tag, then takes screenshots, deploys from the latest tag, and then compares.
Configure the SSO for a site
WordPress deployments can be configured for SSO integration with Keycloak. The integrations are managed through the CSS app. SSO is managed on the client side with the MiniOrange OAuth plugin. Sites in Dev, Test, and Prod all must use different client credentials, so they must be set up differently. This can be set up by running the Reconfigure SSO workflow. Note that both the MiniOrange OAuth plugin and the digimod-misc plugin (which contains the wordpress script for changing the MiniOrange configuration) must already be installed on the site for this to work. This can be done either from an Export from production, deploy plugins, or deploy plugin workflow.
Export from production
You can perform a site backup from production and import it to the specified environment
for digital-site-name
apps.silver.devops.gov.bc.ca. This can be done by running the Site Export from Production workflow.
Migration to production
You can perform a migration to production and import it from the specified environment
and site digital-site-name
apps.silver.devops.gov.bc.ca. This can be done by running the Site Export from Production workflow.
Note: this process was not verified against production.
Backup
The backup system utilizes all in one All in One WordPress Migration tool to create snapshots on a daily basis and stores them on the digital-backup site. Digital-backup uses netapp-file-backup PVC to store it’s data so it’s backed up offsite using OCIO backup infrastructure.
The backup is accomplished through a cron job ran by GitHub Actions via the Backup workflow. The workflow creates a backup on production using ai1wm CLI, copies that backup to digital-backup site and restores it so it’s available for viewing on a public URL.
Note: it is currently not possible to login into the backup site as the SSO configuration is invalid due to the restoration process. To login to the site, it is necessary to create a user manually by logging on to the pod terminal and running wp-cli command to create an admin user:
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar
php wp-cli.phar user create backup-admin backup-admin@info.com --role=administrator --user_pass=********
Alternatively run the Restore backup action to test site and then run Reconfigure SSO plugin to allow Keycloak logins to test site that will now contain the backup.
Note: Currently there are no notifications if the backup process failed for some reason, for example due to failures of remote oc commands. It is advisable to create a separate process that verifies that backup in fact took place and that restore was successful.
Restore Backup
The restore process works through the restoration of the ai1wm image stored on the digital-backup site to a target instance (for example production). This is the same process that is used for site migration from a non-production environment to production (for example when there are major changes being done to the site).
To restore the site to a previous state, use the Restore Backup workflow. The workflow allows the restoration to various targets, including production (follow prompt instructions) as well as selecting from up to 5 latest backups.
Note: in case of OpenShift node failure that causes the failure of both the production PVC as well as the digital-backup PVC resulting in a situation where no snapshots are available on the OpenShift cluster to restore from, it is necessary to request a restoration from the offsite location back to the OpenShift cluster according to standard procedures. Note that this process have not been verified and may take some time (possibly days) during which the site will not be available. Once the restore is complete, the simplest way to restore would be to download the snapshot and perform a manual restore using the all in one plugin. Alternatively restore digital-backup site functionality and run the Restore Backup workflow as describe above.
Note: restore backup process was not tested against production, however works properly with “test” as the target. It is therefore recommended to verify that restore backup process is working correctly.
Take Screenshots
The first step in screenshot testing is to take an initial set of screenshots before making changes to a site instance. This way this set of screenshots can be compared to a new set of screenshots after changes have been made (for example theme or WordPress version upgrade).
To take a set of screenshots, run the Take Screenshots workflow. Options include selecting which site instance to run the tests on, for production select “prod”. Any other value will be inserted into https://digital-{SITENAME}.apps.silver.devops.gov.bc.ca/. Note: currently the script is only configured to run with test due to configuration issues in cypress.config.js file that is not picking up passed in environmental variables in certain cases.
Once the action has ran, screenshots will be available for download in action details as an archive. Note that if the action is ran again, the previous screenshots will not be saved and will be overwritten with a new set.
Note: there have been some issues with images in the screenshot tests due to them not loading consistently before the screenshot is taken resulting in false negatives being produced during the verification stage. To mitigate this, images have been disabled. There are instances, however, where images are being set using background-image css rule (for example on communities of practice pages), so those may still produce failed tests that need to be reviewed manually. This can be fixed by targeting those elements specifically in the
Verify Screenshots
Once the initial set of screenshots have been taken and a site change has been implemented (for example a WordPress upgrade has been performed on test) run the Verify Screenshots workflow to compare the screenshots of the site before and after the upgrade. Once finished, an archive of screenshots will be available for download. The archive will contain before/after screenshots for failed tests as well as image diff files highlighting areas of difference in red color.
Verify Screenshots workflow can be run repeatedly to until outstanding issues have been eliminated. Once done so, perform the same series of upgrade steps on production with the result of the production site not experiencing any visual regressions.