Looks very promising OP. As a Rails developer I've been looking for something like this for a while. I'm getting a copy soon as hit my pad later on.
Thanks a lot!
Done! thank you very much for this resource.
Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
61–70 of 129 posts
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
#62I am working through the book right now. It touches a lot of things, albeit superficially, to get you up and running. I have done plenty of deployments in the past so I do not need half of the book, but it has been helpful to put into context holes in my education (SELinux, Systemd, firewalls, etc.)
@strzibny, it would be great if you can put some curated links or references at the end of the book so the reader know where to go if they want to go deeper in that particular topic. It would really improve the value that some of us get from the book.
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I happened to have a quite different view. It was clear to me the content I was supposed to get. The only reason I didn't purchase is because the value proposition "save time managing your own side-project/startup deployment" is not smart, to me at least. I decided to pay and outsource most of these things away in order to focus on differentiating software, marketing/sales and peace of mind. Edit: I also think the "s…
Thanks for your feedback. > the value proposition "save time managing your own side-project/startup deployment" is not smart I would say it's not right for all. But it's 100% true (from my readers) that people learn self-hosting to cut costs. That part of the page targets these people. > I decided to pay and outsource most of these things away in order to focus on differentiating software, marketing/sales and peace o…
Those are fair points, I agree this is subjective. That's why I said "to me at least".
I've done this kind of work in the past and would certainly enjoy learning more. Your book was inviting. I just won't have the time at this moment. Need to focus elsewhere, as I said.
When thinking about business, the initial scale is quite small and managed services are cheap (and a variable cost) compared to the time I'd spend on self-managed (high upfront, fixed cost).
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
#64This might just be paranoia but a couple of the early comments on this thread feel very astro-turfy. For example: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=vich (hasn't commented since aug 2020) https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=matthieuchabert (hasn't commented for 10 months) https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=vivty is slightly sketchy as well but not super cut and dry
I'm not a frequent contributor to HN (except when I build a product and want to show it on HN). I genuinely commented because I like the book and saw this thread on HN. I never talked to the author, I only follow him on Twitter.
Thanks. I'm glad to know it's not what it appeared at first glance. And apologies if I drew any unwanted attention to your account.
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
#65Hi fellow readers of HN, I am Josef, a full-stack developer, a formal Ruby Linux packager at Red Hat, and an author of Deployment from Scratch (which is this post about!). After working at Red Hat and technically leading a start-up (of which I was the primary production engineer), I decided to write down a resource I felt was missing on the market: A book that gives you the confidence to deploy your first application…
Based on the table of contents and the preview pages it looks like it has some pretty good content. Made me think of "the missing manual" book series. I just don't think small startups or side-projects should spend so much time getting all the configuration and moving parts right compared to just Docker+Terraform+(IaaS of choice). Then if one is on a tight budget, then just run Docker Compose on a single host, or run…
> I just don't think small startups or side-projects should spend so much time getting all the configuration and moving parts right compared to just Docker+Terraform+(IaaS of choice).
Hype aside, I'd add serverless. One can build a lot of stuff with very little hassle on top of AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB and S3.
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
#66Hi fellow readers of HN, I am Josef, a full-stack developer, a formal Ruby Linux packager at Red Hat, and an author of Deployment from Scratch (which is this post about!). After working at Red Hat and technically leading a start-up (of which I was the primary production engineer), I decided to write down a resource I felt was missing on the market: A book that gives you the confidence to deploy your first application…
Based on the table of contents and the preview pages it looks like it has some pretty good content. Made me think of "the missing manual" book series. I just don't think small startups or side-projects should spend so much time getting all the configuration and moving parts right compared to just Docker+Terraform+(IaaS of choice). Then if one is on a tight budget, then just run Docker Compose on a single host, or run…
I really believe that what I put into the book should be a knowledge a person deploying production application should have.
> I just don't think small startups or side-projects should spend so much time getting all the configuration and moving parts right compared to just Docker+Terraform+(IaaS of choice).
It's the opposite actually! I show you how to avoid a lot of indirection and have a deploy script in 200 lines of Bash that you understand in an afternoon.
If you choose to use Docker, I have a full chapter of building containers, doing Docker networking, running containers with the Docker engine or with Podman like any other systemd service.
You can then write a small Bash script to install Docker and deploy your container or write an abstraction in a tool like Ansible. That's your choice and I think I present good arguments for both.
> deploy with bespoke Bash scripts is borderline irresponsible
Only like 5% of the book spends time talking about how to glue everything with Bash. Most is networking, permissions, configuration. The idea is to see how things are done with the most basic building block which is a shell.
The thing is shell code is how you interact with your operating system unless you are using C API. It's what most deployment tools use under the hood, not to mention that many tools are basically Bash (ruby-install, chruby) or based around executing it (Dockerfile).
> However it seems more like it would be a better guide as "Linux Servers from Scratch"?
I already renamed the book twice :). Not anymore, please ;). Most people actually told me they don't care for the name at all. Yes, there is a lot of Linux, but I named it after the intent. The intent is to deploy at the end. The fact that most of the deployment is configuration is implementation detail.
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
They should disclose that, though. Otherwise the feedback is indistinguishable from astroturfing. Pretty much everything about this guy rubs me the wrong way. The usual cheesy testimonials / vague promises of content which never really gets previewed, the obvious astroturfing, which he continues to respond to as if they're organic genuine comments, etc. Just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
I am really sorry you feel that way. It's all pure feedback from people I don't know. All organic. And I am replying, because I promised I will be around for discussion. Testimonials, podcasts appearances, and comments here were not solicited. People just did that on their own. Jeremy from Software Engineering Radio actually really bought the alpha version, and his invitation to the podcast was out of the blue. Jason…
Thanks for the explanation. Sorry for the false alarm. My spidey senses started tingling but I should have held back a bit.
As you mentioned, I was flat-out wrong about the previews. Not sure if I scrolled straight past that section or what.
Wishing you the best with your book. And FWIW I like the bash-based approach; I agree with the philosophy of peeling away the abstraction layers.
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
#68Comprehensive?
"Deploy Ruby, Python, PostgreSQL, and Redis."
Re: Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suppose if the author asked a few folks to leave positive comments on the post thats not too crazy. I'd do the same thing if I was trying to promote something. I think I'd draw the line at something more programmatic, like some gray hat creating sock puppet accounts.
They should disclose that, though. Otherwise the feedback is indistinguishable from astroturfing. Pretty much everything about this guy rubs me the wrong way. The usual cheesy testimonials / vague promises of content which never really gets previewed, the obvious astroturfing, which he continues to respond to as if they're organic genuine comments, etc. Just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
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Re: Show HN: I wrote a book on web application deployment
#70Comprehensive? " Deploy Ruby, Python, PostgreSQL, and Redis. "
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