Getting Started
Getting started with DevStack as a developer is easy. Most of the complexity that comes with setting up development environments, is abstracted away and is handled on the DevOps side of things.
Hence, this short introduction is enough to spin up a Cloud Development Environment (CDE) and start developing.
User Setup
In order to connect to your CDE, the SSH public key of your machine needs to be assigned to your Cloudomation user. You can see how to manage your user's SSH keys here or get in touch with your DevStack administrator.
Your SSH key needs to be assigned to your user before the creation of CDEs. CDEs created prior to the assignment need to be re-created.
When a user creates a Cloudomation Development Environment (CDE), a stop time is automatically assigned. This default stop time determines when the environment should shut down, which means scaling it to zero (rather than deleting it) and the environment remains intact in a hibernated state. Assigning a default stop time conserve resources by ensuring that unused environments do not run indefinitely.
The configuration of default stop time setting is stored in metadata of the user record. Therefore, whether a user creates a CDE using the devstack-cli or the user interface, the stop time is automatically applied based on the stored preference. There's no need to manually configure the stop time locally, regardless of the method used to create the CDE.
By default, the stop time is set to 8 hours after the CDE is created. If needed, this value can be adjusted for each user individually by using devstack_default_maximum_uptime_hours configuration.
This configuration can be added under users metadata in the "User Management" -> "Edit profile".
Self Service Portal
Once your user is set up, you can head over to the Self Service Portal (SSP).
To reach the SSP, navigate to <yourorganisationname>.cloudomation.com/ssp.
The SSP is your dashboard where you can get a visual overview of your CDEs' status, running-time etc. It also serves as a control board, where you can deploy, edit, and delete CDEs.
The complexity of configuration is abstracted away from the SSP. Deploying a CDE is as easy as selecting a template (a CDE type) and clicking on create.
Read more about the SSP here.
DevStack CLI
The DevStack command line interface is the final piece of the puzzle. Everything you can do via the SSP, you can also do with DevStack CLI, and much more!
Additionally to basic CDE actions like deploy and delete, you can configure file synchronization and port forwarding, inspect logs. You can even enter a terminal session of the VM of your CDE for ultimate control.
Read more about DevStack CLI here.
Example: Developing with your first CDE
Here is the outline of what steps you will need, when you first start developing with CDEs:
- Make sure your user in configured for using DevStack,
- deploy a CDE using the SSP or DevStack CLI,
- configure file synchronization via DevStack CLI,
- ...and that's it. You're ready to make changes to your codebase and see them take effect immediately on your CDE.