I’ve seen a lot of desperate posts where sites have run into an issue after an upgrade. You’re running and managing a system on your own and should try to employ a few basic techniques. There are a lot of parts that depend on each other, a minor change can and will impact your entire operation. Here are some basics that will help prevent those desperate moments.
Establish a separate test environment. You can create a local testing area right on your own PC. The best way in my opinion is to use VMware to create a virtual machine. If you’re starting with a new Mautic installation, this is the best way to test it out before sending out real e-mails.
Create a few test contacts, download different browsers (internet explorer, chrome, etc.), and e-mail clients. Apply your ideas here and run your campaigns, and test.
Never install updates directly into your production system without running it through your test environment. When Mautic has a new version, apply it in your test system. Run it for a few days (assuming your campaigns are set to fire with some time delays). If it’s a release to fix something, you don’t have to test longer but you do have to test it.
Make a backup of your running production system, and then update to the next version using the same methods you used when applying to your test system. Before you run the update, keep the commands to “rollback” handy, in case things don’t work out so well.
You’ll know exactly what to expect and how to fix it. All with zero downtime, at least that’s the idea. You should also maintain regular backups.
I’ve seen a lot of desperate posts where sites have run into an issue after an upgrade. You’re running and managing a system on your own and should try to employ a few basic techniques. There are a lot of parts that depend on each other, a minor change can and will impact your entire operation. Here are some basics that will help prevent those desperate moments.
Establish a separate test environment. You can create a local testing area right on your own PC. The best way in my opinion is to use VMware to create a virtual machine. If you’re starting with a new Mautic installation, this is the best way to test it out before sending out real e-mails.
Create a few test contacts, download different browsers (internet explorer, chrome, etc.), and e-mail clients. Apply your ideas here and run your campaigns, and test.
Never install updates directly into your production system without running it through your test environment. When Mautic has a new version, apply it in your test system. Run it for a few days (assuming your campaigns are set to fire with some time delays). If it’s a release to fix something, you don’t have to test longer but you do have to test it.
Make a backup of your running production system, and then update to the next version using the same methods you used when applying to your test system. Before you run the update, keep the commands to “rollback” handy, in case things don’t work out so well.
You’ll know exactly what to expect and how to fix it. All with zero downtime, at least that’s the idea. You should also maintain regular backups.