Horizontally Scaling Drupal Workshop - 7 Aug 2010

I have been developing a couple of workshops around the theme of scaling Drupal horizontally. As Drupal becomes more popular people have to manage an increasing number of sites. It is pretty easy to manage 5 or 10 sites, but how do you manage 200 or even 2000 sites? During these workshops I will demonstrate some of the tools and techniques that I used to build, deploy and manage almost 2100 production sites.

Each session will focus on a particular tool and how to use it. The sessions will be hands on with users using the tools to achieve goals.

Program

The workshop will contain sessions on the following:

Introduction to Aegir

This session will walk attendees through the benefits of aegir and explore some of the common use cases. The other key components of the hosting platform will be discussed.

Features Module

The features module allows developers to export functionality from their sites as modules. These generated modules can be reused in other projects and stored in version control. Features makes it easy to build up a pallette of functionality which can be dropped into sites.

Attendees will develop an understanding of how the features module works and how to use it. By the end of this session participants will build their first feature, a simple FAQ system.

Installation Profiles

Installation profiles make it possible to quickly and easily deploy Drupal sites. A default install of Drupal 6 (and later) uses an installation profile.

During this session participants will learn why installation profiles are useful and how to build a simple profile. Use of the Installation Profile API module will also be covered. Dave will also share some tips on integrating project management tools with installation profiles to automate building contact forms and other generic parts of sites. At the end of the session users will have built a basic installation profile.

Drush

Administering multiple Drupal sites via the web interface can be a slow and boring task. Drush allows you to administer your sites from the command line, which can save you time and automate tasks.

Participants will develop an understanding of when drush can be used and how it can simplify maintenance tasks.

Deploying and Using Aegir

Attendees will be walked through installing aegir, managing platforms, deploying and migrating sites.

Notebook

Detailed training notes will be supplied as a PDF to participants the week before the workshop. The notebook will be licensed under the CC-BY-NC license, so you will be free to use it in the office and share it around.

Prerequisites

Users should be confident using Drupal 6 and should have some experience with using the Linux command line.

Users must have either VirtualBox or KVM installed on their laptop for the session, as all practical work will be carried out on a virtual machine.

Venue

The workshop will be held at Webdev Warehouse in East Brunswick. Thanks to Shaun Moss of Star Multimedia for providing the venue.

I am planning to run workshops in other places too, including Slovakia and Albania in September 2010. Feel free to contact me if you want me to run a workshop closer to you.

Pricing

I am offering the initial workshop at the heavily discounted price of only 75AUD (ex GST) per person for 6hrs+ of training.

Payment is to be made via EFT before the workshop.

Sign up

Places are limited to 6 people. I'm working on a sign up page, so for now express your interest here and I will let you know where you can sign up.