I would strongly recommend using Continuous Integration.
We use a combination of TeamCity for CI, Rake and Albacore for automating the build.
TeamCity will check the code out of your source code repository, then, using Rake, build the application, execute unit tests and even run your database scripts if you so desire. After a successful build you can package your source code in a zip file or copy it to a destination of your choice.
We use Git, although TeamCity works with all source control systems.
Using TeamCity and Rake would be similar to using CruiseControl and NANT, without the XML file editing. Of course, you can use TeamCity with NANT if you prefer.
A short sample pulled from a rakefile.rb which performs the build. IMHO, easier to read and debug than an XML file.
require 'albacore'
require 'rexml/document'
require 'find'
VERSION_NO = "1.0"
OUTPUT_PATH = "output"
WEBOUTPUT_PATH = "output/web"
ADMINOUTPUT_PATH = "output/admin"
CONFIG = "Release"
WEB_PATH = "app/Company.Website.Web"
ADMIN_PATH = "app/Company.Website.Admin"
PACKAGE_PATH = "build/package"
DB_SCRIPT_PATH = "Company.Website.DB"
SOLUTION = "Company.Website.sln"
ARTIFACTS_PATH = "d:/build/artifacts/"
DEPLOY_WEB_PATH = "d:/deploy/company/website/"
DEPLOY_ADMIN_PATH = "d:/deploy/company/admin/"
task :default => ['setuptest','assemblyinfo','config','msbuild','createdb','sqlcmd','deploy']
task :setuptest do |setup|
if ENV['BuildNumber'].nil? then ENV['BuildNumber'] = "000" end
VERSION_NO = VERSION_NO + '.' + ENV['BuildNumber']
puts 'Version Number : ' + VERSION_NO
ZIPFILE_WEB = 'Company.Website.Web.' + VERSION_NO
ZIPFILE_ADMIN = 'Company.Website.Admin.' + VERSION_NO
DB_SERVER = "WEB2"
DB_DATABASE = "Website"
CREATEDB_SCRIPT = "app/Company.Website.DB/00CreateDatabaseTEST.sql"
end
assemblyinfotask do |asm|
asm.version = VERSION_NO
asm.company_name = "Company Name"
asm.copyright = "Copyright 2010"
asm.output_file = "CommonAssemblyInfo.cs"
end
task :config do
FileUtils.cp 'NHibernate.test.config', 'NHibernate.config'
end
msbuildtask do |msb|
msb.properties = { :configuration => :Debug }
msb.targets [:Clean, :Build]
msb.solution = "Company.Website.sln"
end
sqlcmdtask :createdb do |sql|
puts "executing sql scripts..."
sql.log_level = :verbose
sql.path_to_command = "sqlcmd.exe"
sql.server = DB_SERVER
sql.database = "master"
sql.scripts << CREATEDB_SCRIPT
end
sqlcmdtask do |sql|
puts "executing sql scripts..."
sql.log_level = :verbose
sql.path_to_command = "sqlcmd.exe"
sql.server = DB_SERVER
sql.database = DB_DATABASE
sql.scripts << "app/Company.Website.DB/01CreateTables.sql"
sql.scripts << "app/Company.Website.DB/02InsertReferenceData.sql"
end
task :deployprep do
FileUtils.remove_dir 'app/Company.Website.Web/obj'
FileUtils.remove_dir 'app/Company.Website.Admin/obj'
end
ziptask :zipweb do |zip|
puts "creating zip package in " + ZIPFILE_WEB
zip.directories_to_zip = ["app/Company.Website.Web"]
zip.output_file = ZIPFILE_WEB + '.zip'
zip.output_path = File.dirname(__FILE__)
end
ziptask :zipadmin do |zip|
puts "creating zip package in " + ZIPFILE_ADMIN
zip.directories_to_zip = ["app/Company.Website.Admin"]
zip.output_file = ZIPFILE_ADMIN + '.zip'
zip.output_path = File.dirname(__FILE__)
end
Albacore is suite of Rake tasks specifically build for deploying .NET application.
I've never heard of a special version of Tomcat that is only available at Hostgator. So deploying a JSP/Servlet/war on Tomcat is not specific to a hosting company.
Deploy your application as on any Tomcat. Read the documentation and you are done.
Best Answer
You could compute a partition cookie pt based on some characteristic of a user such as a guid. For example, you could convert a guid into integer and then compute mod N where N is the number of servers, then set that value to pt cookie. At the load balancer level, analyze the partition pt cookie and direct to the appropriate server. Many load balancers (such as Zeus ZXTM) allow this type of smart routing to be implemented in load balancer scripts.
Alternatively, you could actually build the A/B split functionality into your codebase rather than doing it at the load-balancer.