Deployment and system administration

In order to build a local platform based on the OFN free software, you need to deploy the code on a server and run it, but you also need to maintain the deployment on a daily basis, do the upgrade, fix issues. We call that role "system administration".

1- How to deploy the code?

All that is documented on Github, in the OFN-install repository. Checkout the wiki here.

2- How do I get support?

Maybe you are not technical and don't have any tech people in your team. Or maybe you are tech but need support to do maintenance and for emergency fixes on your local server. Here is how we have organized sys admin support in the OFN community!

System administration global team

In order to make system administration of all OFN affiliates easier and more efficient and reliable, we have built a "global sys admin team", composed of a few very reliable and trustful devops. Those people are granted access to the servers of all OFN affiliates, so that they can intervene whenever it's needed. The good part of it is also that some complex maintenance can be done using time differences, so a devops in Aus will be able to do maintenance of UK servers while UK is asleep.

How to get support from that team

• If you are an existing instance and contribute reasonably to the global OFN pool you are entitled to receive support from the global sys admin team. Your use of that service will be followed to ensure the general balance and fairness of the process. Also your requests will be prioritized as the team has a lot of things to work on. So obviously emergency like "server is down", or "upgrades" will be done in priority. But for some more custom requests like "set up a local wordpress on servers" that might not be considered as a priority, but if you find someone to do it you might ask support from the sys admin team.

• If you are a new instance and have fundings to get support to set you up and maintain your system, you are also entitled to receive support from the global sys admin team under the same conditions as above.

• If you don’t contribute at all or in very symbolic proportion to global pool we cannot commit on any support. If you are very engaged in the OFN and contributing in other ways we might decide to help you, or at least of course we can answer your questions and provide some advice. But we highly encourage you to find funds to be able to get some proper support.