Can You Rebuild?

It’s summertime. You are probably too busy swatting mosquitoes and trying to keep things from burning on the grill to spend time reading this exciting article, so I’ll keep this short.

1. They get abducted by aliens
2. They win the lottery
3. They are asked to participate in a reality TV series
4. They find a better job at another company (author’s note: Decided to remove this choice to maintain the integrity of this article by avoiding really improbable scenarios)
5. Their position is eliminated because management sees no value in their skill set

1. Someone spills coffee on the machine
2. Disgruntled employee sabotages machine (see choice “e” above)
3. Machine is drafted by the military to serve in Iraq
4. Over-ambitious efficiency manager gets rid of the machine in a drive to reduce capital assets and scale down the business
5. A bad power supply destroys the hard drive and mother board

1. What compromises the build environment? Be sure to include every little detail, such as the operating system, the version of each component used for building, the network connections the machine needs or should avoid, etc. Are there any exemptions needed for corporate policy such as directories that should not be scanned by virus software? Is a static IP address needed? Simply describe what you would need to do to totally rebuild the system. It is best to automate your build environment as much as possible. If you have automated the process with scripts, are the scripts documented somewhere? If not, add it to your build document. Someone might need to change them someday, or understand how they work if there is a problem.
   
   
2. How is the build environment created?
   What are the installation instructions for each component? Are there any special settings needed?
   
   
3. How do you do the build?
   Exactly how is the build done? Include detailed instructions for each step – assume the person doing the build has never done it before. This is important for you review of the procedure. Can a previous build version be created using your version control tool? If you create baselines with your tool, it is best to always build off the baseline. For example, if you use a label to identify all the source code in a build, it is best to label the code and build off the label. Try to avoid building and labeling after the build.
   
   
4. How do you know the build was done properly?
   Make sure your instructions include steps on checking to make sure the build was completed properly. Even if this step is automated, make sure that it still informs the user if something goes wrong.
   
   
5. How is the build environment backed up?
   Your build environment includes manner things – more than just data. It can include custom settings and special registry settings. The best thing to do is to create a ghost image and record the specs of the machine the image was used on. Another solution to this is to use software that emulates a machine environment that creates an image file of the whole system. This is a great way to do builds for multiple operating systems when you don’t have enough systems.

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