Using git to deploy to a cluster

Question

I've seen many people use git (or SVN) for deploying their web app projects, be they PHP, Python or whatever. Essentially, you use pull the code from the stable branch to your local server and possible run a few migration updates. Easy.

But I wondered if anyone uses git for deploying to cloud server / clusters. RightScale suggest that while git (actually SVN) can be used for deploying apps to new cloud instances, they prefer zipping up the project code and pushing it to S3. I can see that this is a simpler process to get your head around but are there actual technical advantages to doing this.

Git isn't actually needed on the live servers, so this might be a good reason not to bother with it.

Also, do you think it's good practice to use git when deploying to large clusters or do you think that having some "deployment" archive like S3 in the way makes things safer.

What do you think?

Cheers, Dan

Answer 1

I don't see any harm in having either an svn or git client on a production server. It can make it much simpler to rapid deployments.

I use this strategy with Capistrano, and it works great.