What do you recommend for deploying web apps?

Question

For deploying applications (Ruby apps, in my case) I've used Capistrano and currently use Vlad the Deployer.

What do you use for deployment, and why?

Answer 1

I've used Subversion (source control) in the past to handle deployments to the web, and I know it has become more popular as time passes. It makes it VERY easy to roll back if you have problems (on the code side). Here's an article on it:

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2005/04/linux-20050406.ars

Here's an article on setting it up on a more unix flavor:

http://www.jejik.com/articles/2008/08/easily_develop_and_deploy_web_applications_from_subversion/

For windows, I use the free VisualSVN bundle:

http://www.visualsvn.com/

and then just used the commandline tools to do the actual checkout. I also found this previous question along the same lines (but for PHP):

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/800294/how-to-get-started-deploying-php-applications-from-a-subversion-repository

Personally I don't like to have it fully automated - I still manually trigger the deployment and watch it, but some people may be comfortable letting the machine to things on its own. :)

Answer 2

I use capistrano and subversion.

Capistrano is very well documented inline, and progressively better documented online.

see The Absolute Moron's Guide to Capistrano (take no offence)

Takes a bit to get rolling, but then it's bless.