Environment Management

At minimum, every application on the VIP Platform has a production environment. Additional non-production environments for an application can be created to support code development, testing, and quality assurance workflows.

Non-production environments can be created and deleted within an application’s VIP Dashboard.

Limitations

• Production environments cannot be created or deleted.
• The number of non-production environments that can exist at one time within an application is defined in the contract that an organization has with WPVIP. This number can also be referenced in the organization level of the VIP Dashboard by selecting the tab labeled “Plan Details” on the Usage panel.
• The allowed characters for the name of a non-production environment are limited to 0-9,a-z,-. The environment name cannot begin or end with a hyphen (-) and cannot have consecutive hyphens (--).
• A non-production environment cannot be deleted while some processes such as a Database Backup is in progress.
• When a Node.js non-production environment is created, only a branch that is not already configured to deploy to another environment can be assigned to the new environment.

Access

To access Environment Management options:

1. Navigate to the VIP Dashboard for an application.
2. Select the environment dropdown menu in the upper left corner labeled “Environment” to access the option to “Create” or “Delete” an environment.

Create an environment

From within the VIP Dashboard for an application:

1. Select the dropdown menu in the upper left corner labeled “Environment” to access a list of all existing environments and available options for Environment Management.
2. Below the list of existing environments, select the menu option labeled “+ Create” to access a modal titled “Create Environment”. A reference for the allowed number of environments for the application can be found in the top portion of the modal:
   • “Created“: The number of non-production environments that already exist in the application.
   • “Allowed“: The number of non-production environments that are contractually allowed to be added to the application.
3. Enter a name for the new environment in the field labeled “Environment Name”.
4. In the field labeled “Branch Name“, enter the name of an existing branch in the application’s wpcomvip GitHub repository that should deploy to the new environment. Or, leave the field blank to create a new branch that will deploy to the new environment. The name of the new branch will be based on the entered name value of the environment.
5. Select a version of software for the environment.
   • For WordPress environments, select a version of PHP.
   • For Node.js environments, select a version of Node.js.
6. Select the button labeled “Create“.

The environment creation process is usually complete within two minutes. To access the VIP Dashboard for the new environment select the name of the newly created environment from the environment dropdown list.

Delete an environment

The action of deleting an environment will also delete the data and media that is associated with that environment. The environment’s deploying branch will not be deleted.

To delete a non-production environment:

1. Select the name of the environment to be deleted from the environment dropdown list located in the upper left of the VIP Dashboard.
2. After the VIP Dashboard for the target environment has loaded, select the environment dropdown again.
3. Below the list of existing environments, select the menu option labeled “Delete” to access a modal titled “Confirm Deletion of Non-Production Environment”.
4. In the modal, confirm the deletion by typing the name of the environment in the field with the placeholder text “Enter environment name”.
5. Select the button labeled “Delete Environment“.