VIP Platform environments
At a minimum, VIP customers have a production environment. Additional “child” environments such as preprod and develop can be added for testing and development purposes. Child environments can be requested by creating a VIP Support ticket.
To ensure that a site’s application code will run uniformly across each environment, server software versions and configurations are kept consistent across all environments in a group. Versions of software that are deployed to a WordPress or a Node.js VIP Platform environment can be managed in the Software Management panel in the VIP Dashboard.
Environment types
Node.js
A VIP Platform Node.js environment refers to a server environment running an instance of the application, which includes web containers and, optionally, Redis containers, all connected to VIP services and tooling.
WordPress
A VIP Platform WordPress environment refers to a server environment running an instance of a WordPress application, which includes web, database, cache, and WP-CLI containers, all connected to VIP services and tooling.
Databases
To allow testing to be performed on non-production environments without impacting the production site, each environment is supported by a unique database. A data sync can be run from the production database to a non-production database through the VIP Dashboard.
Media files
Media files uploaded to a WordPress production environment will load with the expected file path /wp-content/uploads/, but are stored, managed, and distributed by the VIP File System. The VIP File System enables media files from production to be made available to non-production environments, eliminating the need to copy media between environments after a data sync. Media files are in read-only mode when accessed from non-production environments, protecting them from being altered unintentionally.
Recommended use of environments
Production
A production environment is provided by default for all customers. This environment is intended for receiving public traffic and only thoroughly tested code that is ready to go live should be deployed to it.
Preprod
It is recommended to configure the database, codebase, and third-party integrations for this non-production environment as consistently as possible to the production environment. The more closely the preprod environment mirrors that of production, the more accurate results will be when testing code and updates that have already passed testing on the develop environment.
Develop
A non-production environment is recommended for testing theme updates, feature updates, and new plugins after they have been tested on a local development environment.
Local
In addition to the available VIP Platform environments, a VIP Local Development Environment can be created for developing, testing bug fixes, and adding new features.