Most customers are installing FlexDeploy in Test and Production environments. The purpose of the Test environment is to try various patches or beta capabilities of plugins, or even trying some complex workflows and/or custom plugins. The FlexDeploy test environment may be restricted for use to by select members of the team. It is good idea to periodically (mostly when applying major FlexDeploy upgrade/patch) clone FlexDeploy Production configuration/execution data to FlexDeploy Test environment, which will allow you to easily validate new FlexDeploy upgrades or patches.

These steps are provided as guidelines and extreme care must be taken to not disrupt your production environments.

This process should only be followed to perform a clone of FlexDeploy Production FlexDeploy to the Test environment. Make sure that Test environment is restricted for use by very few members of your team to avoid confusion, as the purpose of the Test environment is only for validating FlexDeploy itself and is not used for actual build/deploy activities. You will do some build/deploy activities, but strictly for validation purposes.

The Source and target version of FlexDeploy must be same.

Make sure Target FlexDeploy is Ready

Make sure target environment is ready and has same FlexDeploy version installed.
Keep target FlexDeploy down for this process.

Export Import Database & Copy Artifact Repository

FlexDeploy uses Database tables to track all activities & configurations, and Artifact Repository folder to store build artifacts. So you must copy both items to target for successful clone.

Export data from Production FlexDeploy database.
- You should export FD,FF and FD_ADMIN.

Take backup of artifact repository folder using tar/zip commands on Production FlexDeploy database. For example,
- cd /flexdeploy/artifacts
- tar -czvf /app/backup/flexdeploy_artifacts_prod.tar.gz *
Make sure Test FlexDeploy is now stopped for import process.
Import data in to target FlexDeploy database. Make sure to run this on Test environment only.
- You must delete FD,FF,FD_ADMIN database users/schemas/databases from Test environment if they already exist before starting import process. If necessary take backup of Test FlexDeploy database prior to starting this process.
- Make sure there are no errors in import process. If there are errors, make corrections appropriately and restart import process.

At this point, the Test FlexDeploy database should be copy of Production database.
Copy artifacts zip file to Test FlexDeploy server and extract it in the artifact repository folder. You can determine Artifact Repository folder by looking at flexagon.fd.repository.root system property on server command line. Make sure to run this on Test environment only.
- cd /flexdeploy/artifacts
- tar -czvf /app/backup/flexdeploy_artifacts_test.tar.gz *
- rm -rf *
- tar -xzvf /app/backup/flexdeploy_artifacts_prod.tar.gz
Now FlexDeploy artifact repository is also copied.

Update Target Database as Necessary

Take note that after cloning the database the FD_ADMIN schema password will be the same as it was in production. You will need to reset the FD_ADMIN schema password back to its original value in the Target Environment.
Now make various updates to make sure to limit access to the FlexDeploy Test environment and limit what FlexDeploy Test can do against various endpoints. You can customize any of these steps as per your needs. Make sure to run this on Test environment only.
- Disable external realm and users, so access to FlexDeploy is very limited. Update SQL as appropriate for your setup. For example,
  update FD.FD_REALM set is_active='N'; update FD.FD_USER set is_active='N' where local_user='N'; -- update as appropriate commit;
- Disable all endpoints, so Test FlexDeploy can not run any executions until Administrator explicitly enables some endpoints. Update base directory to not conflict in case when one of these Endpoints is enabled in Test FlexDeploy. For example,
  update FD.ENDPOINT set is_active='N' where connection_type='SSH'; update FD.ENDPOINT set base_directory = base_directory || 'fdtest'; commit;
- If you have workflows that perform tags on Source Control Systems, make sure to update the workflows before running builds, so you do not conflict with tags created by Production FlexDeploy. You can do this by simply running this SQL also. Adjust according to your requirements.
  update FD.PROJECT_STREAM set version_syntax = version_syntax || ' + ".fdtest"'; commit;
- Delete all Continuous Integration triggers.
  delete from FD.PROJECT_TRIGGER_CONFIG; delete from FD.PROJECT_TRIGGER; commit;
- Disable production environment. so Test FlexDeploy can not run any executions even for testing against Production environment. For example,
  update FD.ENVIRONMENT set is_active='N' where environment_code='PROD'; -- update as appropriate commit;
Now start Test FlexDeploy and validate it.
- You can make necessary adjustments to Realm, User, Groups to validate setup and perform tests as necessary. This is necessary as we disabled user and realms in previous steps.
- You can activate specific Endpoints that you want to be included in Test environment validations.
- Update System Settings as appropriate.
  - Change FD_SERVER_BASE_URL.
  - Change SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS. This will make sure that emails are coming from different address for Test FlexDeploy.