Going Live!

Before you launch go through all your connectivity checks. Some of the things that you may need to check are:

• Usernames and passwords for databases, proxies, etc.
• Proxy settings.
• DNS addresses.
• Addresses of all application relevant systems such as databases, email stores, LDAP servers, billing, etc.
• Firewall connectivity between all relevant systems - from the VoiceXML Browser to the application server to the database. Check’em all! Just try simple telnet commands between the servers to the port that you want to reach. If you get a connection you're in business - if not you’re in trouble.

It’s hard to emphasise how often projects have been held up because the connectivity between the components hadn’t been tested properly.

If you’re launching a new application, then it’s normally easier to carry out tests in the live environment without disrupting any existing systems. You can do acceptance tests and friendly user trials in peace. You can also sort out your connectivity without disturbing a running application.

However, if you’re upgrading an existing application you have less room to manoeuvre. If you’re very lucky there’s no downtime when you install the new version, but mostly there is, so it’ll probably take place off-peak - i.e. at night. At least you shouldn’t have any connectivity problems, as the original application should have seen them off! If you are upgrading an existing application, then be sure you can roll-back easily. Applications that are live with real customer data in a productive environment have a nasty habit of throwing up errors and configuration issues which were never seen in test. So you your original working version on hand so that you can roll-back with minimal time loss!

If you have any comments, ideas, issues, etc. about this topic why not try the voice-push forums