Octopus Deploy

Deployments at Enterprise scale made easy!

Opmerkingen: We have instrumented Octopus for ~13k projects for ~4k users as of the date of this review. We moved from a very custom process to a well defined process. There's no doubt in my head that the scale we operate at today was only possible by using Octopus Deploy for our deployments.

Pluspunten:

We have been able to integrate Octopus Deploy with pretty much anything and everything we have thrown at it. We have all sorts of different types of deployments to various on-prem and cloud based targets. Even legacy based targets. We have not found a blocker that has stopped us from integrating our deployment requirements with Octopus yet. Octopus has ample amount of community based steps and first class steps out of the box that make it VERY powerful. Octopus is very customizable in how you handle deployments. Its really up to the end user to define what standard their business requires and Octopus makes it very easy to implement. For us we love step templates. Its re-usable code blocks that we can use at scale for thousands of deployments. No need to copy and paste the same code block into hundreds or thousands of deploys that are identical.

Minpunten:

For the most part Octopus scales really well! We have over 13k projects with ~4k users in the tool and for the most part works fine. Though there are some inherent issues with UI/API performance when dealing with this many projects and users. They are working on these issues. But right now that's our biggest issue. Another topic of improvement would be around how step templates are version controlled. Right now all code in step templates is stored in the Octopus Database. I would love to see this moved to GitHub using the OCL language used for other parts of Octopus Config As Code. Lastly there are no good ways to template deployment processes besides cloning projects. I would love to see some sort of templating capability (similar to how TeamCity handles it). This would help greatly with scalability.

A wonderful product with a great team behind it.

Opmerkingen: We have used Octopus Deploy to benefit all development teams and a number of infrastructure teams. In that they can control their own deployment processes and when they deploy. Infrastructure teams as well can create easy to use runbooks and provide them to other teams in a controlled manner to automate and provide consistent administrative tasks.

Pluspunten:

The ease of use from installation to new developer training. This tool thinks about every person involved. From the admin installing it, by giving them scripts to automate the install, to development teams using it with web ui built in help documentation. That and the support from Octopus Deploy, email, forum, Slack, calls when needed is top tier.

Minpunten:

The only item of note is that although most deployment values are associated with a project, there are some that can't be restricted to certain projects. Some credential values can only be restricted by tenants or by environment. This is only a minor concern though as we have other ways of handling credentials.

Eerder overwogen alternatieven: Jenkins en Azure DevOps Services

Redenen om over te stappen op Octopus Deploy: Octopus Deploy offered a far superior user experience, better overall documentation, and easier administration of the tool.

Octopus Is Pretty Solid

Pluspunten:

That I feel like it can do anything, or that I can do anything with it. The extensibility makes it feel like I can incorporate any deployment needs I have which is cool. We have a bunch of different applications and they're not all built the same, so it's nice to feel like there isn't any app we can't deploy with Octopus.

Minpunten:

Sometimes it feels like I don't know what all the features are, or what features to use where. It can get confusing and sometimes I don't feel like the docs do a good enough job explaining this to me.

For when you need enterprise-strength devops

Opmerkingen: Very positive, solid, for 9 years now. It is the most sophisticated of any products. Built for this purpose where other competitors are acquired startup companies bundled together with duct tape.

Pluspunten:

Octopus takes a complex challenge and simplifies it down to its simple elements. While you may outgrow the competitors and up-level to Octopus, I've never seen a piece of software too complex for Octopus.

Minpunten:

It doesn't automatically integrate with the Roku store for deployment of streaming media channels. But neither do other products either.

Eerder overwogen alternatieven: Harness

Redenen om voor Octopus Deploy te kiezen: Octopus handles the more sophisticated software deployment needs. We outgrew Azure DevOps.

Overgestapt van: Azure DevOps Services

Redenen om over te stappen op Octopus Deploy: Octopus Deploy could handle the enterprise scenarios to provide a full platform when coupled to our build server.

Deploy everything everywhere

Opmerkingen: We have been using Octopus Deploy for many years now. It fits nicely into our fully automated CI/CD pipelines and allows development teams to move quickly.

Pluspunten:

The fact that Octopus is API driven allows us to easily automate everything in the deployment space. It allows us to have repeatable deployment and operations processes across all the phases of the lifecycle. Now with deployment steps as code, we can easily adjust the deployment steps per branch, which matches very well with our DevOps mindset. We are able to deploy many different types of projects with ease.

Minpunten:

The biggest challenge we currently have is tracking down what project variables are used where. Between the deployment steps and runbook steps, it is sometimes challenging to find what is used where. The Config as Code feature starts to make this easier to track, once the runbooks are Config as Code enabled it should be much more manageable.

Eerder overwogen alternatieven: Azure DevOps Server

Redenen om over te stappen op Octopus Deploy: Octopus made it easier back when we did the comparisons to deploy websites, which was primarily what we were deploying at the time. That has now grown into deploying anything we need.

Great DevOps tool

Opmerkingen: Excellent

Pluspunten:

Easy to configure and set up all your dev ops pipelines once and then invoke them over and over, to ensure consistent and completely automated deployments.

Minpunten:

If you use their cloud offering with many targets it can quickly become quite expensive.

Eerder overwogen alternatieven: Azure DevOps Services

Redenen om over te stappen op Octopus Deploy: Octopus Deploy had much better documentation and support making the setup process a breeze.

The more I work with Octopus, the more I am astounded by it's capabilities

Opmerkingen: We initially started using octopus for our CI/CD, but once we learned we could have a different space for just the sysadmins, our use of octopus exploded. My teams motto is, "we have a runbook for that". It takes automation to the next level.

Pluspunten:

While being extremely modular, and customizable, it is still easy to use.Integrates very well with our CI/CD

Minpunten:

Understanding how environment, deployment targets, target roles can be difficult to understand without help, outside of the octopus documentation. When working with a space with lots of projects and environments, it can be difficult to find the right environment, project, and version number of the package i am looking for. Although I'm not sure that can be fixed, I'm not a UI guy.

Octopus review

Opmerkingen: Overall we enjoy using the OD product as it helps us complete our daily deployments in an efficient manner. Administration is rarely any issue and we don't have to spend a lot of time with any vendor support, we have personnel who manage the app and they don't routinely run into issues that can't be solved.

Pluspunten:

Consistency of use over 7 years has proven OD to be a valuable tool to the organization. We have an 'admin' who runs the tool but our expectation is it more or less runs itself and allows us to focus on other technology issues.

Minpunten:

Moving from a 'per server' to 'per seat' license has caused some initial issues, for instance we didn't used to renew every year due to not requiring upgrades, but now it's forced so that is getting extra scrutiny from the purchasing department. I've never found the reporting function in OD to be overly useful as I'd prefer it to be.

Fantastic Enterprise CD Tool

Opmerkingen: I am quite happy with the tool, its very cost effective, lite and community support is very good in terms of integration with AWS, Azure etc and other Devops toolkit.

Pluspunten:

I very much like the dashboard and space concept in octopus deploy, its so simple yet very relevant.

Minpunten:

Sharing the resource like step template or feed etc. across space is something I feel would be very helpful from the platform team perspective.

Octopus is backbone of my automation

Opmerkingen: Deployment and Automation is completely solved

Pluspunten:

Versioning and configuration management

Minpunten:

getting started is difficult for new on-boarders

Deployments Made Easy

Pluspunten:

The setup is straightforward. Learning curve is easy.

Minpunten:

Its inability not to version control step templates.

Complex Deployments made simple

Opmerkingen: Octopus is fantastic for complex deployment scenarios; when my clients ask me the best way to deploy the same solution in a multi-tier environment, Octopus deploy the first recommendation.

Pluspunten:

Octopus brings power to your DevOps Toolbox; Features such as lifecycles, variable configuration, release management, and the fact that the deployment system is built agnostic are why Octopus Deploy should be considered the go-to tool for complex deployments.

Minpunten:

The Pipelines as code feature is pretty new and needs a little love to be great.As a professional, I do not like to use the UI to do my work, therefore the CLI, API and configuration as code needs to be 100% it will get there.

An excellent deployment tool

Pluspunten:

Octopus Deploy is built for deployments, and it knows it. Octopus is very careful when adding features, and ensuring that everything is focused on a better deployment experience. The UI is easy to use, and provides guardrails to help people get started. The API, and custom templates allow admins to really customize processes to their liking.

Minpunten:

While being focused on deployments only is one of the strengths of Octopus Deploy, when converting there was some extra work to separate existing CI and CD tasks. This created more up front work to get the pipelines running.

Use it

Opmerkingen: I have an Octopus Deploy tattoo on my forearm if that tells you anything

Pluspunten:

Config as code is awesome as is but if you have SOX requirements it’s essential

Minpunten:

Upgrade paths sometimes are difficult but my organization is an edge case

Easy to use, even for Product Owners

Pluspunten:

As the Product owner of a team using Octopus deploy, once I've completed testing, I can push to production myself. I can also easily see how many deployments there have been in the past weeks.

Minpunten:

no complaints. I'm perfectly happy and will continue to use Octopus :)

Easy to use! Great team to work with!

Pluspunten:

Octopus Deploy is a powerful and versatile deployment automation tool that streamlines the software release process. It is highly regarded for its ease of use and simplicity, with a user-friendly interface and intuitive workflows that make it easy to automate deployments across different platforms and environments.

Minpunten:

Octopus Deploy is generally well-regarded by users, however some users have noted that the pricing structure can be a bit confusing. However, overall this concern is relatively minor and do not detract significantly from the value and effectiveness of the tool.

Octopus Review - from a DevOps perspective - Used for 9+ years

Opmerkingen: I have been using Octopus Deploy for the past 9 years and have implemented it in over 4 different companies and have used its features extensively taking it to it limits :)

Pluspunten:

Kubernetes Deployment options and customization along with a lot of integration with different providers and tools

Minpunten:

- Needs to Support Kubernetes CronJob deployment type (supported natively) - Needs to have a build in option to 'Wait' for Kubernetes Job type Deployments and read its exit code - Needs to support more Artifact Repos, such as AWS CodeArtifact - Cloud Agent needs to be 'faster' in general and ideally caches docker layers, we have deployments taking over 10mins, pooling/starting of the cloud agent takes time and also downloading the Octopus Tools Docker images takes very long on these agents (we're not using any custom one)

Eerder overwogen alternatieven: GitHub, GitLab en Bitbucket

Redenen om over te stappen op Octopus Deploy: Its integration options with different tools and providers and its not just a "CD" tool like argoCD, it allows you to do much more - such approval process, integration with Jira, slack notifications, Cloudfront integration (just as an example) etc...

Best CD tool I have ever used.

Opmerkingen: We would not be able to function without it at this point. It helps release management team stay in sync, it automated our deployments so DevOps does not have to work so hard. It is focused on deployment, Jenkins is not strong in this regard, so it was a big win there.

Pluspunten:

I love how easy it is to set up projects and the visibility that this tool offers. I liked it so much that I brought it over to my new organization. I have been using this tool for about 4 years now and have seen the gambit with it. Deployments were a mess before we introduced this in both companies. I love the Tenent feature, that really changed the world for me. Customer/Production management became a breeze at that point.

Minpunten:

There are some things I do not like about octopus, but they are not deal breakers. The view can some times get a little wonky when you are changing releases and pushing different versions all the time, and the "view" can become out of sync with reality.

Octopus - when deployment becomes easier every day

Opmerkingen: Very good. I realy like this tool I dont how much experience with others, but i am happy my company is using this one. I think o know this well.

Pluspunten:

Easy to use. Fast. I think its reliable. Most of the things are straightforward. I like the way portal is build, where options are etc.

Minpunten:

Basically we can improve each part but hard to recall. For example if i am in variables, maybe some compare functions ? Whenever i work with with varaibles, lots of libraries, sometimes it becomes hard. Also why i can leave empty scope, and everyone can updated ?? this is a security bridge i think. I dont like when octopus is loosing connection (* health check). Sometimes i have issues with the service. Even if se to automatic, it doesnt start after windows server reboot. When i pick a lot of machines during deployment ( target ) would be nice to type like in the search, or role attachment, just a names or like *name. When i have lots of machines to exclude would be easier. nothing very urgent. Process creation - adding steps, moving, sometimes but irritating. You know to know the tricks. What would be awesome - interacive checks. Like i attach a role in the process and a message that currently not attached or a variable and some hints. Adding description to the variables could be easier. I realy dont like that when i do even a small change in the process i edit a script or something i have to create a new release. Audit log could be improved. I alredy shared my ideas on the previous page. I guess integration with AWS maybe could be more usefull.

Solved our deployments and is now solving our Ops tasks too

Opmerkingen: Octopus Deploy was a key tool in taking our company from folk-developer roots to being a high-performing technical heavy hitter. Not only did we claim back people-hours from our previous deployment processes, we also started deploying more frequently - letting our customers use features as soon as they are ready rather than gathering together months of work in a big release.

Pluspunten:

Octopus Deploy makes it really easy to automate software deployments. It handles the variables for different environments and just works with minimal fuss. It's really easy to use.

Minpunten:

We haven't experienced any issues with Octopus Deploy.

Excellent product

Opmerkingen: Simply fantastic, a must have part of web development for me. This product simplifiies release procedure. so now we can release many times a day if we want.
So for example releasing to our test environments are now fully automated. (This probably happens 10 times a day)

Pluspunten:

Octpus Deploy is a very simple concept that is elegantly executed. I really like the ability to configure releases, (they can be either simple or complex). Once configured, it's then a very simple process to move a release from one environment to another. Octopus Deploy does not dictate infrastructure, so it's up to you as to what environments etc you want. As the needs of our organization has changed so has the release process. Octopus Deploy is straight forward and simple to configure. The ease of use of creating releases. . I love the fact that Octopus Deploy removes any drama about releasing or "rollbacking" software. It just works.

Minpunten:

Not a big fan of version immutability, but I understand it and have accepted it.

The Octopus Deploy

Opmerkingen: My overall experience with this product is awesome.

Pluspunten:

The best thing about this software is that it automates the deployment process for your organization. It is very easy to set up and use and with this, you can save a lot of time. It will automatically manage your release cycles and does the deployments for you automatically.

Minpunten:

There is no con to using this software it serves its purpose.

Highly recommended

Opmerkingen: Since a few months there's now this feature called "config as code" where all deployment steps are commitet to a given git repository. It made it very easy to configure new projects for our microservice environment using this configuration as a template.

Pluspunten:

We startet with continuous deployment with octopus, it was really easy do deploy our IIS Applications on mutiple environments. The deployments can easily be triggered from our CI plattform (TeamCity) and/or manual with user confirmation. In combination with Jira, every changes with each package are displayed during deployment making it easy to track when did any change reach the server

Minpunten:

Despite there are a lot of build in steps, unfortunately a "rollback" step does not exist (or we haven't found it yet) thus implementing a rollback strategy must be done manually via script or manual. This could be a helpful improvement, to enable an automatic rollback in case any error occurs during deployment

Octopus Deploy is an exceptional deployment orchestration solution

Opmerkingen: Excellent! I really like this product and it makes my life easier as far as deployments go. I would highly recommend it!

Pluspunten:

I have found Octopus Deploy to be a very well thought out and intuitive deployment orchestration system. It is very easy to use and quite simple to get started. Originally it was focused on .net / Windows platforms but now can be used to deploy anything to Windows or Linux. We use it for both. It is a very stable, reliable and easy to use product and I highly recommend it.

Minpunten:

For many years my organisation has been given a free community licence as a not-for-profit, but this is now changing and we will have to pay starting 2022. Even so, I think it is still worth the money by a long shot. The only issue we have at the moment is we need to upgrade to a newer SQL Server version to support the latest version of Octopus Deploy as there is some security vulnerability in older versions. Due to Microsoft licensing and infrastructure issues, this is dragging on and we are trapped on a certain version for now.

Does one thing really well, rather than lots of things averagely

Opmerkingen: Phenomenal! I'd be lost day to day without Octopus. Not only is the product itself great, but the support and advice the teams provide has been invaluable, and always really prompt.

Pluspunten:

Makes deployments, and management of VMs really simple and powerful. The API first approach also opens up lots of different ways of using Octopus

Minpunten:

Keeping release processes in step with code changes has been difficult. I think the new configuration as code feature will solve this, but I haven't tried it yet.

Eerder overwogen alternatieven: Azure DevOps Server

Redenen om voor Octopus Deploy te kiezen: InRelease was very clunky at the time.

Redenen om over te stappen op Octopus Deploy: When we first moved to Octopus Azure DevOps wasn't available, but we've stuck with Octopus through renewals as it's much better at what it does. The power, audit, and ability to carry out operations tasks via Octopus put it well ahead for our needs.