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Development | Testing/ Staging | Production | |
|---|---|---|---|
Purpose | Prototyping of new features. Can change at any time: unstable environment. | Configurations ready for testing, small limited pilots, or training | User-ready, real-time information system |
used for testing, pilots or training | Never | Full testing cycle Limited pilots | Never - this server stores all ‘live’ assessments |
Data preservation and quality | Inconsistent, incomplete data, not appropriate for analysis | Complete datasets appropriate for short-term analytics prototyping, but not the actual system of record | the system of records |
PCA use | Yes - all programs should be designed here | Yes - all programs should be designed edited and tested here | No - you should never edit a H2 program in a production server directly (with PCA or via D2 maintenance) |
We normally recommend for all organization to have at least 3 servers
Development server
Pilot/ staging server (optional)
Produciton server
...
. Instead edit in testing or staging, and when all test pass, move to production. |