Deployment Environments
Last updated 2/06/2025
Five applications are deployed in the cloud using Kubernetes. Five has three types of deployments, the deployment environments that are available for you are dependent on your subscription.
Types of Deployment Environments
- Development
- Testing
- Production
Development Environment
| Plan | Who can deploy to the development environment |
|---|---|
| Basic | Administrator, Control, and Developer users |
| Team | Administrator, Control, and Developer users |
| Business | Administrator, Control, and Developer users |
| Enterprise | Administrator, Control, and Developer users |
Development deployment URL format: userID-instanceID-applicationID-sitePrefix.5au.dev
Example development deployment URL: control-default-banking-bankworld.5au.dev
The development environment is available for all plans. The Basic plan only has a development environment and a running development application with no testing or production environments. Your Five development environment will shut down after 2 hours of inactivity and you will need to log back in. Your application that you develop in Five is deployed to the development environment and will continue running. When you make changes to your application and click the Run button after your initial deployment, all changes will be pushed into your live application.
For the Team, Business, and Enterprise plans, when you deploy to the development environment, you will see your changes without having to deploy these changes to your live application in the production environment. Effectively, you can keep checking your changes before making the commitment of deploying to the testing or production environments. When you make a change to your application in Five and after you have initially deployed to the development environment, you can run your application to see these changes immediately. After two hours of inactivity on your running application, the application will shut down and you may need to remove the deployment from the development environment and re-deploy your application again.
When an application is deployed to the development environment, a container running your application is started within the Five development environment and your application becomes available to use. These containers execute your application and contain your data. Multiple users can work concurrently together on the one application. Each user can use the same instance definition and deploy to the development environment. Each user will get an instance of the application in their own container which points to a shared database held in its own container. The definition of the application will update for each user when they click the Deploy to Development or Run buttons for their running instance.
The default instance of your application can be deployed from any view in Five. The Deploy to Development button will be available in Five's toolbar. Once your application has been deployed for the first time, you are able to use your application as an end-user would. The Deploy to Development button will be replaced with the Run and Remove from Development buttons.
When multiple users are developing the one application, they will see each other's schema changes when they click the Run button, however, changes to the database will occur instantly as all users are using the same database.
Users of your running application will not see any new changes unless they log out and sign back in.
Development Deployment Recap- Database server is created.
- Application container is created.
- All changes will be pushed to the live application when the Deploy/Run button is clicked for the Basic plan.
- Team, Business, and Enterprise plans can use the development environment to check your development before applying to your live application.
- All users have their own container holding an instance of the application.
- Users will have database changes instantly.
- Users will have schema changes when they deploy/run the application.
- Application container is taken down when removed from development.
- Basic plan - Development deployment is your live site.
- Basic plan - The users of your running application, will need to log out and sign back in to see new changes.
- Team plan - Development deployment can move to the production deployment.
- Business and Enterprise plans - Development deployment can move to the testing deployment.
Testing Environment
| Plan | Who can deploy to the testing environment |
|---|---|
| Basic | Unavailable |
| Team | Unavailable |
| Business | Administrator and Control users |
| Enterprise | Administrator and Control users |
Testing deployment URL format: instanceID-applicationID-sitePrefix.5au.dev
Example testing deployment URL: default-banking-bankworld.5au.dev
The testing environment is not available for the Basic and Team plans. The testing environment is for you to test any changes you have made before they are pushed to the production environment. Your running application in the testing environment will shut down after 4 hours of inactivity and you will need to log back in.
The testing environment copies the latest version of the application in the development environment and deploys it to the testing environment. Development does not need to be taken down to move to testing. You can still be working in the development environment and start the next version of your application.
Five will not allow your application to be deployed from development straight into the production environment if you are on a Business or Enterprise plan, it must go through the testing deployment before it can be hosted in production. The testing environment should closely resemble the production environment as it is the last place to find any issues before moving into production, except if you are on a Basic or Team plan.
On initial deployment to the testing environment, the database schema will be created and held in its own dedicated database in the database server container. A test container is deployed holding your application testing instance that will point to the database server container. Unlike development, there is only ever one test container per instance of the application.
The following will occur when transitioning a new version of your application to the testing environment.
- The Remove from Testing button needs to be pressed.
- The test container holding the application will be taken down.
- The database server container is not taken down.
- The Deploy to Testing button needs to be pressed.
- Automatic table upgrades will occur.
- A new container will hold the new version of the application to begin testing.
On a successful testing phase, the testing phase would be stopped, the test container holding your application would be taken down and you would move your application to the production phase for your end-users. If testing is unsuccessful, you would remove the testing deployment and return to the development environment.
Changes made in the development environment will not affect the application in testing until it is stopped and re-deployed.
Testing Deployment Recap- Database server container is created on initial deployment.
- Test application container is created.
- Initial deployment to test will create the database schema.
- Automatic table upgrades on each test deployment thereafter.
- The database is no longer manipulated from the Five container.
- Only ever one test container per application instance.
Production Environment
| Plan | Who can deploy to the production environment |
|---|---|
| Basic | Unavailable |
| Team | Administrator and Control users |
| Business | Administrator and Control users |
| Enterprise | Administrator and Control users |
Production deployment URL format: instanceID-applicationID-sitePrefix.5au.co
Example production deployment URL: default-banking-bankworld.5au.co
The production environment is where you deploy the latest version of your application to go live and allow your users to use it. This is the environment where your users see, experience, and interact with the latest version of your application.
On a Team plan, when an application is deployed to the production environment, the lastest development version is copied and a container is started in its own production application instance that is segregated from all other production deployments to ensure the safety of your application and customer data.
On a Business or Enterprise plan, when an application is deployed to the production environment, the latest testing version is copied and a container is started in its own production application instance that is segregated from all other production deployments to ensure safety of your application and customer data.
On deployment to the production environment, Five will move the current instance from testing, when on a Business or Enterprise plan, otherwise, the current instance from development, when on a Team plan, and a new container will be made to hold the production instance. Development and testing do not need to be taken down to move to production. An application deployed to the production environment will have its own container and will point to the database held in its own dedicated database server container. Unlike the development and testing deployments, the database is held in its own container to improve performance, ie, an application cannot be slowed down by another application.
A new version ready to deploy to production will work in the same manner as testing. The following will occur when transitioning a new version to the production environment.
- The Remove from Production button needs to be pressed.
- The production container holding the application will be taken down.
- The database server will be taken down.
- The Deploy to Production button needs to be pressed.
- Automatic table upgrades will occur.
- A new container will hold the new version of the application.
- Database server container is created on initial deployment.
- Production application is created.
- Initial deployment to production will create the database schema.
- Automatic table upgrades on each production deployment thereafter.
- The database is not manipulated from the Five container.
- Multiple applications will all have their own application container pointing to the database server container holding the dedicated database for the application.