Simplify testing

Easily spin up multiple copies of your existing Hypernode environment, and start testing. Done? Deploy your changes and easily terminate your Brancher node again.

Try Hypernode Brancher
Simplify testing

Use Brancher to your own advantage

Improve your tests
Improve your tests

Increase the quality of testing for new functionalities or performing upgrades.

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Pay per minute
Pay per minute

Pay only for what you use and avoid unnecessarily high costs.

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Integrate in CI/CD
Integrate in CI/CD

Make Brancher part of your deployment process and make sure you always have low-threshold testing.

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Involve your customer
Involve your customer

Involve customers in the testing process to increase the quality of deployments.

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Prevent errors
Prevent errors

Avoid mistakes by testing well in advance.

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Test individual features
Test individual features

Test new functionalities faster by temporarily spinning up new environments.

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How to use Brancher

Unlock all the posibilities

  • Combine Deploy and Brancher. Launch a Brancher node, deploy your feature branch with Deploy, conduct thorough testing, and automatically remove the Brancher if all tests are successful.

  • Hypernode CLI. To simplify the use of Hypernode Brancher, we have incorporated a user-friendly interface into the Hypernode CLI. This interface can be accessed using 'hypernode-systemctl brancher'.

  • Hypernode API. Brancher is fully integrated with our API, allowing you to automate creation or deletion of temporary Hypernodes using API tokens. Use your favorite deployment/automation tool, like Github and Bitbucket.

  • Control Panel. Create or terminate Brancher nodes with just one click. In your Control Panel account you can also find all information on total time used, amount spent on Brancher nodes, and previously used Brancher nodes.

Want to know more?
Use Case: MySQL version upgrade

Use Case: MySQL version upgrade

Proper testing is crucial before upgrading the MySQL version on your Hypernode because downgrading isn’t possible. You can use a development Hypernode for testing, but it can only be done once and may not have the same state as your production environment. Hypernode Brancher resolves this issue by creating a copy of your production Hypernode, providing an identical state for testing. If the test is successful, you can simply terminate the Brancher node again.

Use Case: MySQL version upgrade

Use Case: MySQL version upgrade

Proper testing is crucial before upgrading the MySQL version on your Hypernode because downgrading isn’t possible. You can use a development Hypernode for testing, but it can only be done once and may not have the same state as your production environment. Hypernode Brancher resolves this issue by creating a copy of your production Hypernode, providing an identical state for testing. If the test is successful, you can simply terminate the Brancher node again.

Use case: Acceptance server per pull request

Another common use-case is to have a separate acceptance server per pull request. You can give access to this acceptance server to your colleagues, or to your customers, so that they can test your changes before they are merged into the main branch.

 

You can achieve this by making a separate Github Actions workflow. This workflow will create a new Brancher node based on the current pull request, and leave a comment on the pull request with the URL to the Brancher node. This way, you can easily test your changes in a real environment, and you can easily clean up the Brancher node when you’re done.

Use case: Acceptance server per pull request

Use case: Acceptance server per pull request

Use case: Acceptance server per pull request

Another common use-case is to have a separate acceptance server per pull request. You can give access to this acceptance server to your colleagues, or to your customers, so that they can test your changes before they are merged into the main branch.

 

You can achieve this by making a separate Github Actions workflow. This workflow will create a new Brancher node based on the current pull request, and leave a comment on the pull request with the URL to the Brancher node. This way, you can easily test your changes in a real environment, and you can easily clean up the Brancher node when you’re done.

Use case: updating PHP

Use case: updating PHP

Dedicated Servers are generally delivered within an hour. The delivery time depends on the type of dedicated server you want to purchase. For a specific delivery time of one of our products, we advise you to contact our specialists. Get a hold on one of our specialists with the button below!

Use case: updating PHP

Use case: updating PHP

Dedicated Servers are generally delivered within an hour. The delivery time depends on the type of dedicated server you want to purchase. For a specific delivery time of one of our products, we advise you to contact our specialists. Get a hold on one of our specialists with the button below!

Essential for your workflow

Quickly set up a test environment based on your production or development Hypernode using Brancher. This allows for safe testing of new releases without affecting your production environment.

The Brancher node is configured with the same settings and has a copy of the data of the original node. You can opt-out of copying the database and other things.

Use Brancher for testing PHP/MySQL/Varnish versions, database migrations, application updates, and other changes to your webshop.

Read the customer case
Essential for your workflow

Essential for your workflow

Essential for your workflow

Quickly set up a test environment based on your production or development Hypernode using Brancher. This allows for safe testing of new releases without affecting your production environment.

The Brancher node is configured with the same settings and has a copy of the data of the original node. You can opt-out of copying the database and other things.

Use Brancher for testing PHP/MySQL/Varnish versions, database migrations, application updates, and other changes to your webshop.

Read the customer case
Pay per minute

Pay per minute

Hypernode Brancher differs from a development node in its pricing model. The amount of time spent on a Brancher is tracked and calculated at a rate of 0.01 per minute per Brancher. Once the Brancher is deleted, an overview of the minutes spent is sent to you.

You can view both active and past Brancher runs, and at the end of the month, an invoice line is added to your Hypernode invoice for the total minutes spent in Hypernode Brancher.

In order for you to try Brancher in 2024, all Combell Openstack plans include 400 complimentary Brancher minutes for free! This means you will not be charged for your Brancher minutes usage until it surpasses the threshold of 400 minutes per month per Hypernode.

Pay per minute

Pay per minute

Hypernode Brancher differs from a development node in its pricing model. The amount of time spent on a Brancher is tracked and calculated at a rate of 0.01 per minute per Brancher. Once the Brancher is deleted, an overview of the minutes spent is sent to you.

You can view both active and past Brancher runs, and at the end of the month, an invoice line is added to your Hypernode invoice for the total minutes spent in Hypernode Brancher.

In order for you to try Brancher in 2024, all Combell Openstack plans include 400 complimentary Brancher minutes for free! This means you will not be charged for your Brancher minutes usage until it surpasses the threshold of 400 minutes per month per Hypernode.

Curious about Brancher? Let us know!

What is the difference between a Brancher node and a development Hypernode?

A development node is perfect to develop one webshop at a time, run all the single tests you can think of and give the customer (shop-owner) access during development. A Brancher node is perfect for testing multiple branches at the same time without needing to buy multiple dev nodes for at least a month, integration and automation tests without a lingering state at your development node and also giving the customer (shop-owner) access during development.

I love Brancher! I might use it as my sole production environment!

Well, of course you can do this and nobody is stopping you. But there won’t be backups. Also settings you change in the control panel won’t be reflected as well on these nodes. If your use-case is production, you need a normal Hypernode. Want advice? We can help.

Do you anonymize the Magento database copied to Brancher with Masquerade?

You are allowed to test your software with personal data from your production database, as long as you throw it all away when you’re done [Arrest C-77/21] [link] But if you still like to anonymize, we do install software like masquerade on Hypernode by default so you can make this part of your deployment strategy.

I will have to import my anonymised database anyway, so i don't need my database copied to a Brancher at all. Is that also possible?

Yes, this is possible. Simply select “don’t copy the database” when you start a Brancher node.

Why am I being charged without being able to use my Brancher node?

Brancher nodes are designed and conceived with the idea of running short tests. This could, for instance, be testing out a new version of PHP or MySQL. But also, for example, to run a temporary release on a separate brancher node in combination with Deployments. For example, we also use this when we make changes to our support documentation. The change is temporarily run on a Brancher node.

The fact that the timer starts running immediately is indeed intended. We also pay directly for the space reserved with the Cloud Provider.