BuddyPress.org

Dear experts,

Have been struggling to find a unified article on this subject, just bits and pieces, so seeking for some expert advice or some guidance on how to weave the multiple articles on this subject to have it make sense.

We currently have the following setup:

– MAMP local development environment
– dev.ourwebsite.com at Media Temple on a DV server
– test.ourwebsite.com at Media Temple on a DV server
– http://www.ourwebsite.com (production) at Media Temple on a VE server

The last three servers in the list have been purchased, and will soon be setup, however we have no idea how best to set this up. So some questions please:

1. How should we configure CNAME, MX and A records on ourwebsite.com domain to point to each of these servers correctly (except for the local dev environment of course) – we would like each server to operate independently (so not just web, but also be able to send/receive mail for plugins that use mail etc.)
2. What is the best tool (look like duplicator plugin, but perhaps others) to migrate the site code, config and database scripts from one server to the next
3. We are using Coda for development locally, what can we use with MAMP, Coda etc. to help our source code management and versioning from each environment to the next

Thanks for any help would be very much appreciated since we are struggling to get this setup in time for our January go-live.