Environments
An Environment is a managed hosting installation tied to an ENV entitlement. It represents a production server, a staging instance, a development sandbox, or any other installation that MIDDAG manages on behalf of a customer. MIDDAG Account tracks environments -- it does not provision infrastructure directly.
Relationship with entitlements
Each environment has exactly one ENV entitlement, and each ENV entitlement maps to exactly one environment. This is a strict 1:1 relationship. Even when the same customer has production and staging installations, each one is a separate environment with its own entitlement code (e.g., ENV-2026040001 for production, ENV-2026040002 for staging).
Environment types
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Production | Live customer-facing installation |
| Staging | Pre-production testing and validation |
| Development | Development and experimentation |
| Sandbox | Demos, testing, and proof-of-concept |
Platform types
| Platform | Description |
|---|---|
| Moodle | Moodle LMS (MIDDAG Pro line) |
| WordPress | WordPress sites, portals, e-commerce |
| Custom | Other platforms or technologies |
Environment lifecycle
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Provisioning | Environment is being set up. Not yet operational. |
| Active | Running and operational. |
| Maintenance | Under scheduled maintenance. Customer sees status in portal. |
| Suspended | Paused due to payment failure or administrative action. |
| Decommissioned | Permanently retired. Terminal state. |
Parent-child clusters
Environments can be organized into clusters. A common pattern is a production environment with staging and development children under the same parent entitlement hierarchy:
This grouping uses the entitlement parent-child hierarchy. The SVC entitlement acts as the umbrella, with ENV entitlements as children.
Tracked data
Each environment stores configuration and operational data:
| Category | Fields |
|---|---|
| Identity | Name, type, platform, platform version |
| URLs | Primary URL, admin URL, staging URL |
| Infrastructure | Server provider, region, backup schedule, backup retention days |
| Monitoring | Last backup date, SSL expiration date, platform version |
| Links | Entitlement (ENV-xxx), contract, organization |
Sensitive data (server IP, server specs) is stored but never exposed to customers.
Health monitoring
MIDDAG Account performs basic health tracking through stored data and automated alerts:
- Backup monitoring --
last_backup_atis updated by cron or webhook. If the last backup exceeds the configured window, an alert fires. - SSL tracking -- alerts are sent 30, 15, and 7 days before the SSL certificate expires.
- Platform version -- tracked for update planning and security notifications.
Advanced monitoring (uptime, response time) is handled by external tools. The environment record can store a reference URL to an external monitoring dashboard.
Service requests
Customers can create service requests directly from an environment's detail page in the portal. These standalone service requests are linked to the ENV entitlement and follow the standard service request workflow. This is the primary way customers request maintenance, configuration changes, or support for their managed environments.
What admins see
In the WordPress admin, the environment list shows:
- Environment name and type
- Platform and version
- Organization
- Entitlement code (ENV-xxx)
- Status (with color indicators)
- Primary URL
- Last backup date and SSL expiry
Clicking an environment opens its detail view with full configuration, linked service requests, contract reference, and operational notes.
What customers see
In the portal, customers see:
- Environment name, type, platform, and version
- Status
- Primary and staging URLs
- Last backup date and SSL status
- Linked service requests
- A "Request Service" button to create new service requests
Customers do not see server IPs, provider details, or internal notes.
Related pages
- Entitlements -- the ENV entitlement that owns the environment
- Contracts -- the service agreement governing the environment
- Service Requests -- maintenance and support tasks for the environment
- Services -- the service type that the environment falls under