Unified logging is a great idea and we should do that. With enough shovels, I'd *love* to make the possible.
Just a few notes. The QA/Test boxes are identical. The only difference between the QA/Test boxen and the production box is location. QA/Test boxes are on the LAN, production outside the f/w. So, from my POV, debugging *should* be possible on one of the QA/Test boxes. The dev boxes start out in sych with everything else, but the developers pretty much own those boxes. Until the devs break it. Then we clean them return them to being in synch with production.
Box-> Yep, same guy gives official word that app is ready to push to prod, and my group does it.
I wasn't trying to be a smart ass with my qualifier "In Javaland." I wrote it that way because it's been a decade or so since I developed anything other database stuff. I'm really out of touch with any sort of development that doesn't involve sql, but when I was a developer all those years ago, the sysadmins I worked with would have laughed me out of their offices (or just shot me) if I asked for a shell account on a production box. ;0)
Thanks again everybody!