One thing in Drupal 7 that people have a love-hate relationship with is the Features module. Features gives you the means to export database-stored site settings in code that you can put into version-control and move from server to server. In Drupal 7, when using Features to make a change to your Drupal site configuration settings, you need to update the feature or make sure the settings are in a feature and (re)create them. When deploying, you revert your features so your site settings match what is in code.

If only things were that straight-forward! Frequent "gotchas" are had because nobody really knows what the best practices are for using Features until some really painful and time-consuming mistakes are made! It's a hard way to learn. But Drupal 7 site settings are stored in the same database as regular ole' content, so relying on database backups to deploy settings and update the live site isn't ideal either. User-generated material can be lost. With no UI-based alternatives, many of us adopt a Features-based deployment workflow, but we kick and scream along the way.