Introduction

This guide will take you through the steps to create a basic project, a target configuration and will conclude by creating a deployment package ready to deploy to a remote target. It is designed to show the basic steps required to create deployment orchestrations which is the fundamental process regardless of the technology being deployed. Key concepts will be explained throughout the document.

You will create a basic "Hello World" project which will execute an "echo" command and a directory listing on a remote target.

Create a Project

The core component of a RapidDeploy configuration is the Project. The Project dictates the WHAT aspect of the deployment steps - i.e. what are we going to do on the target, irrespective of where that target is. This is achieved by means of the project Orchestration. The Project also defines the structure and location of the Source of the deployment package, this could be a local file system or a Source Code Management (SCM) repository. Finally the Project dictates where the deployment package will reside, this could be a local file system or some form of artefact repository.

To create the Basic Hello World perform the following steps:

• Login to the framework server

  In the left menu navigate to 'Resources' > 'Projects'

• Click the 'Add Project Wizard' button

  You will be taken through a sequence of tabs, most of which will require some input.

  Depending on your platform your values may differ from this guide.

  However, use the table below which describes the tab and the suggests a value for you to use.

Basic Hello World Project

Edit Project Orchestration

When a project is created an empty Orchestration is created. The orchestration an ordered set of tasks that the executed project will perform. Tasks are chosen from a panel of preconfigured orchestration tasks on the Orchestration tab.

To edit an orchestration follow the steps below

• Navigate to 'Resources' > 'Projects'
• Edit the BASIC_HELLO_WORLD project by clicking on the pencil icon
• Select the 'Orchestration' tab

You will note that the orchestration already contains the Initialisation and Finalisation tasks, these are mandatory for every project and cannot be removed.

To add a task simply click on the 'Add Task' button and locate the task within the pop up field. When you have located the task again, click on the '+' icon in the top right of the pop-up window. Note you can view details about the task including which parameters you might wish to set.

• 'Command and Script Execution' > 'Command Runner'
• 'File - Attributes' > 'Disk Space Check'

Add the tasks above as described by repeating the process for each task defined above. Note if you wish you can also change the name of the task by selecting the name, editing the field and clicking the tick.

You can make these tasks generic by replacing the hard coded values that are added by default with variables that will be replaced by their values contained in a dictionary file. To that end, configure the each of the tasks as shown below. Note the values used after each image, these can be pasted in. Save each task variable by clicking the 'tick' and once complete don't forget to Save the project.

UNIX -> scriptAndArgs:/bin/sh,-c,echo "Hello-World"
WINDOWS -> scriptAndArgs:cmd,\c,echo "Hello-World" 
exitString: Hello-World

requiredFreeSpace:1
UNIX -> directoryToCheck:/tmp
WINDOWS -> directoryToCheck:c:\temp

Create a Target Configuration

A target configuration is the WHERE aspect of a deployment. The configuration dictates where the deployment will occur and also allows you to specify any differences that the target location requires. For a basic project such as this the differences are contrived, but when deploying complex technologies such as Websphere Application Server it is very easy to understand why there maybe some differences in the configuration depending on the servers being deployed to (e.g. development environment on Windows, test environment on Unix etc).

A Target Configuration consists of the following components

• Server
• Installation
• Configuration

• To begin the process Open the BASIC_HELLO_WORLD project and navigate to the 'Targets' tab.

  This panel allows you to create the basic set of resources required to perform deployments. The entire deployment principle is based on knowing 6 pieces of information.

  Project - Indicates what type of technology is being deployed and where the source is located

  Server - The target server to which the framework server connects to perform the deployment steps

  Installation - A logical name which could be used to identify different installations on the same server (e.g Smoke testing, SIT Testing, Integration testing)

  Configuration - A logical name to differentiate between different configurations using the same Installation

  Deployment Package - The unit of deployment containing all of the necessary configuration to deploy to any pre-defined targets for the Project

• Click on the 'New Target' button

  Enter values for the Server, Installation, Configuration fields and click the Create button

  

  This will create an entry in the Targets panel, it will also create the Server object which can be configured a little later.

• Create a Deployment Package

  To create a deployment package simply enter the 'Package' tab in the Project. There is a button that will create a package using a standard name (based on the value used in the artifact tab). You can further customise a deployment package by using the 'Add Package Wizard' if you wish.

• Edit the server

  In the newly created table entry in the 'Targets' panel hwserver01 is the name of the server which is a direct link to the Server object - click it.

  Click 'Edit' if required to enter edit mode and set the following fields (you will also need to ensure the Build Store directory exists on your target). In the 'Transport' tab you will need to either choose Remoting or SSH plugins. Remoting requires that you set up the Remoting Agent as per these instructions. SSH of course assumes you have an ssh server running on the target (which is mostly the case for linux servers).