Architecture

Real, effective datacenter automation means automating all tasks related to deployment of applications and configuration management. Everyone who may should be able to deploy applications within a few mouse clicks, minimizing fragile reliance on specialists. Deployit achieves this by combining an easy-to-use Flex User Interface with our Intelligent Runbook Resolution Engine, backed by a Configuration Item Repository.

The Configuration Item Repository (CIR) is Deployit's repository of relevant information about your environment. It stores details of Configuration Items (CIs), which represent elements of your middleware infrastructure, at precisely the correct level of detail for your needs. Further, the CIR traces the evolution of your environment by providing versioning of CIs and recording relations between them.

Runbooks are the system's representation of your deployment practices and procedures. They describe a sequence of Steps that are to be carried out in order to perform a desired action, such as the deployment of an application or the creation of a server cluster. Runbooks and Configuration Items for a particular middleware component are bundled into a plugin, making it easy to adapt a Deployit installation to your environment.

Deployit currently comes with standard plugins for IBM WebSphere 6.1 and 7.0, Oracle WebLogic 10 series, Oracle service bus, and JBoss. By using Deployit’s open Plugin API you can also easily add custom functionality and fine-tune the order of deployment steps in the Runbooks provided.   

The Intelligent Runbook Resolution Engine is the core of Deployit. It will intelligently identify and bind the runbook(s) appropriate to the requested changes. This allows not only senior system administrators but also less experienced employees and developers to reliably carry out complex deployments in just a couple of clicks. The Resolution Engine performs this task by matching the "trigger conditions" of available runbooks to the CIR changes requested by the user. For instance, modifying an existing Deployment CI by selecting a different version of the deployed application might trigger a runbook for an "update existing application" scenario. By recognizing and reporting sets of CIR changes that do *not* match known trigger conditions, the Engine also automatically enforces company deployment policies.

A clear and intuitive user interface is crucial for a product that will be in constant use by both senior and less experienced staff. Deployit's rich, cross-platform Flex UI provides a clean and smooth user experience, whilst the Command Line Interface offers powerful scripting capabilities and makes it easy to integrate Deployit into your existing build and continuous integration processes.