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Modeling software deployment
Modeling software deployment in HCL Launch includes configuring components and component processes and adding those components to applications. Then, you use processes to deploy the components to environments.
Processes
Processes are automated tasks that run on agents.
Application processes
You can use application processes to deploy or to roll back components.

Modeling software deployment
Modeling software deployment in HCL Launch includes configuring components and component processes and adding those components to applications. Then, you use processes to deploy the components to environments.
- Components
  Components represent deployable items along with user-defined processes that operate on them, usually by deploying them.
- Resources
  A resource is a logical deployment target that typically resolves to an agent and a user-defined construct that is based on the architectural model of HCL Launch.
- Applications
  Applications are responsible for bringing together all the components that must be deployed together.
- Application environments
  An environment is a user-defined collection of resources that hosts an application.
- Application templates
  With an application template, you can save and reuse a collection of resources, environments, processes, and tagged components or component templates to create a standardized application.
- Application processes
  Application processes, like component processes, are created with the process editor. You use application processes to deploy or to roll back components.
- Application blueprints
  An application blueprint maps application components to a resource template. When you create an environment or provision one from the cloud, you can use the blueprint as a model.
- Snapshots
  A snapshot is a collection of specific versions of components and processes. Typically, a snapshot represents a set of component versions that are known to work together. In most cases, snapshots include all of the components in an application.
- Creating manual application tasks
  A manual application task interrupts an application process until manual intervention is done. To create a manual task, add a manual step to an application process and select a notification template.
- Approval process
  You can add approval requirements to deployments. Deployments with approvals cannot be completed until all approvers respond. Approvers can respond to requests on the Work Items tab, or by email.
- Inventories
  You use different inventories to track installed components and properties in HCL Launch elements.
- Processes
  Processes are automated tasks that run on agents.
  - Process step types and logic
    When you design processes, you use different kinds of process steps and joining techniques. You can assign properties to process steps and use them to control step execution.
  - Component processes
    A component process is a series of user-defined steps that operate on a component's artifacts. Each component has at least one process that is defined for it and can have several.
  - Application processes
    You can use application processes to deploy or to roll back components.
    - Creating application processes
      You can use application processes to deploy or to roll back components.
    - Deploying components in an application process
      You can deploy one or more components in an application process by calling component processes.
    - Running application processes
      To run an application process, specify the environment to use and the process to run. In many cases, you also specify the component versions to deploy.
    - Running the same process again
      The repeat request function is available after an application deployment completes. The Repeat Request feature is on the Process Request page for the application.
    - Uninstalling components with an application process
      You can uninstall components by using an Uninstall Component step in an application process.
    - Rolling back to a snapshot
      You can roll back a component to the versions that are in a snapshot. In this case, you use a Rollback Component step with the Remove Undesired Incremental Versions option.
    - Rolling back components that fail to deploy
      If an application process fails to deploy a component, you can add a rollback step to the process to reverse the deployment. In this case, you use the Replace with Last Deployed option.
    - Modeling blue-green, rolling, and canary deployments
      The For Each Agent and For Each Tag steps provide ways to deploy to large environments in stages, allowing you to run flexible blue-green or rolling deployments, with or without updating canary nodes first.
  - Generic processes
    Generic processes are not specific to a particular component and can be used in any number of applications. They are like general purpose processes. You can use generic processes to download and install packages on the system or perform other configuration management related tasks such as configuring SSH or completing FTP tasks. With a generic process, for example, you can update Linux agents that were recently installed by using SSH to run as a service on a Linux computer. Linux agents cannot be updated in this way during a remote installation.
  - Editing processes
    In the process editor you organize the steps in a process, specify their properties, and connect them to each other.
  - Working on processes in safe edit mode
    Safe editing enables you to test component processes before making them available in normal environments. Make updates to your component process, test those updates safely, and then promote to a new version when you are ready.
  - Running processes
    The way you run a process is different for each type of process.
  - Adding process properties
    A process property provides a way to add user-supplied information to a process. A running process can prompt users for information and then incorporate it into the process. For example, if the process entails authenticating with another server, you can require that a user enter an ID and a password for the process to continue. Properties are defined in the Edit Property dialog box.
  - Copying process steps
    You can copy and paste process steps in all process types: component, application, approval, and generic.
  - Manage process step authentication
    Use token restrictions to manage process step authentication.
  - User impersonation for process steps
    HCL Launch can use user impersonation when an agent must run a command for which it might not otherwise have permission, or when a specific user must be employed for a process.
  - Process steps: Reference
    Application processes, component processes, and generic processes are created with the process editor.
- Statuses
  Create and apply statuses to track component inventory states or to track component versions in environments and resources.
- Properties
  Properties are variables that store information about many different elements, including components, environments, processes, and applications. You can also set global properties for the system.
- Tags
  A tag is a user-defined, shared, short label that you use to classify, view, and conduct operations on objects such as applications, components, agents, and resources.
- Webhooks
  Using the webhooks, you can send text-based responses to users in messaging platform such as MS Teams and Slack when a specific event occurs during deployment process.
- Secret Stores
  Allows HCL Launch to retrieve credentials of individual servers from the Vault and authenticates a plug-in step in the deployment process.

Application processes

You can use application processes to deploy or to roll back components.

HCL Launch provides several common process steps. Otherwise, application processes are assembled from processes that are defined for their associated components. Application processes, like component processes, are created with the process editor.

Application processes can run manually, automatically on some trigger condition, or on a user-defined schedule. When a component has several processes, the application determines which ones run and in which order. For instance, an n-tiered application might have a web tier, a middleware tier, and a database tier. And, continuing the example, the database tier must be updated before the other two, which are then deployed concurrently. An application can orchestrate the entire process, including putting target servers online and offline for load balancing as required.

An application process is always associated with a target environment. When an application process runs, it interacts with a specific environment. At least one environment must be associated with the application before the process can run. Application processes are independent of environment; processes can be designed independently of any particular environment. These application processes enable a single application to interact with separate environments, such as QA, or production. To use the same application process with multiple environments (a typical scenario), you associate each environment with the application and run the process separately for each one.

In addition to deployments, several other common processes are available, such as rolling-back deployments. HCL Launch tracks the history of each component version, which enables application processes to restore environments to any point.

Application processes and the steps that they comprise are configured with the process editor. For information about using the process editor, see Processes. For information about individual process steps, see Process steps: Reference.