Managing domains

How to create and manage domains in HCL® Quality Server.

Domains and environments explained

A domain represents a logical grouping of related systems that are part of a real business project and it is the basic unit of management within HCL OneTest™ Virtualization. It might be served by one or more HCL OneTest™ API or HCL OneTest™ Virtualization projects, depending on how large or small the domain is, and how many HCL OneTest™ API/HCL OneTest™ Virtualization users are working on it.

It is usual for a service or other endpoint to appear in more than one domain because it is reused by different business projects in different contexts. Thus, a domain is used as a means to group and manage assets in HCL® Quality Server. For example, unique business groups within an organization may want to manage stubs independently from each other.

Stubs created in HCL OneTest™ Virtualization are published into domains, and agents and proxies can be restricted so that they accept instructions only from stubs running in particular domains.

Thus, after stubs have been published to HCL® Quality Server, they can be started and stopped by using HCL® Quality Server, and the routing of messages (to stubs or live systems) can be controlled at domain level.

Note: If domain-level security is enabled, you can use only the domains to which you have been granted access.

A domain can contain one or more environments. In HCL OneTest™ API and HCL OneTest™ Virtualization, an environment enables users to define groups of variables or tags that can be used in both tests and in transport definitions.

Typically, environments are used to create configurations for different parts of a software product development workflow, for example, development, quality assurance, user acceptance testing, and so on.

Environments are not created directly within HCL® Quality Server. Instead, they are created automatically when stubs are published from HCL OneTest™ Virtualization (because stubs are published into an environment within a domain) or when an HCL OneTest™ API Proxy or Agent registers with HCL® Quality Server specifying an environment name.

The following topics describe how to create, modify, and delete domains.

Create domains

A domain can be created by using any of the following methods:

  • An initial domain can be (optionally) created during installation of HCL® Quality Server.
  • Manually by using the HCL® Quality Server application (if you are an administrator).
  • Manually by using the HCL OneTest™ API application. (In HCL OneTest™ API, whenever you are asked to select a domain, you have option to create a new domain if you license enables you to create additional domains.)
  • When an HCL OneTest™ API Proxy registers with a specific HCL® Quality Server instance using a domain that does not already exist in that instance.

The following topics describe how to use HCL® Quality Server and HCL OneTest™ API to create domains.