Deploying a workload application

Deploying a workload application is a two-step process beginning with customizing the mapping file and then importing the mapping file and definitions file into the new HCL Workload Automation environment.

About this task

Procedure

  1. Extract the content of the workload application template from the compressed file created by the export operation.
  2. Customize the mapping file. For each object listed in the mapping file, either assign the name of an existing object in the target environment, or rename it with the name you want the object to have in the target environment. For information about modifying the mapping file, see Resolving the mapping file . You can optionally modify the mapping file according to rules defined using regular expressions and specified in ad-hoc files. These files are produced by the export process and, if used, must be properly customized. For information about using regular expressions, see Using regular expressions to modify the mapping file.
  3. When importing the workload application template into the target environment, you have the option to import the objects contained in the workload application template and maintain an association to the workload application, or you can import only the contents of the workload application, eliminating any ties to the workload application so that the objects can be managed freely in the target environment. Select the objects you do not want to import. If you choose to skip an object, an object with the same name must be present in the target environment, otherwise an error message is returned.
    The import operation can be performed either from the command line, submitting the wappman -import command, or from the Dynamic Workload Console, selecting Design > Import Workload Application.
    See wappman for more details about the command usage and syntax. See Reusing a workload in another environment for details about this operation from the Dynamic Workload Console.

Results

All of the HCL Workload Automation objects defined in the definition_xml_file are created in the target environment, if they do not already exist. You update the mapping file to resolve references to objects that need to be customized to reflect the target environment where the workload application will be deployed.

What to do next

You can subsequently update a workload application with a replace operation. The behavior of the replace operation depends on whether or not the objects to be replaced are tied to a workload application. If the objects are tied to a workload application then, when an updated version of the workload application template is reimported into the target environment, the objects in the target environment are updated if they are still present in the database, created if they are no longer present, and deleted if they are no longer present in the updated workload application template. If the objects are not tied to a workload application or, if the objects are tied to a workload application different from the one specified with the replace operation, then the objects are not replaced and an error message is issued. For more information about the replace operation see the wappman.

There are two ways in which the workload application can be updated or modified:
Modifying the template in the source environment
An updated version of the template can be deployed again into the target environment. Any objects already present in the HCL Workload Automation database of the target environment are replaced with the updated versions, any objects that do not already exist in the target environment are created, and objects are deleted from the target environment if the object definition has been removed from the updated workload application. The same mapping file used to originally deploy the workload application can be used to update it, customizing any new objects being deployed with the update.
Modifying the instance in the target environment
After a workload application has been deployed, you can modify the contents of the workload application, such as, adding a new job to a job stream, modifying a job definition, or removing a job or job stream. However, since the contents are still tied to workload application, if it is replaced with a revised workload application template, then the changes are not maintained.

If, instead, only the contents of the workload application template were imported, then since they are not tied to the workload application, they can be modified freely. A subsequent replace operation using the -contents option will replace the objects that are present and maintain any other changes that were made since the import.