Creating Automation Deployment Tasks

Automation deployment tasks integrate with Serena Release Automation to automate installation and configuration tasks.

You can create a Serena Release Automation task, which is used to deploy a deployment unit for a release package into a particular stage.

You can do the following:

Associate the task to a release package stage.
Specify a sequence number for the task.
Specify which process to execute.
Specify parameters for actions to take on servers.
Specify owners for the task.

The sequence number is used to specify order of execution of the deployment tasks. The automation deployment task is specific to a single stage. Each set of application parameters is for a specific server.

To execute an automation deployment task for installation and configuration of files through Serena Release Automation, Serena Release Manager needs information on the applications, environments, process, and servers.

To create an automation deployment task:

From a release package or deployment process template view, navigate to the Deployment tab and then select the Deployment tasks tab.
Select a stage for which this task will be executed.
Click Create Task.

The Create Deployment Task dialog box appears.
In Task Type, select Automation.

The Task Type: Automation form appears in the dialog box.
Fill out the Automation form.

For example:
1. Enter Task name and Sequence number.
2. Click Get application to refresh the list of applications stored in Serena Release Automation and then select an application.
3. Click Get environment to refresh the list of environments for the selected application and then select one or more environments.
4. Click Get process to refresh the list of processes for the selected environments and then select one of more processes.
5. In the Release Automation Parameters section, enter parameters and the list of servers on which you want to run these parameters. You can specify only servers that are already defined in Serena Release Automation.
  
  Parameters use the following format:
  
  <variable_name1>=<variable_data1>&<variable_name2>=<variable_data2>
  
  Example parameters:
  
  var1=test1&var2=test2
  
  Example servers:
  
  Server1=lab1_computer
  
  Server2=lab3_computer
6. Select the primary and secondary owners for the task.
7. Optionally enter a description.
Click OK.

The automation task is saved. It will be executed according to its sequential order when the release package to which it is associated is deployed to the specified stage.

NOTES

The Release Manager default implementation supports only variables for Release Automation application parameters; it does not support variables for server parameters.
When you specify clients for your server, only client names that are assigned to your server in Release Automation may be included. For example, if in Release Automation Server2 is defined to include both max_computer and my_lab_test, both of these may be specified in the parameter. For example:

Server2=max_computer&Server2=my_lab_test

Example

The Serena Release Manager automation deployment task relates directly to the corresponding configuration in Serena Release Automation as shown in the following figure.