Configuring Environment-Specific Field Overrides

You can override fields per environment. This is an extension of the configuration overrides feature, and requires some additional setup.

These overrides can be used to ensure that logical environments in Release Control match the intended target deployment environments, such as a Release Control development environment matching the development environment in Deployment Automation, QA matching the QA environment, and so on. After the override is set up and applied, only the matching environments can be selected in deployment tasks.

The following procedure includes an example for ChangeMan ZMF ZMF_SITE. For additional examples, see Knowledgebase items S142319 (ChangeMan ZMF) and S142326 (Deployment Automation).

To prepare to use a configuration override for a specific environment:

  1. If it does not already exist, add the field that identifies the environment for your plugin, such as Deployment Automation SRA_ENVIRONMENT_UUID or ChangeMan ZMF ZMF_SITE. The field you use to hold the environment information may be as simple as a text field or you can add selection fields and add auxiliary tables to hold the environment values. This gives Release Control a way to hold the information about matching sites. To do this, in SBM Composer open the RLC - Environment process app and in Data Design, update the Environments table. The following figure shows ZMF_SITE defined as a text field.

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    Tip: You must add any fields that do not already exist in the Environments table. If you use an existing field that is in Deleted status, you must restore it and move it to a valid section.
  2. In SBM Composer, update the RLC - Environment process app's Visual Design Environment Master and Update forms to add the field you just added in the database to the form. The ZMF_SITE field has been added to the Update Form in the following figure.

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    After you deploy the updated process app, this gives you a way to add the matching name of the environment while creating and updating an environment item. If the new field is a selection field to be populated by an auxiliary table, the names can be selected. If it is a simple text field, you type them in the field. See Step 6.

  3. In SBM Composer, save and check in as needed and deploy the updated RLC - Environment process app.
  4. In the plugin configuration, allow override for the environment fields.

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    See Making Fields Eligible for Override.

  5. Add the configuration override auxiliary table entry.

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    See Adding Configuration Overrides.

  6. Create or update environment items and add the matching environment names in the fields added to the form in Step 2. The value BKUPSITE has been added to the ZMF_SITE field in the following figure. The names do not need to match as they do in this example, although it is a good practice where possible.

    You can specify multiple values separated by commas if more than one environment matches. If any of these match, they will be available in the selection.

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    See "Creating Environments" in the Release Control Installation and Setup Guide or online Help.

  7. Update the release item, such as a release package, to use the override entry defined in step 5.

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    See Applying Configuration Overrides.

  8. To test, create a deployment task using the plugin configuration for which you have added the override.

    Your task environments should automatically be populated with the environment names that you entered when you created or updated the environment items.

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    See "Adding Deployment Tasks" in the Release Control Getting Started Guide or online Help.

    See also the action configuration topic for any plugins you plan to use these with.

Note: Actions can also be allowed or disallowed (filtered) in plugin action configurations. If you want to prohibit an action for all environments, you should use the configuration action filter to do so. See Adding Global Task Action Rules.

Related Topics

Adding Action and Item Configurations

Updating Plugin Configuration Details

Adding Configuration Overrides