Creating Deployable Release Trains

Deployable release trains drive deployment and also provide oversight for releases, including setting the schedule and milestones for the release and enabling release approvals. If you want to use release trains for oversight only, you should use planning release trains. See Creating Planning Release Trains.

Prerequisites:

• Ensure you have set up the minimum objects required before you try to create a release train. See Creating Release Elements.
• You must have at least one active deployment path.

To create a deployable release train:

1. In Work Center, click +New.
2. Search for the project that will store your release train, and then select the project to open a Submit form. (By default, the Deployable Release Trains project is used to store deployable release trains.)
3. Fill out the required fields.
   Tip: Include the version of the release train in the Title or Description so that you can later report on release trains and compare versions through standard SBM reports.
4. Fill out optional fields as needed.
   • Use release train task templates to save time and enable reuse of deployment tasks. In the Overview section, in the Use Task Template field, select a task template from which to copy deployment tasks.
   • Under Options:
     • Select custom column items for add and display of deployment units and requests. See Custom Columns .
     • Select whether to require that failure tasks be run if the deployment fails in an environment. See Adding Failure Tasks.
     • Select plugin configuration fields for which the values can be overridden for this release train. See "Overriding Configuration Settings" in the plugins documentation.
     • Select task action rules to restrict the set of rules that apply for this release train. If none are selected, all defined task action rules apply. See "Task Action Rules" in the plugins documentation.
5. Click Submit.

   This places the release train in the Planning state.

6. Configure and manage the release train using the tabs that appear in the form.

Required Fields

The required fields when you create a deployable release train are as follows:

• Title
• Purpose
• Release Manager
• Release Type: Select the release type, such as Emergency, Major, or Minor. The release type filters the deployment paths available to this release package.
• Deployment Path: Specify the deployment path for this release train. You must select the release type first, because deployment paths are filtered by release type. Only active deployment paths appear for selection.

  Deployment paths are typically created and maintained by Administrators. For information on creating and activating deployment paths, see Creating Deployment Paths

• Dates: Specify the dates for the release train gates. You can also select Quarter Release or Six Month Release to auto-populate the fields using today's date as the start date, or calculate them using a specified start or end date.

Tabs

The tabs available from a deployable release train once it is created are as follows:

• Overview: View reports on release packages associated with this release train. Reports display active release packages by environment and by state.

  From this tab, you can do the following:

  • Create and link release packages. You can see the list of release packages, including any parent and child release packages.
  • For each release package you can select from Actions to perform available options on release packages directly from the release train.
  • In the list of release packages, click the release package link to open the item.
• Deployment Path: View the deployment path for this release train, including detailed deployment history for each environment in the path.
• Deployment Units: View deployment units for this release train. See Adding Deployment Units.
• Deployment Tasks: View and add deployment tasks and failure tasks and view deployment executions for this release train and its linked release packages. See Adding Deployment Tasks.
• Requests: Select requests to associate with this release train.
• Schedule/Gates: View or update the release train stage schedule. Specify exit criteria for each of the stage gates.
• Details/Approvals:
  • When the train moves to the approval stage, automatically-generated approvals appear here based on predefined rules. Approvers can perform an approval action on the item or recreate approvals.
  • Specify the milestone dates for when major aspects of the release should be complete.
• Notes/Attachments: View notes and attachments that have been added to the item through the Work Center More option and related email correspondence.
• History: View the history of the release train item. This includes System information, such as currently set task action rules.