Glossary

Agents

Agents are physical resources for deployment. To run a deployment, an agent must be installed on the target server.

See Managing Agents and Agent Pools.

Agent Pools
An agent pool is a set of agents that is logically grouped together.

See Managing Agents and Agent Pools.

Agent Relays

Agent relays are used to manage communication between servers and agents. Agent relays are typically used when agents are dispersed across geographic locations or must communicate through firewalls. Agent relays can also be used to manage network traffic in implementations where you have many agents.

See Managing Agent Relays.

ALF Events
ALF (Application Lifecycle Framework) is an integrative layer for some Serena products. These events can be used for custom integrations from SBM to Deployment Automation.

See ALF Events and Integrating with SBM.

Aliases
Aliases are alternate names that are assigned to agents and agent relays when configuring mutual authentication. See Configuring Mutual Authentication Mode.
Applications

Applications bring together components with their deployment targets and orchestrate multi-component deployments.

See Managing Applications.

Application Environments
Application environments are environments that have been added to an application. Each application environment has its own set of operations and data within the context of the application, including inventory and compliance status. Environments can be added to multiple applications individually or as part of pipelines.

See Adding Environments to Applications.

Application Processes
Application processes are typically configured from processes defined for their associated components. See Application Processes.
Application Tasks
An application task is used to interrupt an application process until some manual intervention is performed. See Application Tasks.
Approvals
Approvals enable process requests to execute in application environments that require them. See Approvals.
Approval Processes
Approval processes tell Deployment Automation what to do when an application environment requires approval. See Approvals.
Artifacts
Files or other software elements associated with components. See Components.
Artifact Repository
See CodeStation.
Authentication Realms
Authentication realms determine a user's identity within an authorization realm. See Security Administration.
Authorization Realms
Authorization realms associate users with roles and work with authentication realms to determine which users can access Deployment Automation. See Security Administration.
Blackout

A blackout of a date means that no deployments can be scheduled and no snapshots can be made on that date. A blackout is set per environment, per application. See Setting Deployment Blackout Dates.

CodeStation
CodeStation handles artifact versioning in Deployment Automation. You can direct Deployment Automation to introduce artifacts into CodeStation from the file system or from external source control tools that you identify when you select the Source Config Type for a component. See Artifact Repository.
Compliancy
An environment is compliant if the last requested processes were successfully executed in that environment. See Inventory Management.
Components

Components typically map to a functional part of a real world application, and represent deployable items, or artifacts, such as files, images, databases, and configuration materials.

See Managing Components.

Component Processes
Component processes define how the component should be deployed, installed or interacted with. A process typically contains a number of plugin steps that are inter-dependent, and may include complex logic for actions to perform if a step of the process fails.

See Component Processes.

Component Tasks
A component task is used to interrupt a component process until some manual intervention is performed. See Component Tasks.
Component Templates
Component templates enable you to save and reuse component processes and properties and create new components from them; template-based components inherit the template properties and processes. See Creating Configuration Templates.
Component Versions
Instances of a Deployment Automation component. See Component Versions.
Configuration Templates
Configuration templates enable you to save and reuse configuration data in processes. Typically, the data is for server configurations, for example on Tomcat servers, but the data can be for any purpose. See Configuration Templates.
Deployment
Deployment is a process request execution that results in component versions or snapshots being installed onto one or more target environments. See Ways of Deploying.
Deployment Packages

Deployment packages enable you to deploy artifacts for multiple applications. They may also include component processes where components are shared among multiple applications and associated versions are to be deployed as part of the larger package.

See Managing Deployment Packages.

Environments

Environments represent logical deployment locations. Your deployment processes must run in at least one environment. Environments and their resources are used by applications and components at runtime.

See Managing Environments.

Export
You can export objects from a Deployment Automation server and subsequently import them into another Deployment Automation server. Export is done on an object by object basis, whereas replication export can alternatively be used to export an entire application. See Replication.
Gates
Gates ensure that component versions or snapshots are deployed into environments only if their status meets certain conditions. See Gates.
Global Processes
Global processes are processes that are not associated with a particular application or component. See Managing Global Processes.
Groups
See Authorization Realms.
Import
You can export objects from a Deployment Automation server and subsequently import them into another Deployment Automation server. Import is done on an object by object basis, whereas replication import can alternatively be used to import an entire application. See Replication.
Inventory
The components, snapshots, and configurations deployed to any resource. See Inventory Management.
Inventory Statuses
Inventory statuses can be applied to component versions when they are successfully deployed to resources. See Defining Statuses.
Locks
Deployment Automation uses locks to ensure that processes do not interfere with one another. See Locks.
Network Relays
Network relays can be used in multiple-server configurations to manage the communication between servers, and are used in high availability, active-active server implementations. For configuring server to agent communication for either agent- or server-initiated communication of HTTP communication, you should use agent relays. See Managing Network Relays.
Notification Schemes
Notification schemes define what events should generate notifications and who should get them. See Configuring Email Notifications.
Notification Templates
Notification templates define the format of the information that you want to send in the email notifications for given situations. See Configuring Email Notifications.
Mutual Authentication
In mutual authentication mode, communications are encrypted as usual, but users are also required to authenticate themselves by providing digital certificates. See Configuring Mutual Authentication Mode.
Output Log
The output log is the Deployment Automation server log. See Output Log.
Pipelines

A pipeline is a pre-defined sequence of environments in which application process requests are executed.

See Managing Pipelines .

Plugins

Plugins provide functionality in discrete steps to be used in component and global processes for configuration of or deployment into target environments.

See Plugins.

Processes
See Component Processes, Application Processes, Global Processes, and Approval Processes.
Properties
Properties are parameters that are referenced in process steps. See Properties.
Replication
Replication enables you to export and import whole sets of Deployment Automation objects. See Replication.
Resources

Resources represent a deployment target on a Deployment Automation environment. Examples include physical machines, virtual machines, databases, or J2EE containers.

See Resources.

Resource Groups
A resource group is a logical collection of resources. Resource groups help you organize and manage the agents installed in different environments throughout the network. See Resource Groups.
Roles
Roles provide the building blocks for the security system. Roles have permissions that define the actions their members, users or groups, can perform with product features. See Role Configuration and Setting Role Membership by Product Area.
Schedule

The schedule option enables you to schedule application processes and blackout dates for application environments. See Scheduling Deployments.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer)

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology enables clients and servers to communicate securely by encrypting all communications. See Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Configuration.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Single Sign-On (SSO) enables Deployment Automation to integrate more easily with other Serena products. Login information is passed automatically through SSO so that there is no need to prompt for login credentials as information flows between products. See Creating Authentication Realms.

Snapshots

A snapshot captures an application's current state, and as the application moves through different environments, the snapshot ensures that proper component versions are used. See Snapshots.

Snapshot Statuses
You can apply and enforce conditions on application gates based on snapshot statuses. See Defining Statuses.
Source Config Type
An integration from which you can load artifacts into Deployment Automation as component versions. See Source Configuration Type Fields.
Statuses

See Inventory Statuses, Snapshot Statuses, and Version Statuses.

Tasks
See Application Tasks and Component Tasks.
Timelines
Timelines show the number of processes run and graphical indicators of success or failure. See Viewing Timelines.
Tokens
Tokens provide authorization for agents and users. See Tokens.
Users
See Authorization Realms.
Versions
See Component Versions.
Version Statuses
You can apply and enforce conditions on application gates based on component version statuses. See Defining Statuses.