Terminology

Before you get started with Deployment Automation, here are some terms you should know.

• Application

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

• Component

  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.

• Plugins

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

• Environment

  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.

• Resource

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

• Pipeline

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

• Agent

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

• Agent Relay

  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.

• Deployment Package

  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.