Executing Application Deployments

After building and configuring an Application Workflow, you can execute it.

Executing Deployment Workflows

When you trigger the execution of a Workflow, a so-called Execution is created. Application Workflows and General Workflows may be executed on their own; however, Component Workflows are only executed as part of Application Workflows.

Important! Creating Executions requires fully specified dynamic properties for the deployment.

To Execute Application Workflows

Application Workflows can be executed:

• From the Release Automation perspective.

  1. Click either the Applications or the Workflows tab and select an Application/ a Workflow.
  2. Click Execute in the toolbar (More > Execute from the Applications list) to display the Schedule Workflow Execution dialog.

  3. Provide the following information:

     • Workflow

       The workflow you want to execute.

       Notes:

       • This field is only displayed when you open the execution dialog from the Applications list.
       • After you select a workflow, the dialog is reloaded to show the relevant fields for the workflow type (install/uninstall)

     • Deployment Profile

       The Deployment Profile you want this Workflow to be executed with. The profile that is used in the previous execution is selected by default. (Only for Application Workflows).

     • Deployment Package

       The Deployment Package you want this Workflow to be executed with. The package with the latest creation date is selected by default. (Only for Application Workflows).

     • Starts: the planned start time. Can be one of the following:
       • Now (default)
       • At... - if selected, you have to specify the planned start time
       • In queue... - if selected, you have to specify the queue
     • Manual confirmation required
       • When executing a Workflow, you can choose if manual confirmation is required for the execution.
         • Default: No
       • Set the user or group who has to confirm the start of the execution manually.
       • When all approvals have been made and the start time has been reached, the execution stays in the Waiting for manual confirmation state until the defined user confirms the execution.

         Notes:

         • Users without read permissions on a Workflow cannot approve or reject an execution. Therefore, approval requests will not be sent to them.
         • The technical execution is started by the user who created the Workflow execution, not by the one who confirmed it.

     • Installation mode (only displayed for Workflows of type Install)

       You can specify whether you want already successful installations of Components to be overwritten (Overwrite existing Components) or skipped (Skip existing Components - default).

       Note: when executing the Workflow with the option Skip existing Components the following applies:

       • The decision whether a component is installed or skipped is based on the installation records, which are automatically created during all deployments.
       • If Artifacts have been assigned to one or more Application Components, the system checks the Artifact versions. If the versions match, the Component Workflow is not executed.
       • Artifact versions are ignored when deploying a Patch Package. In this case, the Component Workflow is triggered as a new installation.

     Tip: Click Evaluate Properties to review the outcome of the dynamic properties that are defined for the Application Components

  4. Click Execute.

• From the Process Assembly Perspective.

  Important! This option is only available for executions with the status Waiting for manual confirmation.

  1. Go to Release Automation > Executions.
  2. Click the Confirm button in the toolbar.

Notes:

• The sub-menu options Execute Once and Execute Recurring cannot be triggered for CDA Workflows.
• Executions are not always started at their planned time. If the execution requires approval, it can only be started after it gets all necessary approvals (see: Working with Approval Requests). The same goes for execution with manual confirmation. Without the necessary approvals or confirmations, executions stay in state Waiting for Approval or Waiting for Confirmation. However, there is a limit for the time execution to stay in their state.
• Pending approval requests are revoked automatically one hour after the planned start time. The state of the execution is set to Failed.This time out - also called grace period - is configurable. An administrator can change the value for the key GracePeriod in the ApprovalSystem section of the customer.config file (Automic\Release.Manager\WebUI\customer.config).

Restarting Workflow Executions

Important! You can only restart Workflows with status Finished or Canceled.

To Restart Workflow Executions

1. Open the Process Monitoring perspective.
2. Navigate to Release Automation > Executions.
3. Select an Execution and click Open Monitor.
4. In the toolbar, click the Workflow Actions dropdown list and navigate to Modify > Restart.

Changing Properties of Executions

To change the properties of an Execution, you can use one of the following:

• The sidebar that is displayed when you click an execution in the Executions list
• In Properties section of an Execution

Application Workflow Executions

• General

  Basic attributes of the Workflow Execution

• Actions

  Actions are located in the toolbar. They can be also triggered from the context menu that is displayed after right-clicking the entity. You can trigger the following actions (depending on your permissions):

  • Open

    Displays the execution properties.

  • Open Monitor

    Opens the Workflow monitor window. This is available only for executions that have already started. They do not have to be active.

  • Confirm

    Starts the execution. This option is available only for executions with the status Waiting for manual confirmation.

  • Restart

    Opens the Workflow execution dialog, with the properties from this execution, which you can change for the new execution.

  • Cancel

    Cancels the execution. This is available only when the execution has not started yet.

  • Archive: archives the selected entity. If an entity is archived, Restore is available (see Archiving Entities)

  • Export Table. See Exporting Tables to CSV.

• Statistics & History

See also:

• Monitoring Application Deployments