Development operations (or DevOps) allows enterprises to quickly design, build, test, deploy, and maintain software applications. DevOps accomplishes this by facilitating continuous deployment and release pipeline management, resulting in faster release lifecycles without compromising application quality.
The following detailed description references the drawings, wherein:
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar parts. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration and description only. Mile several examples are described in this document, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the disclosed examples. Instead, the proper scope of the disclosed examples may be defined by the appended claims.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular examples only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The term “plurality,” as used herein, is defined as two or more than two. The term “another,” as used herein, is defined as at least a second or more. The term “coupled,” as used herein, is defined as connected, whether directly without any intervening elements or indirectly with at least one intervening elements, unless otherwise indicated. Two elements can be coupled mechanically, electrically, or communicatively linked through a communication channel, pathway, network, or system. The term “and/or” as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of the associated listed items. It will also be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms, as these terms are only used to distinguish one element from another unless stated otherwise or the context indicates otherwise. As used herein, the term “includes” means includes but not limited to, the term “including” means including but not limited to. The term “based on” means based at least in part on.
DevOps solutions allow enterprises to quickly design, build, test, deploy, and maintain software applications. DevOps solutions accomplish this by facilitating continuous deployment and release pipeline management, resulting in faster release lifecycles without compromising application quality. Example functionalities of DevOps solutions include pipeline management, release gates, continuous application deployment, and integration with integrated development environments (IDEs).
The functionality of a DevOps solution may rely on an application deployment tool underneath, which facilitates automation of the application deployment process. In some examples, the functionalities of a DevOps solution may be tightly coupled to the underlying application deployment tool. However, the same application deployment tool may not be suitable for different application deployments. For example, different enterprises may have different preferences for modelling their application deployment. Moreover, requirements for application deployment tool may differ based on the structure and complexity of applications to be deployed.
Examples disclosed herein describe technical solutions to these technical challenges by providing systems, methods, and computer-readable media for automated DevOps application deployment. In the disclosed examples, the functionalities of a DevOps solution may be decoupled from the underlying application deployment tool and packaged as a microservice. The DevOps microservice may be plugged in to any DevOps lifecycle stage and adapted to any application deployment tool, thereby providing enterprises with the flexibility to use different application deployment tools for different DevOps application deployments.
In some examples, DevOps application deployment packages may be generated for DevOps applications based on DevOps application models for deploying the DevOps applications. Application deployment tools for deploying the DevOps applications may be determined based on the DevOps application deployment packages. The DevOps application deployment packages may be provided deployment tool plugins associated with the determined application deployment tools and the deployment tool plugins may execute deployment operations based on deployment properties included in the DevOps application deployment packages to deploy DevOps applications using the determined application deployment tools.
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DevOps application manager 110 may be implemented as a standalone computing system or computing systems, or may be implemented as a combination of electronic circuitry (i.e., hardware) and software/firmware included in computing system 100 that implements the functionality of DevOps application manager 110. For example, DevOps application manager 110 may be implemented partially or fully in a central processing unit (CPU), in a dedicated integrated circuit such as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), or in a dedicated FPGA (field-programmable gate array) of computing system 100 that executes instructions (e.g., stored on a machine-readable storage medium of computing system 100) to offer the functionality of DevOps application manager 110.
DevOps application manager 110 may manage the lifecycle of DevOps applications. A DevOps application may be an application that is designed to be deployed through various DevOps lifecycle stages. The DevOps toolchain is designed to promote collaboration, integration, and communication between development, operations, and testing/quality assurance teams. The DevOps toolchain may include a series of lifecycle stages that aid in the development, deployment, and management of an application through the application's lifecycle. DevOps lifecycle stages may include development, testing, staging, and production. Each DevOps lifecycle stage may have an associated set of users, user privileges, tasks, DevOps policies, and environments relevant for that stage.
A development DevOps lifecycle stage may include designing an application and coding software builds for the application. Each software build may be tested for quality and performance to identify potential release candidate builds for the application. Users for the development stage may include developers. A set of privileges may be specified for the developers in the development stage. For example, developers may be given a wide range of privileges to freely develop and modify applications in development. An example of a development stage deployment environment may include a private or local computing system (such as a developer's desktop, workstation, or server), a local virtual machine, or a private cloud.
A testing DevOps lifecycle stage may include various types of application testing. Example application tests include acceptance testing, regression testing, and configuration testing. Moreover, a testing stage may include analysis of performance and security of the application. Users for the testing stage may include testers. User privileges for the testing stage may allow testers to run tests on an application under test while limiting (or prevent) developers' abilities to make changes to an application while under test. User privileges may further specify an approver whom is given authority to promote applications under test to staging or production.
A staging DevOps lifecycle stage may include final testing of an application prior to the application's deployment into production. The application may be tested during staging by a set of users similar to those whom will use the application in production and whom are given a set of user privileges similar to those used in production. The application may be deployed in staging in an environment closely emulating the production environment.
A production DevOps lifecycle stage may include packaging an application for production and releasing the packaged application into production. Releasing an application into production may include deploying an application into a production environment. An example of a production environment may include a public cloud, a data center, a publicly accessible server, and a public virtual machine.
DevOps application manager 110 may use various application deployment tools 120 to deploy DevOps applications onto DevOps application deployment environment 130. Application deployment tools 120 may include continuous integration configuration management tools such as HP Codar, Chef™, Puppet, Ubuntu Juju, shell scripts, and Apache® Mesos. Application deployment tools 120 may be implemented as a combination of hardware and software/firmware as described above regarding DevOps application manager 110 generally.
Using application deployment tools 120 to deploy DevOps applications may include using application deployment tools 120 to configure DevOps application deployment environment 130 for DevOps application deployment. Application deployment tools 120 may configure DevOps application deployment environment 130 by configuring various servers or other computing systems (e.g., cloud computing systems, local computing systems, virtual machines, etc.) of DevOps application deployment environment 130 to host and run components of DevOps applications. For example, application deployment tools 120 may configure server 131 to host and run web component 132 and may configure server 133 to host and run database component 134. Web component 132 may include the web application of a deployed DevOps application used by users whereas database component 134 may include the build libraries of the deployed DevOps application, user data, log files, etc.
The combination of components 131-134 included in DevOps application deployment environment 130 shown in
DevOps application manager 110 may receive DevOps application models for deploying DevOps applications. A DevOps application model may include a topology of components included in a DevOps application and a set of requirements for implementing the component topology in DevOps application deployment environment 130. For example, a DevOps application model may include a web component 132 and a database component 134 of a DevOps application. The requirements included in a DevOps application may specify on which servers or other computing systems the components are to be deployed (e.g., servers 131, 133) how and when they are to be deployed, etc. Developers may model DevOps applications using application modeling software such as HP Codar. In some examples, DevOps application models may be received from users (via an I/O device(s) such as a keyboard, mouse, and/or touchscreen; a network; a communications interface, etc.), from other components of computing system 100 (e.g., other servers, databases, etc.) or from components of other computing systems external to computing system 100.
DevOps application manager 110 may include a DevOps package generator 111, a DevOps package router 112, and a plurality of deployment tool plugins 113. DevOps package generator 111, DevOps package router 112, and deployment tool plugins 113 may be implemented as a combination of hardware and software/firmware as described above regarding DevOps application manager 110 generally.
DevOps package generator 111 may generate DevOps application deployment packages for DevOps applications. DevOps application deployment packages may be generated based on DevOps application models for deploying the DevOps applications. Generated DevOps application deployment packages may be used as microservices that allow DevOps applications to be plugged into any application deployment tool without (or with very little) modification.
To allow DevOps application packages to be plugged into different application deployment tools, DevOps package generator 111 may include a set of properties in generated DevOps application packages for deploying associated DevOps applications in DevOps application deployment environment 130. The deployment properties may be used by deployment tool plugins 113 to configure DevOps application deployment environment 130 using any of application deployment tools 120.
In some examples, the deployment properties included in a DevOps application deployment package may be properties that are modifiable by users/developers. In some examples, the deployment properties included in a DevOps application deployment package may be properties that change between each DevOps application deployment or change frequently between DevOps application deployments (e.g., every other deployment, every third deployment, etc.). Examples of deployment properties that may be included in a DevOps application deployment package include an identification of a web component file for a DevOps application build (e.g., a .WAR file or .EAR file), a location of the web component file, a port on which the web component listens, identification and address of the server on which the web component is to be deployed, a time at which the web component is to be deployed, an identification and location of a database component file for the DevOps application, a username and password for the database component, identification and address of the server on which the database component is to be deployed, a time at which the web component is to be deployed, a log file location for the DevOps application build, the DevOps lifecycle stage in which the DevOps application is to be deployed, DevOps lifecycle stage user/developer privileges, DevOps lifecycle stage approvers, acceptance criteria for the DevOps application in the particular DevOps lifecycle stage, etc.
DevOps application deployment packages may be generated based on DevOps application models in that the properties included in a deployment package may be based on the component topology and implementation requirements specified in a DevOps application model. For example, a component topology in a DevOps application model may specify a build of a DevOps application and a server on which the build is to be deployed. DevOps package generator 111 may generate a DevOps application deployment package for the DevOps application that includes properties such as a .WAR file associated with the web component of the build, a location of the .WAR file, and an address for the server on which the .WAR file is to be deployed.
DevOps package router 112 may determine application deployment tools 120 for deploying DevOps applications in DevOps application deployment environment 130. DevOps package router 112 may automatically determine an application deployment tool among application deployment tools 120 for deploying a DevOps application based on the DevOps application deployment package associated with the DevOps application. For example, DevOps package router 112 may examine a DevOps application deployment package for a DevOps application and determine the application deployment tool specified in the deployment properties included in the DevOps application deployment package.
As another example DevOps package router 112 may examine a DevOps application deployment package for a DevOps application and determine the application deployment tool based on complexity of the DevOps application. For example, less complex DevOps applications may be deployed using less complex application deployment tools (e.g., shell scripts, Chef) whereas more complex DevOps applications may be deployed using more sophisticated application deployment tools such as HP Codar. The complexity of a DevOps application may be based on a number of application components to be deployed for the DevOps application, a number of servers or other computing systems on which application components are to be deployed, etc.
DevOps package router 112 may also automatically determine an application deployment tool among application deployment tools 120 based on the application deployment tools 120 available in computing system 100 and the DevOps application deployment environment 130 in which the DevOps application is to be deployed. In some examples, as an alternative to DevOps package router 112 automatically determining an application deployment tool among application deployment tools 120, developers may specify the application deployment tool among application deployment tools 120 as input to DevOps package router 112.
DevOps package router 112 may provide DevOps application deployment packages to deployment tool plugins 113 associated with application deployment tools 120. For example, DevOps package router 112 may determine a deployment tool plugin among deployment tool plugins 113 associated with a determined application deployment tool among application deployment tools 120 and provide a DevOps application deployment package to the determined deployment tool plugin.
Deployment tool plugins 113 may execute deployment operations to deploy DevOps applications in DevOps application deployment environment 130 using application deployment tools 120. In some examples, deployment operation instructions may be received at DevOps application manager 110 from users (e.g., via an I/O device, a network, a communications interface, etc.). In some examples, deployment operation instructions may be included in a DevOps application deployment package generated for a DevOps application. Deployment operation instructions may include instructions to execute various deployment operations. Examples of deployment operations include deploying a DevOps application (i.e., deploying an application in DevOps application deployment environment 130), undeploying a DevOps application (i.e., removing an application from DevOps application deployment environment 130), and redeploying a DevOps application (i.e., removing an application from DevOps application deployment environment 130 and deploying the application again in DevOps application deployment environment 130). Deployment operation instructions may also specify a DevOps lifecycle stage in which a DevOps application is to be deployed. For example, deployment operation instructions may include instructions to deploy (or undeploy or redeploy) a DevOps application in a development stage, a testing stage, a staging stage, and/or a production stage.
Deployment tool plugins 113 may execute deployment operations based on deployment properties included DevOps application deployment packages. To execute a deployment operation, deployment tool plugins 113 may, based on deployment properties included in DevOps application deployment packages, instruct associated application deployment tools 120 to configure DevOps application deployment environment 130. For example, deployment tool plugins 113 may use associated application deployment tools 120 to configure server 131 with web component 132 of a DevOps application based on the web component 132 deployment properties included in a DevOps application deployment package associated with the DevOps application. As another example, deployment tool plugins 113 may use associated application deployment tools 120 to configure server 133 with database component 134 of a DevOps application based on the database component 134 deployment properties included in a DevOps application deployment package associated with the DevOps application.
Deployment tool plugins 113 may instruct associated application deployment tools 120 to configure DevOps application deployment environment 130 by translating the deployment properties included in a DevOps application deployment package to low-level implementation instructions understandable by application deployment tools 120. As an example, where a DevOps application deployment package specifies the location of a .WAR file of a DevOps application to be deployed as a deployment property, a deployment tool plugin 113 associated with a Chef application deployment tool 120 may provide low-level implementation instructions understandable by the Chef application deployment tool 120 to deploy the specified .WAR file as web component 132 on server 131.
In some examples, DevOps application manager 110 may generate deployment tool plugins 113 for application deployment tools 120. For example, a deployment tool plugin may be generated for each new application deployment tool made available in computing system 100. DevOps application manager 110 may generate deployment tool plugins 113 such that each deployment tool plugin includes the intricacies and low-level implementation details of the associated application deployment tool needed to translate deployment properties to implementation instructions understandable by the associated application deployment tool for deploying DevOps applications using the associated application deployment tool.
At block 302, method 300 may include generating a DevOps application deployment package for a DevOps application based on a DevOps application model for the DevOps application. Referring back to
At block 304, method 300 may include determining, based on the DevOps application deployment package generated at block 302, an application deployment tool for deploying the DevOps application. Referring back to
At block 306, method 300 may include providing the DevOps application deployment package to a deployment tool plugin associated with the application deployment tool determined at block 304. Referring back to
At block 308, method 300 may include by the deployment tool plugin, a deployment operation based on deployment properties included in the DevOps application deployment package to deploy the DevOps application using the determined application deployment tool. Referring back to
Processor 410 may be central processing units (CPUs), microprocessors, and/or other hardware devices suitable for retrieval and execution of instructions stored in machine-readable storage medium 400. In the example shown in
Machine-readable storage medium 400 may be any electronic, magnetic, optical, or other physical storage device that stores executable instructions. Thus, machine-readable storage medium 400 may be, for example, Random Access Memory (RAM), a nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) (e.g., RRAM, PCRAM, MRAM, etc.), an Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a storage drive, an optical disc, and the like. Machine-readable storage medium 400 may be disposed within a computing system (e.g., computing system 100 of
Referring to
The term “engine”, as used herein in reference to components 511-516, refers to a combination of hardware and programming that performs a designated function. For example, the hardware of each engine may include one or both of a processor and a machine-readable storage medium, while the programming is instructions or code stored on the machine-readable storage medium and executable by the processor to perform the designated function.
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The foregoing disclosure describes a number of example implementations for automated DevOps application deployment. The disclosed examples may include systems, devices, computer-readable storage media, and methods for performing automated DevOps application deployment. For purposes of explanation, certain examples are described with reference to the components illustrated in
Further, all or part of the functionality of illustrated elements may co-exist or be distributed among several geographically dispersed locations. Moreover, the disclosed examples may be implemented in various environments and are not limited to the illustrated examples. Further, the sequence of operations described in connection with