Overview of the Solution Development Environment

You can use the provisioning system to build system configuration, service provisioning, and application deployment solutions. At a very high level, you follow this simple process:

1. Build a set of components. This step might involve any of the following sub-tasks:

   1. Defining application-specific component types

   2. Naming each component

   3. Assigning a component type to each component

   4. Identifying any source files and directories that a component needs

   5. Defining specific tasks for that component

2. Create a plan to direct the deployment of the components. Each plan includes the following information:

   1. A list of components

   2. A sequence in which the components are to run

   3. A list of any variables that the components need

   4. A set of target hosts to which the components should be deployed

3. Create a plug-in that enables others to use the components and plans that you developed for a given platform or application. This task involves four main sub-tasks:

   1. Installing the core plug-in development files

   2. Using the XML plug-in definition schema to provide an interface for the users

   3. Using the Java-based APIs to provide component browsers and exporters, and to define custom execJava steps.

   4. Packaging the components, plans, resources, plug-in definition files, and APIs for delivery to other N1 Grid Service Provisioning System users