Types of Plans

The N1 Service Provisioning System software distinguishes between two kinds of plans.

• Composite plan (containing only subplans)

• Simple plan (collection of simple steps that can't call another subplan)

XML Schema enforces that restriction, so that you can either have a top-level plan with only calls to other subplans, or you can have a simple plan with various simple steps but no calls to other subplans. The distinction is important because the steps contained in a simple plan all execute on the same set of target hosts, whereas the steps of a composite plan may execute on different sets of target hosts, using one set of target hosts for each simple plan recursively contained in the composite plan.