Basic Concepts for Components

A Component is a logical grouping of source information (file(s) and/or directory structures or other components) that define an application and a set of instructions specifying how to handle the source information. A component can be a collection of files and directories, an autonomous archive such as a J2EE Enterprise Archive (EAR) or a COM component, a complete application such as BEA WebLogic, or an operating system-level update such as a patch or service pack. Components can also reference other components.

N1 Service Provisioning System software makes components more manageable by:

• Creating component models that include a carefully defined group of software resources for each component, along with information about how the component should be installed, configured, and analyzed

• Storing components in a repository with version control, so that you can retrieve any previous version of a component

• Making components available to plans, which perform data center operations in a step-by-step manner, taking advantage of the knowledge embedded in each component model

• Enabling components to be compared to one another as well as to installations of software

For an overview of how the N1 Service Provisioning System software manages components and plans, please see The N1 Service Provisioning System Software Object Model.