Modeling a Component

The provisioning system offers great flexibility when you model components. The application that you are modeling determines which of the following approaches to use:

• Fully automated modeling. You can check in a component from a gold server or from a source code control system. When the check-in completes, the provisioning system has automatically generated a component, from which you can run installation, configuration, and comparison procedures.

  Use this approach when you model applications for which a plug-in is already defined and imported. You can use built-in component types or imported component types to automatically model the most common resources that make up application components. The component type templates include built-in procedures for basic operations, such as installations. This means that you can perform basic operations on common types of components without having to write a plan.

  For descriptions of the built-in component types, see Chapter 3, Built-in Component Types. For a list of component types delivered through plug-ins, see the N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 Plug-In Collection at http://docs.sun.com/db/coll/1223.1.

• Extending built-in component types with XML authoring. You can customize an automatically generated component by editing its XML directly on the Advanced Edit page of the browser interface. Another way to customize the component is to download a file that contains the XML to your system and edit it with an XML-schema-validating editor, such as Turbo XML.

  When you edit the XML, you can do the following:

  • Customize the component by supplying additional variables

  • Add calls to extended control procedures, such as starting and stopping IIS or Microsoft Windows services

• Authoring component models in XML. You can create a component on your own by using an XML editor and by referring to the component schema descriptions in Chapter 2, Shared Schema Used by Components and Simple Plans, in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 XML Schema Reference Guide, Chapter 3, Component Schema, in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 XML Schema Reference Guide, and Chapter 4, Plan Schema, in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 XML Schema Reference Guide.

  Before you can use the component, you must check the component's XML file and its resources in to the repository.

• Authoring component models by using the browser interface. You can use the browser interface to create a component. Saving it automatically builds the component. Then, you can install the component by doing one of the following:

  • Running the installation procedure, which installs the component on a single host or a host set

  • Writing a plan to install the component on one or more hosts or host sets

    For more information about plans, see Chapter 4, Plans.

  Before you can use the component, you must first check it in to the repository.

When you check in a component, it is built, and particular versions of the component resources are assigned to it. The build also assigns a version number to the component and ensures that that version of the component is always associated with particular versions of the component's resources.