What's New in the Sun N1 SPS 6.0 Release

This section describes the following new features in the Sun N1 SPS 6.0 release.

• New Browser User Interface

• Sun N1 SPS Modeler

• Plan Variable Sets

• Import/Export Bundles

• Dynamic Targeting

• UNIX Reboot Step

• Configuring User Name and Password Constraints

• Linux RPM Installers

• Native Call Cancel on Timeout

• Viewing Installed Components With the cdb.ic Commands

• Install Step Component Variables

• Unrestrictive Host Locking

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Platform Support

• Java Development Kit Upgrade

• PostgreSQL Upgrade

New Browser User Interface

The browser user interface in the Sun N1 Service Provisioning System 6.0 release includes multiple improvements intended to enhance the usability of the software. These improvements include the following:

• Integrated task flow - The new user interface guides you through the tasks involved in preparing your environment, modeling your applications, and provisioning those applications.

• Object creation wizards – Interactive wizards guide you through the creation of components, plans, and other N1 SPS objects.

• Java Server Faces 1.1 – The new user interface is based on the JSF framework.

Sun N1 SPS Modeler

The Sun N1 Service Provisioning System 6.0 release includes the N1 SPS Modeler, a NetBeans^TM module that enables N1 SPS developers to create components, plans, and plug-ins in a feature-rich IDE. The N1 SPS Modeler includes the following features:

• Wizards for creating N1 SPS objects – The N1 Service Provisioning System Modeler enables you to create N1 SPS objects – plans, components, even plug-ins – through a set of interactive wizards. These wizards prompt you for the required information, and create the necessary directory and file structure for your object.

• Advanced editing features – The N1 Service Provisioning System Modeler provides the following editing features to facilitate your N1 SPS development.

  • Syntax highlighting

  • Code folding

  • Code completion

• Integrated XML schema and JavaDoc – The N1 Service Provisioning System Modeler provides context-sensitive access to the N1 SPS XML schema documentation and JavaDoc within the NetBeans interface.

• Connectivity with existing N1 SPS master servers – To take advantage of any existing development work, you can configure NetBeans to connect with N1 SPS master servers to check in and check out N1 SPS objects.

• Integration with source control systems – With the NetBeans IDE, you can take advantage of the integrated support for source control systems such as CVS and Subversion to control your N1 SPS development work.

Plan Variable Sets

The new Plan Variable Set feature enables you to capture plan execution information, as well as other common plan parameters, as a complete variable set. You can then select these plan variable sets when you run plans in your N1 SPS environment.

With this feature, you can collect the following information into a variable set, and reuse this information throughout your N1 SPS environment.

• Target hosts

• Target host set

• Component versions and variables

• Run level

• Plan throttle

• Native step timeout

• Timeout limit for native OS operations included in the plan

• Specific plan parameters.

Import/Export Bundles

In the Sun N1 Service Provisioning System 6.0 release, you can copy various Service Provisioning System objects from your development master server to your testing server, to your staging master server, and from there to your production master server. With bundles, Service Provisioning System objects such as components, plans and host sets can easily be copied from one master server into a single file and on to another master server.

When you create a bundle, you first create a bundle template that includes an ordered list of search criteria that add your selection of component types, system services, host types, folders, and other service provisioning system objects. Then, you export the bundle template as a bundle JAR, which you can easily copy from one master server to another.

You can also create a bundle by explicitly selecting N1 SPS objects.

Dynamic Targeting

The new dynamic targeting feature enables you to use variable substitution on a component targeter. With this new feature, you can now perform variable substitution for the name attribute on the following repository component targeters.

• <component>

• <nestedRef>

• <toplevelRef>

UNIX Reboot Step

For remote agents that are running a version of the UNIX operating system, you can now include reboot instructions in your execution plans. The new <reboot> step enables you to reboot a host that is running a UNIX variant.

Configuring User Name and Password Constraints

You now have the option to specify the minimum character length, maximum character length, and acceptable character set for you N1 SPS user names and passwords. You can include your custom regular expression patterns in the config.properties to configure the constraints for user names and passwords.

Linux RPM Installers

The Sun N1 Service Provisioning System software now includes Linux RPM installers. The Linux master server and CLI client software are now installed as Linux RPM packages.

Native Call Cancel on Timeout

In the Sun N1 Service Provisioning System 6.0 release, you can use the <execNative> and <execJava> elements to perform a remote procedure call (RPC) and terminate code that is running on a remote agent.

Viewing Installed Components With the cdb.ic Commands

With the new cdb.ic command suite, you can quickly identify all the components installed on a system, as well as dependencies between installed components.

The following commands are new in the Sun N1 Service Provisioning System 6.0 release.

• cdb.ic.la – Use this command to list all the components installed on a system.

• cdb.ic.ldo – Use this command to list the components upon which a specific installed component depends.

• cdb.ic.lod – Use this command to list the components that depend on a specific installed component.

Install Step Component Variables

To specify component variable values for top-level components in a plan, it is no longer necessary to select component variable sets only in the Plan Run screen of the browser user interface, or to specify existing component variable sets only at plan run time using the command line interface. In this release of the Sun N1 Service Provisioning System, you can supply component variable values in the <install> step of a plan.

As plan author, you no longer have to wait until the plan is accessible in the browser user interface or the command line interface. To be able to supply component variable values in the <install> step of a plan, the following elements have been provided.

• <compVarSet>

• <compVarList>

Both elements can be used for the same target component. The <compVarSet> element enables you specify an existing named variable setting for the target component. The <compVarList> element enables you to override one or more specific variables for the target component.

Unrestrictive Host Locking

This release of the N1 Service Provisioning System provides new functionality in the area of host locking. In previous releases, the N1 Service Provisioning System locked a host while executing steps on that host. To prevent plans interfering with each other, no other plans or subplans could be executed against a host while the host was locked by a plan. Now, you can elect to use less restrictive host locking.

This feature introduces the following enhancements to the N1 SPS XML schema.

• The implicitLocking attribute to the <simpleSteps> element indicates what type of host locking to use for the contained steps.

• The <lockHost> step indicates that the target host should be locked for the duration of the step.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Platform Support

The Sun N1 Service Provisioning System 6.0 release supports the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 update 5 release.

Java Development Kit Upgrade

The Sun N1 Service Provisioning System 6.0 release includes the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.5 release.

PostgreSQL Upgrade

The Sun N1 Service Provisioning System 6.0 release includes the PostgreSQL 8.1 release.