About Modeling Control Data

Control data is the data OSM requires to perform orchestration. There are two kinds of control data:

Order item control data is order items from the customer order that are required in orchestration
Order component control data is order components that participate in orchestration

You model order item control data when you configure your order item specification. Design Studio models order component control data automatically for order components that are included in the fulfillment pattern that is part of the orchestration plan.

Control data is data located in the ControlData structure on the order. Control data consists of data required to perform OSM orchestration. For example, when you model order item control data for an IP services order, you include the name of the service in the control data but exclude the port number for the connection to be provisioned. Though the port number must be on the order for the service to be activated, it is not included in order item control data because it is not used by the orchestration process.

Order item properties and order components are OSM entities that contribute to the ControlData structure on the order by using the following structures in the data model:

ControlData/OrderItem/

Order item property control data: Order items from the customer order are stored here and included in the order.
ControlData/Functions/

Order component control data: An order component that participates in an orchestration plan must have control data defined in the order template of the order.

Order component control data requires order item control data. Rather than copying the order item data to each order component, OSM creates in the order component control data a reference node back to the ControlData/OrderItem/Order_Item_Property_Name structure. A reference node back to the original order item keeps the order components updated with any new order item properties you might add to your order item specification.

You model the control data structure for order item properties (ControlData/OrderItem/Order_Item_Property_Name) manually in the Order Template tab of the Order Item Specification editor. See "Modeling Order Item Control Data" for information on modeling order item control data.

Design Studio automatically models the control data structure for order components (ControlData/Functions/Order_Component_Name) associated with orchestration orders on the Order Template tab of the Order Component Specification editor. See "Modeling Order Component Control Data Automatically" for more information on how Design Studio models the order component control data.

Data modeled in the Order Template tabs of the Order Component Specification editor and the Order Item Specification editor contribute to the order template of the order.

When working with composite cartridge projects, control data is deployed to your runtime environment as part of the OSM composite cartridge. As a result, the complete control data becomes available to the new tasks that are contributed through the component cartridges of the composite cartridge. See "Working with Composite Cartridge Projects" for information on creating composite cartridges.