3 Creating and Distributing Blueprints From the Published Ravello Applications

A blueprint is a self-contained set of definitions that describe your Ravello application, which can be used to create instances and deploy them on the cloud. You can deploy clones of the blueprint on cloud regions of choice using the application design or API call.

Topics

• Saving a Blueprint

• Sharing a Blueprint

  • Sharing a Blueprint on Ravello Repo

  • Sharing a Blueprint With an External User

Modifying a Copied Blueprint

You can make a copy of any blueprints that has been shared with you, and then modify the copied blueprint including adding additional VMs, changing networking, and customizing it. You can save the modified blueprint in your library for later use.

To make a copy of shared blueprints for editing:

1. Navigate to the Library > Blueprints page.
2. Click Shared with me to see a list of blueprints that are shared with you.
3. Select a blueprint and click Copy to My Blueprints .

   Note:

   You cannot edit a saved blueprint but you can copy an existing blueprint and make changes to it.
4. Your copy is saved at the Library > Blueprints page and it is ready for editing.

Saving a Blueprint

A blueprint comprises a snapshot of an application instance design, including virtual machine images and their disks, and the service interfaces that enable access to the application functionality. This snapshot reflects the configuration and states of the virtual machines and their disks when the blueprint was created. You can publish multiple application instances based on the saved blueprint. For example, test engineers save multi-tier applications including networking and storage as a blueprint to test on identical copies of test environments reducing their development cycle.

Blueprints library

You can create blueprints for one or more complete copies of applications to replicate at a later time. After you create an application, select Save as Blueprint in the Applications page. If your VMs are running, you can save blueprints either by shutting down the VMs or while it is running. In either case, the blueprint capture process might take a few minutes.

Blueprints can be viewed, managed, and deleted from the Library > Blueprints page.

Note:

You cannot edit the saved blueprints.

Example 3-1 Setting up of training environments using blueprint

With the help of saved blueprints, trainers can deploy VMware training labs ‘as-is’, and create as many clones in different cloud regions as needed.

Sharing a Blueprint

Blueprints are created from application instance designs, either draft designs or designs with all VMs running. You can share the saved blueprint either on a Ravello Repo for public users or with a user from other organization.

Topics

• Sharing a Blueprint on Ravello Repo

• Sharing a Blueprint With an External User

Sharing a Blueprint on Ravello Repo

Ravello Repo is a platform for experts to collaborate with each other and create blueprints that the rest of the community could benefit from. Repo provides a great starting point for customized development, testing and learning labs.

You must have a public profile before you can share or use library items on Ravello Repo, see Setting up Public Profile.

Ravello Repo is a repository where you can use or share blueprints of environments with interesting and new technology components. You can either share a blueprint with others or find fully functional multi-VM environment, that you can download to your account and start building your lab. For example, in the Ravello Repo, you may find the blueprints that cover topologies from simple RHEL 6 to RHEL 7 migration testing environments to complex multi-node OpenStack and vSphere AutoLab environments. You can leverage these blueprints and easily spin up entire live environments in the cloud, study topologies, and make changes according to your needs.

To share a blueprint on Ravello Repo:

1. Navigate to Library > Blueprints and select the blueprint that you want to share with others.
2. Click Share and select one of the options:
   1. Manage Sharing
   2. Share Publicly on Ravello Repo
3. Follow the prompts and share your blueprint on Ravello Repo.

Sharing a Blueprint With an External User

You can share a blueprint only with an external user other than from your organization. To allow a user from your own organization to view and use a blueprint, you must assign them to permissions groups where the viewing of shared items are enabled.

Make sure that the blueprint does not contain any confidential or proprietary information before sharing it with others.

To share a blueprint with a specific user:

1. From the Library > Blueprints page, select the blueprint you want to share and:
   • Click Share > Manage sharing, and click Another Organization in the Manage Blueprint Sharing dialog box.
   • Click Share > Share with Others.
   A screen Share with Users In a Different Organization is displayed.
2. (Optional) Click Review/edit blueprint documentation to update the description of the blueprint that is visible to others.
3. In the Share with Users field, enter an email address to share your blueprint.
4. Read the terms and conditions and share your blueprint.

Instructions will be emailed to the user regarding your shared blueprint.