You create integration components in a library in your local file system and deploy them to an InterChange Server Express instance to make them executable.
You can deploy a package of integration components using either the System Manager graphical interface or the repos_copy command-line interface. For information on using System Manager, see Deploying components using the deployment wizard. For information on using repos_copy, see Using repos_copy. For information on the advantages and disadvantages of each interface, see Deciding to use System Manager or repos_copy for deployment.
Table 6 describes the advantages and disadvantages of using System
Manager or repos_copy for deployment. Evaluate the two interfaces and
use whichever one is best suited to your needs.
Table 6. Advantages and disadvantages of System Manager and repos_copy in deployment
Interface | Advantages | Disadvantages |
---|---|---|
System Manager |
|
|
repos_copy |
|
|
When you deploy a user project from System Manager to different servers, the configuration properties for some of the integration components may need to change for the new server environment. For example, an adapter in your solution may have properties that specify a database URL, a user name, and a password that are all valid for your development and testing server. But the production environment in which the solution will be deployed may require different values for these properties. Rather than manually reconfiguring the adapter (by manually using the connector configurator to change the connector configuration properties) --and other integration components that might require modification for the new environment--you can use the deployment configuration feature of System Manager.
The deployment configuration feature of System Manager enables you to define a set of values for certain integration component properties and make them applicable to a specific server (or servers) that you name. The values are stored in a deployment file (with the extension .dfg) associated with an Integration Component Library. When you deploy an existing user project to one of the servers that you listed in deployment configurator, System Manager uses the property values from the deployment file to modify the existing configuration files for the relevant components of the user project.
This feature can be used to modify the properties of connectors, maps, collaborations, and relationships.
To create and deploy properties using the deployment configuration feature, follow these steps:
To open the deployment configuration dialog, do this:
To add a server to the deployment file, in the Select the server section you must designate a name for a server that will use the deployment time properties that you are creating.
After you have selected or named a server, you must add the integration components, properties, and values that you want to apply for use with that server.
If you have previously added elements for one server, when you later add a new server in the Deployment Configuration dialog, it will automatically be populated with the elements previously created. You can then delete or modify the elements.
If you have not previously added configuration elements in the dialog for any server, you will need to add elements to the dialog for the first time. You can do so either by importing an existing deployment file (described later in this section) or by manually adding elements in the dialog. To manually add elements, position the cursor in the Property Name column, and right-click. The Components Selection dialog appears, displaying all the available integration components in the ICL that you right-clicked to open the Deployment Configuration dialog. Expand the categories as necessary. Then, for each individual component for which you want to configure properties, click the checkbox for the component, and choose OK. Do this in turn for each individual component. When you choose OK each time, the Components Selection dialog closes, and the Deployment Configuration dialog displays, showing the new component that you have added.
For each component that you add, you will need to also add the properties whose values you want to set for that component. To do so:
Now you need to specify the values that you want to use for these properties. To do so:
When you are done, click OK. The Deployment Configurator dialog closes. When you open the Deployment Configurator dialog again, the last configuration that you created will be displayed by default. If you have created more than one configuration (that is, if you have named more than one server in the Deployment Configuration dialog) you can display any of the other configurations by using the Please select destination server drop-down box.
After you have created a deployment configuration, the integration component properties and their values can be deployed to another server. After deployment , the property values you specified during deployment configuration will be applied to the component that went into the server. You can deploy to a server in either of the following ways:
If the server that you named in Deployment Configurator when you created the deployment configuration properties is a registered instance of InterChange Server Express, you can use System Manager to connect to and deploy your user project to that server, as described in Deploying components using System Manager
When you deploy the project, System Manager will use the deployment configuration property values to overwrite existing property values in the integration component's configuration, assuming that the System Manager preferences have been set for it to do so. Note that the original integration component definitions are not affected. The change occurs during deployment, when the values are modified in memory before being deployed to the server.
Check the System Manager preferences setting before you deploy. To check the setting, from within System Manager go to the Windows menu and open Preferences>System Manager Preferences>Deployment Preferences. In the Deployment Settings display, check or uncheck the box for Always apply Deployment configuration properties during deployment, depending on whether you want to use the deployment configuration properties.
When you use System Manager to deploy a user project, you can selectively choose the components in the user project that you want to deploy. The deployment configuration property values that you created will be applied only for the selected components.
Deployment configuration files are included within the package that is created when you export either user projects or individual ICLs to a repository package file, as described in Exporting components to a package using System Manager. When you do this for an ICL, any deployment configuration file (*.dfg file) that you created on that ICL will be included in the package. When you do this for a user project, the deployment configuration files that were created on any of the ICLs in the user project will be included in the package. If you selectively choose only certain components from an included ICL when you export the user project as a package, the deployment configuration file corresponding to that ICL will include properties and values for only those selected components.
You can export a file of deployment configuration properties, as described in Export and import of deployment configuration properties. This is especially useful if you are exporting a repository file package from an InterChange Server Express repository, as described in Chapter 6, "Using repos_copy," and you want to include deployment configuration properties. When you create a deployment configuration file, the file resides within System Manager, not within the InterChange Server Express repository. Consequently, when you use repos_copy to create a package from an InterChange Server Express repository, the deployment configuration file is not included. To add it, you can export the deployment configurator file using the Export Property Descriptor dialog, and then copy the configuration content into the repos_copy package file, using this syntax:
repos_copy -sserverName -uusername -ppassword -ireposcopyfile -ixdideploymentdescriptorfile
When you export an ICL or User Project from System Manager , the deployment descriptor.dfg file with the relevant entries will be included with the repository jar file. You can then use the repos_copy utility to repos copy the .jar file into the server. The values for the configuration file inside the .jar file will be automatically applied to the components before being deployed to the server.
If you do not want the transformations to happen, you can suppress them using the following option:
repos_copy -sserverName -uusername -ppassword -ireposcopyfile -xdn
The -xdn option ignores the .dfg file inside the repository .jar file and sends the deployment package to the server without changing the property values.
After deployment configuration properties have been created in Deployment Configurator for one server, you can export those properties to a file, and then import that file as the starting point for the deployment configuration properties of another server. To do so, right-click in a field in the Property Name column, and choose Import. The Import Properties dialog appears, providing the following choices:
This selection is the default. If you use this selection, all the server names, integration components, properties, and values established in the existing deployment configuration file will be removed, all the server names and properties and values established in the file being imported will be added. In effect, you are replacing the entire content of the original file with the entire content of the file being imported.
The Merge option causes all the server names, integration components, properties, and values established in the imported file to be added to the existing file. The merge is completely hierarchical and granular. For example, if the original file contains only a Server1, and the import file contains a Server1 and Server2, the Server2 name and all the integration components, properties, and values associated with it will be added to the original file. The Server1 name already established in the original file is not removed. If an integration component exists in Server1 in the import file, but not in Server1 in the original file, that component will be added to Server1 in the original file. Likewise, if a property exists for a specific integration component in Server1 in the import file, but not in the original file, that property will be added for that specific integration component in Server1 in the import file. At the lowest level, value replacement occurs. That is, the value for a specific property of a specific integration component in a specific server name in the import file will replace the value (if one exists) for the same property of the same integration component associated with the same server name in the original file.
Deployment configuration properties created for one server can be copied and pasted into the configuration for another server. When you copy and paste properties, any values assigned to those properties are copied and pasted as well. When you paste properties, if the properties already exist in the configuration, they are overwritten by the paste operation.
A standalone utility, contained in the deploymentconfigutil.zip file in the product \bin directory, can allow a *.dfg file to be edited without the use of System Manager. This can be useful, for example, in a situation where a database administrator needs to have a connector password property set to a specific value for interacting with the database, but does not want to reveal that value to the implementer who is using System Manager. The implementer can use the Deployment Configurator feature of System Manager to create a *.dfg file with default values and then send that file to the database administrator. The database administrator then runs the standalone utility, which allows modification of the property values (not the addition or deletion of integration components or properties). The database administrator uses the utility to modify the password value, and then sends the file back to the implementer, who uses System Manager to import the *.dfg file into Deployment Configurator.
This utility is controlled by a pre-defined password and you must contact the product support center to get one. The password is intended to prevent users without appropriate privileges from changinge the passwords or encrypted data specified in the deployment descriptor files.
This standalone utility is contained in the deploymentconfigutil.zip file, which resides in the IBM\WebSphere\bin directory. The file can be extracted and used on a system that does not have either System Manager or InterChange Server Express installed.
For components with states (such as connectors, collaboration objects, maps, relationships, and database connection pools), you can set the state in which the component initializes when rebooting the server after deployment. Do the following to set the initial post-deployment state of components:
You can use standard Windows selection techniques to choose multiple components, such as the following:
You can validate a package comprised of the components you want to deploy before performing the deployment to ensure that the deployment will succeed. Do the following to validate a package of components:
For information on creating a user project see Creating user projects, and for information on adding shortcuts to a user project see Adding shortcuts to a user project.
System Manager displays the "Validate Project(s)" wizard, as shown in Figure 19.
If you have not selected any duplicate components, proceed to step 6.
If you have selected duplicate components, proceed to step 5.
System Manager displays the "Local Duplicates" screen, as shown in Figure 20.
Figure 20. Selecting distinct components from user projects to validate
Select distinct components among the duplicates.
System Manager creates a package containing the selected components and validates it against the server repository. A message is displayed to indicate whether validation was successful or not.
You can deploy components to an InterChange Server Express instance in one of two ways described in the following sections:
Do the following to use the deployment wizard to deploy a package of components to an InterChange Server Express instance:
Use the InterChange Server Express Component Management view or System Monitor to stop the duplicate components in the server before deploying a package. For more information, see Managing component states in the repository.
For information on creating a user project see Creating user projects, and for information on adding shortcuts to a user project see Adding shortcuts to a user project.
System Manager displays the "Deploy wizard page 1 screen", as shown in Figure 21.
Figure 21. Selecting deployable components and deployment options
The schemas for relationships and database connection pools must be created for interfaces that reference them to work. If you are deploying an interface for the purpose of running it then you must enable this option for any components the interface uses.
Maps and collaboration templates be compiled for interfaces that reference them to work.
If you have selected duplicate components within the user projects then the "Deploy wizard page 2" screen appears, as shown in Figure 22:
Figure 22. Selecting among local duplicates when deploying
Expand the folders of the displayed user projects and enable checkboxes for the particular components you want deployed between the local duplicates.
Do one of the following depending on your selections:
If you have chosen to deploy components that already exist on the server then the "Server Duplicate Objects" screen appears, as shown in Figure 23:
Figure 23. Selecting duplicate objects to overwrite in the server
Expand the folders of the displayed user projects and enable checkboxes for the duplicate components you want to overwrite in the server repository.
System Manager attempts to deploy the selected components into the server repository. If you view the server logging output you will see messages logged as the deployment session is started and components are added to the repository.
When the deployment session finishes System Manager either presents an informational prompt that the deployment succeeded or an error prompt that the deployment failed.
Do the following to deploy components by using drag-and-drop techniques among the System Manager views:
Use the InterChange Server Express Component Management view or System Monitor to stop the duplicate components in the server before deploying a package. For more information, see Managing component states in the repository.
System Manager attempts to deploy the components to the specified InterChange Server Express instance. Messages and errors are displayed in the Console view.