BLPackage overview
A BLPackage is a collection of server objects, software packages, and an XML instruction set that functions as a manifest, explaining how to process the contents of the BLPackage, such as adding or replacing a group of files. A BLPackage can be deployed unattended on multiple remote hosts.
To learn more about BLPackages, see the following sections:
Methods for creating BLPackages
You can create a BLPackage in the following ways:
- Bundling files and other server objects that you select from a live host
- Bundling files and other server objects that you select from the Depot
- Bundling files and other server objects that you select from a snapshot
- Bundling files and other server objects contained in a component
- Bundling the results of an audit to synchronize a target server with a master configuration
For a description of how to create BLPackages, see Adding a BLPackage to the Depot.
When you create a BLPackage, you store it in the Depot.
Contents of BLPackages
BLPackages can consist of either Windows or UNIX server objects. A BLPackage cannot mix Windows and UNIX server objects.
For Windows, a BLPackage can include the following:
- Applications
- BLPackages (an object used for tracking BLPackages)
- COM+/MTS settings
- Configuration files
- Event logs
- Files and directories
- Hotfixes
- Local groups
- Local users
- Metabase objects
- Registry values
- Security settings (local)
- Services
- External commands (that is, commands that can be issued on a command line interface)
- Virtual machine configurations
For UNIX systems, a BLPackage can include the following:
- IBM AIX packages and patches
- BLPackages (an object used for tracking BLPackages)
- Configuration files
- Files and directories
- RPMs
- Daemons
- Processes
- UNIX users
- UNIX groups
- Virtual host server and virtual machine configurations
- Oracle Solaris packages, patches, and patch clusters
- HP-UX product, patches, and bundles
- External commands
Editing BLPackages
After you create a BLPackage, you must sometimes edit the package to insert new values for server objects, including parameterized property values. You can also change the order in which server objects are processed, insert additional commands and server objects, and make many other package- and object-level modifications. BMC Server Automation provides many tools for editing the contents of a BLPackage (see BLPackage Editing).
Deploying BLPackages
When you deploy a BLPackage, BMC Server Automation can use two basic approaches:
- The system can copy the files included in the package and an XML instruction file to a staging directory on the remote hosts you have specified. (Source files can be copied from the file server or a network location.) If you are using an indirect deployment, the files are copied to a staging directory on a repeater. The installation executes on the target servers from the staging directory.
- The system can copy an XML instruction file to a staging directory on a repeater or the remote hosts you have specified. Those instructions tell the agent on the target server to mount or map a server at a network location that holds the source files for this deployment. From that network location, the source files are deployed directly to the target server.
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