Setting up and using PaaS provisioning

BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management lets you provision a software stack on a computing platform. This functionality is called platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provisioning. In this release, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management can provision the following types of databases as platforms, although there are some limitations on the operating systems available  for each supported version:

• Oracle RAC
• Oracle Restart
• Oracle Standalone

In this topic, the following sections describe the full process necessary to set up and use PaaS provisioning:

Integrating with BMC Database Automation

You must perform some integration between BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management and BMC Database Automation, a product that automates the provisioning and maintenance of databases. 

To integrate BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management with BMC Database Automation:

• Provide configuration parameter values to enable a connection between BMC Database Automation and BMC Atrium CMDB. 
• Publish BMC Database Automation templates to the Product Catalog so BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management can access them during provisioning. BMC Database Automation templates are used for configuring databases. The Product Catalog is an application installed on the BMC Atrium CMDB. It stores hardware and software metadata.
• Define actions in BMC Database Automation and publish them to the Product Catalog. For the purposes of provisioning, actions in BMC Database Automation must be scripts that can perform tasks such as running SQL commands, executing Perl scripts, or installing software. Like templates, these scripts must be published to the Product Catalog so BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management can access them. Currently, publishing these scripts requires a manual process. 

To integrate with BMC Database Automation

1. In BMC Database Automation, navigate to the Configuration node and open CLM Configuration.
2. Provide the following information:
   • CLM Server Hostname—Name or IP address of the Cloud AR System server, where the Cloud database is installed. 
   • CLM Server Port—(Optional) Port used for communicating with the Cloud AR System server (for example, 0, or any other AR port).
   • CLM Version—Version of CLM for connecting to the Cloud AR System server. This value is the CLM stack version (for example, 4.0, 4.1, or 4.6).
     
   • CLM Username—User Name for the Cloud Administrator to connect to the Cloud AR System server. In order to publish and unpublish a template from CLM through the BDA Manager, this must be the super-user created during the CLM installation. A cloud Admin user cannot unpublish a template.  
   • CLM Password—Password for connecting to the Cloud AR System server.

3. If necessary, add variables to a BMC Database Automation template so those variables can be used as parameters in BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management. Note the exact name of each parameter.
   You can set up your own parameters in a template, or you can choose from the following list of built-in parameters that are available for all templates. 
   

   Parameter name	Purpose
   BmcDbName	Defines the first eight characters of the name of the database being provisioned. This parameter is particularly important because you cannot deploy two databases with the same name to the same environment. The only way to specify the name when you are deploying more than one database is through the use of parameters.
   BmcDbEdition	Identifies the database edition being provisioned.
   BmcDbInstanceMemory	Specifies the amount of memory made available for a database instance.
   BmcDbMasterUserName	Defines the master user for the database being provisioned.
   BmcDbMasterUserPassword	Sets the password for the master user.
   BmcDbVersion	Specifies the database version you are deploying, such as 10.2.0.2.

    

   For more information, see Using parameters in PaaS provisioning. 

4. Publish a BMC Database Automation template to the Product Catalog:
   1. Open the Templates node in BMC Database Automation. 
   2. Find a template you want to publish. In the drop-down list at right, select Catalog Options. A new page opens.

   3. Under CLM Catalog Options, for PaaS Status, use the drop-down list to select Publish. The selected template is published to the Product Catalog, making it available for use in the cloud.
      While using the Templates node, you can select the CLM Templates tab to show the templates that are already published and available to the cloud for provisioning database systems. 
      

       

      Note

      When publishing a template for an Oracle stand alone database, an IaaS Status drop-down list is also available, and it includes a Publish option. Do not select the IaaS Status option.

      
      

5. To set up actions that can be performed when databases are being provisioned:
   
   1. Use the Actions node in BMC Database Automation to identify scripts that perform actions on a database. Note the name and container for each action you want to publish.
      For example, you can set up an action that creates a database user. 
   2. If necessary, add parameters to the scripts. Note the exact name of each parameter.
      

      If you define a SQL script as an Action and the script contains a parameter, the name of the parameter must be enclosed in curly brackets, and the name must begin with GAC_. For example, if you want the value of a parameter named "token" to be passed into SQL Action, the parameter in the SQL Action must be named {GAC_token}.

      If you define some other type of script as an Action (for example, a Perl script or a software installation script) and you want to include parameters in the script, insert parameters according to the syntax of the script you are executing.

   3. Manually publish actions by taking the following steps:
      1. Log into the Product Catalog Console as the user appadmin.
      2. Expand General Functions.
      3. Select New Product/Suite.
      4. Select Create and enter the following values:
         • Product Type—Select Software.
         • CI Type—Select Application.
         • Product Categorization Tier 1—Select Software Distribution.
         • Product Categorization Tier 2—Select Application.

         • Product Categorization Tier 3—Select BMC Database Automation Action PaaS Software. If this option is not available to you, enter it manually. 

           Note

           When the value of this field ends in "PaaS," this action is classified as an installable resource and it will not be made available.

         • Product Name—Enter the fully qualified path to an action (that is, a script) to be published. The fully qualified path includes the container storing the script followed by the name of the script.
           For example, the container might be /tmp/ and the script might be create_user_fc. In that situation, enter /tmp/create_user_fc.

           Note

           Scripts at the root level require a preceding /. For example, if you were publishing a script called runme that was stored at the root level in BMC Database Automation, you must enter /runme or the script will not be found and the job will fail.

         • Manufacturer—Enter Oracle (BDA-PaaS). If this option is not available, enter it manually.
         • Status—Select Enabled.
         • Origin—Select Custom. 
      5. Select Save.

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Establishing a PaaS policy

Policies control how resources are allocated when provisioning a service instance. Tag matching dictates which resources are used for a particular resource. For example, when provisioning an Oracle RAC database, you can assign a tag called "RAC" to a resource pool and a resource you define in a service blueprint. When provisioning a service instance of an Oracle RAC, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management uses resources to which the "RAC" tag has been applied.

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window, and click Service Governor. 
2. In the Service Governor workspace, under Policies, select Paas Pools.
3. Define a tagging policy for PaaS resources.
   For example, you can require that when provisioning occurs, the resources used must belong the to the PAAS tag group, as shown below. 
   
4. Click Save.

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Registering providers

Registering a provider tells BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management where to obtain resources needed for provisioning. For PaaS purposes, you must set up two providers: the overall PaaS provider and a child provider. Currently, the only available child provider is BMC Database Automation.

To set up the overall PaaS provider

Setting up the PaaS provider is necessary to enable PaaS provisioning. 

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window and select Providers.
2. Under Quick Links, select PaaS.
3. On the Providers page, click the Register icon . Use the Register Provider dialog box to perform the following steps:
   1. Select PAAS as the resource provider type to register.
      
      
   2. Enter the following information:
      
      • Name—Name for this instance of the PaaS provider.
      • Description—A useful description of the provider. Descriptions can help you distinguish provider instances and find a provider when using Search.
      • Supported resource types cache refreshment interval (seconds)—Controls the frequency by which the PaaS provider refreshes its cache of supported resource types. The child providers of the PaaS provider determine what resource types are supported. The set of types supported by each child provider can change over time, so the PaaS provider's cache of supported resource types can also change.
      • Use built-in pool placement logic—Indicates custom pool placement logic is necessary and is being implemented as a third-party provider that is a child of the PaaS provider.
      • Use built-in resource placement logic—Indicates custom resource placement logic is necessary and is being implemented as a third-party provider that is a child of the PaaS provider. Capacity-based placement is an example of custom resource placement logic.
       

   3. Click Submit.

To set up a specific PaaS provider

Currently, the only available PaaS provider is BMC Database Automation. 

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window and select Providers.
2. Under Quick Links, select PaaS.
3. On the Providers page, click the Register icon . Use the Register Provider dialog box to perform the following steps:
   1. Select BDA-PaaS as the resource provider type to register.
      
      
   2. Enter the following information:
      
      • Name—Name for this instance of a PaaS BMC Database Automation provider.
      • Description—A useful description of the provider. Descriptions can help you distinguish provider instances and help you find a provider by using Search.
      • Host—The BMC Database Automation Manager host name.
      • Port—The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) port used for communicating with BMC Database Automation. Change this only if you have changed the port value in the mdf.conf file in BMC Database Automation Manager.
      • Username—The user for BMC Database Automation.
      • Password—The user's password for BMC Database Automation.
      • SSL—Enter True to enable SSL when communicating with the API for BMC Database Automation.
      • Allow Self Signed Certificates—Enter True to allow use of self-signed certificates without setting up a Java keystore. All host name validation and other security mechanisms are disabled. Typically, this option is only used to test an SSL connection.
      • Job Polling in seconds—The interval at which the status of a job in BMC Database Automation is checked.
      • Verify Polling in seconds—The interval at which the status of the init-verify portion of a job in BMC Database Automation is checked.
      • Refresh Cache Interval in seconds—The interval at which BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management queries BMC Database Automation for objects to be onboarded.
      • Supported Types Refresh in seconds—Specifies the refresh interval for products that BMC Database Automation offers for provisioning.
      • Auto Enable Oracle Permission Fixing—Enter True to enable automatic fixing of permission issues that can be encountered in Oracle if different users exist for a cluster/grid versus a database.

      • Auto Increment Oracle Listener Port—Enter True to automatically increase the TCP/IP port on which the listener should listen.

        Note

        If you are registering an Oracle RAC or Oracle Restart provider, this option should be set to False.

      • Disable Provisioning Rollback—Enter True to disable the automatic removal of a database that failed to provision. Preventing automatic removal can be useful when failures occur and you want environments left intact for investigation.
      • Target Availability Polling in seconds—The interval for checking whether an external ID is currently involved with a job.
       

   3. Click Submit.

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Preparing resources

To prepare the resources that are used for PaaS provisioning, you must perform the procedures described below. When those procedures are complete, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management can use the designated resources when performing PaaS provisioning. The cloud allocates resources based on tagging.

To onboard PaaS resources

To perform platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provisioning, you must first onboard PaaS resources. Currently, you can only onboard database systems.

When you onboard a PaaS resource such as a database system, the resource is placed in a default PaaS pool until the resource is added to a PaaS resource pool. The default pool's name is <pod_name>_default_pool. There is one default pool for each network pod. You can onboard the same PaaS resource to multiple pods.

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window and select Resources.

2. Under Quick Links on the left, click Resources under the PaaS section.
   The system displays all resources currently onboarded. 
3. Click Onboard .
   The Onboard Resources dialog box opens.
    
4. If you want to change the pod to which you are onboarding resources, select an option from Pod.
5. Select the Provider, Type, and Sub-type for the PaaS resource you want to onboard.
   The Type option lets you choose the type of platform you want to onboard, such as a database system. The Sub-type option lets you define the type further. For example, for database systems, you can currently select Oracle Restart, Oracle Standalone, or Oracle RAC systems.
   When you make a selection, the Onboard Platform dialog box displays a list of available resources. 
6. Under Available Resources, select resources in the list at left and move them to the list at right.
7. Click Onboard.
   The onboarded resources are placed in the pod's default pool and are now available to be added to pools, as described in Creating PaaS resource pools.  PaaS resources cannot be used until you add them to a pool.

For additional information, see Onboarding and offboarding PaaS resources.

To create PaaS resource pools

You must add PaaS resources to a PaaS resource pool before the resources can be used.

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu at left and then click Resources. 
2. Under Quick Links at left, click PaaS Pools under the PaaS section. The console displays the list of current PaaS resource pools.
3. Click Create . The Create PaaS Pool dialog box opens. 
   

4. Provide information for the following options:

   Name	Description
   Name	Enter a name for this pool.
   Description	Enter a user description. A description can help you distinguish pools from each other and can help you find a pool by using Search
   Tags	Optionally, create or select tags, as described in Creating tag groups and tags.
   Pod	Select the network pod to which this pool belongs.
   Provider	Select the provider for this pool.
   Type	Select the type of resource. Currently, the only option is Database System.
   Sub-type	Select any of the following: Oracle Restart—An Oracle implementation on a standalone server that can restart automatically.  Oracle RAC—An Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC), which is a clustered implementation of a database system.  Oracle Standalone—An Oracle implementation on a standalone server

5. Click Save to create an empty pool or continue with the following steps to add resources to the pool.
6. To add resources to the pool, select a resource in the list at bottom left and move the resource to the list at right.
   Add only one sub-type of resource to a pool. For example, add only Oracle RAC resources or only Oracle Restart.  
7. Click Save.
   The PaaS resource pool is created. If you added resources to the pool, they are now available for cloud services. 
   After adding resources to a pool, continue with Mapping resource pools to network containers.

For additional information, see Creating PaaS resource pools.

To map PaaS resource pools to network containers

Before you can use the resources in a resource pool, you must associate the resource pool with a network container. 

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu at left and select Resources.

2. Under Quick Links at left, click Network Containers under the Network section.

3. Select the network container to which you want to map one or more resource pools.
4. Click Manage Pool Mappings .
   The Map Pools dialog box opens.
    
5. Find the resource pools that you want to add to the network container:
   • You can page through the list by clicking the Page button .
   • You can search for resource pools by entering a search string in the Search box and clicking Search .
6. Select one or more resource pools in the Available Pools table and click Add to move them to the Mapped Pools table.
   You can also drag and drop resource pools from the Available Pools table to the Mapped Pools table. 
7. Click Save.
   The selected pools are mapped to the network container. 

For additional information, see Mapping resource pools to network containers.

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Setting up service blueprints for PaaS

The Service Designer workspace offers considerable flexibility when defining a blueprint. The following sections provide a set of steps for creating a single-tier blueprint for a PaaS service. You can use this approach or develop your own techniques for building a service blueprint.

The steps required to set up a service blueprint are often the same as the steps for setting up a compute resource. For some steps that are unlikely to be used while defining a PaaS service blueprint, this topic references other topics. For a complete description of all the options available when setting up a service blueprint, including the procedures required to set up a multi-tier blueprint, see Creating, copying, or editing a service blueprint. 

Parameters in PaaS service blueprints

Parameters are an important part of setting up service blueprints for PaaS provisioning. Parameters allow for user input that overrides default behavior during the provisioning process. When setting up service blueprints PaaS, there are multiple places where you can define parameters. A parameter placed at one level of a service blueprint can take precedence over a parameter placed at a lower level of the service blueprint.

• When defining a resource instance, parameters can override the default behavior of an installable resource. For example, when provisioning a database, the installable resource is a BMC Database Automation template. Parameters ask for user input that override standard installation behavior, such as how the template allocates memory to each database instance. 
• When creating a definition for a service blueprint, you can set up parameters that apply to all the resources included in the definition. For example, when provisioning a database, you can set up parameters that allow users to provide input to control behavior of a BMC Database Automation template. One common usage is a parameter that assigns a name to the database. Parameters set up at the definition level take precedence over parameters set up at the instance level.
• When defining service properties for a service blueprint, you can set up parameters that always apply to all definitions in the blueprint. Parameters set up at the service property level take precedence over parameters set up at the definition level.
• When defining applications, parameters can control the behavior of scripts that execute as part of the provisioning process. For example, when provisioning a database, an application can run scripts that deploy software to a newly provisioned database. The scripts must be defined as Actions in BMC Database Automation. Parameters ask for user input that control how the software is deployed. For example, parameters could identify the name and owner of a schema being deployed to a database. You can assign the same application to many PaaS resource sets.

Add a PaaS resource set to a service blueprint

In the Service Designer workspace, click Create New > Service Blueprint. Then click PaaS Resource.
A new PaaS resource set is added to the service blueprint, and the edit pane for that resource set opens. Use the following procedure to set up the PaaS resource set.

1. Under Instance Details, provide information about the database instances.
   Menus in the Instance Details section are populated according to the PaaS resources you have onboarded. 
   
   
   
   

   Field	Instruction
   Type	Select the type of resource. Currently, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management only supports the Database Instance type for PaaS resource.
   Subtype	Select the subtype of the PaaS resource. Currently, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management only supports Oracle RAC, Oracle Restart, and Oracle Standalone.
   Edition	Select the edition of the PaaS resource. Currently, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management only supports Enterprise.
   Version	Select the version of the PaaS resource.
   Description	Enter the purpose of this PaaS resource.
   Memory Size (MB)	Enter the amount of memory in MB. If you do not specify a value, the instance uses a default memory value specified in the BMC Database Automation template that you select in the Installable Resource field.
   Installable Resource	Click to display a list of templates that can be used to deploy a PaaS resource. This list is populated with BMC Database Automation templates published to the Product Catalog. Select a package and click OK.

2. Click Parameters to add parameters to the resource instance. 
   For more information about adding parameters to instances, see Using parameters in PaaS provisioning. 

   The following procedure describes the process of adding a parameter.

   1. In the Parameters table, click .

   2. Enter a parameter name.
      This field is required.
   3. Enter a user friendly display label.
      This field is required. The end user sees this label when the package is provisioned instead of the parameter name.
   4. Enter a short description.
      This information appears as a tooltip.
   5. Select the appropriate data type (for example, String, Numeric, Boolean or Token) that controls the input menu type.
      Depending on which data type you select, only specific options are available. For example, if you select Boolean, only the Default Value, User Entry Enabled, and Required options are available. You cannot modify data types later. If you are creating a Token parameter, see detailed instructions in the Passing deployment data using tokens page.
   6. In the Default Value field, enter the the appropriate value (for example, the default value if you storing user input).
      For example, enter the default value that the end user will see during the request, or the value used with parameters (when User Entry Enabled is not selected). Make sure that you enter appropriate values per data type. There is no validation checking in the UI other than the Regular Expression pattern. However, the Numeric data type will not let you enter non-numeric values. If you select Boolean, you can only choose {true} or {false} as the default value.
   7. In the Regular Expression field, enter the pattern text that the parameter value must match for validation.
      For example, if you want the parameter value to consist only of alphabetical characters, enter \[a-zA-Z\]\ as the String values. You can use Regular Expression with String or Numeric data types, but not Boolean.
   8. Select Ignore Case to only compare character sequence.
      For example, you would select Ignore Case if ABC and abc are both considered valid matching patterns.
   9. Click User Entry Enabled to prompt the user to enter the value during provisioning.
      This action allows the end-user to specify an input and, if needed, override the default value.
      
      1. Click Required if input is mandatory.
      2. Click Password Field for password-style input (where the values are not displayed).
         The password values are initially displayed as you enter them. But after you save the parameters, they are then masked as asterisks.
         The Password Field is independent of the User Entry Enabled field. You can mask the default value even if User Entry Enabled is not selected.
   10. Click OK to save the new parameter.
    

3. Click the the PaaS resource set (the green box) to provide basic details.
   
   

   Field	Instruction
   Name	Enter a name for the PaaS resource set. For database provisioning, the name you enter is used as the name of the database and must conform to naming conventions for the underlying infrastructure. For example, if you are provisioning an Oracle database, adhere to Oracle's naming requirements, such as alphanumeric characters only, no spaces, and unique names on any single host. Refer to Oracle documentation for a complete list of naming requirements. Note If you deploy more than one database with the same name to the same hosting environment, the deployment will fail. You can configure parameters to give users the ability to change the name of a database, but the parameter only lets users assign a name to a single database. If you are deploying more than one database to the same hosting environment, structure the blueprint so you can assign a name to each PaaS resource set representing a database to be deployed.
   Description	Describe the purpose or nature of the PaaS resource set.
   Number of Instances	Enter the number of database instances to be provisioned. This is not the number of databases, but rather the number of database instances. The number you enter appears in the upper-right corner of the box representing a resource instance. Note If you select a subtype of Oracle Standalone when defining a PaaS resource set (see step 1), only one database instance can be provisioned even though you can enter a number greater than 1 in this field. If you enter a value greater than 1, provisioning will fail.
   Tags	Define any tags you want applied to this PaaS resource set. The tags you apply should belong the tag groups specified in the PaaS policy. For more information about tags in service blueprints, see Managing blueprint tags.

4. Click Post-Deployment Actions, and specify any actions to run after the PaaS resource is deployed:

   1. Click Add new row .

   2. In the Action Type field, select a type of post-deployment action to run.

   3. In the Action field, enter the action you want run.

   4. After you have added all desired actions, use the Up and Down arrows to configure the sequence in which the actions are run.

5. To allow a PaaS resource set to be reused in other service blueprints, save it to the Blueprint Library:

   1. Right-click the PaaS resource set and click Convert to Reference.
   2. Enter a Name for the PaaS resource set. Because the name will be visible in the Blueprint Library, provide a name that enables cloud administrators to easily identify the PaaS resource set.
   3. Enter a Description of the PaaS resource set.
   4. Click OK.
      The server is added to the Server/PaaS Blueprints section of the Blueprint Library. 

When you have finished defining the PaaS service blueprint, click Save and provide a name for the service blueprint.

You can save a version of a blueprint and assign a tag to each version, as described in  Creating, copying, or editing a service blueprint. 

Creating definitions for the service blueprint

You may want to set up one or more definitions for a service blueprint. For each definition, you can associate one or more PaaS resource sets. For example, you might want to set up one definition for deploying Oracle RAC and another for Oracle Standalone. 

When setting up a definition for a service blueprint, you can specify properties, parameters, post-deploy actions and sequencing for all actions. This functionality is standard to BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management and is described in Creating, copying, or editing a service blueprint. Note that the Operations option is not currently applicable to PaaS service blueprints.

You can add properties, parameters, operations, and post-deployment actions to a service blueprint definition. When you set up parameters for a definition, that parameter takes precedence over any parameters of the same name defined for an instance of a PaaS resource set.

For a complete description of the capabilities available when creating a definition for a service blueprint, see Creating, copying, or editing a service blueprint. 

Creating service properties for the service blueprint

You can set up service properties that apply to all the definitions within a service blueprint. For service properties you can specify parameters and tags. When you set up parameters for a service property, that parameter takes precedence over any parameters of the same name specified for service blueprint definitions.

For a complete description of the capabilities available when creating service properties for a service blueprint, see Creating, copying, or editing a service blueprint. 

Adding an application to a PaaS resource set

An application can deploy software that is associated with a PaaS resource set. For example, you can set up an application that creates a database user, creates a schema, and populates the schema. 

1. Open a service blueprint that includes a PaaS resource set. 
2. Click Edit. 
3. Click Application and drag an application onto the PaaS resource set. 
   The editing pane for the application opens automatically. 

4. Enter Basic Details:
   
   
   
   

   Field	Instruction
   Name	Enter a name for the application.
   Description	Describe the purpose or nature of the application. For example, Create and populate schema.
   Tags	Define any tags you want applied to this service component. For more information about tags in service blueprints, see Managing blueprint tags.

5. Click Software Packages and use the following steps to provide information about the software to be included.
   For PaaS resources, the list of available software packages is derived from BMC Database Automation actions that have been published to the Product Catalog (see Integrating with BMC Database Automation).
   
    

   1. Click . A list of software packages opens.

   2. In the list, select a package to include in this application and click OK.
      The package is added to the Software Packages table.

   3. If necessary, add additional packages.

   4. Arrange the software packages in the required order of installation by changing the numbers in the Sequence column.

   5. For each software package, specify any pre-installation and post-installation scripts to run. Enter the fully qualified name of the script (that is, enter the path to the script and its name).
      For PaaS resources, AO workflows do not apply. Select only scripts. 
      For PaaS resources, a common use for a pre-installation script is to set permissions on the location where the script will run.

   6. Click Apply.
6. Click Parameters and provide information about the parameters for the software to be included in this application (that is, the software you specified in step 5). 
   

   For more information about adding parameters to resources, see Using parameters in PaaS provisioning. 

   The following procedure explains the process of adding a parameter.

   1. In the Parameters table, click .

   2. Enter a parameter name.
      This field is required.
   3. Enter a user friendly display label.
      This field is required. The end user sees this label when the package is provisioned instead of the parameter name.
   4. Enter a short description.
      This information appears as a tooltip.
   5. Select the appropriate data type (for example, String, Numeric, Boolean or Token) that controls the input menu type.
      Depending on which data type you select, only specific options are available. For example, if you select Boolean, only the Default Value, User Entry Enabled, and Required options are available. You cannot modify data types later. If you are creating a Token parameter, see detailed instructions in the Passing deployment data using tokens page.
   6. In the Default Value field, enter the the appropriate value (for example, the default value if you storing user input).
      For example, enter the default value that the end user will see during the request, or the value used with parameters (when User Entry Enabled is not selected). Make sure that you enter appropriate values per data type. There is no validation checking in the UI other than the Regular Expression pattern. However, the Numeric data type will not let you enter non-numeric values. If you select Boolean, you can only choose {true} or {false} as the default value.
   7. In the Regular Expression field, enter the pattern text that the parameter value must match for validation.
      For example, if you want the parameter value to consist only of alphabetical characters, enter \[a-zA-Z\]\ as the String values. You can use Regular Expression with String or Numeric data types, but not Boolean.
   8. Select Ignore Case to only compare character sequence.
      For example, you would select Ignore Case if ABC and abc are both considered valid matching patterns.
   9. Click User Entry Enabled to prompt the user to enter the value during provisioning.
      This action allows the end-user to specify an input and, if needed, override the default value.
      
      1. Click Required if input is mandatory.
      2. Click Password Field for password-style input (where the values are not displayed).
         The password values are initially displayed as you enter them. But after you save the parameters, they are then masked as asterisks.
         The Password Field is independent of the User Entry Enabled field. You can mask the default value even if User Entry Enabled is not selected.
   10. Click OK to save the new parameter.
    

Saving and checking in a blueprint definition

When you finish defining the service blueprint, click File > Save and Check In. The service blueprint is now ready to be used in a service offering.

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Creating a service offering

Many options exist for creating a service offering. The following procedures describe one way to create a typical service offering for a PaaS service. 

For additional information about all functionality related to creation of service offerings, see Creating a service offering.

To create a service

Before you can create a service offering, you must first create a service.

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window, and click Service Catalog. 
2. In the Service Catalog, click Create a New Service. 
3. Enter a service name. 
4. For Type, select Technical service.
5. Enter a description of the service. 
6. Click Apply.

When you have created a service, proceed to the next procedure (service offering creation).

To create a service offering

1. Using the service you created in the previous procedure, click Create a New Service Offering . 

2. In the General Information tab, define the options described in the following table.
   
   

   Option	Description
   Default Service Offering	Enable this option to make the selected service offering the default for the service. Unless users select a different service offering, the default service offering is used.
   Name	A short, descriptive name for the service offering.
   Description	A more detailed description of the service offering.
   Service Blueprint	Specify the software and hardware to associate with the service offering by selecting one of the available blueprints.
   Reference Definition	Specify how to select a version of a service blueprint. You can select a version by number, the latest version, or a version that is associated with a tag.
   Definition	Select the definition that provides deployment details. Each service blueprint can include multiple definitions.

    

3. Add a Base Customer Price to define the amount charged to the customer for the service offering. You can enter multiple customer prices per service. 
4. Add a Base Deployment Cost to define the amount that it costs to provide the service offering. You can enter one deployment cost per service. 
   
    
5. Click Apply.

When you have created a service offering, proceed to the next procedure (creating a requestable offering).

To create a requestable offering

Use this procedure to create the service offering that an end user can request.

1. Using the service offering select the drop-down list beside the Create the request definition icon  and select Create request definition.
   The Request Definition dialog box opens.
   
2. Under Request Definition Details, enter the following information:

   Option	Description
   Title	Enter a descriptive title for the requestable offering.
   Description	Enter a detailed description of the requestable offering. Note Only 255 characters can be shown in the Request Entry console. Any text greater than 255 character is indicated by an ellipsis (...).
   Start Date	Enter the date when this requestable offering goes online.
   Type	Select Compute. Even when defining a service offering for PaaS provisioning, select Compute.

   
   

3. Click Next.
4. Under Select Navigation Category, select Cloud Services.
5. Under Request Definition Packages, associate one or more entitlement packages with the requestable offering by selecting a package from the Available Packages table and clicking Add.
   
    
6. Click Finish.

When you have created a requestable offering, proceed to the next procedure (defining options for the requestable offering).

Define options for the requestable offering

You can add options to the service offering. Options are similar to parameters because they allow users to enter values that override the standard definition of a PaaS offering. However, unlike parameters, options in a service offering provide predefined values from which a user can choose. This procedure establishes the predefined values.

1. Open the Options Editor by clicking Options Editor .
   
2. In the Options list, click New Option .
3. In the New Option window, perform the following steps:
   1. Enter a name for the option.
      
   2. For Option Type, select Request Definition, which lets you modify the service blueprint so it can offer parameters when PaaS provisioning occurs.
   3. For Option Description, enter optional descriptive text.
   4. To upload an icon to the server and select it as the icon for the selected option, click Upload Icon (.jpeg, .png, or .gif formats).
   5. Click OK.
      The new option is listed.

4. In the Option Choices list, take the following steps:

   1. Click New Option Choice .

   2. In the New Option Choice window, enter a name (for example, Memory Capacity) and description for the option choice.

   3. Set the Customer Price or Deployment Cost.
      

   4. In the New Option Choice window, click OK.
      The new option choice is listed.
5. Repeat step 4 to define additional option choices.
6. To change the order of the choices, select a choice, and click the move up or down button.
   Customers will see the order of choices that you have defined.
7. To make a choice the default, select the Pre-Select check box.
8. Select an option and then click Option Choice Blueprint Configuration Editor to select an option that modifies or extends the service blueprint configuration.
9. Click New Blueprint Configuration and then select Blueprint Configuration > Service Deployment Definition.
   A list of options displays. Only the options beginning with "PaaS" are applicable to PaaS provisioning. Some PaaS options apply to the overall resource (that is, the database), while others apply to the resource set instance (the database instance).
   For example, to add a memory option that extends the service blueprint, select Blueprint Configuration > Service Deployment Definition > PaaS Resource Instance > Memory Size. 
   For a description of each PaaS-related option, see Option Choices available when extending service blueprints.
    
10. In the Resource Set Identifier area, enter the Name of a PaaS resource set in the service blueprint, or select a tag that identifies the resource set.
    
11. Enter the values that extend the service blueprint.
    For example, enter a memory size option, such as 2 MB.
12. Click OK.
13. In the Option Choice Blueprint Configuration Editor, click OK.
14. Create the remaining option choices (for example, for 1 MB and 4 MB).
15. When you are finished in the Option Editor, click OK to save your changes.

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Requesting a service

1. From the My Cloud Services Console, click the Service Catalog tab.
2. Select the name of the service offering you want.
   The first pane provides any user options that were defined for the requestable offering. 
   Make any choices offered on this pane and click Next.
   If no user options are defined, the console skips the first pane and displays the parameters pane.
   
3. The next pane shows any parameters that were defined for the service blueprint. For example, the BmcDbName parameter asks for a name that is assigned to the deployed database.
    

4. Enter parameter values and click Next.
   The next pane shows user data that must be completed.

5. Enter the following user data and click Next.

   Option	Description
   Name	Name of the database
   Description	Description of the database.
   Quantity	Number of databases to be provisioned. Typically, this is not a useful option for PaaS because it will generate multiple databases with the same name on the same infrastructure, which will cause a failure. Set this value to 1.
   Instance Name Prefix	Not used when provisioning a service that only includes PaaS resources. For multi-tier service offerings that include compute resources, the prefix is used when assigning names to compute instances that are being provisioned.
   User Name	The master user that is created in the database. This user can perform administrative tasks on the database.
   Password	Password for the master user.
   Confirm Password	Confirmation for the password.

6. Click Submit to request the service.