Working with components and component templates

Components-and-component-template-overview

A component is a collection of configuration settings that encapsulates a business or infrastructure service, application, or security policy.

To create a component, you must first define a component template, which establishes rules and provides necessary information for the component, and then associate the template with a server.

This topic describes the basics of components and component templates and provides an overview of how to use components.

Process-for-using-components

This topic discusses the TrueSight Server Automation recommended strategy for using components, which includes:

• Establishing requirements
• Designing components
• Discovering components
• Implementing usage of components

Creating-a-component-template

You can create a component template, which, at its most basic, is the definition of the parts that make up a component.

Using the procedure described in this topic, you can create a component template and specify its parts, or you can define an empty component template with no component parts and later add parts during the editing process. To more fully develop the component definition, including its signature and compliance rules, you must edit the component.

Editing-a-component-template

When you create a component template using the Create New Component Template wizard, you typically define the parts that make up the template. Later, you refine the component template during an editing process.

While editing you can add additional parts, define a signature for the template, define compliance rules, and add local properties. Usually editing a component template is essential because you can only develop signatures and compliance rules during the editing process.

Examples-of-editing-templates-and-compliance-rules

This topic presents videos with examples of edit tasks that you can perform in component templates to create special types of compliance rules.

Walkthrough-Managing-versions-of-component-templates-using-Git

This topic walks you through the various version-management tasks that you can perform on component templates through an integration with a Git repository.

Adding-components-to-servers-manually

You can add a component to a single server without running a Component Discovery Job.

The procedure described in this topic is useful as a way to quickly add a single component, particularly if the discovery operation is not activated for a component template. The procedure is also useful if you want to create a component on a server and bypass the use of local property sets when one or more local property sets are defined for a component template. 

Modifying-components

Typically, to modify a component, you change the component template (as described in Editing-a-component-template) and your changes are automatically applied to all components that are based on that template. However, in some situations you may want to modify general properties of a component, as described in this topic.

Validating-a-component

To quickly determine whether a component's signature conditions are valid on its associated target server, you can run a short validation process on any existing component.The validation process described in this topic is useful in the case of components that you created manually, or if you need to re-validate a component after modifying the signature in the component template.

Setting-multiple-components-as-exceptions-to-compliance-rules

Use the procedure described in this topic to excuse multiple components from compliance rules for a component template.

For more information about compliance exceptions and when you would want to define them, see About-compliance-exceptions.

Adding-components-to-a-component-group

You can group components together in groups or smart groups, regardless of whether the components have been discovered or manually created. Use the procedure described in this topic to add components to an existing component group.

Installing-or-uninstalling-a-component

You can install or uninstall a component by running a Batch Job that is associated with the component template, as described in this topic.

Using Batch Jobs in this way lets you manage the full life cycle of a component. When creating a component, the Batch Job can include jobs that deploy component parts and then run a Component Discovery Job to discover the component. When uninstalling, the Batch Job can delete component parts and then run a Component Discovery Job to invalidate the existing component.

Packaging-and-deploying-a-component

You can package a component as a BLPackage and then run a Deploy Job to deploy the package. The procedure described in this topic can be used to automate the packaging of software models.

Using component templates to ensure compliance for multiple instances of an application

A TrueSight Server Automation system offers many tools for ensuring compliance with organizational standards for application configurations.

This topic provides an example that demonstrates how these tools, when used together, can monitor and enforce compliance for multiple instances of the same application running on the same server.