Managing environments

Environments are deployment platforms on which applications are deployed and configured. A software environment is a collection of hosted servers and application software that provides a platform for running and testing applications. Typically an environment consists of:

• One or multiple physical or virtual servers
• Hosted applications, including deployment, installations, and releases on web servers; application servers; database servers; or legacy applications
• Deployment environment configurations
• Network Infrastructures, such as firewalls, SAN Storage, or network switches

Environments are available during various phases of the deployment lifecycle, including the build, install, configure, and verify phases. The release team provides the services for deployment and makes the environments available during the various stages of release and testing.

You can have several environments in the context of a software release process, such as development, quality assurance, user acceptance testing, or production. The application passes through these various environments. You can associate multiple environments with your application, but you must associate at least one environment with your application.

You can assign an environment to one of the four predefined environment types, as well as create new environment types.

Based on your project needs, you can set the following deployment policy for environments:

• Opened: Users can access an environment with the opened deployment policy at any time, unless you set special restrictions with the prevent deployment window series associated with this environment.
• Closed: Users are unable to access an environment with the closed deployment policy, unless you set special access permissions with the allow deployment window series associated with this environment.

For more information about how to set permissions for accessing environments with opened and closed deployment policy, see Managing-deployment-windows.

Use the following procedures to manage your environments:

• • To create a new environment
  • To edit an environment name
  • To deactivate or activate an environment
• To associate components with environments
  • To reorder environments in an application
  • To use the alphabetical sorting for environments in an application

To create a new environment

1. Go to Environment > Environments, and click Add a new environment on the right.
2. Enter a name for the new environment.
3. In the Environment type list, select the environment type.
4. In the Deployment policy list, select the deployment policy for the environment:
   1. To create an environment with opened deployment policy, select Opened.
   2. To create an environment with closed deployment policy, select Closed.
5. Add servers and server groups that you want to associate with your environment.
6. Click Create.

To edit an environment name

1. Go to Environment > Environments.
2. Next to the appropriate environment, click Edit.
3. Make your changes as needed.
4. Click Update.

To deactivate or activate an environment

If you have an environment that is not used in any application and you do not need it during the release or a particular phase of the release process, you can deactivate the environment.

• Go to Environment > Environments, and then, next to the appropriate environment, click Make Inactive.

Environments are listed separately in Active and Inactive section.

• To activate an inactive environment, in the Inactive section, click Make Active next to the environment.

To associate components with environments

1. From Dashboard > My Applications or from the Applications tab, click the relevant application name.
2. To copy all component associations from one environment to any number of target environments, perform the following steps:
   1. Click the source environment to expand it and display its list of associated components.
   2. Click Clone Environment Components under the list of components.
   3. Select the target environments (to which to copy component associations), and then click Save.
3. To associate individual components with a single environment, perform the following steps:
   1. Click the target environment to expand it and display its list of associated components.
   2. Drag each component that you want to associate from the components list on the right, and drop it on the list of environment components on the left.
4. To remove a component from the list of components associated with an environment (in the environment's expanded display), click the Remove installed component icon in the right-most column, and then click OK.

For more information about associating components with environments, see Associating-components-with-environments.

To reorder environments in an application

1. Go to the Applications tab, and then click the relevant application for which you want to reorder environments.
2. On the right side of the screen, click the Reorder Environments link.
3. On the Reorder Environments page, drag the environments to the correct position in the order.
4. When you are finished adjusting the order, click done grouping.

To use the alphabetical sorting for environments in an application

1. Go to the Applications tab, and then click the relevant application for which you want to reorder environments.
2. Next to Alpha sort for Environments, click edit, and then select the Alpha sort for Environments check box.
3. Click Save.