Deployment Packages#
Deployment packages and applications are a concept introduced in the Edge Orchestrator.
They are used to simplify the deployment of applications to the edge. Deployment packages are a collection of applications and deployment profiles. Deployment profiles are configurations that define how an application must be deployed to an edge node.
View Deployment Packages#
- To view the Deployment Packages page, click Deployments tab and then click
Deployment Packages on the left menu. In the Deployment Packages page, you can view the list of deployment packages available for deployment. Using the search bar at the top of the page, you can search for a deployment package. The other actions that you can perform from this page are create, edit, deploy, and delete a deployment package.
Deployment packages are partitioned into 2 tabs:
Deployment Packages - Displays the list of user provided deployment packages that are available for deployment. The list is empty until a user adds an deployment package. See Deployments for more information on deploying a deployment package.
Extensions - Displays the list of system provided deployment packages. The list is populated with many preconfigured deployment packages. You cannot add or delete deployment packages from this list. See Deploy Extension Package for more information on deploying an extension package.
Deployment Package Fields#
Fields |
Description |
|---|---|
Name |
The name of the deployment package. You can click the deployment package name to view the details. |
Version |
The version number of the deployment package. |
Creation Time |
The creation date and time of the deployment package. |
Deployed |
Specifies the deployment status of the deployment package. It is marked as Yes when the deployment package is deployed, and No when it is not deployed. When deployed, a deployment package cannot be modified. If modifications are desired, the deployment package must be cloned. |
Description |
The description of the deployment package. |
Actions |
Click the three-dot icon to view details, deploy, edit, delete, or clone the deployment package. |
Deployment Package Structure#
The layout of deployment packages and applications is designed to simplify deployments. At its core:
Applications represent a 1:1 link to a Helm* Chart through the combination of a chart name and registry.
The Registry is a reference to a container registry that holds the Helm Chart, with the ability to set a password and SSL certificate if necessary. The registry is a global object that can be used by multiple applications.
A set of registries are already loaded into the Edge Orchestrator platform and may be reused.
Each application profile refers to a values file that is used to configure the Helm Chart.
This allows the user to easily group different configurations for the same Helm Chart.
A deployment package is a collection of applications.
A deployment profile is a collection of applications profiles.
This allows the user to easily choose application profiles for many applications at deployment time.
Note
The deployment package is always needed, even if it only refers to one application (Helm Chart) because the deployment package is a principal unit of deployment.
Here’s a Reference Deployment Package for the example application shown in Deployment Example.
Deployment Package Design Strategies#
If you need to deploy multiple Helm Charts together, use one of the following strategies:
Create an application for each Helm Chart and a single deployment package that contains all applications, or
Create an “umbrella” Helm Chart that contains all Helm Charts and create a single application and deployment Package, or
Create multiple deployment packages, each with one or more applications, or
Any combination of the above.
The choice of strategy will depend on the complexity of the deployment and the need for reusability.
Note
It is also possible to reuse some of the “extensions” deployment packages that are provided by the Edge Orchestrator team.
Deployment packages have a number of features that make it worthwhile taking the multiple applications with a single deployment package approach:
You can have many different profiles for each application, allowing you to configure each application differently.
You can assign namespaces to each application individually.
You can assign different registries to each application.
You can mark that one application is dependent on another being installed first.
You can define namespaces with labels and annotations to be created before the application is installed.
Note
Having a single deployment package with multiple applications allows you to deploy them in a single step.
From this page, you can do the following tasks: