Running application processes

To run an application process, specify the environment to use and the process to run. In many cases, you also specify the component versions to deploy.

Before you begin

  • Create an environment.
  • Create an application process.

About this task

Run an application process with a specific component version.

Procedure

  1. Click Applications, click the application, and then next to the environment, click Request Process .
    The Create Deployment wizard opens.
  2. Set the process details.
    1. Optional: Re-select the application and environment names, if required.
      The Application and Environment fields are auto-filled based on the selection made in step 1.
    2. To skip component versions that have not changed since the previous deployment, enable the Only Changed Versions option.
      If you do not select this option, all of the component versions that you select are deployed, even if they are already in the inventory.
    3. Select the application process from the Process list.
  3. Choose the component versions or snapshot to deploy.
    If the process you selected deploys component versions, you must specify the component versions to deploy. You can use select a snapshot of component versions, or multiple component versions manually.
    • To use the component versions in a snapshot, specify the snapshot from the Select a Snapshot list.
    • Specify component versions manually from the Choose Component Version window. You can add the component versions using any one of these actions:
      • To specify the versions for each component individually, click Add next to a component in the table, and select versions to deploy from By Version Lookup, and then choose any one of the following criteria:
        Option Description
        Latest Available Selects the most recent component version at the time that you make this selection regardless of when the process runs. If you schedule a process to run, for example, a week after you make this selection and you want to use the most recent version that is available then, click Latest Available at Execution Time.
        Latest with Status Selects the most recent component version at the time that you make this selection. If you schedule a process to run, for example, a week after you make this selection and you want to use the most recent version that has the specified status that is available at the later time, click Latest with Status at Execution Time.
        Latest Available at Execution Time Selects the latest component version that is available when the process starts. The version that is used might be generated after you make this selection.
        Latest with Status at Execution Time Selects component that have a status that you specify in the next dialog box. The version that is used might be generated after you make this selection.
        Current Environment Inventory at Execution Time Uses the environment inventory that is available when the process starts. The environment inventory might be different from the inventory that is available when you make this selection.
      • To specify versions for all the components at one time, click Select For All, and then click one of the following options:
        Option Description
        Latest Available Select the most recent component version at the time that you make this selection regardless of when the process runs. If you schedule a process to run, for example, a week after you make this selection and you want to use the most recent version that is available then, click Latest Available at Execution Time.
        Latest with Status Select the most recent component version at the time that you make this selection. If you schedule a process to run, for example, a week after you make this selection and you want to use the most recent version that has the specified status that is available at the later time, click Latest with Status at Execution Time.
        Versions With Name Select the most recent component version whose name matches a string.
        Current Environment Inventory Uses the versions that are listed for that environment when you select it. This selection is typically related to the last version that was deployed to a certain environment of each component. For example, say that you deployed component A, version 1, to your environment. Then, in a separate deployment, you deployed an incremental version 1.1 to the same environment. If you look at the current environment inventory in the Application view, you see that the environment contains versions 1 and 1.1. Typically, you don't want to redeploy what is already there. However, this selection is useful when a deployment fails or is modified on the target computer itself, outside of HCL Launch. So if the deployment of version 1.1 succeeded on 10 agents but failed on two, you can schedule essentially a retry. Use of this selection is not common.
        Latest Available at Execution Time select the latest component version that is available when the process starts. The version that is used might be generated after you make this selection.
        Latest with Status at Execution Time Selects component that have a status that you specify in the next dialog box. The version might be generated after you make this selection.
        Current Environment Inventory at Execution Time Uses the environment inventory that is available when the process starts. The environment inventory might be different from the inventory that is available when you make this selection.
        None (Clear All) Clears your selection.
      • To filter the list of components to the components with new versions, select the Show only changed components check box.
      Note: If you select multiple versions for one component, the versions are installed in the order you select.
      Note: Make sure to select a version for each component. If you do not select a version for a component, that component is not included in the application process.
  4. If the process has properties, specify values for those properties.
  5. Optional: Schedule the deployment for a later date by disabling Run Now and then specify the date, time, and recurrence pattern of the deployment.
  6. Review the deployment settings and click Submit Deployment.

Results

The server runs the application process with the specified component versions. You can view the process requests by going to the History tab for the environment or application. Typically, resources are mapped for each component version that is deployed by the application process. You can use the same application process for different environments, some of which do not have mappings for all components. If you run an application process on an environment where not all components are mapped, the resulting status for those components is Not Mapped.

What to do next

You can view the progress of the process by going to the History tab and opening the View Request. The application process request shows each step in the process. Within each process, the steps are not shown in the order that they run in. Instead, steps are shown in the order of appearance in the process editor, from the steps at the top of the canvas to the steps at the bottom of the canvas.
You can also search an application process by filtering any of the columns from the History tab:
  • Environment
  • Snapshot
  • Scheduled For
  • By
  • Status