Modeling environments for SoftLayer

To model a SoftLayer® environment, log in with a SoftLayer cloud project and specify the information that is specific to SoftLayer in a blueprint.

Configure the images for use with the blueprint designer. See Configuring private SoftLayer images.
On the SoftLayer web portal, create an object storage account.
Connect to SoftLayer. See Connecting to the SoftLayer cloud.
Connect the blueprint design server to the server. See Connecting the blueprint design server to the server.
Log in to the blueprint designer.
At the top of the page, select the cloud project and region to use.

Create the blueprint.
See Creating files.
Add resources from the palette to the blueprint, such as virtual images.
The palette shows resources from the currently connected cloud, which is shown in the upper-right corner of the page. For more information on working with the blueprint designer, see Editing Terraform blueprint diagram and Editing blueprint source code.
Specify how to install the IBM® UrbanCode® Deploy agent:
- By default, public images use the SoftLayer storage account to install the IBM UrbanCode Deploy agent. A script in the storage account installs the IBM UrbanCode Deploy agent when you provision an image.
- By default, private (custom) images use the cloud-init package to install the IBM UrbanCode Deploy agent.
- To use the storage account to install the agent on a private image, set the use_cloudinit property to false, as shown in the following code:
```
image_A:
  type: OS::Nova::Server
  properties:
    name: "My image A"
    image: "MyImage123"
  metadata:
    softlayer_properties:
      storage_account: { get_param: storage_account }
      storage_datacenter: { get_param: storage_datacenter }
      use_cloudinit: false
```

If you host your engine in a private SoftLayer network and provision images to that private network, set the storage_private_url to true, as shown in the following code:

image_A:
  type: OS::Nova::Server
  properties:
    name: "My image A"
    image: "MyImage123"
  metadata:
    softlayer_properties:
      storage_private_url: true

Optional: In the blueprint source code, in the metadata property for the resource, specify any virtual image tags.

To parametrize the data, you can specify a list of values. You can also specify a series of comma-separated strings.

For example, to specify the parameterized tags blue and mysql_database, the code looks like the following example:


resources:
  myImageType:
    type: OS::Nova::Server
    properties:
      name: myImageType
      image: myImageName
      flavor: {get_param: flavor}
      key_name: {get_param: key_name}
    metadata:
      tags: ['blue', 'mysql_database']

If you do not plan to reuse the tags as parameters, the code looks like the following example:

resources:
  myImageType:
    type: OS::Nova::Server
    properties:
      name: myImageType
      image: myImageName
      flavor: {get_param: flavor}
      key_name: {get_param: key_name}
    metadata:
      tags: blue, mysql_database

Create a configuration file, and externalize properties to the file.
See Editing configuration files.
In the configuration file, ensure that the core OpenStack types are mapped to SoftLayer types.
The configuration file must have mapping that is similar to this code:
```
resource_registry:
  OS::Nova::Server : IBM::SoftLayer::Server
```

Add the components of your application to the blueprint. See Deploying components with blueprints.