Updating environments

You can apply a blueprint to a running environment to update the environment.

When you create a blueprint in the blueprint editor and add components, the blueprint appears on the IBM UrbanCode Deploy server as an application process. You can run this process on an existing environment to update the environment to match the blueprint.

For example, you can change the component versions that are deployed to the environment and then run the application process to deploy the new versions. You can also add virtual images to the environment.

When you update an environment in this way, the things that you can change depend on what parts of an environment the target cloud can update without re-provisioning the environment. Some target clouds can update different things than other clouds.

Follow these steps to update an environment by applying a blueprint:
  1. In the blueprint designer, edit the blueprint to show the desired state of the environment, and then save the blueprint.
  2. In the IBM UrbanCode Deploy server, open the application.
  3. Next to the environment, click Request Process .
  4. In the Run Process window, in the Process list, select the blueprint.
    If the blueprint does not appear, make sure that it is connected to the application; see Deploying components with blueprints.
  5. Click Set Properties.
  6. On the Blueprint Properties page, specify the cloud project and region to use.
  7. In the Blueprint Version field, specify the version of the blueprint to use.
    The default version for all blueprints is 1.0.
  8. Optional: In the Configuration field, specify the configuration file to use.
  9. Optional: If you selected a configuration file, in the Configuration Version field, specify the version of that file to use.
  10. Optional: Customize the property values for the blueprint.
    For example, in most cases, specify the zone for the environment in the availability_zone field.

    For some clouds, click Image Parameters and then specify the flavor for the environment images in the Flavor field. If the list of flavors does not contain the flavors that you expect, make sure that you registered the flavors with the cloud discovery service. See Configuring SoftLayer image flavors or Configuring VMware vCenter image flavors.

    In most cases, you select an SSH key by name in the Key Name field under Image Parameters. However, for VMware clouds, paste the contents of the SSH public key in this field.

  11. Click OK.
The IBM UrbanCode Deploy runs the application process, which applies the blueprint to the environment.