Software distribution overview
To distribute software using release management, you can integrate your operational management product (OMP) systems with the product environment, define the software repositories that reside on these systems, create a deployment task, and initiate and confirm the deployment. An OMP Integration Module (IM) must be installed before you can pull software from an OMP. If you do not have an OMP integrated with your product environment, you can perform manual distributions.
About this task
| Step | Description | Application or product |
|---|---|---|
| 1: Run the Discovery Library Adapter (DLA) for each OMP that is integrated with the product environment. | Running the DLA identifies all of the OMP servers on which software packages are stored, and
creates a configuration item (CI) for each discovered server in the IBM®
Tivoli® Application Dependency Discovery Manager (TADDM)
database. By default, this product is configured to integrate with a TADDM 7.1.x server. You
can configure it to integrate with a TADDM 7.2.x server; see You can also disable TADDM integration with release management. See |
DLA for IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager version 7.2.x |
| 2: UseIntegration Composer to move the managed system CIs to the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). | When the managed system CIs are in the CMDB, you can define specific software images for distribution. | Integration Composer |
| 3: Run a reconciliation to promote the managed system CIs from Actual to Authorized status. | A CI must be in the Authorized state to be used for a distribution. | Reconciliation application |
| 4: Define all of the software repositories from which you want to get packages for distribution. | By populating your Definitive Media Library (DML) repositories with software images, you make available a list of source software packages that select for distribution. When you want to use a repository for software distribution, you associate the repository with an OMP. | Definitive Media Library application |
| 5: Attach to the release a software package that you have added to a DML repository; this is the source for the distribution. In addition, add CI targets to the release. | This high-level definition of source and target CIs provides a general description of what the distribution accomplishes. | Releases application |
| 6: Create a Software Distribution task. | A Release Owner creates a task of the type Software Distribution, which instructs the task owner to initiate a deployment. A source and one or more targets can be defined at this time. | Releases application |
| 7: Ensure that a source and all of the distribution targets are defined; this builds on the high-level specification of source and targets that was supplied in Step 5. | If a source software package and one or more target CIs were not defined when the task was created, the task owner specifies these definitions. The specified source (software package) is deployed to the specified target CIs. | Activities and Tasks application (performed in the Software Distribution task created in Step 6). |
| 8: Create deployments. | For every unique distribution that is to be performed, the task owner creates a unique deployment ID. For example, a deployment is created for distribution a patch to the Austin site; another deployment is created for distributing the patch to the Tokyo site. | Deployments application |
| 9: Validate the upcoming deployment. | The task owner analyzes the specified targets, the status of the CIs that are affected, the relationships among targets, and other deployment definitions and notifications. | Deployments application |
| 10: Carry out the deployment. | With a single click, the task owner deploys the specified software package to the specified CI targets. | Deployments application |
| 11: Confirm the success of the deployment. | If you are deploying software that is stored on a system, you can launch directly from the product GUI into IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager and confirm the deployment. | Deployments application |