Database DevOps – UrbanCode Deploy & DBmaestro Integration

In this post I’m going to talk about one of the trending topic of DevOps journey: Database DevOps.

DevOps has transformed the software release cycle, but is not easily applied to databases.

A database crash can be exponentially more expensive than a buggy application because database errors take longer to identify and fix.

Anyway, configuration drift, team conflict, and manual coding errors, can be drastically minimized simply by applying DevOps principles and tools to the database.

During last months I had the opportunity to work with DBmaestro DevOps Platform.

Continue reading “Database DevOps – UrbanCode Deploy & DBmaestro Integration”

UrbanCode Deploy & ServiceNow integration Part 1

In this post I’m going to show you how to integrate UrbanCode Deploy and the cloud-based IT Service Management (ITSM) platform ServiceNow.

We can orchestrate deployments from ServiceNow by invoking outbound UCD REST services, as well as configure UCD to call ServiceNow to create, update changes, incidents, tasks, or other ServiceNow table records.

For my purpose, I’ve used the ServiceNow Developer Program who provides developers with resources to learn, build and deploy applications on the ServiceNow platform.

I’ve used “New York” ServiceNow version. Things can change if you use a different version.

Additionally, I’ve installed the ServiceNow plugin on UCD which allows to easily perform CRUD (create, read, update and delete) operations on records with convenient steps such as check and query records.

Continue readingUrbanCode Deploy & ServiceNow integration Part 1

UrbanCode Deploy Post Processing Script

Post-processing scripts run after a component/generic process step finishes.

Typically, post-processing scripts check if expected results occur. It can examine the step’s output log and run commands based on the result.

Steps can have default post-processing scripts. These scripts are included with the plug-in.

You can override the default post-processing script for a step or provide a post-processing script for a step that does not have one.

Important
Steps in component processes and generic processes can have post-processing scripts, but steps in application processes cannot.

Post-processing scripts are written in JavaScript.

Continue reading “UrbanCode Deploy Post Processing Script”

Massive copy of UrbanCode Deploy Plugins

Sometimes you might need to move your UrbanCode Deploy Source Configuration and Automation Plugins from one server to another one1.

Plugins are stored, as zip files, in:

/<ucd_install_dir>/appdata/var/plugins/command/repo

Copy all plugin files you need, from the above directory of the first server, to below directory of the second server:

/<ucd_install_dir>/appdata/var/plugins/command/stage

Restart the target server.

Log file will display loading of Plugins as in the excerpt below:

2020-05-02 15:56:23,754 UTC INFO PluginUpdate com.urbancode.ds.plugin.PluginUpdate - Loading com.urbancode.air.plugin.ServiceNow_28.zip…
2020-05-02 15:56:24,920 UTC INFO PluginUpdate com.urbancode.ds.plugin.PluginUpdate - Loading com.urbancode.air.plugin.DBUpgrader_3.zip…
2020-05-02 15:56:25,385 UTC INFO PluginUpdate com.urbancode.ds.plugin.PluginUpdate - Loading com.urbancode.plugin.WindowsSystemTools_23.zip.
  1. https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-do-i-mass-install-urbancode-deploy-plugins-new-server []

UrbanCode Deploy Blueprint Designer Create and provision new environments in the cloud

The Blueprint Designer is a separately-installed component that is included with the UrbanCode Deploy product suite.

While UrbanCode Deploy drives deployment automation of applications into existing environments, Blueprint Designer creates and provisions new environments in the cloud.

Blueprint Designer Licensing
The UrbanCode Blueprint Designer does not require separate or extra licenses. It can be used with all UrbanCode Deploy license scenarios.

Blueprint Designer provides a design tool to create full-stack environments using standard orchestration technologies, including OpenStack Heat and Terraform.

This post shows the OpenStack Heat orchestration. Terraform will be discussed later. Continue readingUrbanCode Deploy Blueprint Designer Create and provision new environments in the cloud

Stop, Start and Restart a Windows Service with UrbanCode Deploy

In this post I’m going to show you how to create a Generic uDeploy Process to manage Windows Services and how to use this Process as Template for Application Processes.

What we need is:

Below the Generic Process Windows Service Stop/Start/Restart flow:

Continue reading “Stop, Start and Restart a Windows Service with UrbanCode Deploy”

Create a UrbanCode Deploy Cluster using AWS

Let’s see how to install and configure a 2 node uDeploy cluster with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

First of all create 2 Linux Instances (if you are asking why not Microsoft Windows Server you can stop reading and go for a walk).

Choose your region and click on EC2, then “Launch Instance”:

Click next until “Configure Security Group”, then choose a name for your group like “uDeploy” and add rules to open inbound ports: 22, 8443, 7918, 7919 and 2049 like fig. below:

Continue reading “Create a UrbanCode Deploy Cluster using AWS”

Safe Edit in UrbanCode Deploy by Steve Boone

In this video Steve Boone, Product Owner and Development Manager for IBM Urban Code Deploy, show us a new useful feature of uDeploy:

To enable this feature go to Settings -> System Settings -> Component Settings and turn on:

Enable Safe Edit of Component Processes

and

Require Approval to Promote Component Process

Have a nice day!