Topology Modeler
Overview
The CloudCenter metadata descriptors are categorized in the following tabs:
- Basic Information
- Global Parameters
- Topology Modeler
This section provides details on each tab.
Basic Information Tab
The CloudCenter platform models N-tier applications (or application profiles) based on basic information, parameters, topology-specific services and properties that you define for each application. This information provides the metadata descriptors (JSON objects) for each application and the CloudCenter platform stores the metadata information in the CCM server to determine cloud-compatibility and application benchmarks when deploying your application.
This tab collect basic information about the application such as Name, Version, Description, Category, Tags, Metadata, and other details when creating the profile. The following screenshot shows this tab.
The Protocol field provides an additional None option (in addition to HTTP, HTTPS, None, and Both) when modeling N-tier applications. If you select None, the CloudCenter platform does not add any access link URL in the application deployment detail page.
The HTTP, HTTPS, or Both option selection using a standard or non-standard port is only for the proper application access link URL setting. Be sure to verify that the top tier application firewall rules is set accordingly. The top application tier is set to use firewall rules specified in the service definition by default (for example, the Apache service opens port 80 and 443). Based on the application's requirement, however, users can modify this rule in the application profile.
In this tab, you can also add metadata tags that are carried over with the job/deployment when submitted.
Global Parameters Tab
The parameters defined in the Global Parameters tab apply to all tiers and steps in the application or application profile.
The Using Parameters page explains the differences between defining parameters at different levels.
The Troubleshooting Parameters page explains the process and a use case for global parameters.
The Topology Modeler Tab
The Topology tab contains three main sections:
Graphical Workflow
Services
Topology Modeler Properties
Graphical Workflow
The graphical workflow for each application. When you click on a specific tier in the graphical workflow for each application, you see the configurable parameters and fields for that tier.
Use the CCM UI's Topology Modeler to define the application architecture and components. The Topology Modeler allows users to model complex application topologies rapidly in a simple, cloud-agnostic fashion and maintains intricate service dependencies. This Topology Modeler also allows users to plug in custom scripts (application configuration scripts) and services. See Parameters and Macros for additional information.
The newly created service is displayed on the Services palette in the Topology Modeler. When you select a service from the palette to add to your application, you can further qualify this instance of the service by defining additional parameters in the Properties pane.
When modeling an application, the dependencies between tiers are indicated using arrows going from one tier to the next tier. The arrowhead represents the VM instance that must function with all service scripts fully executed before you configure the VM instance at the tail of the arrow.
Services
Use the Services palette to identify the required services for your application. The CloudCenter platform allows users to select CloudCenter-supported services or define (admins only) custom services via the Services framework. Admins can choose to make the custom services available to all users within a tenant.
When you (admin) create a new service, you need to select one intuitive group within which to display this service in the Topology Modeler's Services tab.
When you add a service, the newly-created service is displayed on the Services palette in the Topology Modeler.
To view a list of supported out-of-box services, see Services.
To create/modify a new/existing service, see Define a Custom Service.
To understand the nuances related to adding/modifying services, see Services (Admin).
To understand activities that users can perform with custom services, see Permission Control.
To understand the properties for each service at the application tier level, see Service Properties.
The CloudCenter platform also allows you to Define a Custom Service to launch a VM on the cloud, install component(s), configure component(s), start the script, scale component(s), and shutdown/delete component(s). You can further qualify each service by defining property parameters specific to each instance of this service.
Properties
The Properties palette allows you to specify scripts or binaries to install, customize, configure, start, stop, upgrade, or run the application for any given tier.
The parameters specified in the Global Parameters tab apply to the entire application. The parameters specified in this section only apply to a specific tier within the application.
When you click on a specific tier in the Topology Modeler graphical workflow, you see the configurable parameters and fields for that tier. See Deployment Lifecycle Scripts for additional details.
The configurable fields for each tier are explained in the Application Tier Properties section.