HCL Workload Automation, Version 9.4

Managing workload in dynamic environments

This scenario shows how Workload Automation in modern IT infrastructures supports dynamic environments, where new servers can be provisioned and removed in just a few minutes by using Cloud and Virtualization. Providing new applications to support business requires a high level of automation for the verification of new releases in a production-like environment. The change management of the workflows can be simple and intuitive, making it possible to share pre-built assets across departments and organizations.

Scenario goal

This scenario shows how an integrated Development and Operations Lifecycle is an agile, scalable, and flexible solution for end-to-end lifecycle management and automation, creating an environment that has collaboration between development and operation teams reducing the possibility of applications being returned due to deployment issues and achieving optimal efficiency. This solution is important to the business because every delay in getting a software system deployed carries a lost opportunity cost or a financial risk. Any production outage of any duration can have a direct, negative impact on a company’s revenue. Outages related to software defects carry additional risk due to the coordination of resources required to identify, analyze, and correct the problem, as well as to test the fix and deploy it into production without breaking dependent applications or components.

Business Scenario

A company producing and delivering software products finds it difficult to realize its revenue because deployment fails due to inaccuracies in the configuration or is delayed due to manual processes. The business cannot benefit from the new capabilities and suffers financially if the failure or delay impacts business continuity or compliance. Because the organization has complex manual deployment processes and, as a result, high deployment failure rates, it needs to find a solution. It currently manages configuration specifications in spreadsheets and has difficulty in keeping the information current. The final part of the deployment of complex applications can often take several months.

By deploying an integrated solution that uses HCL Workload Automation with Provisioning and Remote Command job types, the company can reduce the cycle time of a release to a number of days or even hours.

Using HCL Workload Automation, the company defines a Provisioning job to connect to a SmartCloud Provisioning server and deploy all the virtual machines it needs for any specific software project. Then, defining File Transfer and remote command jobs, it can download, install and test the software on different operating systems without installing specific agents to run the commands.

Finally, after the software is tested, the unnecessary virtual machines can be easily removed by running Provisioning jobs.

After running this workflow in a test environment, the company can easily repeat the same flow in a production environment.

workflow

Roles

This section lists the user roles needed to run the scenario:

HCL Workload Automation Developer
Defines the jobs.
HCL Workload Automation Job Scheduler
Manages HCL Workload Automation workload by submitting and monitoring jobs.

Software Requirements

The following software must be installed and configured, before running this scenario:
  • HCL Workload Automation version 8.6.0.2 network with the Dynamic Scheduling capability
  • IBM SmartCloud Provisioning 2.1

Before you begin

Ensure that you have performed the prerequisite steps described in Prerequisite steps to create Provisioning jobs.

Running the Scenario

To complete the scenario, perform the following steps:

About this task

Procedure

  1. Create the virtual images of the SmartCloud Provisioning environment.
  2. Create a Provisioning job to deploy several instances of the virtual images defined in previous step.
    1. In the Working List pane, select New > Job Definition > Cloud > Provisioning.
    2. In the Properties pane, specify the properties for the job definition you are creating using the tabs available. For more detailed information about the UI elements on each tab, see the Dynamic Workload Console online help.
    3. On the General tab, specify general information about the job definition.
    4. On the Affinity tab, optionally, specify the affinity relationship between two or more jobs. Affinity relationships cause jobs to run on the same workstation as the affine job.
    5. On the Recovery Options tab, optionally specify the recovery options to be followed if the job abends. You can choose to stop or continue the scheduling activity, rerun the job, to display a prompt or run a recovery job.
    6. On the Connection Server tab, specify the names and passwords of the authorized users associated with the IBM SmartCloud Provisioning server.
    7. On the Actions tab, select Deploy to deploy a virtual image in the cloud group and create a new virtual system instance containing the number of virtual image instances you specify.
  3. Create a Provisioning job to start the systems you have deployed.
  4. Create a FileTransfer job to upload the new build and all the required software on the deployed systems.
    1. From the Dynamic Workload Console portfolio, click Workload > Design > Create Workload Definitions
    2. Specify an engine name, either distributed or z/OS. The Workload Designer opens. Job types and characteristics vary depending on whether you select a distributed or a z/OS engine.
    3. In the Working List pane, select New > Job Definition > File Transfer and Coordination > FileTransfer.
    4. In the Properties pane, specify the properties for the job definition you are creating using the tabs available. For more detailed information about the UI elements on each tab, see the Dynamic Workload Console online help.
  5. Create a Remote Command job to complete the deployment of the application and run a set of tests
    1. In the Working List pane, select New > Job Definition > Native > Remote Command.
    2. In the Properties pane, specify the properties for the job definition you are creating using the tabs available. For more detailed information about the UI elements on each tab, see the Dynamic Workload Console online help. The first tabs are common to Provisioning.
    3. On the Tasks tab, enter the software installation and test commands that you want to run.
    4. On the Environment tab, optionally specify the standard output, and standard error files for the command. These files are stored on the agent, not locally on the workstations where the command runs. ensure you have write permission for the specified directories, otherwise no file will be created.
  6. Create a Provisioning job to delete the unnecessary virtual instances
    1. In the Working List pane, select New > Job Definition > Cloud > Provisioning and create a new Provisioning job specifying in the Actions tab, to delete the unnecessary virtual instances.
  7. Create a job stream with the necessary job dependencies to run the jobs in the appropriate sequence.

Expected result

You have created a Provisioning job that deploys some virtual instances, and a Remote Command job that installs and verifies the built software and generates a success report. Finally, when the environment is no longer needed, you can run a Provisioning job to remove the virtual instances that you no longer use.