Deploying applications#

To deploy application components, run an application process on an environment.

Create an application, add components to it, and create an application process that deploys the components.

  1. In the HCL™ Launch web application, click the Application tab.

  2. Click the name of the application.

  3. For the environment to run the deployment in, click Request Process .

    The list of environments for an application, showing three color-coded environments

    The Create Deployment wizard is displayed.

  4. Enable the Only Changed Versions option, if not already, to specify whether to deploy only versions that have changed or to deploy all versions.

    This option is enabled by default. If it is enabled, no previously deployed versions are deployed again. Disable the Only Changed Versions option to deploy a version regardless of whether it is already deployed. For example, if the inventory is out of date, disable the option.

  5. Select the process to run from the Process list.

    All processes for the application are listed.

  6. To use a snapshot, select it from the Select a Snapshot list.

    If you select a snapshot, the deployment automatically uses the component versions that are defined for the snapshot.

  7. If you are not using a snapshot, specify the component versions to deploy:

    1. Click Choose Component Versions.

    2. Specify the versions of each component to deploy.

      • To specify the versions for each component individually, click Add next to a component in the table, and select versions to deploy from By Version Lookup, and then choose any one of the following criteria:

        Option Description
        Latest Available Selects the most recent component version at the time that you make this selection regardless of when the process runs. If you schedule a process to run, for example, a week after you make this selection and you want to use the most recent version that is available then, click Latest Available at Execution Time.
        Latest with Status Selects the most recent component version at the time that you make this selection. If you schedule a process to run, for example, a week after you make this selection and you want to use the most recent version that has the specified status that is available at the later time, click Latest with Status at Execution Time.
        Latest Available at Execution Time Selects the latest component version that is available when the process starts. The version that is used might be generated after you make this selection.
        Latest with Status at Execution Time Selects component that have a status that you specify in the next dialog box. The version that is used might be generated after you make this selection.
        Current Environment Inventory at Execution Time Uses the environment inventory that is available when the process starts. The environment inventory might be different from the inventory that is available when you make this selection.
      • To select versions for all components at once, click Select For All, and then select an option from the list. Version options are described in the following table:

        Version option Description
        Latest Available Select the most recent component version at the time that you make this selection regardless of when the process runs. If you schedule a process to run, for example, a week after you make this selection and you want to use the most recent version that is available then, click Latest Available at Execution Time.
        Latest with Status Select the most recent component version at the time that you make this selection. If you schedule a process to run, for example, a week after you make this selection and you want to use the most recent version that has the specified status that is available at the later time, click Latest with Status at Execution Time.
        Versions With Name Select the most recent component version whose name matches a string.
        Current Environment Inventory Uses the versions that are listed for that environment when you select it. This selection is typically related to the last version that was deployed to a certain environment of each component. For example, say that you deployed component A, version 1, to your environment. Then, in a separate deployment, you deployed an incremental version 1.1 to the same environment. If you look at the current environment inventory in the Application view, you see that the environment contains versions 1 and 1.1. Typically, you don't want to redeploy what is already there. However, this selection is useful when a deployment fails or is modified on the target computer itself, outside of HCL Launch. So if the deployment of version 1.1 succeeded on 10 agents but failed on two, you can schedule essentially a retry. Use of this selection is not common.
        Latest Available at Execution Time select the latest component version that is available when the process starts. The version that is used might be generated after you make this selection.
        Latest with Status at Execution Time Selects component that have a status that you specify in the next dialog box. The version might be generated after you make this selection.
        Current Environment Inventory at Execution Time Uses the environment inventory that is available when the process starts. The environment inventory might be different from the inventory that is available when you make this selection.
        None (Clear All) Clears your selection.

        Note: If you select multiple versions for one component, the versions are installed in the order you select.

        Note: Make sure to select a version for each component. If you do not select a version for a component, that component is not included in the application process.

    3. To filter the list of components to the components with new versions, select the Show only changed components check box.

    4. Schedule the deployment for a later date by disabling Run Now and then specify the date, time, and recurrence pattern of the deployment.

  8. Schedule the deployment for a later date by disabling Run Now and then specify the date, time, and recurrence pattern of the deployment.

  9. Review the deployment settings.

    The Create Deployment window shows the settings for the deployment, including how many component versions are selected for deployment, as shown in the following figure:

    The Run Process window, showing three component versions to deploy

  10. Click Submit Deployment.

    The application process starts immediately unless it is scheduled for a later time.

For an example, see Deploying a simple web application.

When a process starts, use the Application Process Request pane to review the deployment status. This pane is also used if the process requires approvals, as shown in the following figure.

Processing an approval as part of the process

The application process request shows each step in the process. Within each process, the steps are not shown in the order that they run in. Instead, steps are shown in the order of appearance in the process editor, from the steps at the top of the canvas to the steps at the bottom of the canvas.

The deployment is considered successful when the application process finishes. An application process might skip component processes and still finish. This means that a technically successful application process might not deploy all of the expected components. To ensure that all components deploy successfully, review the deployment details. Expand a process step and click View Child Execution to open the Deployment of Component pane, which can be used to review the deployment details.

In the Deployment of Component pane, you can review the deployment output log, error log, and input and output parameters.

Parent topic: Deploying