Blueprints describe an application's components and how the different parts are orchestrated during the deployment of the application. Using the Broker's blueprint canvas, solution architects and service designers can compose both simple and complex multi-tiered application workloads within an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
Approved Blueprints can be published to form a service catalog for end-user consumption.
This article describes the steps required to manage existing blueprints. Refer to the article Using Blueprints for detailed steps in how to create, publish, and deploy blueprints.
Accessing Blueprints
This section describes the steps required to access Blueprints.
Blueprint owners have access to view and manage their blueprints, while Broker administrators have access to view all user blueprints for the Broker.
Administrative Users should jump ahead to the next step Accessing Blueprints (Administrative Users).
Prerequisites
- User owns blueprints (user has Composer role)
and/or - User has been assigned permissions to manage blueprints
Procedure Steps
- Login in the the Broker UI
- Navigate to Composer > My Blueprints
- A list of Blueprints is displayed, which includes blueprints owned by the user or has the Manage permission assigned to the user
- Click on the Blueprint name or the Composer button to view the blueprint
Accessing Blueprints (Administrative Users)
This section describes the steps required to access Blueprints as an administrative user.
Blueprint owners have access to view and manage their blueprints, while Broker administrators have access to view all user blueprints for the Broker.
Non-administrative users should refer to the previous step Accessing Blueprints.
Prerequisites
- Administrative access to the Broker UI
Procedure Steps
- Login in the the Broker UI as an administrative user
- Navigate to Manage > Blueprints
- A list of Blueprints is displayed
- Click on the Blueprint name or the Composer button to view the blueprint
Blueprint Types
There are two types of Blueprints:
- Generic Blueprints utilise a set of generic node types to ensure that the Blueprint can be deployed to any cloud service provider
- Provider Specific Blueprints offer an expanded set of node types (eg. network resources, database services) which are specific to a cloud provider - this offers greater functionality but deployments are limited to one specific provider only
Blueprint Operations
The following table lists the management operations available for a blueprint.
| Operation | Description |
| Composer |
Opens the blueprint composer canvas to edit the blueprint Refer to the article Using the Blueprint Composer for further details |
| Manage | Opens the blueprint details screen |
| Clone |
Makes a copy of the blueprint Refer to the article Using Blueprints - Cloning a Blueprint for detailed steps in cloning blueprints |
| Remove |
Deletes the blueprint Refer to the article Using Blueprints - Deleting a Blueprint for details steps in deleting blueprints |
Blueprint Details
The Details tab allows blueprint owners and administrators to list and edit the blueprint properties.
The following properties can be changed on this screen:
- Blueprint name
- Blueprint description
- Blueprint owner
Blueprint Topology
The Topology tab shows a read-only version of the blueprint/catalog item.
Blueprint Versions
The Versions tab lists the sequence of published versions of the selected blueprint.
The version of the blueprint currently in the composer is considered the draft version. Click Publish Version to publish the draft blueprint - this saves the draft to a new version and assigns it the next version number. The highest version number is considered the Latest Version.
Note: The Publish Version button only appears when a change has been saved to the draft version.
The following actions are available for each version:
- Edit: Modifies the description of the selected version
- Restore: Saves the selected version as the latest version and reverts to the draft blueprint to this version
Blueprint Permissions
Permissions allow for blueprint owners and administrators to control access to manage the blueprint.
By default, no additional users are granted permissions to a blueprint and only the blueprint owner will have permissions.
Click Add if other users/groups require access. Granting users permissions to manage blueprints will also populate the blueprint in the user's My Blueprints list.
Note: Users with the assigned roles Composer and Admin, and any group can be assigned as blueprint managers.
Blueprint Catalog
The Catalog tab lists the published catalog items for the selected blueprint. Published items appear in the catalog for users to request deployments from.
Click the Add button to publish a blueprint version to an environment.
Note: The Add button only appears if there are environments which have not had catalog items published.
The following actions are available for each catalog item:
- Edit: Modifies the properties of the published catalog item
- Deploy: Deploys the selected catalog item
- Publish/Unpublish: Makes the catalog item available/unavailable for user consumption
- Remove: Deletes the catalog item
Blueprint Deployments
The Deployments tab lists all the deployments for the selected blueprint.
Refer to the article Managing Deployments for further details on deployments states, details, and how to manage deployments.