Deploying the configuration

This topic focuses on how you transfer valid, or Checked, objects from the design environment to the run-time environment.

This can be done:

• in connected mode, via a Broadcast agent.
• in disconnected mode, using a deployment container. Disconnected deployment fulfils the same objective as a broadcast operation or Send to Server command, but without requiring a connection between Composer and the Axway Server. Refer to the Synchrony 4.3 Deployment Guide for more information.

The following diagram illustrates how the Axway Composer products interact in connected mode.

About the Composer Broadcast Agent

The Composer Broadcast Agent is the product responsible for the following broadcasting operations:

• Send to Server: Send the selected objects to the Axway Server. This operation only sends objects that are not already Committed or ToBeCommitted.
• Send to Server Complete: Send to the Axway Server the selected object and all the objects it uses, regardless of whether they are already in the run-time environment.
• Commit: start executing objects in the run-time environment. This command only applies to Axway Transfer CFT.
• Remove from Server: remove from the Axway Server the object and all objects that use it.
• Import Object Set: import into Composer the existing object set for a given Axway Server.
• Install Product: initialize Axway Server installation.

The Broadcast Agent architecture depends on the Axway Server you are using.

• Transfer CFT and Messaging: a single Broadcast Agent, either installed with the Composer Server or on a separate machine.
• Integrator, ProcessManager and Sentinel: the Broadcast Agent is integrated into the server of the Axway Server. Each server has one Broadcast Agent. For each broadcasting operation, the Composer Client transmits the object identifiers to the Broadcast Agent. The Agent then searches for the corresponding objects in the Composer Database and updates the Server repository directly.
• AccountingIntegrator: you can install one or more Broadcast Agents for each engine. The Broadcast Agent is a product that you can install where you like. For example, you can install:

• a single Broadcast Agent on the Composer Server
• one Agent per Unix machine (this involves transferring the configuration files between the Agent and the environment via FTP)
• one Agent per environment

Transactional integrity

The Composer Broadcast Agent guarantees transactional integrity. That is, when you send an object to Server, Composer processes the object and all objects associated with it as a transaction. If a Send to Server operation is successful, all objects in the transaction are sent to the Axway Server(s). If an error occurs, the operation is canceled for all objects.

Sending objects to Servers

To deploy objects to the run-time environment, you must first declare the Axway Server where you will execute the configuration. You do this in the Topography workbench. In the Axway Server definition, you must specify the host and port used to communicate with the Composer Broadcast Agent.

Each Composer object follows a life cycle where each phase in the cycle has a corresponding life cycle status, as described in the Object life cycle topic. To deploy an object, you must perform a series of actions in order to validate the object definition and put it into production.

1. Check the object: its status passes from ToBeChecked to Checked.
2. Optionally, set the object status to ReadyToSend: lock the object definition so that it can no longer be modified.
3. Send the object to Server: send the object to the run-time environment. In the case of most Axway Servers, this command also commits the object in run-time. However, in the case of Transfer CFT, you must also perform a second step and Commit the object.  

Multiple Axway Servers

Via a single command, Send to Server, you can simultaneously take into account the new configuration on multiple Axway Servers, and so guarantee the coherence of all installations.

Monitoring and managing connected deployment

Axway Composer provides two tools to help you manage deployment:

• Broadcast Browser: to track progress of broadcast operations, restart, force or cancel broadcasts on Axway Servers in error, and create new broadcast operations.
• Server Browser: to view the objects on a given Axway Server

Removing objects from the run-time environment

You can use the Modify command to modify Topography objects without removing them from the Server.

However, you cannot modify Integration-Services objects that are sent to Server. You must remove the object from the run-time environment (and so interrupt execution) first. Alternatively, if you are using a Transfer CFT or Messaging Enabler, you can create a revision of the object, using the Upgrade command.

Object revision management enables you to maintain a history of object modifications, as described in the next topic. However, the object revision functionality is only available for the Transfer CFT and Messaging Enablers.