An Environment Instance, as its name suggests, is simply an association between one environment and one instance. An Environment Instance is created by either associating an instance Instance to an environment Environment on the edit/create environment wizardEdit/Create Environment Wizard, or associating an environment Environment to an instance Instance on the edit/create instance wizard. The association can then be used to assign endpoints and provide values for any properties mapped to those environment instances (through workflows or plugins).Each instance Edit/Create Instance Wizard. Endpoints and properties values are mapped to those Environment Instance pairs.

Each Instance likely has a development environment, a production environment, and at least one testing environment. The association of environments Environments to instances Instances defines a matrix, allowing endpoint association and the configuration of property values.For example, the table below depicts four environments . Endpoint association and properties are defined at each intersection.

This table depicts four Environments identified as rows, and two instances Instances which are identified as columns. Each environment instance Environment Instance combination defines which endpointEndpoint(s) host the instance Instance for that environmentEnvironment, and the environment Environment-specific properties which are required to communicate to the underlying technology. Note that the SOA2 instance Instance in the DEV and SIT environments Environments do not have any endpoints Endpoints or configuration properties defined because SOA2 is not associated with those environments.

The image below depicts the environment instances for SOA2. In this case, the FlexDeploy SOA Plugin's soaDeploy operation was associated to the SOA2 instance. The soaDeploy operation defines several environment instance scoped properties that must be defined for the operation to succeed.

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Environments.

Image Removed Using a logical concept for instance allows FlexDeploy to adapt the physical meaning to the specific technology or platformThe image below depicts the Environment Instances for SOA2. In this case, the FlexDeploy SOA Plugin's soaDeploy operation was associated to the SOA2 instance. The soaDeploy operation defines several Environment-Instance-scoped properties that must be defined for the operation to succeed.

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Instances are flexible enogh to allow FlexDeploy to adapt to a variety of technologies and platforms. In Oracle Data Integrator, for example, an instance definition Instance is most likely one to one with a single installation, spanning all environments Environments (e.g. DEV, SIT, UAT, and PROD). In the case of Oracle WebLogic, a single installation is partitioned into one or more domains. So for WebLogic it makes more sense to map an instance Instance to each WebLogic domain, since each domain will require different property configuration to communicate with its servers.

Notice that in the table below the wls_customer and wls_order instances  Instances (domains) share the same hostshost/endpoint Endpoint in the DEV and SIT environmentsEnvironments, but only share some of the same hosts/endpoint Endpoint in the UAT and PROD environmentsEnvironments. Mapping the instances Instances to the WLS domains allows the flexibility to match the endpoint Endpoint and properties to your exact topologyTopology.

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To view the Environment Instances that have been established select Topology -> Environment Instances from the menu. Image Removed

Associating Endpoints to Environment Instances

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Each Environment Instance has an Endpoints column, which indicates the number of Endpoints that are associated to it. Click on the number in the Endpoints column to provide the ability to add or remove associations to the endpoint(s)endpoints from the Environment Instance.

To associate an endpoint Endpoint to the environment instanceEnvironment Instance, shuttle one or more Endpoints from the left over to Selected Endpoints by selecting an endpoint and clicking the Add button. The list of available Endpoints on the left can be filtered by entering all or part of the name or port into the Filter field and clicking the Search button. By default, only Endpoints which are active are available for association.

Once an endpoint Endpoint has been shuttled to Selected Endpoints optional Resource Types can be assigned. The Resource Types indicates what type of resources the endpoint Endpoint contains, which helps in determining which Endpoints should be selected to perform particular plugin executions. For example, the Weblogic plugin has Resource Types of WLS Admin Server, WLS Managed Server, and WLS Node Manager. Selecting the Resource Type(s) for each endpoint Endpoint tells FlexDeploy a little bit more about the topology Topology and enables it to direct work appropriately (e.g. to the Weblogic Admin Server vs. one of its Managed Servers).

To disassociate an endpoint Endpoint from the environment instanceEnvironment Instance, shuttle one or more Endpoints from Selected Endpoints back over to the left by selecting an endpoint and clicking the Remove Button.

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Each Environment Instance also has a Properties column which summarizes the required properties that are associated to it. The first number indicates the number of properties which have been assigned values, whereas the . The second number identifies the total number of required properties associated to that environment instanceEnvironment Instance. If the two numbers are not equal it means that additional configuration is required for that environment instanceEnvironment Instance. Click on the link in the Properties column to provide the ability to update properties associated to the environment instanceEnvironment Instance.

The properties are linked to the environment instance because either one or more of the Environment Instance because workflows or plugin operations associated to the instance Instance have Environment-Instance-scoped properties defined. These Environment-Instance-scoped properties must have values defined for every Environment to which that instance Instance is mapped. This provides, for example, the ability to define unique Weblogic Admin Server host and port for each environment instanceEnvironment Instance.

See Properties chapter for more details.