Glossary

A

Agent

Agents are light-weight Java™ processes that run on the agent system. Agents allow the distribution of tasks for performance and multi-platform support. The agent contacts the server whenever the agent process is started. Since the agent communicates with the central server, it does not need to be on the same network as the central server. However, the agent must be able to open a socket connection to the server. By default, all communication between the central server and the agent is not secure. Communication can be secured with SSL.

agent

An agent is a lightweight process that runs on a host and communicates with the IBM® UrbanCode Deploy server. Agents manage the resources that are the actual deployment targets.

Agent Filters

Agent Filters are used to select one or more agents at run time and to monitor the quiet period.

agent pools

An agent pool helps you organize and manage agents that are installed in different environments.

Agent Relays

The new communication relay acts as a proxy for agents (which perform work on behalf of the IBM Anthill Pro server) that are located behind a firewall or in another network location. Available under separate download.

agent relays

An agent relay is used to communicate with remote agent. An agent relay requires that only a single system in the remote network contact the server.

AHPTool

AHPTool is a command-line interface for IBM Anthill Pro that provides communication between agent-side commands, scripting, and the IBM Anthill Pro central server. AHPTool is focused on setting and retrieving information from the IBM Anthill Pro server in the context of a running workflow: It can be used to look up or set properties at the system, step, request, job, Build Life and agent levels. AHPTool can upload and retrieve Test, Coverage, Analytics, or Issue data in the form of an XML document to IBM Anthill Pro, making it an excellent integration point for writing your own plug-in or script.

Any Agent Filter

An any agent filter selects the first available agent. Also, it returns all online agents in the environment, ordered by a combination of current load and throughput metric.

applications

An application is the mechanism that initiates component deployment; they bring together components with their deployment target and orchestrates multi-component deployments. An application must have one component.

application process

An application process can run automatically, manually, or on a user-defined schedule. An application process can orchestrate the entire process including putting servers on-and-off line for load-balancing as required.

Application Security Report

The application security report provides information about user roles and privileges that are defined for applications in IBM UrbanCode Deploy.

Artifact

For any artifact that is associated with this project, the files that are produced by a workflow published as the artifact.

artifacts

Artifacts are files, images, databases, configuration materials, or anything else that is associated with a software project.

Artifact Retention Policy

Manages how long you keep the artifacts to save disk space.

Artifact Set

An Artifact Set is a label for a collection of build artifacts. Artifact Sets are used to define dependency relationships: Any project that another project depends on generates one or more collections of files that are used by the dependent project.

Authentication Realm

Authentication Realms are used to determine a user’s identity within an Authorization Realm.

Authorization Realm

Authorization reals are used to associate Users with Roles and to determine user access to IBM Anthill Pro.

B

Bar Chart

Displays the data in a bar chart that is embedded in HTML. Data must all be numeric.

blackout

Blackouts are set per-environment, per-application. When a blackout is set, no deployments (nor snapshots) can be scheduled to occur in that Environment. Any previously scheduled deployments to the environment fail if they fall within the blackout date you set.

Build-Farm

The default environment containing all agents that are used for pure-build processes.

Build Life

represents all the transformations a build has gone through, and the processes such as deployments and testing that the artifacts have undergone.

Build Life Links

Build Life Links are used to pass the URL of resources outside of IBM Anthill Pro to the Build Life.

Build Life Originating Workflow Request Property

When set as a workflow property, the value is pushed to the Build Life originating workflow before the build begins.

Build Life Properties

typically used to hold variable data for builds or to create an audit trail. After the property is set, and the build has run, the Build Life Property will be visible on the Build Life page.

Build Request Property

Build Life Tools- Build Life Tools are available through the UI to help you diagnose problems and manage Build Lives.

Build Request Property

The property is pushed to the build request before the build begins.

Build Workflow

A build workflow defines the process for running jobs.

C

Caching Proxy

Could reduce bandwidth and improve IBM Anthill Pro’s response time. This is especially helpful in distributed development environments: the proxy can improve performance for users at off-site locations because commonly used pages are loaded from the locally stored cache.

Cleanup

Cleanup configures IBM Anthill Pro to periodically clean up old Build Lives, build request and miscellaneous jobs that are generated by a project. Cleanup is on a per-project basis, so every project that uses the same Life-Cycle Model has the same policy. To clean up the Build Life, the user can delete, inactivate, or archive the Build Life.

Cleanup Build Lives

determines when to clean up build lives. The cleanup of build lives is base on the status the build life has achieved.

Cleanup Policy

Specifies when to delete information about old Build Lives and other tasks that are associated with the project.

Cleanup Schedule

A Cleanup Schedule kicks-off the Cleanup.

Cleanup Build Request

A Cleanup Build Request determines when build requests are cleaned up.

Clone Instance

Cloning an instance of your IBM Anthill Pro server allows you to change scripts, optimize processes, improve build performance, move the server, and so on, without having to experiment on the production server.

CodeStation

CodeStation is the name of IBM Anthill Pro’s artifact repository management and access tool set. It provides support of dependencies of third-party toolkits and software libraries. CodeStation is also responsible for bringing the dependency management lookup and retrieval utilities to the individual developer.

CodeStation

CodeStation is the artifact repository for IBM UrbanCode Deploy. It provides secure and tamper-proof storage. It tracks artifact versions as they change and maintains an archive for each artifact.

CodeStation Artifact Time-to-Live

This feature determines how long unused artifacts remain in the cache.

components

A component represents deployable items along with user-defined processes that operate on it. Components are deployed to a resource by agents.

component inventory

A component inventory tells you what version of the component is running on a resource.

component process

A component process is a series of user-defined steps that operate on component artifacts.

Component Security Report

A component security report provides information about user roles and privileges that are defined for components.

component template

Component templates enable you to save and reuse component processes and properties. Components that are based on templates inherit the template properties and process.

Conflict Strategy

A Conflict Strategy allows you to control how IBM Anthill Pro acts when a conflict occurs within the dependency tree.

Cron Schedule

A cron schedule can be configured to consider more complex criteria than a simple interval.

D

Defined-value property

Basic property type. Displays a secured field for the user (either the property name or default value) when you run a build.

Dependencies

Specifies the specific artifacts, including version, from other projects that should be retrieved to support the workflow. Also specifies the artifacts from other projects and the directory in the checked-out source that those artifacts should be placed in.

deployment

A deployment is the process of moving software through various preproduction stages to final production.

Deployment Average Duration Report

A deployment average duration report provides the average deployment time for applications that ran during a user-specified reporting period.

Deployment Count Report

A deployment count report provides information about the number of deployments that ran during a user-specified reporting period.

Deployment Detail Report

The deployment detail report provides information about deployments that ran during a user-specified reporting period.

Deployment Reports

A deployment report provides information about user roles and privileges that are defined with the IBM UrbanCode Deploy security system.

Deployment Total Duration Report

A deployment total duration report provides total deployment for applications that ran during a user-specified period.

design space

The process editor's work area, where plug-in steps are configured and process flows defined.

Dev-kit

The Dev-kit provides comprehensive documentation on IBM Anthill Pro scripting, remoting, using SOAP-based web services with IBM Anthill Pro, the AHPTool (command-line tool), and creating your own plug-in for IBM Anthill Pro.

digital certificate

A digital certificate is a cryptographically signed document that is intended to assure others about the identity of the certificate owner.

Distributed Servers

Distributed Servers is a complimentary product to IBM Anthill Pro designed to reduce the reliance on WAN connections by doing all the heavy lifting (builds, and so on) on local networks. There are three main components to Distributed Servers: Distributed Web Interface, Codestation 2.0, and Agent Relay.

Distributed Web Interface

The interface mirrors the IBM Anthill Pro server, providing the same information and functionality as the main server, for IBM Anthill Pro users.

E

Empty-value properties

enable users to set a standard for the available attributes a user can provide when running a resource. Using an empty-value property gives users the option to define a required value or simply pass a blank value that IBM Anthill Pro ignores.

environment

An environment is a user-defined collection of one or more resources that host an application. At least one environment must be associated with the process before the process can run.

Environment

An environment is a partition grid of agents that is specific for different stages of a project lifecycle.

Environment Group

determines the set of environments that project workflows can run on. Each environment group must contain at least one environment.

environment inventory

An environment inventory tells you both what versions of any given component is running on a particular resource.

Environment Property

Environment Properties are used to set default values for a particular environment.

Environment Security Report

An environment security report provides information about user roles and privileges that are defined for environments.

Event Triggers

Event Triggers use scripts to create an Event Filter that listens to events that pass through the IBM Anthill Pro Event Service. When the Event Script detects an event, it can then trigger another action by the IBM Anthill Pro server.

F

Fixed Agent Filter

Fixed Agent Filters always select a specific agent within the environment. If the requested agent is locked or cannot receive more work, the request is queued until the agent frees up.

full version

A full version contains all component artifacts.

G

Guest User Account

The Guest User Account gives anonymous access to IBM Anthill Pro, and does not require a user name or password at login.

I

IDE Plug-ins

The plug-ins enable developers to view the current activity and state of projects, start new builds, map their projects to projects in IBM Anthill Pro, and resolve the project’s dependency artifacts.

incremental version

An incremental version contains only artifacts that were modified since the previous version was created.

Independent Scheduling

Related projects do not need to know about each other for independent scheduling. A dependent project starts each build by gathering the most recent artifacts from its dependencies.

Internal Projects

Allows for dependency relationships between concurrently developed IBM Anthill Pro projects.

Interval Schedule

Regularly fires after a fixed interval of time.

J

Job

A job is a series of steps that specify how to get something done.

Job-execution Property

Use the Job-execution property type if the value, default value, or options are to be generated by a job that runs on an agent.

Job Iteration Property

Job iteration properties are configured after iterating a job. They are typically used to set parameters for a single job that is run many times, with a slightly different parameter each time.

Job Iteration

Job Iterations are used to run the same job multiple times.

Job Wizard

A Job Wizard assists in the creation of build jobs. The Wizard takes you through the steps to configure the builder and the publisher that are required by the job, and is the best way to ensure that your build job will be configured successfully. The Build Life is a map of (1) what occurred during the build; (2) the processes that ran on the generated artifacts; (3) where the build artifacts ended up.

L

Library Jobs

A Library Job is a way for you to create template jobs. After a Library Job is configured, it can be used by multiple projects or can be turned into a project-specific job.

Library Workflow

The Library Workflow can use only library jobs as part of its definition.

Life-Cycle Build

The Life-Cycle Build provides a wealth of information and visibility into the build and release cycle. It is defined by its Life-Cycle Model, Environments, and Build workflow.

Life-Cycle Model

The Life-Cycle Model provides a template for managing the dependencies, artifacts, deployments, and so on, associated with every build of the project. They are reusable, allowing you to apply the same standards to any similar project.

LDAP

A lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) is a widely used protocol that is used to access distributed directory information over the Internet Protocol (I.P) networks.

lock

A lock is routinely used to ensure that processes do not interfere with one another.

Lockable resource

A lockable resource specifies a resource that might be used by multiple workflows, gives it a name and forces arbitrary workflows to run one at a time or in small groups.

N

Network Settings

Network Settings are used to configure communication between the IBM Anthill Pro server and agents.

Notification

Notifications inform the recipient of the status of a CI build.

notifications

Notifications play a role in approving deployments: IBM UrbanCode Deploy can be configured to send out an email to either a single individual or to a group or people (based on their security role) notifying them that they must approve a requested deployment.

Notification Scheme

Notification Schemes determine who to notify of build status, what conditions to notify them on, and what mechanism to notify them with. sets rules that determine what groups of users are sent which kind of notification about specific events.

notification scheme

A notification scheme enables IBM UrbanCode Deploy to send out notifications that are based on events. For example, the Default Notification scheme sends out an email when an application deployment fails or succeeds.

Notification Template

Notification templates are Velocity™ templates that take information about the build and produce a document.

O

Operational Project

Operational Projects provide a simplified interface that allows IBM Anthill Pro users to run ancillary tasks that are not easily run during a build, deployment, etc., workflow.

P

Permission

Permissions associate the role, resource, and an action that can be run on the resource. Typical actions include the ability to read or view the resource, the ability to write to or modify the resource, the ability to modify the security settings for a resource, or the ability to run the resource.

plug-ins

A plug-in is the integration with third-party tools.

Preflight Build

Preflight Builds allow developers to run a test build in the authoritative build environment before they commit their changes to source control.

process

Processes play a coordination role. They are authored with a visual drag-n-drop editor.

process editor

A process editor is a visual drag-and-drop editor that enables you to drag process steps onto the design space and configure them as you go.

processing property

A processing property is a way to add user-supplied information to a process.

Project Environment Property

Project Environment Properties are automatically placed as environment variables for all commands run in the target environment.

Project Property

Project Properties are used for all workflows regardless of the target environment.

Property

Properties identify various properties that must be specified when the workflow runs. Properties are used to manage variables that are passed into commands, agent filters, and custom stamping algorithm templates.

proxy resource

A proxy resource is a resource that is effected by an agent on a host other than the one where the resource is located.

Pull Build

A Pull Build builds every dependency that is out of date before building the top level of a project.

Pure Build

Pure builds take the source as input and transforms it into artifacts. In IBM Anthill Pro, it generates the Build Life.

Push Build

Push Builds run the minimum number of builds, in the correct order, to ensure that a change to a component does not break anything that depends on it directly or transitively. A push build can become resource intensive.

Push Scheduling

Push Scheduling are used when an originating workflow builds, the workflows that depend on it build automatically.

Q

Quiet Periods

Quiet Periods are configured on the project. They play an integral part in ensuring that the source code IBM Anthill Pro obtains from the SCM contains a consistent set of changes. The quiet period is a measure of time that must pass without anyone committing changes to the source.

R

Read Permission

Read permissions allow a user to resolve/download the artifacts that are associated with a Build Life.

relay servers

A relay server enables network-to-network communication.

remote agents

A remote agent is an agent that communicates with the server through an agent relay.

Report

Reports provide information about system activity.

Repository Trigger

Repository Triggers are used for Continuous Integration builds. After the trigger is active for a workflow, every commit of source changes will initiate a build.

resource

A resource is a user-defined construct that is based on the architectural model of IBM UrbanCode Deploy. A resource represents a deployment target.

resource group

A resource group is a group of resources that are used to help organize and manage the agent that is installed in a different environment.

Resource Security Report

A resource security report provides information about user roles and privileges that are defined for resources.

role

A role enables you to further refine how a resource is used, and is similar to subresources.

S

Schedule

A Schedule determines when events such as builds, cleanups, and backups, are automatically run by the system. After a schedule is created, it can be used by many different IBM Anthill Pro resources.

Schedule Trigger

A Scheduled Trigger runs on its own timer that pools the SCM for changes. If changes are detected, the build is registered with the schedule and kicked off when the schedule fires. Scheduled Triggers give the option to force a build regardless of whether source changes occurred.

schema

A schema is a visual representation of the different parts of IBM UrbanCode Deploy that can be secured. Each Schema interacts with users indirectly, through the role.

Script Library

the script library is used to create, organize, and provide security around often-used IBM Anthill Pro scripts. The Script Library is most helpful for large organizations, allowing them to ensure that only the appropriate team members can modify a script.

Scripted Property

Scripted value properties are properties where the value, default value or options are generated by a script that runs before a workflow runs.

Scripted Agent Filters

A scripted agent filter selects agents based on an agent filter script.

SSL

A secure socket layer (SSL) enables clients and servers to communicate securely by encrypting all communications.

Security Permission

Security Permissions allows users to determine who can set security for the artifact set.

Security Reports

A security report provides information about user roles and privileges.

Security Setting

A Security Setting is used to configure access to the Anthill Server setting for configuration and artifact management.

Server Proxy

Server proxies enable you to access servers/repositories that are on external networks.

snapshot

A snapshot is a collection of specific component versions, usually versions that are known to work together.

Source Configuration

Source Configuration identifies exactly which source code is retrieved from a repository.

Stamp

A Stamp is a configurable name for the build number, build identifier, or version number that is used to identify a build. This allows you to mimic your strategies.

Stamp Context Script

Stamp Context Scripts generate values for variables in the stamp context when creating a stamp (for builds, and so on).

Stamp Mapping

For every stamp style in the project’s stamp style group, one must specify what stamping strategy is used. A typical stamp style group might specify for development builds to a version number and strategy for incrementing that number.

Stamp Style

Stamp Styles are used to apply different stamps to a single build, and allow you to help track a build throughout its lifecycle.

Stamp Style Group

A Stamp Style Group creates common names for types of stamps.

Status Group

A Status Group is a set of common names for statuses.

stateless

Stateless means that the server retains little session information between requests, and each request contains all information that is needed to handle it.

subresource

A subresource enables you to apply logical identifiers or categories within any given group.

switch step

A switch step enables you to create conditional processes.

System Tray Monitor

The System Tray Monitor provides feedback directly to the desktop, without having to open or refresh a browser.

System Property

The System property is used to set default values for a particular property for all workflows and project system wide.

T

Template Reports

Template Reports are good for generating tabular data in one or more types of output.

Trigger

A Trigger is an automated mechanism for kicking off a workflow.

U

uncontrolled environment

An uncontrolled environment is an environment that does not contain approvals approval gates.

user impersonation

IBM UrbanCode Deploy can use user impersonation when an agent must run a command for which it might not otherwise have permission.

V

Velocity Report

Velocity Reports are good for customizing the IBM Anthill Pro UI.

version

A version is set each time a component changes. There are two types of versions a full version and an incremental version.

W

Workflow Definition

A Workflow Definition defines which job should be run, species the order of jobs, as well as the elements to be run in parallel.

Workflow Priorities

Workflow Priorities allow you to determine the order in which workflows run. Use workflow priorities to determine which workflow runs first.

Workflow Property

Workflow properties are used to send a build to a particular platform when writing native code for multiple platforms.

Workflow Request Context

A workflow request context is a collection of requests for workflows that are processed together.

Workflow Task

A Workflow Task allows you to set up manual gates, etc., that must be performed.

Workflow Tool

There are two major categories of work flow tools: priorities and requests.

Workflow Request

The Workflow Request is the first action that is taken by the server when running an originating or secondary workflow.


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