Completing deployments

You complete a deployment by resolving its tasks. Resolve tasks by updating their status.

Make sure that application versions are configured, and approvals, if any, are granted before you start the deployment. If you want to modify a running deployment, ensure that team members have the appropriate permissions. For example, to add or modify segments, at least one team member must have the edit segment permission. For information about permission types, see Security types.

You run manual deployments with the Deployment Execution page. This window displays the deployment's tasks and provides feedback about the deployment's progress. By default, all tasks in the deployment are displayed. You can filter the tasks based on several criteria, such as tag or user. You can also create tasks before the deployment starts or while it runs, which then become part of the deployment plan. While tasks remain unresolved, the status area displays the deployment's progress. Email notifications can be sent to users based on user-defined rules in notification schemes, such as when tasks start. When all tasks are resolved, the deployment is complete.

You start a deployment by clicking Start Deployment. After the deployment starts, the deployment duration counter starts and the deployment status area is updated.

After the deployment begins, eligible segments start automatically. Segments without prerequisite segments automatically start after the deployment starts. Segments with prerequisites start after their prerequisite segments are complete. Several segments can be started simultaneously.

Note: By default, segments automatically start as soon as they are eligible. You can turn off the segment automatic start feature. If you turn off this feature, you must manually start eligible segments. A segment is eligible to start automatically if it has no prerequisite segments and no executor role assigned to it. For information about turning off the segment automatic start feature, see Configuring start preference for segments.

No task can start until its parent segment starts. After a segment starts, several things determine when a task can start. The segment's execution pattern determines whether tasks run sequentially or concurrently. In addition, if a task has a prerequisite task, it cannot start until the prerequisite task is complete. Manual tasks can be started any time after they are eligible to start. Automatic tasks start automatically as soon as they are eligible to start. You can reopen a finished task.

A task that is eligible to be started has a status of Waiting.

Signal tasks automatically start as soon as they are eligible. Started signal tasks immediately signal wait tasks, and their status changes to Finish. A wait task has a status of In Progress as soon as it is eligible to receive signals. If a wait task is waiting for a signal from one signal task, its status changes to Finish as soon as it receives the signal. Otherwise, a wait task maintains a status of In Progress while it waits for signals. Tasks that depend on a wait task, can start when the wait task's status changes to Finish.

After a deployment starts, you can view the log of user activities on the Change History tab. You can filter the entries to display only those with a particular activity, such as task creation.

Notification tasks, like automatic and signal tasks, automatically start as soon as they are eligible.

From the IBM® UrbanCode™ Release dashboard, click Releases & Deployments, and then click Deployments.
In the All Deployments page, click the Execution Date for the scheduled deployment.
Click the Execution and Deployment Plan tab, and then click Start Deployment.

When the deployment starts, the deployment's progress is calculated and status information is displayed. You can stop a started deployment by clicking Abort Deployment. Aborting a deployment frees its reserved release environment. Typically, notifications are configured to alert users when a deployment is aborted. Finally, you can reopen an aborted deployment by clicking Reopen Deployment. The time between when the deployment was stopped and reopened is reflected in the deployment's progress.

After the deployment starts, eligible segments start automatically. Manual tasks in started segments that are eligible to start have a status of Waiting. Eligible automatic tasks and signal tasks start automatically.
To filter the displayed tasks, complete these steps:
By default, tasks are not filtered.
1. Click the Filter icon, .
  The Filter Plan pane is displayed, as shown in the following figure.
2. Select filters from the filter lists.
  The filter lists provide the following filter criteria:
  - Role/Group contains all roles and groups that are configured with the security system.
  - User contains the users on the team that is assigned to the deployment.
  - Type contains the task types: manual, or automated.
  - Status contains the task statuses. The possible statuses are listed in the Task Count area.
  - Application contains the applications that are assigned to the deployment.
  - Tag contains the tags added to any task in the deployment.
3. Click Filter Enabled to apply the filter criteria.
4. Click the Close icon to close the Filter Plan pane.
The Execution and Deployment Plan window displays only tasks that match the filters. To stop filtering tasks, click Filter Enabled again.
Optional: To view the critical path for a task, click the action icon for a task, and then select View Critical Path.
The task dependency graph displays the tasks that the selected task depends on, and the tasks that depend on the selected task.
Optional: Add segments and modify existing ones.
Optional: Add automatic tasks.
Optional: Add manual tasks. The new task is added to the task count and affects the expected deployment duration.
Optional: Create or modify task dependencies.
Optional: Add signal and wait tasks
Optional: Add notification tasks..
Optional: Add plug-in tasks.
Optional: Add critical event tasks.
Optional: Add outage tasks.
Optional: Add wait for time tasks.
Optional: Click the Edit icon for a segment, and then in the Override Start Time area, use the Date and Time calendar widgets to specify a new start time for the segment.
Optional: Click the Edit icon for a segment, and then click Override Prerequisites, to start a segment that is not eligible to start because its prerequisite segments are not complete.
The tasks in a segment cannot be started until the segment itself starts. More than one segment can be started at the same time. If a segment has prerequisites, it cannot be started until all prerequisite segments are complete. When a segment starts, its countdown timer begins, and its progress bar displays the percentage of completed tasks. Automatic tasks automatically start when the segment starts, according to the execution pattern for the segment, unless they have prerequisite tasks. Manual tasks are considered waiting until they are individually resolved.
Resolve eligible tasks in started segments by completing these steps:
1. Click Start to start a waiting manual task.
  If a role is designated for the task, any user in the role can start the task. If no role is designated for the task, any user with the Execute Deployment Tasks permission can start the task. If no team member is in the role designated for the task, any team member with the Edit Deployment Plan Permission can start the task. In both situations, click the Override Status button for the task, and then click Start.
2. Resolve a started task by changing its status. To change the status of a manual task, select a new status:
  - Finish means that the task is complete.
  - Skip means that the task is not used in the current deployment. Its expected duration is no longer included in the segment's total. Skipped tasks do not prevent a segment from being completed or a deployment from being completed.
  - Fail means that the task was not completed. A failed task prevents its parent segment from being complete. If a segment with a failed task is a prerequisite for other segments, the dependent segments cannot start until failed tasks are finished or skipped. If the failed task is a prerequisite for other tasks, the dependent tasks cannot start until the failed task is reopened and resolved. Failed tasks also prevent a deployment from completing successfully.
  To modify a resolved task, first reopen it. Changes and additions become part of the current deployment and become part of the deployment plan. Deployments that are created from the current release-plan combination contain the changes.
This figure shows the three segments of a started deployment. The progress area displays the deployment's overall progress, 41%. The Pre-Deployment Tasks segment is complete, and the other two segments are in progress. The segments' progress bar indicates the percentage of completed tasks. When a segment has prerequisite segments, you can click Dependencies to see the prerequisite segments.
From left to right, the columns for a segment's tasks contain the following information:
- Status.
- Task name.
- Number of dependencies. To see dependencies, click Dependencies.
- Time the task was resolved.
- Estimated time for planned and waiting tasks.
- Associated application, if any.
- Task type: manual, automatic, signal, wait, or notification.
- Required role.
The Disable cron jobs task is eligible to start and has the status of Waiting. To see dependencies for a task, click the Dependencies column for the task, as shown in the following figure. Prerequisite and dependent tasks for the selected task are displayed.
Optional: Edit tasks and add comments by completing these steps:
1. Click the action icon for the task, and then select View/Edit.
  The Edit Task window is displayed. To modify a manual task, see Creating manual tasks. To modify an automatic task, see Adding automated deploy tasks to deployment plans. To add dependencies to a task, see Managing dependent tasks.
2. To add comments to the task, in the Edit Task window, click Comments.
  The Execution Details area displays comments that are organized by users and application environment. Add comments by selecting a tab and typing your comments. Comments are automatically generated for automatic tasks, as shown in this figure:
3. To view process details for an IBM UrbanCode Deploy automatic task, click the View Execution link for a comment.
  The IBM UrbanCode Deploy Application Process Request view is displayed. From the Application Process Request view, you can view the deployment request, and return to IBM UrbanCode Release.
To reopen a resolved task, click Override Status, and then click Reopen.
Reopened tasks are resolved like any started task. When you reopen a task, the deployment's progress changes to reflect the task's duration. If you reopen a task in a completed deployment, the deployment is no longer considered complete.
Note: A started segment with prerequisites does not close even if a task in its prerequisite segment is reopened and fails. When a segment starts, it is no longer affected by reopened prerequisite segments.

When all tasks are resolved, the progress bar indicates 100%, and the deployment is considered complete. A successfully completed deployment is one in which all tasks are resolved with one of the following statuses: Complete, Skipped, or Not Applicable. An unsuccessful deployment is one in which at least one task has the Failed status.

An unsuccessful deployment continues to have the In Progress status. Typically unsuccessful deployments are reopened. You can also reopen successfully completed deployments. Changes that are made during a deployment become part of the deployment plan and are included in new deployments that are created with the release-plan combination.

To review the activities performed during a deployment , click Change History. The Change History page displays the actions taken by members of the team that ran the deployment. You can filter the list of actions by action type.