Deploying integrations from the Manage page

On the VPC hours plan, to deploy integrations that you develop in App Connect Designer or IBM® App Connect Enterprise Toolkit, create a runtime to host your workload.

Before you begin

  • Check that your integrations are ready to deploy by checking what resources are supported in a BAR file and testing your flows.
    Attention: The name of a flow or BAR file that you deploy to App Connect Enterprise as a Service can contain a maximum of 32 characters.
  • Make sure that you purchase enough premium connector packs for the number of premium connectors that you're deploying. Premium connectors can be used in both Designer and Toolkit flows that you deploy to App Connect Enterprise as a Service. For more information, see Connectors.
  • To deploy a Toolkit flow in App Connect Enterprise as a Service, you must package the flow and the resources that it needs in a BAR file. For more information, see Packaging integration solutions in the IBM App Connect Enterprise documentation.

About this task

Note: This new method of deployment from the Manage page is in development and is available alongside the existing deployment method while the new method is being developed. Full data isn't yet available for flows that are deployed from the Manage page or the Designer flow editor. Therefore, if you need to access data about deployed flows, continue to deploy your integrations from the App Connect Dashboard. For more information, see Deploying integrations from App Connect Dashboard.
On the VPC hours plan, you deploy your integrations to an integration runtime with appropriate resources to run those integrations. You can create an integration runtime first, then deploy your integrations to it later. Or you can create the integration runtime after you choose the integrations to deploy. You can also deploy integrations from different places as you develop your flows.
  • You can deploy your Designer or Toolkit flows from the Manage page Icon that represents the Manage page. You can either create the runtime first on the Runtimes tab, or choose the integration to deploy first on the Integrations tab.
    Figure 1. Creating a runtime from the Runtimes tab on the Manage page
    The Runtimes tab is selected on the Manage page. The tab includes four runtimes and the Create runtime button.
  • You can deploy Designer flows from the flow editor where you develop and test them if the status is Draft (Ready to deploy).
    Figure 2. Deploying a ready-to-deploy event-driven flow in App Connect Designer
    An event-driven flow with a status of Draft (Ready to deploy) and a Deploy flow button.
    Figure 3. Deploying a ready-to-deploy API flow in App Connect Designer
    An API flow with a status of Draft (Ready to deploy) and a Deploy API button.
  • You can also deploy Designer flows from the Designer dashboard if the status is Draft (Ready to deploy).
    Figure 4. Deploying a ready-to-deploy flow on the App Connect Designer dashboard
    A tile on the Designer dashboard that represents an API flow with a status of Draft (Ready to deploy). The tile menu contains a Deploy option.
  • To deploy a Toolkit integration, you can import one or more BAR files that were developed in the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit. You can deploy them from the BAR files tab of the Manage page.
    Figure 5. Deploying an imported BAR file from the BAR files tab of the Manage page.
    Four undeployed BAR files are listed on the BAR files tab. The options menu is expanded for one BAR file and the Deploy option is selected.
Note: You can create up to 50 runtimes in your IBM App Connect Enterprise as a Service instance, and you can have 100 BAR files. When you deploy a flow that you created in App Connect Designer, it is automatically added to a BAR file. This type of BAR file is identified on the BAR files page of the App Connect Dashboard as a system-generated BAR file. System-generated BAR files contribute toward the limit of 100 BAR files.

The following steps describe how to create a runtime and deploy integrations to a runtime.

Creating a runtime

Procedure

  1. Go to the Manage page and click Runtimes.
  2. Click Create runtime.
  3. Select a template, then click Next.
    Each template creates a runtime with sufficient CPU, memory, and storage resources to run a typical extra small, small, medium, or large integration. VPC, CPU, memory, and storage values are shown for each integration size. You can customize the CPU and memory limits in a later step. A virtual processor core (VPC) is a unit of measurement that is used to determine the licensing cost of IBM® products. The value is based on the number of virtual cores (vCPUs) that are available to the product. The CPU values on the tiles are measured in cores.
  4. Enter a name that uniquely identifies this integration runtime.
    You can use lowercase alphanumeric characters and hyphens (-) for the name, and it must start and end with a lowercase alphanumeric character. You can't change the name of a runtime after you create it.
  5. Optional: To complete actions like deploying integrations to this runtime, adding configurations, or fine-tuning the available resources, expand Optional properties, then customize the following values.
    Integrations
    You can select an integration to deploy to the runtime at this stage, or you can create the runtime first, then later select the runtime when you deploy an integration. You can add just one integration when you create a runtime, but after the runtime is created, you can add more integrations to it. You can either select a flow that you created in App Connect Designer or you can upload a BAR file that you created in the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit. You can import BAR files that are a maximum of 100 MB in size. You can deploy a Designer flow to one runtime only. To deploy a Designer flow to a different runtime, you must first undeploy it from the first runtime.
    Warning: If the selected BAR file doesn't match the size of the runtime template that you selected, the VPC cost might be affected.
    1. To deploy an integration to this runtime, click Add integration.
    2. Select from the list of Designer flows and BAR files that are already uploaded to your instance. Or click Add file to import a BAR file that was created in the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit.
    3. After you select an integration, click Add.
    Configurations
    You can select or create one or more configurations to add to the runtime. The configurations that you add apply to all the integrations that are deployed to this runtime.

    Configurations provide environment-specific information that your integrations need to work, like account credentials or secrets. If the configurations are compatible with each other, you can apply more than one configuration to an integration. (You can apply either an AgentA type or an Agentx type to an integration, but not both). To apply one or more configurations to your runtime, click Add configurations. Then either select the appropriate configurations from the table, or click Create configuration to create one. For more information, see Configuration types.

    The configurations that you add to the runtime override existing configurations that are applied to the integrations. The following examples describe some of the configuration types.
    • Add the Accounts configuration to provide account credentials for your connectors. You can apply only one Accounts configuration to a runtime, but you can use it to provide credentials for multiple connectors. The accounts that you connect to in the catalog or flow editor are used to develop and test your flows. When you deploy your flow, you must provide the credentials for these accounts in the Accounts configuration.
    • Use an Agentx configuration if the deployed flow contains a Callable flow node that needs to use a switch server to connect to a callable flow in your network. You can apply only one Agentx configuration to an integration runtime.
    • Use a Private network agent configuration when the deployed integration needs to interact with an application in a private network. This configuration provides secure connectivity details to establish a connection. These details enable port forwarding from a local listening port for the deployed integration to the remote port and host of the application in the private network. You can apply only one private network agent configuration to a runtime.
    • If you're deploying one or more BAR files that are stored in an external repository, use a BarAuth configuration to provide the credentials to connect to the repository.
    Version
    You can set the version of the runtime by selecting either a specific fix pack version, such as 13.0.2, or a version stream, such as 13.0. The version stream resolves automatically to the latest fix pack version when it becomes available. For more information, see Updating the version of your integration runtime.
    Replicas
    Specify the number of replicas to run for this runtime to allow for high availability of the integration solutions. All replicas of a runtime share an HTTP hostname, and HTTP traffic is spread between the replicas. If one runtime replica fails or is restarted, the other replica runtimes continue to work. When App Connect Enterprise as a Service receives a system update, only one of the replicas is restarted at a time so that the other replicas can continue to handle requests.
    If you increase the number of replicas, you proportionally increase the resource requirements and the running cost. You can specify up to a maximum of 6 replicas.
    Tip: During times when you don't need deployed flows to run, prevent the runtime from using VPC hours by changing the number of replicas to 0. The runtime doesn't use any of your VPC hours entitlement when the number of replicas is set to 0. When you're ready to run the flow again, increase the number of replicas.
    Basic authentication
    Basic authentication provides secure access to HTTPInput and SOAPInput message flow nodes that are running in your deployed flows. If you enable basic authentication, HTTP requests to any HTTP or SOAP nodes on that runtime must specify the correct URL, a username, and a password. If you disable basic authentication, HTTP requests can access any of the HTTP or SOAP nodes on that runtime by using only the correct URL, and no username or password.

    To view the basic authentication credentials for the deployed runtime, go to the Runtimes tab of the Manage page Icon that represents the Manage page and open the tile for the runtime. You can find the basic authentication credentials on the Security tab. You can also regenerate the credentials for all integrations that are running in that runtime.

    Containers
    When you deploy an integration to a runtime, containers are created to support your flows. The type and number of containers that are created depend on the type of flow that you're deploying.
    • By default, a runtime container is always created, and supports Toolkit and Designer integrations.
    • The designereventflows container is created when you deploy event-driven flows that you created in App Connect Designer.
    • The designerflows container is created when you deploy a Designer API flow. This container also hosts action connectors for event-driven and API flows.
    The preconfigured runtime template sizes are sufficient for most workloads. However, you can customize the amount of resources that are assigned to the containers that run your integrations. For each container set appropriate CPU and memory limits.
    • The CPU limit is the maximum amount of CPU time that is available to the container in cores. You can define the limit as an integer or fraction (for example, 1 or 0.5). Alternatively, you can define the limit in millicores (for example, 100m is one hundred millicores, which is equivalent to 0.1 cores). A single container can contain a maximum of 4 cores of CPU. An integration runtime can contain a total maximum of 8 cores across all containers, including the default containers that are created with the integration runtime. For more information, see CPU resource units in the Kubernetes documentation.
    • The Memory limit is the maximum amount of memory (in GB) that is available to the container. To specify a value of less than 1 GB, use a fraction, such as 0.5. The ratio of CPU to memory is limited to 1:2. (For example, if you assign 0.5 CPU cores to your runtime, the maximum amount of memory that you can assign is 1 GB.) For more information, see Memory resource units in the Kubernetes documentation.
    Warning: If the deployed BAR files don't match the size of the integration runtime, the VPC cost might be affected. You can monitor CPU and memory usage for your integration runtimes after deployment. For more information, see Monitoring resources.
    Default application name
    If your integration contains independent resources that aren't in an application, they're added to the runtime default application when the integration is deployed. If you enter a name in this field, a default application is created with this name. If you don't enter a name, the default application is called DefaultApplication.
  6. Click Create.

Results

A tile is added to the Runtimes tab of the Manage page that shows the properties of the runtime and a status of Creating. It can take a few minutes to create a runtime. To update the status, click Refresh The icon that refreshes the view. When the status is Ready, your runtime is ready to host your integrations.
The Runtimes tab of the Manage page shows a tile for the new runtime, which has a status of Creating. A message indicates that the runtime is being created and that you must refresh the browser to update the status.
When the runtime is ready, use the menu on the tile to open, edit, or delete it. You can also change the version (see Updating the version of your integration runtime) and manage user and service trace (see Collecting trace for deployed flows).
The action menu for a runtime shows options to start, reset, and collect user or service trace. The menu also contains edit and delete options.

What to do next

Deploying integrations to a runtime

Procedure

  1. Select an integration to deploy in one of the following ways.
    • Go to the Manage page Icon that represents the Manage page, open the Integrations tab, then click Deploy integration. Select an event-driven or API flow that you created in App Connect Designer, or a BAR file that you imported from the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit. You can also import a BAR file of up to 100 MB by clicking Add file and selecting a BAR file from your local file system.
    • Open an event-driven or API flow with a status of Draft (Ready to deploy) in the Designer flow editor, then click Deploy flow or Deploy API.
      An event-driven flow is open in the Designer flow editor. The status of the flow is Draft (Ready to deploy), and the Deploy flow button is available.
    • On the Designer dashboard The icon that represents the Designer dashboard, open the menu for an event-driven or API flow with a status of Draft (Ready to deploy), then click Deploy.
      The menu for a flow on the Designer dashboard that is ready to deploy contains the Deploy option.
      Tip: To list just the flows that are ready to deploy, set the filter on the dashboard to Complete.
      The filter on the Designer dashboard is set to Complete.
    Note: You can deploy a Designer flow to one runtime only. To deploy a Designer flow to a different runtime, you must first undeploy it from the first runtime.
  2. Select an existing runtime to deploy your integration to, then click Next.
    Alternatively, to create a runtime for this integration, click Create runtime, then follow the instructions in Creating a runtime.
  3. If you need to provide environment-specific settings that your flows need, select or create one or more configurations to add to the runtime, then click Next.
    Configurations can contain information such as account credentials and secrets or data that you can't check into a source control system. Either select the appropriate configurations from the table, or click Create configuration to create one. For more information, see Configuration types. The configurations that you add to this runtime are available to all integrations that are deployed to the runtime. The following examples describe some of the configuration types.
    • Add the Accounts configuration to provide account credentials for your connectors. You can apply only one Accounts configuration to a runtime, but you can use it to provide credentials for multiple connectors. The accounts that you connect to in the catalog or flow editor are used to develop and test your flows. When you deploy your flow, you must provide the credentials for these accounts in the Accounts configuration.
    • Use an Agentx configuration if the deployed flow contains a Callable flow node that needs to use a switch server to connect to a callable flow in your network. You can apply only one Agentx configuration to an integration runtime.
    • Use a Private network agent configuration when the deployed integration needs to interact with an application in a private network. This configuration provides secure connectivity details to establish a connection. These details enable port forwarding from a local listening port for the deployed integration to the remote port and host of the application in the private network. You can apply only one private network agent configuration to a runtime.
    • If you're deploying one or more BAR files that are stored in an external repository, use a BarAuth configuration to provide the credentials to connect to the repository.
  4. View the summary of the integrations and configurations that you're deploying, and the runtime that you're deploying them to. If the details are correct, click Deploy.

Results

It can take a few minutes to deploy an integration. To update the status, click Refresh The icon that refreshes the view. When the integration is deployed, you can see your deployed integration in several places.
  • A tile is added to the Integrations tab of the Manage page with a status of Active, which means that your integration is ready to be triggered. The tile shows a summary of the integration and which runtime it is deployed to.
    The tile for a deployed API flow on the Manage page
  • The flow tile on the App Connect Designer dashboard has a status of Active. You can use the tile menu to manage the deployed flow. For more information, see Managing flows during development.
    The tile for a deployed API flow on the Designer dashboard
  • If you import, then deploy a Toolkit integration as a BAR file, you can see it listed on the BAR files page of the App Connect Dashboard with the runtime that it is deployed to. If you deploy an event-driven or API flow that you created in App Connect Designer, a BAR file is created automatically to contain the flow and resources. The flow is shown as being in a System-generated BAR file on the BAR files page.
    Note: System-generated BAR files that contain deployed Designer flows contribute toward the limit of 100 BAR files.
    In the following example, the CustomerDatabaseV1 BAR file, which contains a Toolkit integration, was imported and deployed to App Connect Enterprise as a Service. The ir-01-startBookstore_API BAR file was created by the system when the API flow was deployed from the Manage page. The other five BAR files were imported but are not yet deployed.
    The image is described in the preceding text.

    You can't undeploy a system-generated BAR file from the BAR files page. To undeploy a Designer flow, go to the App Connect Designer dashboard and use the flow tile menu to undeploy it. When you undeploy a Designer flow in this way, the BAR file is deleted automatically from the BAR files page.

What to do next