- Software deployment
Software deployment is all of the activities that make a
software system available for use.The general deployment process consists of several interrelated activities with possible
transition s between them. These activities can occur at the producer site or at the consumer site or both. Because everysoftware system is unique, the precise processes orprocedure s within each activity can hardly be defined. Therefore, "deployment" should be interpreted as a "general process" that has to be customized according to specific requirements or characteristics. A brief description of each activity will be presented later.Deployment activities
Release
The release activity follows from the completed development process. It includes all the operations to prepare a system for assembly and transfer to the customer site. Therefore, it must determine the resources required to operate at the customer site and collect information for carrying out subsequent activities of deployment process.
Install
Activate
Activation is the activity of starting up the
executable component of software. For simple system, it involves establishing some form of command for execution. For complex systems, it should make all the supporting systems ready to use.In larger software deployments, the working copy of the
software might be installed on a production server in aproduction environment . Other versions of the deployed software may be installed in atest environment ,development environment and disaster recovery environment.Deactivate
Deactivation is the inverse of activation, and refers to shutting down any executing components of a system. Deactivation is often required to perform other deployment activities, e.g., a software system may need to be deactivated before an update can be performed.
Adapt
The
adaptation activity is also a process to modify a software system that has been previously installed. It differs from updating in that adaptations are initiated by local events such as changing the environment of customer site, while updating is mostly started from remote software producer.Update
The update process replaces an earlier version of all or part of a software system with a newer release.
Built-In
Mechanisms for installing updates are built into some software systems. Automation of these update processes ranges from fully automatic to user initiated and controlled.
Norton Internet Security is an example of a system with a semi-automatic method for retrieving and installing updates to both the antivirus definitions and other components of the system. Other software products provide query mechanisms for determining when updates are available.Version tracking
"Version tracking systems help the user find and install updates to software systems installed on PCs and local networks.""Web based" version tracking systems notify the user when updates are available for software systems installed on a local system. For example: VersionTracker Pro checks software versions on a user's computer and then queries its database to see if any updates areavailable.
"Local" version tracking system notifies the user when updates are available for software systems installed on a local system. For example:
Software Catalog stores version and other information for each software package installed on a local system. One click of a button launches a browser window to the upgrade web page for the application, including auto-filling of the user name and password for sites that require a login."Browser based" version tracking systems notify the user when updates are available for software packages installed on a local system. For example:
wfx-Versions is a Firefox extension which helps the user find the current version number of any program listed on the web.Uninstall
Uninstallation is the inverse of installation. It is a remove of a system that is no longer required. It also involves some reconfiguration of other software systems in order to remove the uninstalled system’s files and dependencies. This is not to be confused with the term "deinstall" which is not actually a word.
Retire
Ultimately, a software system is marked as
obsolete andsupport by the producers is withdrawn. It is the end of the life cycle of a software product.External links
* Standardization efforts
** [http://www.w3.org/Submission/2004/04/ Solution Installation Schema Submission request to W3C]
** [http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/sdd/charter.php OASIS Solution Deployment Descriptor TC]
** [http://www.omg.org/docs/mars/03-05-08.pdf OMG Specification for Deployment and Configuration of Component-based Distributed Applications] (OMG D&C)
** [http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=88 JSR 88: Java EE Application Deployment]
* Articles
** [https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?lang=en_US&source=swg-tfosd&S_TACT=105AGY59&S_CMP=WIKIWP&ca=dtl-2108wp5 The Future of Software Delivery] - free developerWorks whitepaper
** Carzaniga A., Fuggetta A., Hall R. S., Van Der Hoek A., Heimbigner D., Wolf A. L. — A Characterization Framework for Software Deployment Technologies — Technical Report CU-CS-857-98, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Colorado, April 1998. http://serl.cs.colorado.edu/~carzanig/papers/CU-CS-857-98.pdfSee also
*
Systems management
*System deployment
*OSGi ,JNLP , RPM,RubyGems
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