Case Study: EBSCO Executes Data-Driven Deployments in CA Release Automation for Diverse Software Installation Technologies

World®
’16
Case Study: EBSCO Executes Data-Driven
Deployments in CA Release Automation for
Diverse Software Installation Technologies
Mark Lynch - Developer, Platform Engineering - EBSCO Information Services
@makwise | #CAWorld | mlynch@ebsco.com
DO5X23S
DEVOPS

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Abstract
EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., the market leader providing
library resources in academic, medical, library, law, corporate and government markets. They
had hundreds of diverse application deployment processes that they wanted to fit into
standardized deployment pipelines and provide management insight into pipeline status,
success/failure rates and velocity. In addition, they wanted to be able to do this without
everyone having deep expertise into the release automation tool. This session will cover how CA
Release Automation provided the framework for EBSCO to develop a data-driven deployment
approach that made it easy to leverage the existing skills of their operations engineers and to
bring many of their existing deployment processes on board. EBSCO will outline the essence of
their componential approach for deployments and the step-by-step processes that transpire
during deployments. Ultimately, EBSCO has been able to capture better data on deployments,
target automation efforts more effectively and more easily integrate new automation with
simple updates to the deployment process.
Mark
Lynch
EBSCO Information
Services
Developer, Platform
Engineering

Agenda
INTRODUCTION
DEPLOYMENT DIVERSITY
Q & A
DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH
WHAT’S THE DATA DRIVING?
WHAT’S NEXT
1
2
3
4
5
6

Introduction
EBSCO Information Services

Organizational Trajectory
Silos and
Waterfall
Silos.
Some
Waterfall.
Some Agile.
Lean
and Scaled
Agile
Framework
(SAFe) WATERFALL TO SAFe

Continuous Delivery as Part of SAFe 4.0
IT’S HARD TO BE LEAN AND SAFe WITHOUT CD
Standardization
of deployments
across the SDLC
Enterprise level
views into status
of deployments
No-touch
automated
deployments

ENTER
CA Release Automation
§ Standard deployment workflows
§ End-to-end pipeline view of deployments
§ Governance and controls
§ Full, zero-touch automation

The Challenge From Management
§ Bring existing application deployments
into CA Release Automation with
minimal re-engineering
§ Accept that existing deployments are
largely manual
§ Generate data to identify high value
automation targets
§ Empower Developers and DevOps
Engineers to automate iteratively

Our Task
A PLATFORM FOR TRANSITIONING
TO CONTINUOUS DELIVERY
Begin standardization
by getting all
deployments
“into” CA Release
Automation
Gather deployment
data in a more
systematic manner
than previously
Identify high value
targets for
deployment
automation using
gathered data

Diversity of Deployments
§ Proliferation of
installation technologies
and processes
§ Evolution of
technologies
CHALLENGES OF
LONG TERM GROWTH

Why a Data-Driven Approach?
EMPOWERMENT
Minimal set of CA Release
Automation templates to
support and maintain for
many different application
deployments
Shallow CA Release
Automation learning
curve for Developers
and DevOps Engineers
Developers and DevOps
Engineers empowered
to automate using
existing skills

How Did We Accomplish Our Data-Driven Approach
§ First deployment architecture: Single
Server
§ 2 CA Release Automation templates
– 1 for deployment to Linux servers
– 1 for deployment to Windows servers
§ 1 Deployment Zip file per application
XML AND
WRAPPER
SCRIPTS

What’s a Deployment Zip File?
A SINGLE INPUT TO DEPLOYMENT PLAN CREATION
Installers
directory
Wrappers
directory
Deployment.xml
file

Deployment.xml File

Deployment Plan Creation
Choose template (1 of 2 options) to
create deployment plan from
When prompted by CARA enter URL
to published deployment.zip file
Run deployment to “first” target
environment
NEW DEPLOYMENT
PLAN FOR EACH
APPLICATION
VERSION DEPLOYED
WITH CA RELEASE
AUTOMATION
1
2
3

CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE TEMPLATE

ENTER URL TO PUBLISHED DEPLOYMENT ZIP FILE

Deployment Creation
CREATE DEPLOYMENT FOR FIRST TARGET ENVIRONMENT

Run Deployment
ENTER URL TO
PUBLISHED
DEPLOYMENT
ZIP FILE

Iterative Automation
§ helloworld_2.0.6.xml
§ Installers
– installer.ps1
§ Wrappers
– Hello.ps1
– Goodbye.ps1
– OneTimePreTasks.ps1
– OneTimePostTasks.ps1
Target Automation Efforts and Iterate

So What’s the Data Driving?
CA RELEASE AUTOMATION DISTRIBUTES. WE UNPACK.

THEN WE READ
AND ACT

THAT’S ABOUT IT
FOR “ONCE PER
ENVIRONMENT”
STEPS

A LITTLE MORE
TO THE “PER
DEPLOYMENT
MACHINE” STEP

Continuous Search for the ‘Next’ Automation
Automate creation of CA Release Automation
environments1
2
3
4
Hook into CI to automatically create deployment plans and
deploy to “first” environment
Create CA Release Automation application and templates for
multi-tiered application deployments
Create CA Release Automation application and templates for
blue/green deployments

Experiences
ü It was necessary to build
error handling into CARA
flows.
ü It was necessary to build in
retry logic around REST call
actions.
ü Some hand holding early
on helps a lot with
adoption.
Key Topics
ü Deployment
Standardization Goal.
ü Current Deployment
Diversity.
ü Empowering Users.
Findings
ü Defining Data-Driven
Contract was easy.
ü “Programming” CARA
interactions with 3rd party
systems was hard.
ü Users grasped relationship
between concepts of Data-
Driven approach and
Deployment Zip file easily.
Summary
A Few Words to Review

Questions?

Recommended Sessions
SESSION # TITLE DATE/TIME
DO5T14S
Analyst Keynote:
Continuous Delivery: Making DevOps Awesome
11/17/2016 at 10:30 am
DO5T20T
From Agile to Automation—Making the Most of Feedback
Loops from Development to Production
11/17/2016 at 11:30 am
DO5T19S
GM Financial Builds a Sustainable, Holistic, Continuous
Delivery Practice
11/17/2016 at 04:30 pm

Must See Demos
Modernize
App Delivery
Integrated CD
Theater 5 - DOV501P
Deliver Test
Data Faster
Test Data Manager
Theater 5 - DOV511P
Deliver
Better Apps
Service Virtualization
Theater 5 - DOV507P
Orchestrate
Your Release
Release Automation
Theater 5 - DOV513P

Thank You!
Stay connected at communities.ca.com

DevOps – Continuous Delivery
For more information on DevOps – Continuous Delivery, please
visit: http://cainc.to/PiTFpu

Case Study: EBSCO Executes Data-Driven Deployments in CA Release Automation for Diverse Software Installation Technologies

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Case Study: EBSCO Executes Data-Driven Deployments in CA Release Automation for Diverse Software Installation Technologies