Lifecycle Manager Overview

Entity Management

When managing any sort of entity with Itential Automation Platform (IAP), workflows are used to define the logic of the actions executed against that entity. For example, if your environment makes heavy use of a specific make and model of switch, you may have several workflows designed to manage that type of switch. These workflows may take actions including:

• Updating the VLAN of switch ports.
• Enabling or disabling switch ports.
• Changing the management IP address of the switch.

This method of management can be effective; however, after it finishes execution, a workflow does not by itself maintain any information about the state of the entity it was working with. If a workflow successfully changes the hostname of a device, and that hostname is later altered, the new hostname will not be reflected when viewing the workflow. For this reason, Lifecycle Manager exists to manage the operational status of an entity after workflow execution.

What is Lifecycle Manager?

Lifecycle Manager (LCM) is an application used to manage the state of an entity past workflow execution. In it, entities are represented as resources that are comprised of:

• A resource model, which is a JSON Schema that defines the properties of the resource.
• Instances, which are discrete occurrences of the resource.
• Actions, which use workflows to manage instances according to the properties defined in the resource model.

For example, you may wish to use Lifecycle Manager to manage the switches in your environment. In this case, you would:

1. Create a resource representing a switch.
2. Define a resource model in which you specify the switch properties you would like to manage, such as the hostname and port VLANs.
3. Create instances to represent each real-world occurrence of a switch in your environment.
4. Design actions to manage the properties of these instances.

When an action is used to alter an instance property, the state of that property is maintained after the action is finished executing. As in the above example, if you design an action that updates the hostname of a switch, the hostname will be recorded in the associated instance. You will be able to view the current hostname of the switch even after the action that changed it is finished executing.

Accessing Lifecycle Manager

To access Lifecycle Manager from the IAP Dashboard, select Lifecycle Manager from the Design collection on the left-side navigation menu. Lifecycle Manager will open in your active browser tab.

Figure 1: Accessing Lifecycle Manager

Lifecycle Manager Home Page & User Interface

The user interface (UI) of the Lifecycle Manager home page is comprised of the following elements as referenced in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Lifecycle Manager Main UI Elements

Next Steps

To begin using Lifecycle Manager, you will need to create a resource. For instructions on how to create and use resources, proceed to the Resources page of the Lifecycle Manager documentation.