Manage Lifecycle Manager resources

Create and manage resources that represent infrastructure entities in your environment.

What are resources?

Resources in Lifecycle Manager represent any infrastructure entity that Itential Platform can manage: network devices, cloud instances, code repositories, or services.

From the Resources view, you can:

• Define resource models using JSON Schema
• Create instances of resources
• Build and execute actions against instances
• Edit resource metadata

Before you begin

Before creating resources, review:

• Lifecycle Manager overview for foundational concepts
• JSON Schema documentation for model syntax
• Workflow documentation for action design

Create a resource

To create a new resource:

Open an existing resource

To open a resource:

Tip: Use the search bar at the top of the accordion menu to filter resources by name. Alternatively, click the Search icon in the toolbar to use the Collections view.

Understand resource tabs

The Resource view organizes functions across four tabs:

Click tab names at the top of the view to navigate between them.

Define resource models

Resource models specify which properties instances can have. Define models using JSON Schema on the Model tab.

Model tab elements

Model syntax

New resources include this template:

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{
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    "$id": "resource-name",
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    "description": "Schema defining the possible values within instances",
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    "type": "object",
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    "required": [],
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    "additionalProperties": true,
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    "properties": {}
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}

Add properties as keys in the properties object. Add required properties to the required array.

Example: Define a switch model

To create a resource model for network switches:

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    "properties": {
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        "hostname": {
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            "type": "string"
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        },
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        "ipv4": {
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            "type": "string",
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            "format": "ipv4"
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        },
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        "vendor": {
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            "type": "string"
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        }
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    }

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    "required": ["hostname", "ipv4"]

Complete model:

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{
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    "$id": "org-switch",
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    "description": "Schema defining switch properties",
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    "type": "object",
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    "required": ["hostname", "ipv4"],
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    "additionalProperties": true,
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    "properties": {
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        "hostname": {
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            "type": "string"
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        },
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        "ipv4": {
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            "type": "string",
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            "format": "ipv4"
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        },
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        "vendor": {
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            "type": "string"
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        }
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    }
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}

Create instances

Instances represent individual occurrences of a resource. For example, each switch in your network would be a separate instance.

Instances tab elements

Example: Create a switch instance

To create an instance:

Import and export instances

Import instances

To import instances from JSON files:

Import requirements:

• Instance data must conform to the resource model schema
• Instance names must be unique within the resource

Successfully imported instances show “Import” in the Last Action column and History tab.

Export instances

Export multiple instances:

Downloaded file name: {resource-name}_exportedInstances.json

Export single instance:

Choose one method:

• Click the vertical dot menu in the instance table row
• Click Export in the instance properties side panel
• Click Export on the Edit Instance Details page

Downloaded file name: {instance-name}.json

Create actions

Actions use workflows to manage instance properties. For example, an action could update a virtual machine’s power state and record the change.

Actions tab elements

Action types

How actions work

Actions follow this workflow pattern:

Update and delete actions:

Create actions:

Create actions don’t receive instance as input (the instance doesn’t exist yet). If a workflow is attached, it must create and output the instance variable according to the resource model.

Transformations:

• Pre-transformation: Receives instance and user inputs, outputs job variables to workflow
• Post-transformation: Receives workflowOutputs and original instance, outputs updated instance

Example: Update switch IP address

To create an update action:

Organize instances with groups

Instance groups let you execute actions against multiple instances simultaneously.

Instance Groups tab elements

Group types

Example: Create and use a group

To create a dynamic group:

To run an action against a group:

Edit resource metadata

To modify resource metadata:

Next steps