Lifecycle Manager overview
Add-on product: Lifecycle Manager extends Itential Platform with stateful orchestration capabilities. It requires Itential Platform as a prerequisite. View platform overview
Lifecycle Manager tracks and manages the state of infrastructure resources throughout their lifecycle. Use it to maintain persistent data about devices, services, and configurations as they change over time.
What is Lifecycle Manager?
Lifecycle Manager represents infrastructure entities as resources that include:
- Resource model: A JSON Schema that defines the properties you want to track
- Instances: Individual occurrences of the resource (for example, specific devices or services)
- Actions: Workflows that manage instances and update their properties
How it works
Lifecycle Manager maintains state persistence after workflow execution. When you run an action against an instance, Lifecycle Manager records property changes and makes them available for future reference.
Example workflow: Managing network switches
When an action modifies a switch hostname, Lifecycle Manager records the new hostname in the instance. You can view the current hostname even after the action completes.
Lifecycle Manager tracks changes made through actions within Platform. Changes made directly on devices or through other systems may not appear in Lifecycle Manager. Design your workflows to account for these discrepancies.
Comparison with other platform applications
Before you begin
Before using Lifecycle Manager, familiarize yourself with:
- JSON Schema basics: Resource models use JSON Schemas. Review JSON Schema documentation for syntax and structure
- Workflow design: Actions interface with workflows. See Workflow documentation for design patterns
- Resource concepts: Understand how entities map to resources. See Lifecycle Manager resources
Access Lifecycle Manager
Access and navigate Lifecycle Manager through Itential Platform.
To access Lifecycle Manager:
