The deployment process is responsible for ensuring that the generated application is deployed with minimum disruption to your operation and at the time specified by you. The deployment process is normally initiated by the Configuration Builder after the generation and construction of the deployment package. You might also independently invoke the deployment service to re-deploy the generated application, for instance following a server failure, a server re-configuration, or to deploy the generated application to a different server.
Input to the deployment process comprises of the following:
Generated and compiled programs/components.
Database schema.
Deployment instructions and configuration data.
Information about the already deployed application if it has been previously deployed.
The deployment process performs the following operations:
Verify that the deployment package is complete.
If the application has previously been deployed, extract the database schema for comparison against the new database schema to determine if anything has changed.
If the database has changed prepare and execute a strategy to change the database to the new format and migrate the existing data to it, if necessary, otherwise if it is a new database create the database using the generated schema.
Install the generated executable components.
Notify the Configuration Deployer that deployment is complete.
During the entire process, the build progress and error messages are displayed in the Output window. The user who initiates the build can monitor the process with progress indications for each stage, and obtain error reports, if an error occurs that halts the process.