Deploying configuration files

There is a vast difference in how you deploy modified configuration files in a development environment as opposed to a production environment. The following sections describes these differences:

Deploying changes in a development environment

In the base configuration, PolicyCenter provides an embedded application server in the development environment. This, by design, shares its file structure with the Studio application configuration files. Thus:

  • If you modify a file, in many cases, you do not need to deploy the changed configuration file. The development server reflects the changes automatically. For example, if you add a new typelist, Studio recognizes this change.
  • If you modify certain resource files, you must stop and restart Studio for the change to become effective. For example, if you add a new workflow type, then you must stop and restart Studio before a Gosu class that you create recognizes the workflow.
  • If you modify the base configuration data model files, you must stop and restart the development server to force a database upgrade.

It is possible to use a different development environment and database other than that provided in the base configuration. If you do so, then deployment of modified configuration files can require additional work. For details on implementing a different development environment, see About installation roles.

Deploy changes to the production server

About this task

To deploy configuration changes to the PolicyCenter production application server, do the following:

  • In the development environment, create a .war file with your configuration changes.
  • Shut down the production server.
  • Undeploy the previous PolicyCenter deployment from the production application server.
  • Deploy the new .war file with the latest changes to the production application server.
  • Start the production application server.

In the following procedure, notice whether you need to do a task on the development or production server.

Procedure

  1. After making configuration changes in your development environment, run one of the build commands from your development PolicyCenter directory.
    For example:
    gwb warTomcatDbcp
  2. Shut down the production application server.
  3. Delete the existing web application folder in the production server installation.
    For example (for Tomcat), delete the following folder:
    PolicyCenter/webapps/pc
    Also, delete the existing .war file on the production server. In any case, moving a new copy to the production server overwrites the existing file.
  4. Navigate to your development installation dist directory (for example, PolicyCenter/dist). The build script places the new pc.war file in this directory.
  5. Copy the newly created pc.war file to the production webapps folder (for Tomcat).
  6. Restart the production application server.
  7. During a server start, if the application recognizes changes to the data model, then it mandates that a database upgrade be run. The server runs the database upgrade automatically.

What to do next

See also