Deployment Manager - 1.1

Versions available: 1.1, 1.0

Getting started - Deployment Manager

With Deployment Manager, you can automate software deployments into development, test, staging and production environments.

To get started, do the following:

1. Download Deployment Manager

You can download DeploymentManager.zip from here.

The zip file contains two installers:

DeploymentManager
DeploymentAgent

2. Install the Deployment Manager server

On the server you want to use to host the Deployment Manager web interface, run the DeploymentManager installer.

View a list of requirements for the Deployment Manager server

Follow the instructions to complete the installation. For more information, see: Installing Deployment Manager.

An administration tool is displayed when the installation is complete:

In the administration tool, specify the port you want to use for the Deployment Manager web interface, and then click OK.

The Deployment Manager web interface launches in your web browser. If you encounter a problem viewing the web interface, see: Common errors.

3. Create an administrator user

The first time you visit the web interface, you must create an administrator user account:

Enter details for the administrator, and click Create account.

4. Install the Agent service on your target machines

Next, install the Agent service on the machines you want to deploy to. On each of the machines you want to deploy to, run the DeploymentAgent installer.

View a list of requirements for a target machine

Follow the instructions to complete the installation. For more information, see: Installing an Agent.

An administration tool is displayed when the installation is complete:

You use this administration tool when adding target machines to the Deployment Manager web interface.

If you encounter a problem launching the Agent administration tool, see: Common errors.

5. Add your target machines to the web interface

Now that the Agent service is running on your target machine(s), you can add them to the web interface.

In Deployment Manager, you add a machine to an environment. For example, this allows you to group several machines as Development, Staging or Production.

To add an environment:

On the Environments tab, on the menu bar, click Add environment:
Enter a name for the environment, and click Create.

To add a machine:

On the environment bar, click Add machine:
Enter the name and URL of the machine you want to deploy to.
In the Key box, paste the Agent key from the Agent administration tool:
In the Agent administration application, on the Security tab, under Server Keys, click Add:
In the Key box, paste the Deployment Manager server key:
Click Save.

More information on adding target machines to Deployment Manager

6. Create deployment packages

Next, you need to create and publish the packages you want to deploy.

To deploy applications using Deployment Manager, you need to create NuGet packages and publish them to a package feed. Deployment Manager can host packages in its own embedded package feed. The URL for the Deployment Manager package feed is <Deployment Manager server URL>/nuget/. For example:

http://lt-tomc:99/nuget/

How to create and publish packages (NuGet documentation).

7. Create a project

Once you've created and published the packages you want to deploy, you need to create a project.

Projects contain the deployment steps you want Deployment Manager to perform.

To create a new project:

On the Projects tab, click Create project:
Enter a name for the project, and click Add.

To add deployment steps to a project:

In the Project list, click your project:
On the Steps page, click Add package step:
Specify the NuGet package you want to deploy, add the environments you want to deploy to, and then click Add.

8. Create and deploy a release

Next, create a release:

On the Releases page, click Create release:
Enter a version number for the release, select the version of the package you want to deploy, and then click Create release.
You can now deploy the release:
On the page for the release you want to deploy, on the menu bar, click Deploy this release:
Select the environment you want to deploy to, add any comments you want, and click Deploy release.
Deployment Manager executes the deployment, and displays output logging information: