Manually Provision AWS CloudFormation Templates

When a user has requested an AWS CloudFormation template from the service catalog, you can deploy it to a stack by clicking Deploy at the appropriate level of the tree in the Request Details dialog.

The following sections provide details and additional help links for the manual deployment wizard. The pages and options displayed depend on whether you're deploying an entire service or a single component.

When deploying an entire service, if the deployment of one or more components fails, Commander will still attempt to deploy other components in the service.

Name & Target page

Naming options are not available if you're deploying an entire service as individual components - that is, if you clicked Deploy at the Service level in the Request Details dialog (rather than at the Component level).

• Let the system name this Service / VM automatically: See also Customize Naming Conventions.
• Manually name this Service / VM: Note that you can't use variables in this field, but you can use variables in the global VM naming convention. See also Customize Naming Conventions.

The name must be unique in the region.

If Commander detects that the name isn't unique when you have specified the target (on the next page of the wizard), an error is displayed.

• Placement Options: Although the option you choose here allows Commander to preselect destination choices for you, you can change those selections throughout this wizard. Note that option chosen affects the resolution of variable values on the Parameters page of the wizard. The available options are:
• User Specified: No destination is selected; the destination must be selected manually.
• Automated Deployment: Uses the placement options configured for automated deployment. If you see the error "Automated deployment has not been configured", see Configure Automated Deployment for Approved Service Requests to learn how to set up automated deployment.
• Destination: Select the target region.

Components page

This page appears only when deploying an entire requested service - that is, you clicked Deploy at the Service level in the Request Details dialog, rather than at the Component level. All components in the service are listed. Custom components in the service are listed for information purposes only.

Deselect the components you don't want to deploy at this time.

Components are deployed in the order shown.

Custom Attributes page

Custom attributes allow you to provide more management information about your virtualized infrastructure. For information on custom attributes, see Work with Custom Attributes.

Other Properties page

When deploying an entire service, values entered on this page will be applied only to the components of the service.

If the Expiry Date form element or the Primary Owner form element has been added to the Component request form, users can specify expiry and/or ownership information for requested components. Their selection isn't displayed in the manual Service deployment wizard. In this case, you should deploy each component separately by clicking Deploy at the Component level of the Request Details, rather than at the Service level. Doing so ensures that you won't override the requester's individual selections for all components in the service.

See also Order of Precedence for Metadata and Service Settings.

• Stack Name: See Customize Naming Conventions.
• Expiry Date: Click Edit to set or override the expiry date, or to specify that the service will never expire. See also Manage Service Expirations.
• Expiry Group: Click Edit and choose an expiry group from the drop-down menu.
• Maintenance Group: Click Edit and choose a maintenance group from the drop-down.
• Power Schedule Group: Click Edit and choose a power schedule group from the drop-down. Displayed for VM components only.
• Rightsizing Group: Click Edit and choose a rightsizing group from the drop-down. Displayed for VM components only.

• Owners: To edit ownership assignment, click Edit. In the Edit Ownership dialog, if the user you assign is a member of an organization, make sure to select the owner's organization to ensure the service is visible to organization members. To assign users, enter a username or email address. See also Set Resource Ownership.

• Service Request: When deploying a service request, the Release checkbox is visible and is enabled by default, so that components advance to completion automatically. When the Release checkbox is enabled, if one or more completion workflows have been assigned, the service request is automatically transferred to the completion workflow process. If no completion workflows are assigned, once all components in a service are deployed, releasing the components makes the service visible to the requester (for example, the Service Portal user).
  If there are manual steps in your provisioning process, disable the Release checkbox so that you can carry out these steps before the completion workflow starts. For example, you may need to install software, check operating system patches, or migrate VMs. Click Comment to enter more information for the service request comment log.

Parameters page

This page appears only when deploying individual components — that is, you clicked Deploy at the Component level in the Request Details dialog, rather than at the Service level. If you need to enter or override parameter values, you must deploy the component, not the entire service. If you deploy at the Service level, parameter values are taken from the request form, if available; otherwise, the service catalog defaults are used.

On this page, you can enter or override parameter values. For successful deployment, all CloudFormation parameters must have values. The Placement Option chosen on the Name & Target page affects the resolution of variable values on the Parameters page.

Note:

• You can't enter variables on this page.
• If you enter values on this page and need to go back to a preceding page in the wizard (for example, to change the target region or placement option), parameter values you entered on this page are saved.

Summary page

A summary of your settings is displayed.

• Policy Actions: If one or more policies will be triggered once deployment occurs, policy actions are listed here.

When policies have been applied at the availability zone level and the deployment target is a region (meaning that the public cloud vendor chooses the destination), policy actions can't be simulated, because Commander can't determine the destination.

Click Finish to deploy the service or component.