Topology design groups

Groups are used to create scalable stacks of components in the Designer tab. The scalable stacks are made up of related components that can be scaled out together. For example, you might create a web server group that contains the following three components in its scalable stack:

• A web application

• An Apache web server

• The server component on which the other two components are hosted

The groups created for a topology design are unique to that design; they are not shared across designs. You can create a relationship between two components inside a group or between a component outside a group and a component inside a group, but you can't create a relationship between components that belong to different groups.

When you deploy a package from a partial design with a scalable group, you select a service design that has a group which meets the requirements of the design.

Manage groups

In the Designer tab, click Manage Groups in the lower left, which allows you to perform the following tasks for groups:

• Create a group. Click the create icon, and provide the following information for the group:

  Display Name - Type a unique display name for the group.

  Image - Select an image that will be displayed for the group.

  Color - Select a color that appears as the background for the group when it displays in the Designer tab.

• Edit a group. Click the edit icon and edit the display name, image, or color for a group.
• Delete a group. Select the group you want to delete and click the delete icon.
• Move a group. Click inside a group and drag the group to a new location.
• View unused groups. Information for unused groups is displayed in the lower left corner of the designer when a topology design contains an unused group. Unused groups are groups that have been defined but that do not contain components. Click Show to see the list of unused groups and click Hide to close the list.

Add components to a group

1. In the Designer tab, click a component in the design to access the menu that slides out to the right of the component. Click the edit icon, and select a group to which the selected component will be added.

2. Create relationships between components in the group. A group is displayed in the designer as a colored rectangle, which contains all the components in the group.

   You can create relationships between components that are part of the same group but not between components in different groups. See Topology designer.

3. Configure properties for the group. Click in the group's colored background or title bar, and do the following:

   1. In the Properties tab, in the right pane of the designer, set Instance Count to indicate the number of instances of the group that will be provisioned for the topology design.

   2. Set properties to Modifiable only during package deploy to indicate that the property value can be modified when a package is deployed or redeployed. All properties can be modified during a test run.

   3. Set properties to Modifiable during package redeploy to indicate that the property value can be modified during package redeploy.

   4. Click Save.