Policy-based software installation and management

To manage software using software policies:

1. Add software resources (such as packages, patches, application configurations, scripts, and server objects) to the SA Library.
   
   Adding application configurations involves defining the configuration values that will be used to generate the configuration files. For example, if the software policy is being created to deploy an Apache Web Server, the application configurations would specify the default values for the httpd.conf file. For information about application configurations, see the Application Configuration.
2. Create a software policy to specify the managed server, the order for installing the listed software resources, and the application configurations to be applied. See Create software policies and software templates.
3. Attach the software policy to one or multiple managed servers. This associates that policy with the server, but does not enforced the policy or install the software it contains. See Attach a software policy to a server or device group.
4. Remediate the managed servers against the attached software policy to install the software as specified in the policy. This makes the servers compliant. See Remediate servers with software policies.
   1. When you remediate a server or servers, you have the option of defining additional tasks to perform during the remediation process, such as system rebooting requirements, additional scripts to run, and job status email notifications.
   2. When the remediation process runs, it scans the server to determine areas of non-compliance with the software policy. It then installs the software resources identified in the policy in the order specified, applies the specified application configuration, and performs all the additional tasks defined in the remediation job such as rebooting systems, running additional scripts, and sending job status e-mails.
5. Run compliance scans to ensure that managed servers maintain compliance with their attached software policies and application configurations. See Software policy compliance.
   1. When a software policy or application configuration is modified, the servers on which it is installed or applied, respectively, become non-compliant.
   2. The Software Compliance and Configuration Compliance scans identify non-compliant servers so that you can remediate them back into compliance with the modified software policy or application configuration respectively.

Best Practice: Validate new policies on a test server before remediating the servers in your operational environment. Attach the new policy to a test server, remediate the test server, and then review the results. If everything is deployed correctly, attach the policy to the live servers and then remediate.

Terminology

The following list defines key terms and concepts used in Server Automation software management:

• Package: An installable package, such as an RPM package, or a Windows MSI package.
• Package Metadata: Information about a package that is stored in the HPE SA Model Repository. Some package metadata is extracted from the package itself during the software import process, while other metadata is provided by the user.
• Remediation: A process that brings a server into compliance with its attached software policies.
• Server Script: A script that executes on a managed server. Server Scripts can be stored in the HPE SA Software Repository, and be included in Software Policies.
• Software Inventory: The HPE SA Model Repository contains a snapshot list of the packages installed on a managed server. Inventory is automatically performed on managed servers on an infrequent basis (about daily), and during software installation/uninstallation.
• Software Policy: An ordered list of packages, script, application configurations, and other items. A Software Policy is essentially a recipe for installing and configuring one of more pieces of software on a single server (and uninstalling, as well).
• Template: A set of rules that allow a configuration file to be generated by the HPE SA Application Configuration feature. An Application Configuration can include multiple templates, if more than one configuration file needs to be maintained. Templates can either use Configuration Markup Language (CML), for text configuration files, or XML for XML configuration files.
• Value Set: Value Sets are typed data associated with various objects in the HPE SA model. They are similar to, but more full-featured than custom attributes.