Implementing virtual environments

Introduction

This page summarises the steps required to build and implement virtual environments for your organisation.

Suggested workflow

The steps below summarise how to implement a single virtual environment associated with a single process flow. However, the same procedure applies when creating multiple virtual environments with any number of process flows.

1

Create your master process flow

Other than some special considerations to keep in mind when designing process flows for use in virtual environments, standard techniques are used to build 'master' process flows.

For more information, please refer to Creating a master process flow.

2

Create replacement components

Looking at your master process flow, which steps include components that require environmental variations? Create these components in the usual way (e.g. add connector instances, create scripts, caches, etc.).

For more information, please refer to Creating replacement components for a virtual environment.

3

Create the virtual environment

When you create a new virtual environment, you're simply adding a named container for subsequent configuration via versions.

For more information, please refer to Creating a virtual environment.

4

Configure the virtual environment draft version

All configuration for a virtual environment is added to a draft version. Having created a new virtual environment, a draft version is generated automatically, ready for you to update.

For more information, please refer to Creating a virtual environment version.

5

Deploy the virtual environment draft version

When you're satisfied that your virtual environment version configuration is ready for testing, it should be deployed. Deploying a version means that this virtual environment becomes available for testing against a master process flow (step 6), and is available for selection when you're ready to deploy process flows (step 7).

For more information, please refer to Deploying a virtual environment version.

6

Test the process flow for the virtual environment

You can test a process flow against any virtual environment that has a deployed version, using the initialise flow (advanced) option from the process flow canvas. This runs the process flow and replaces any components that are configured in the selected virtual environment.

For more information, please refer to Testing a process flow for a virtual environment.

7

Deploy the required process flow version to your virtual environment

When you're satisfied that your draft master process flow runs as expected for the required virtual environments, it should be deployed to those environments. This can be done via the view deployments option in process flow settings or via packages.

Deploying a process flow version means that it will run automatically in a virtual environment (i.e. it will be initialised according to defined trigger schedules, API calls, webhooks, or callbacks),

For more information, please refer to Deploying a process flow to a virtual environment.