Sunlight Marketplace

The Sunlight Marketplace is a new feature provided to Sunlight users, via the SIM, to enable automation of resource configuration and on-demand application deployment onto the Sunlight platform. It is designed to enable Sunlight users to fully automate the end-to-end deployment of application environments utilising the optimum performance offered by the Sunlight platform.

The main elements of the Marketplace are the recipes, a collection of files, that provide the following logical functions:

1. Configuration of the infrastructure layer, which includes some or all of the following steps:
2. Creation of new AWS clusters.
3. Configuration of a Resource Group with the related network and datastore setup.
4. Setup of the configuration layer that enables the creation of all required virtual machines, preparing the ground for the next function.
5. Configuration of the application layer, which is to install the appropriate application software, configure it as required and start the application if appropriate.

The Sunlight Marketplace is leveraging the power of the Ansible framework to manage the deployment of applications. The Ansible playbooks are the customised logic that facilitates a series of operations to be executed on the Sunlight platform to configure and deploy applications.

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Using the Recipe Manager

The process for deploying an application on the Sunlight platform through the Marketplace is as follows:

Visit the Marketplace and use the search functionality to filter down the available recipes:

Click on the logo of the recipe in order to view the main recipe page:

At this stage, editing of the configuration files related to the infrastructure and the configuration layer is possible:

The option of saving any changes performed is available, or you can choose to continue on to the next stage for deploying the desired recipe. At this initial iteration, the user should not alter these files. Please click on Next, in order to continue with the deployment process:

The user can choose to create a new AWS cluster and the relevant Resource Group or to select an existing cluster and Resource Group, or to create the required resource group from an existing cluster.

Upon configuring the options above, the user should now choose between Create RG and Exit, or Next:

By choosing Create RG and Exit, the user (usually this will be a super user with full access) creates / selects a cluster and creates the required Resource Group in preparation for a "simple" user (one that does not have the permissions to create RGs) to run the rest of the recipe logic at another time.

By choosing Next, the user should be able to see an overview of the previous actions, before the final step:

Having completed all of the above, the user should click on Apply, in order for the platform to complete all of the required processes.

The system responds with the following screen, indicating that the recipe is now deployed. The new recipe will appear at the Installed Recipes tab:

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There is a large number of recipes currently provided by Sunlight, while the Sunlight development team is constantly updating and adding new recipes.

The most prominent feature that will be available in next releases is the ability for the user to write custom recipes and include them into the SIM.