PDM

Creating a release ​

A release is assembled in the New release form, which has three steps: Configuration → Overrides → Confirmation. First you choose the services and the new values, then you deal with the stands that have settings of their own, and finally you get a summary. Nothing changes until you reach the last step and press Start release — you can move back and forth through the form freely.

The form opens from the Releases section and is only available if you have permission to create releases; if the button is missing, contact an administrator (see Permissions).

Step 1. Configuration ​

This is where you choose what goes into the release: you tick the services and edit their fields. The field editors are the same as on the Services tab of a stand: a yes/no switch, a string, a number, a version number, a dropdown or a service action.

The key difference from editing a stand: the values you set here become the new default values for the whole platform, not the setting of a single environment.

You do not have to type the version by hand

If a field has a service action selected (building a branch, for example), the release will run the build first and the tag of the built image will be substituted as the new value automatically. For more on actions and builds, see Service builds.

Step 2. Overrides ​

A new default value does not take effect everywhere: on stands where someone previously set their own value for the same field, that value keeps working. PDM finds such discrepancies and shows them here so that you can decide the fate of each one.

If every stand uses the base values of the selected fields, there will be no discrepancies and you can simply pass the step. Otherwise you get a list of discrepancies grouped by cluster, then by stand within a cluster, then by field within a stand.

Each row shows three values:

CaptionWhat it is
BaseThe default value in effect right now
StandThe stand's own value
ReleaseThe value the release brings

For each row you choose one of two options:

  • Reset to release — the stand's own value is removed and the stand starts working on the release value;
  • Keep — the stand retains its own value and stays on it. This is the default option.

What “Keep” means

A stand where you left everything as it is will not be rewritten by the release: its own values stay untouched. Only the stands where at least one override has been reset are written individually.

Step 3. Confirmation ​

The last step is a summary of what you are about to get: the new values for every included service and, if there were discrepancies in step 2, the full list of reset and kept overrides with the cluster, stand, service and parameter. There is nothing left to edit here — only to check.

Check the scope before you start

A release affects several environments at once, production included. Before you press the button, make sure the summary contains no extra services, that the new values are exactly the ones you intended, and that the list of overrides being reset is exactly the one you planned. PDM has no one-button rollback.

What happens when you start ​

The Start release button does three things:

  1. Saves the release record and its contents — it appears in the release history immediately, before the rollout has done anything.
  2. Creates a rollout process with all of its steps: builds, writing the values and applying them.
  3. Opens the page of that process, where the rollout progress is visible in real time.

You do not have to wait for it to finish with the page open: the process runs on the server and you can come back to it later through the Workspaces section.

What's next ​