Dell Telecom Infrastructure Automation Suite (Automation Suite) uses an industry standard that is called Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) to define the topology structure of blueprints. Blueprints that are uploaded into the Automation Suite must be TOSCA-based for the Automation Suite orchestrator to deploy them.
Topology is a structure that defines the layout of nodes and connections within a network. The TOSCA metamodel provides a method of defining and describing services by building a topology and a way to manage the topology. It allows for deploying services as a unique structure where nodes are part of the node template and the relationships between nodes are part of the relationship template. Combining the node template and the relationship template, with the addition of a plans template, results in the service template. The service template consists of the topology template, the node types template, the relationship types template, and the plans template to display an overall depiction of the service structure.
Node types provide a description of service components that can be reused and referred to multiple times when defining nodes used for a particular service. You can declare node types as abstract, where they cannot be instantiated in order to have common properties and behavior for reuse, or final, where they cannot be derived from other node types. The node template provides additional information to node types, such as how often components can occur or how often they can be reused in order to operate properly.
Relationship types represent reusable entities that create a dependency between two node types and defines the interaction between the node types. The relationship template defines the relationship types and provides additional information about relations, and you can optionally add constraints regarding the relations.
The node types template and the relationship types template are part of a larger structure that is called the topology template, which consists of a collection of specific nodes and relationships to give all necessary information that is related to the described service.
Part of the service structure includes a plans template. Plans are used to manage service life cycles and provide data to create a running instance of the specific service. Plans define the management, creation, and termination of the service instances. Plans are defined as workflows and can directly control the nodes and relationships that define a running service, and define interactions with external services.
Based on the TOSCA model, blueprints define the relationships and connections that are required in the deployment. You can define these connections within the blueprint by adding syntax to the blueprint template that states the required connections. Depending on the scenario, the topology that is defined in the blueprint may differ. For example, you may include specific syntax for one scenario but you may not include the same syntax in the blueprint for another scenario. It depends on what the required outcome is of the blueprint. For more information about the syntax used in blueprints, see Develop a blueprint.