Blueprints are YAML documents that are written in Domain Specific Language (DSL). Blueprints describe the logical representation, also known as topology, of an application or infrastructure. Blueprints uploaded into the Dell Telecom Infrastructure Automation Suite (Automation Suite) must follow the Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Application (TOSCA) standards.
For more information about the TOSCA topology standards, see Automation Suite Topology.
A blueprint is a declarative model representation of an environment. Blueprints may contain information about the environment such as the infrastructure, applications, and the associated configurations of both. If blueprints call on other resources such as node templates, then the plug-in provides the required resources which are in the deployment. Deployments of a blueprint turn the model representation of an environment into a physical implementation. Each blueprint file can be deployed multiple times with minor variations.
Automation Suite facilitates the connection between the blueprint and the plug-in, and enables deployment of the blueprint. Blueprints can be used for various scenarios. Examples of blueprint deployments include onboarding a server and installing an anti-virus software on the server. For more information about plug-in use cases, see Use cases.
Blueprints can be deployed with one or more plug-in files. The core plug-in for Automation Suite is the Imgr plug-in. Automation Suite also includes the Ansible and Helm plug-in in the installer bundle. For more information about plug-in files, see Plug-in overview.
The process of creating a blueprint to initiate a workflow
The following diagram outlines the process from creating a blueprint to deploying a blueprint, and running a workflow on the deployment.