Using grid object archiving (GOA) tools, you can package, store, and redeploy grid objects such as data services, database operations, SQL views, and database connectors. GOA tools are available in WorkSpace Data Federation and the CLI.
GOA provides two important benefits. It lets you:
- Copy services and data sources from one Data Federation domain to another—so you can safely develop and test grid objects in an isolated development domain, then redeploy them in your production domain.
- Make backup copies of Data Federation services and data sources, which can be redeployed on their original servers or elsewhere if the need arises.
These are the key parts of a GOA archive:
- The inventory file, which lists the objects to be included in the archive. Creating an inventory is the first step in creating an archive. The inventory includes not only objects that you explicitly add, but also any objects on which added items depend. For example, if you add a database operation to the inventory, the associated database connector is included automatically. The name of the inventory file has a .goi extension.
- The archive (.goa) file, which contains the inventory (.goi) file and all the items listed in the inventory. From the archive, you can selectively redeploy services or data sources.
If you create them in WorkSpace, GOA inventory and archive files reside in your WorkSpace project directory.
You can archive and redeploy the following grid objects:
- Data services
- Database operations
- Virtual database operations
- SQL views (both provisioned and generated)
- Database connectors
- Flat files
(in WorkSpace only)
- View generators
In GOA inventories and archives, every object is associated with a set of configuration properties that generally correspond to the attributes set by the object’s creator. You can allow these properties to be carried unchanged into the archive, or, for certain properties, you can set overrides—new values that will take effect when the object is redeployed. For some objects, only the description can be overriden. For database connectors, most properties can be overriden.
Note: You can override property values only in WorkSpace Data Federation. However, you can use the CLI to deploy an archive with overrides set in WorkSpace.
Deploy options let you specify target grid servers
for objects in your archive, control whether deployments from your archive overwrite existing objects, and even control whether archived objects deploy at all.