Getting Started with Catalyst DevOps

This section covers the overall steps involved in creating a Catalyst application, testing, deploying and configuring the DevOps components in the Catalyst console.

There are some pre-requisites before working with DevOps components :

• Create a Project - Access the Catalyst console or create a new project. After the project creation is done, you will be able to access all Catalyst services from the console.

  Additionally, you can also create a new project in the local environment by initializing it from the CLI. You must first install Catalyst CLI and log in to your remote account before you can access the Catalyst commands and work with your application locally.

• Develop your application - Because DevOps comes into play largely after the application development phase, you can access, set up, and implement Catalyst components from the other services to build your application first.

  You can develop the application logic by coding the Catalyst Serverless Functions as required in a supported language of your choice : Java, NodeJS, or Python. You can build the application logic by working with the Catalyst project directory locally using an external IDE. Catalyst CLI enables you to initialize all of your project resources in the local environment directly. You can also access a host of Catalyst functionalities through the component-specific API endpoints.

• Test your application - You can choose to test your application or microservice locally before deploying it to the remote console through a variety of CLI commands. For example, you can test certain function types through a built-in shell in your terminal.

  If you test your application locally, you can deploy it to the remote console after the testing, and access the client and accessible function end-points from the generated development URL.

  Note : The sequence of steps specified here might differ based on your business or application logic, or your specific use case. The flow mentioned in the deploying and testing phases of the application can be altered based on your requirements. This is a generic set of guidelines that is suitable for a typical small to mid-scale, client-based application or microservice.

  After you are done with building the application logic and testing them, you can use the various DevOps components to monitor your function executions, automate email triggers on application failures, enable a detailed logging service for your Catalyst Functions.

• Configure DevOps components - Parallelly, you can set up and use the required DevOps components while you test your application, or use them after the next step, depending on your application specific logic and requirements. To access Catalyst DevOps, navigate to the DevOps service in the left pane of your Catalyst console. You can configure the components you need, and work with them.

  For example, if you require API testing to be performed, you can access Automation Testing and write a series of test cases, schedule their automated executions and gain insights from their performance reports.

  Similarly, you can monitor the performance of the functions in your application using Logs and Application Performance Monitoring , analyze the insights gathered, and implement changes or upgrades in your core logic if required.

• Host the application - You can also host your Catalyst web application in the development environment in parallel through the web client hosting component of the CloudScale service. This allows you to continue performing iterative QA tests, end-to-end integrated tests, or release an alpha version of your solution.

• Migrate your application to production - After you test your application in the development environment, it can be migrated to production as described in this help page. You can continue using the DevOps components post-production to monitor your application during the maintenance phase, as well as during subsequent upgrades and releases. You can set triggers to alert you on application failures, get detailed and in-depth logs on your function executions and even track the usage of specific components in your Catalyst project.