IBM Rational BuildForge

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IBM Rational BuildForge

• Ross Rowe - ross.rowe_at_thalesgroup.com.au
• Ian Limn - ianlimn_at_au1.ibm.com

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Not La Forge, THE Forge!
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Introduction

• BuildForge provides mechanism to totally automate
  build and deploy process
• Consolidates shell/build scripts
• Scheduled or manual invocation
• Web interface driven (both for configuration and
  invocation)
• Builds can be orchestrated across several machines

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Core concepts

• Project
• Steps
• Library projects
• Environments
• Classes
• Selector

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Core concepts (continued)

• User/Access Control
• Multiple threading of steps
• Bill of Materials
• Good built-in support for Rational ClearCase and
  ClearQuest

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Server setup

• Single Server instance
• Multiple Agent instances (running on multiple OS)
• Server invokes build steps that are run on Agent
• All configuration stored in DB (many types
  supported)

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Build Commands

• Anything that can be executed on the command line
• Not limited to a particular language/tool

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Continuous Integration

• Provides support for CI builds
• Probably easier to use another tool (eg.
  CruiseControl) to get CI builds up and running
  quickly

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DIAC Build Environment

• ClearCase/ClearQuest
• Deployables created via Ant scripts
• Perl scripts handle rebase,ant invocation, file
  transfer,deployment
• BuildForge used to invoke Perl/Ant scripts
• Could have retired Perl scripts, but wanted to
  keep things simple!

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Thoughts Impressions

• Fairly easy painless to setup
• Some complexity involved in setting up library
  projects/environments, but not too bad
• User impersonation/environment variables worked
  really well
• Log records for previous builds
• Web interface a little clunky

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Summary

• More than just a J2EE/CI build tool!
• Best suited for large-scale, complex build
  processes for multiple inter-dependant projects
• Especially useful when building multiple
  technologies/platforms
• Can co-exist or replace existing build/deployment
  logic

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Questions?
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Further Information

• Contact Ian Limn _at_ IBM - ianlimn_at_au1.ibm.com
• www.buildforge.com
• www.buildmeister.com