Order blueprints

Order form

Once a blueprint is set up, users order it by opening the Catalog and selecting the blueprint.

If the blueprint has all choices predefined, the user only needs to select Submit. Blueprint items can be set to appear only when needed, so users don’t see them at order time when everything is predefined. Otherwise, the order form prompts for choices such as group, environment, and hardware and software options.

If rates are enabled, the order form shows a cost comparison chart so users can compare the cost of deploying to each environment. This is supported for blueprints with a single server tier configured for specific environments.

Admins can customize the order in which parameters appear on blueprint order forms, in Admin > Parameter Display Sequence. For example, group username fields before password fields, keep hardware resource fields together, and place Quantity ahead of most other parameters.

Selecting Submit creates a new order and submits it for approval. Any current order you have with unsubmitted items is unaffected.

If the order isn’t auto-approved, an approver can edit it before approving. Likewise, if an order is later duplicated, the owner can edit the new order before submitting it. The current configuration of the associated blueprints, environments, and so on takes precedence over the order’s saved details if they differ.

Blueprints that do not create resources

A blueprint can be ordered without creating a deployed resource, but only if it consists entirely of server build items and action build items other than Terraform plan actions, and has no teardown items. If the Resource Type in the Edit dialog is None, ordering the blueprint provisions its server build items and runs its action build items without the resource-related steps. Concepts such as blueprint-level parameters, resource names, and the resource lifecycle don’t apply when a blueprint doesn’t create a resource. This is the type of blueprint used by the New Server link.

Informational blueprints

Some teams use the Catalog as the single place to request everything. Some catalog items are resources that Cloud Management Platform builds; others can only be ordered from external systems. For the latter, admins can create informational blueprints: catalog entries whose description (which can contain HTML) links to another system. To set one up, create a blueprint with no build items but a clear description and image, and share it with the groups that should see it. When it’s ordered, blueprint admins see a message that the blueprint has no build items.