Action input parameters

CMP scans the actions you define to determine whether the action needs additional input in order to run. This process is covered in more detail in the documentation for each action type. CMP then prompts users for those inputs, or substitutes pre-designated default values where appropriate.

CMP does not create action inputs for template variables that start with the keyword server, such as {{ server.ip }}. For the full list of context keys, see Action context.

Administrators can customize the automatically discovered input parameters, assigning each one a label, description, type, dependencies, and validation constraints. For CMP plugins, input parameter options can also be defined in plugin methods, as described in Plugin parameterization.

Action inputs can reference other CMP objects. For example, if you have a post-provision action that adds a server to a load balancer or a backup schedule by hostname, define the default for the hostname input parameter as {{server.hostname}}.

Blueprint action context

When an action runs as part of a blueprint deployment, the entire deployment is available to the action context. If a database server is being built by a build item named DB, reference the context of that item in any action by setting an input parameter value to something like {{blueprint_context.db.server.ip}}.

Build item names are converted to lowercase; spaces and hyphens are replaced with underscores; other non-alphanumeric characters are removed; and leading and trailing whitespace is stripped.

Action build item context

A key/value pair mapping the action inputs to the values to use on a given execution.

Provision server build item context

• quantity: The number of servers this item will create.
• os_build: The CMP object for the OS build being used to provision the servers.
• applications: References to the CMP objects for all applications included in the provisioning.
• servers: References to the Server objects being provisioned in this item.
• server: A shortcut available when only one server is being provisioned.
• <parameter_name> for each parameter on the item: The value that will be used for the parameter.
• <preconfig_name> for each preconfiguration on the item: The value that will be used for the preconfiguration.

Pod build item context

• images: A comma-delimited string of images to install in the container.
• environments: The environments selected for the pod build item.

Load balancer build item context

• source_port: The source port that will be used.
• destination_port: The destination port that will be used.

Sub-blueprint build item context

The sub-blueprint context includes everything that would have been available in blueprint_context had the sub-blueprint been ordered on its own. If a user orders a blueprint containing a sub-blueprint called Web Tier, which itself contains a server tier and an action, the resulting blueprint_context looks something like this:

{
   "web_tier": {
      "resource_name": "<sub-blueprint resource name>",
      "<sub-blueprint server tier name>": {
          "servers": ["server1", "server2"],
      },
      "<sub-blueprint action name>": {
          "action input 1": "value 1",
          "action input 2": "value 2",
      }
   }
}