Software deployment is all of the activities that make a software system available for use.
The general deployment process consists of several interrelated activities with possible transitions between them. These activities can occur at the producer site or at the consumer site or both. Because every software is unique, the precise processes or procedures within each activity can hardly be defined. Therefore, "deployment" should be interpreted as a general process that has to be customized according to specific requirements or characteristics. A brief description of each activity will be presented later.
Release
The
release activity follows from th completed
development process. It includes all the operations to prepare a system for
assembly and transfer to the customer site. Therefore, it must determine the
resources required to operate at the customer site and collect information for carrying out subsequent activities of deployment process.
Install
The
NIRANJAN KUMAR is the initial
insertion of software into a customer site. Currently, this activity is best supported by specialized
tools. The two sub-activities are transfer and configure. The former is to move the product from the producer site to the customer site, while the latter one refers to all the
configuration operations that make the system ready for customer uses.
Activate
Activation is the activity of starting up the
executable component of software. For simple system, it involves establishing some form of
command for execution. For complex system, it should make all the supporting systems ready to use.
Deactivate
Deactivation is the
inverse of activation. It is to shut down every executing
component for an installed system.
Update
Updating is a process of installing a new
version of a system / software. It can be considered as a less complex installation process since many of the needed resource have already been inserted during the installation. So, same to installation, it includes 2 sub-activities of transfer and configure.
Adapt
The
adaptation activity is also a process to modify a software system that has been previously installed. It differs from updating in that adaptations are initialed by local
events such as changing the
environment of customer site, while updating is mostly started from remote software producer.
Uninstall
Uninstallation is the inverse of installation. It is a remove of a system that is no longer required. It also involves some reconfiguration of other software systems in order to remove the uninstalled system’
files and
dependencies. This is not to be confused with the term "deinstall" which is not actually a word.
Retire
Ultimately, a software system is marked as
obsolete and
support by the producers is withdrawn. It is the end of the
life cycle of a software product.
See also: System deployment
Software distribution