Deploy InsuranceSuite apps to production planets

There are three stages of releasing builds of your InsuranceSuite apps from development to production:

Preparation steps (three days before the production deployment):
- (Optional) Verify app settings.
- Promote the InsuranceSuite app builds from a development to a pre-production star system.
- Back up a database of the production planet.
Dry-run deployment (two days before the production deployment):
- Restore the production database backup in the pre-production star system.
- Verify if the builds work correctly.
- Run smoke test scenarios.
Production deployment:
- Promote builds from a pre-production to a production planet.
- (Optional) Verify app settings.
- Deploy apps to the production planet.
- Verify if the deployment was successful.
- (Optional) Verify if all the nodes are available.
- Run smoke test scenarios.

Prerequisites

Before you start the deployment process:

Make sure that you have all the required access permissions to star systems.
Make sure that you test and verify the apps before you deploy them to production.
Schedule the dry-run deployment at least two days before the production deployment.
Schedule the production deployments outside the GWCP Production Maintenance windows. See https://status.guidewire.com.
Guidewire recommends that you restore the production database in the dryrun pre-production planet before you do the dry-run deployment. Note that restoring a backup might take a few hours and depends on the backup size and mechanism.
If you use Lifecycle Manager services, make sure that your Lifecycle Manager configuration is deployed to your production planet. For details, see Change configuration in Lifecycle Manager documentation.

Preparation steps

Complete the preparation steps three days before the production deployment.

(Only before the first deployment) Verify app settings, update certificates, secrets, variables, and runtime properties.
Promote builds to dryrun pre-production planet.

For details, see Promote builds between star systems.
Back up a production database. As Backup type select Temporary.
- If the size of your database exceeds 500 GB, use the snapshot mechanism.
- If the size of your database is smaller than 500 GB, use either pg_dump or snapshot.
A production database backup is available in a pre-production star system:
- Immediately for pg_dump.
- Within an hour for snapshot. This time depends on the traffic on the AWS servers in particular regions.
You can test the compatibility of the new app builds with the data from the production planet database.

For details on creating backups, see Manage backups.

Dry-run deployment

Complete the dry-run deployment two days before the production deployment.

Verify app settings

This step is optional.

Before you deploy the InsuranceSuite apps in the dryrun pre-production planet, verify and update certificates, secrets, variables, and runtime properties in the pre-production star system.

Restore database

Guidewire recommends that:

If the size of your database exceeds 500 GB, use the snapshot mechanism for a backup and restore it in a snapshot-enabled pre-production planet.
If the size of your database is smaller than 500 GB, use either pg_dump or snapshot.

To restore a production database:

In Guidewire Home, select a star system.
From Apps, select Database Backups or select it from your pinned apps.
In the Backups tab, select Restore next to the production database backup that you created in the preparation steps.
As Planet to restore, select dryrun. Under Retain data tables, select all the check boxes.
Select Restore.
Verify or update the branch and build numbers. Make sure that in Branch and Build # / Dockerize # you use the builds that you promoted from the development planet during the preparation steps.
Select Restore.

Make sure that the server mode of the target dryrun planet for restoration is Prod. For details, see Server modes of the database backup and the target planet.

Note:

The InsuranceSuite apps are deployed automatically during the restore of the database.

Verify the deployment status

To verify if the deployment was successful:

In Guidewire Home, select a star system.
From Apps, select Planets or select it from your pinned apps.
Select a planet.
From Applications and add-ons, select InsuranceSuite.
Verify the following:
- Latest activity says Deployed.
- App status of each app says Up.
- Deployment status of each app says Deployed.

The InsuranceSuite apps deployed successfully.

Run smoke test scenarios

Once you verify that all the InsuranceSuite apps were deployed correctly, run smoke tests. For details, see Test InsuranceSuite applications.

Troubleshooting

If the deployment was unsuccessful or you experience any blocker issues during the database refreshing process, submit a case in Guidewire Community.

Production deployment

This is the final step to deploy the InsuranceSuite apps to the production planet. Once your apps are successfully deployed, they become visible to your customers. Make sure that your apps are well tested and verified before you deploy them to the production planet.

Note:

You don't need to create an additional backup before deploying to a production planet. In case of errors or failed deployment, you can perform a rollback that retrieves an automatic database backup from one minute before this deployment. You can't see this database backup on the list of your backups.