1.6. Fuse Fabric

Fuse Fabric is a technology layer that allows a group of containers to form a cluster that shares a common set of configuration information and a common set of repositories from which to access runtime artifacts. Fabric containers are managed by a Fabric Agent that installs a set of bundles that are specified in the profiles assigned to the container. The agent requests artifacts from the Fabric Ensemble. The ensemble has a list of repositories that it can access. These repositories are managed using a Maven proxy and include a repository that is local to the ensemble.

The added layer imposed on fabric containers does not change the basic deployment models, but it does impact how you specify what needs to be deployed. It also impacts how dependencies are located.

In a fabric container, you cannot directly deploy bundles to a container. A container's configuration is managed by a Fabric Agent that updates its contents and configuration based on one or more profiles. So to add a bundle to a container, you must either add the bundle to an existing profile or create a new profile containing the bundle. When the profile is applied to a container the Fuse Agent will install the bundle.

The installation process will download the bundle from a Maven repository and use the appropriate install command to load it into the container. Once the bundle is installed, the dependency resolution process proceeds as it would in a standalone container.

While installing bundles to a fabric container is not radically different from installing bundles in a standalone container, there are a number of things to consider when thinking about creating profiles to deploy your applications: