Deployment targets

Getting Started - Deployment Targets

With Octopus Deploy, you can deploy software to Windows servers, Linux servers, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Kubernetes clusters, cloud regions, or an offline package drop. Regardless of where you’re deploying your software, these machines and services are known as your deployment targets.

Deployment targets are defined as:

Host
Target Count Against License
Important Note
Windows Server running a Tentacle1 Target per Tentacle instanceListening Tentacles registered multiple times on the same instance will count as one (1) target.
Linux Server running a Tentacle1 Target per Tentacle instanceListening Tentacles registered multiple times on the same instance will count as one (1) target.
SSH Connection1 Target per SSH Connection
Kubernetes Cluster1 Target per Kubernetes NamespaceA namespace is required when registering the Kubernetes cluster with Octopus Deploy. By default, the namespace used in the registration is used in health checks and deployments. The namespace can be overwritten in the deployment process.
AWS ECS Cluster1 Target per ECS Cluster
Azure Web App / Function / Cloud Service1 Target per Web App / FunctionThis represents how Octopus Deploy currently counts Azure Web Apps / Functions. However, one (1) Azure Web App / Function is not equal to one (1) Linux server.
Azure Service Fabric Cluster1 Target per Cluster
Offline Package Drops1 Target per Offline Package Drop
Cloud Region0 Target per Cloud RegionCloud regions are legacy targets that pre-dated workers as a mechanism to run scripts on cloud providers. They are used today to execute scripts multiple times with variables scoped for each iteration.

Please note: Octopus will only count Windows Servers, Linux Servers, ECS Clusters, Kubernetes Clusters, etc., that are registered with an Octopus Deploy Instance. If you have 5,000 Linux Servers, and 4,000 of them are registered with Octopus Deploy, then Octopus will only count those 4,000 against your license.

You can manage your deployment targets by navigating to Infrastructure ➜ Deployment Targets in the Octopus Web Portal:

The deployment targets area of Octopus Deploy

From the Deployment Targets tab you can add new deployment targets, disable or delete deployment targets, check on the status of your targets, and run health checks.

Adding deployment targets

Deployment targets are added in different ways, depending on the type of target you are adding and how the target will communicate with the Octopus Server. For instructions, see:

Target roles

Getting Started - Machine Roles

Before you can deploy software to your deployment targets, you need to tag them with target roles. This ensures you deploy the right software to the right deployment targets. Typical target roles include:

  • web-server
  • app-server
  • db-server

Using target roles means the infrastructure in each of your environments doesn’t need to be identical and the deployment process will know which deployment targets to deploy your software to.

Deployment targets can have more than one role, and more than one deployment target can have the same role, but every deployment target must have at least one role.

Add target roles

Roles are created and saved in the database as soon as you assign them to a deployment target.

Decide on the naming convention you will use before creating your first target role as it’s not possible to change the case after the role has been created, for instance, all lowercase to camel case.

  1. Register a deployment target or click on an already registered deployment target and go to Settings.
  2. In the Target Roles field, enter the target role you’d like to use (no spaces).
  3. Save the target settings.

The role has been created and assigned to the deployment target and can be added to other deployment targets.

You can check all the roles assigned to your deployment targets from the Infrastructure tab.

Dynamic infrastructure

You can use scripts to create Azure Service Principal Accounts, Azure Web Apps, Azure Service Fabric, Azure Cloud Services and Kubernetes targets.

Learn about Managing resources with scripts.

Learn more

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Page updated on Sunday, January 1, 2023