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Tutorial: Add environments and deployments for APIs

This tutorial explains how to augment the inventory in your API center by adding information about API environments and deployments.

  • An environment represents a location where an API runtime could be deployed, for example, an API management platform.
  • A deployment is a location, or address, where users can access an API.

For more information about APIs, deployments, and other entities that you can inventory in Azure API Center, see Key concepts.

In this tutorial, you learn how to use the portal to:

  • Add information about API environments
  • Add information about API deployments

Prerequisites

Add an environment

Use your API center to keep track of your real-world API environments. For example, you might use Azure API Management or another solution to distribute, secure, and monitor some of your APIs. Or you might directly serve some APIs using a compute service or a Kubernetes cluster.

Here you add information about a fictitious Azure API Management environment to your API center. If you prefer, add information about one of your existing environments. Configure both your built-in metadata and any custom metadata that you defined in a previous tutorial.

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal, then navigate to your API center.

  2. In the sidebar menu, under Assets, select Environments > + New environment.

  3. On the New environment page, add the following information. If you previously defined the custom Line of business metadata or other metadata assigned to environments, you see them at the bottom of the page.

    Setting Value Description
    Environment title Enter My Testing. Name you choose for the environment
    Identification After you enter the preceding title, Azure API Center generates this identifier, which you can override. Azure resource name for the environment
    Environment type Select Testing from the dropdown. Type of environment for APIs
    Description Optionally, enter a description. Description of the environment
    Server
    Type Optionally, select Azure API Management from the dropdown. Type of API management solution used
    Management portal URL Optionally, enter a URL for a management interface, such as https://admin.contoso.com URL of management interface for environment
    Onboarding
    Development portal URL Optionally, enter a URL for a developer portal, such as https://developer.contoso.com URL of interface for developer onboarding in the environment
    Instructions Optionally, select Edit and enter onboarding instructions in standard Markdown. Instructions to onboard to APIs from the environment
    Line of business If you added this custom metadata, optionally make a selection from the dropdown, such as IT. Custom metadata that identifies the business unit that manages the environment

    Screenshot of adding an API environment in the portal.

  4. Select Create. The environment appears on the list of environments.

Add a deployment

API center can also help you catalog your API deployments, the runtime environments where the APIs you track are deployed.

Here you add a deployment by associating one of your APIs with the environment you created in the previous section. You configure both built-in metadata and any custom metadata that you defined.

  1. In the Azure portal, navigate to your API center.

  2. In the sidebar menu, under Assets, select APIs.

  3. Select an API, for example, the Conference API.

  4. On the Conference API page, under Details, select Deployments > + Add deployment.

  5. In the Add deployment page, add the following information. If you previously defined the custom Line of business metadata or other metadata assigned to environments, you can see them at the bottom of the page.

    Setting Value Description
    Title Enter V1 Deployment. Name you choose for the deployment
    Identification After you enter the preceding title, Azure API Center generates this identifier, which you can override. Azure resource name for the deployment
    Description Optionally, enter a description. Description of the deployment
    Environment Make a selection from the dropdown, such as My Testing, or optionally select Create new. New or existing environment where the API version is deployed
    Definition Select or add a definition file for a version of the Conference API. API definition file
    Runtime URL Enter a base URL, for example, https://api.contoso.com. Base runtime URL for the API in the environment
    Line of business If you added this custom metadata, optionally make a selection from the dropdown, such as IT. Custom metadata that identifies the business unit that manages APIs in the environment

    Screenshot of adding an API deployment in the portal.

  6. Select Create. The deployment appears on the list of deployments.

In this tutorial, you learned how to use the portal to:

  • Add information about API environments
  • Add information about API deployments

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