Cloud Architect Design Tool (CADT) lets you build application architectures, deploy applications, and manage resources throughout the full lifecycle on the cloud.
Architecture management
-
Create a custom application architecture
With CADT, you can drag and drop to build your cloud application architecture. Most Alibaba Cloud products and resource packages are supported. In the top navigation bar, click New and select New Blank Application. In the product list on the left, expand the Elastic Compute category, and then drag an ECS instance into the existing region > VPC > vSwitch network structure on the canvas. Double-click a product icon to configure its parameters. Click the region title bar on the canvas to open the Single-Region Single-Zone Details panel. In the Region drop-down list, select China (Beijing).
-
Create an application architecture from the solution center
CADT offers pre-built templates for various scenarios. Select a template that matches your business type to create an application architecture in one click. In the top navigation bar of CADT, click New and select solution center from the drop-down menu to open the solution center, where you can browse and select pre-built architecture templates.
You can also use templates from the partner solution library for one-click deployments. In the top navigation bar of the CADT console, click New and select Partner Solution Library from the drop-down menu. You can view and use solution templates provided by partners, such as SQLServer2019AlwaysOn, Oracle11g-DataGuard High Availability, and CloudCanal for data migration and synchronization.
-
Create an application architecture from a custom template
You can save frequently used application architectures as custom templates for reuse. In the top navigation bar of the CADT console, click New and select custom templates from the drop-down menu. You can also share your custom templates with other users. On the custom templates page, right-click the target solution template and click Share Template from the menu that appears.
Application management
Application deployment
When you deploy an application, CADT performs these steps:
-
Resource verification
Before deployment, CADT verifies that required services are activated, parameters are complete and correct, product inventory is sufficient, and dependencies between products are configured correctly. A pop-up window lists the cloud resources to be validated, such as security groups, VSwitches, VPCs, and Elastic IP Addresses. If the verification result for all resources is Success, the overall status shows Validation successful. After you confirm, click Next: Price List.
-
Pricing
The pricing step shows the cost breakdown for each resource by billing method and generates a real-time cost analysis report. In the Export Price List pop-up window, use the tabs at the top to switch between billing methods: Free, Subscription, and Pay-as-you-go. After you select Subscription, the Resource Cost Proportions pie chart shows that compute resources account for 61.66% and network resources account for 38.34%. The Price List displays the details for each resource, including the resource name (for example, eip1-hz, ecs1-hz), resource type, region, specifications, quantity, subscription duration, list price, discount, payable amount, and status. At the bottom, you can click View Report to get a detailed report, or click Next: Confirm Order to continue.
-
Resource deployment
After you confirm the order information, you can pay for the order to start the deployment. In the confirmation pop-up window, select the Subscription tab. Confirm the resource information (ECS instance type ecs.c6.large, Elastic IP Address specification BGP, both in the China (Hangzhou) region, with a subscription duration of 1 month). Select the CADT Terms of Service checkbox, and then click Next: Pay and Create to complete the deployment.
Application versioning
CADT tracks the evolution of your architecture and the deployment history of your application, letting you compare versions and roll back to a previous state. On the application details page, the application name and a Deployment successful status are displayed at the top. The canvas shows the cloud resource topology, including the EIP, VPC, vSwitch, security group, ECS instance, and their connections. A version timeline at the bottom of the page lists all historical versions and their creation times. When you click a version, an operations panel appears on the right, allowing you to select Export Image, Create Based on This Version, Roll Back to This Version, or Edit Remarks.
Application release
After an application is deployed, you can release all of its resources at once or delete specific resources to save costs.
You can release only pay-as-you-go resources. You cannot release subscription resources. To unsubscribe from subscription resources, follow the unsubscribe rules for the corresponding product.
In the visual topology, right-click a resource and select Delete to remove it. Alternatively, click Release All Resources in the resource list to release all pay-as-you-go resources in the application.
Resource management
Resource detection
CADT detects your existing cloud resources and automatically generates an application architecture diagram for visual management. After a successful resource detection, the Select Resources to Detect pop-up window appears. You can filter resources by using the Untagged Resources checkbox or by selecting tag keys and values from the drop-down lists. The page provides two views: By Network and By Type. Under the By Network view, the Overview tab displays the resource distribution by region in a card format, for example, China (Hangzhou) 71, China (Beijing) 47, China (Shenzhen) 35, and China (Shanghai) 26. At the bottom of the page, you can find buttons for Export Report, Selected Resources, Generate Architecture Diagram, and Cancel.
Application resource planning
CADT helps you plan cloud resources across multiple regions and zones. In the Application Resource Planning pop-up window, set the region to China (Beijing), and set both the region source and VPC source to New. Configure the product type as Pay-as-you-go, the line type as BGP (Multi-ISP), the network type as Public Network, and the quantity as 1. In the ECS resource configuration, set the billing method to Pay-as-you-go, the instance type to ecs.c5.large (2 vCPUs, 4 GiB), and the system disk type to Ultra Disk. Click Calculate Available Zones, select China North 2 Zone H, set the vSwitch source to New, and then click Generate Architecture Diagram.