Digital Twins and DevOps

DevOps has been a well established software development practice. We are bringing out an experimental feature of integration DevOps in the DTaaS.

This feature requires specific installation setup.

1. Integrated gitlab installation
2. A valid gitlab repository for the logged in user. Please see an example repository. You can clone this repository and customize to your needs.
3. A linked Gitlab Runner to the user gitlab repository.

DT Lifecycle

The DT preview implements the Create, Manage and Execute stages of a DT lifecycle. The suggested sequence of use for different lifecycle stages are:

.

There are dedicated tabs for Create, Manage and Execute stages. The selection of DT assets for Create stage happens via Library preview page. The Manage tab fulfills reconfigure feature. The Execute and Terminate are managed on the Execute tab.

Create Tab

The users select reusable DT assets and arrive on the Create tab. The following figure shows DT creation page after selecting mass-spring-damper as a reusable asset for the new DT.

The left-side menu shows the possibility of creating necessary structure and elements for a new DT. Each reusable asset selected for this new DT' appears on the left menu. Its configuration can be updated as well.

These files on the left menu correspond to three categories.

• Description: contains README.md providing comprehensive description of DT and description.md providing a brief description. The brief description is shown in the DT tabs and clicking on the Details button shows the complete README.md The Details button is available only on the Manage page.
• Configuration: Contains a .gitlab-ci.yaml for running the required lifecycle scripts and operations of the DT. Additional json and yaml files can be added to create configuration for a new DT.
• Lifecycle: These are the DT lifecycle scripts.

The Add New File button can be used to add new files in all the three categories. Finally, click on SAVE button to save the new DT. Newly created DTs become immediately available on the Manage and Execute tabs.

Manage Tab

The manage tab allows for different operations on a digital twin:

• Checking the details (Details button)
• Delete (Delete button)
• Modify / Reconfigure (Reconfigure button)

A digital twin placed in the DTaaS has a certain recommended structure. Please see the assets page for an explanation and this example.

The information page shown using the Details button, shows the README.md information stored inside the digital twin directory.

A reconfigure button opens an editor and shows all the files corresponding to a digital twin. All of these files can be updated.

Execute Tab

The execute tabs shows the possibility of executing multiple digital twins. Once an execution of digital twin is complete, you can see the execution log as well.