Glossary

The words Nops uses, in the docs, the dashboard, and the code. If another page disagrees with this one, this page wins. Code-only terms are in development.

Words shared with Nomad

Word	In Nops	In Nomad
deployment	One attempt to bring a job to a spec, tracked by Nops.	The rolling update Nomad runs after a register: write Nomad deployment.
job	A Nomad job. Qualify it: live job, target job, hook job, dispatched job.	The same.
version	The Nops build (v0.1.0): write Nops version.	A job's version: write job version.
stop	Deregister without purge.	The same.

Jobs and specs

Term	Meaning
live job	The job as it is in Nomad now.
spec	A job's HCL as Nomad parses it. The target spec is the one in git.
spec hash	Identifies what a deployment does: the target spec plus its hooks.
target job	The job a deployment is about.
managed namespace	A namespace in -nomad-namespaces.
managed job	A job with nops_managed = "true".
policy	auto, approval or none: who gives the go-ahead (policies).
drift	A difference between the target spec and the live job.

Deployment lifecycle

Term	Meaning
detection	Comparing git with Nomad and creating, superseding, or revalidating deployments. One pass is a detection cycle.
active deployment	One not in a terminal state.
terminal state	completed, failed, rejected or superseded (deployment lifecycle).
actor	Who did something: a user name, a token's name, or nops for Nops itself.
supersede	Replace a deployment that hasn't started applying with a newer one.
revalidation	Re-checking every pending deployment on each detection cycle.
blocked drift	Drift Nops doesn't redeploy after a failure or a rejection.
hold	Something that keeps Nops from starting a deployment for a job: a pause or a closed sync window.
sync window	When an auto job may deploy on its own (policies).
deploy now	A person deploying a job held by its sync window once, without waiting for the window to open.
sync state	Where a job stands against git, in one word (dashboard).
orphan	A job Nops deployed that is gone from git but still runs in Nomad (architecture).
apply	The register of the target spec, after a fresh plan.
promotion wait	An apply waiting for someone to promote its canaries.
CAS	Compare-and-set: Nomad registers only if the job's modify index is the one Nops read.
event	A row of a deployment's audit log.

Access control

See access control.

Term	Meaning
token	What a request to Nops carries: a public accessor ID and a secret.
management token	A token that can do everything.
client token	A token that can do what its ACL policies allow.
bootstrap token	The management token in -acl-bootstrap-token-file.
ACL policy	A named set of rules that grants capabilities. Never shortened to policy, which is a job's.
binding rule	What a login gets: it matches the login's claims and binds an ACL policy or management.
session token	The token a login creates.
capability	One thing an ACL policy allows, such as approve.

Hooks

See hooks.

Term	Meaning
hook	A job Nops runs before (pre) or after (post) an apply.
hook job	The parameterized batch job in git marked nops_role = "hook".
hook revision	A hook job at one exact spec, registered in Nomad under a name with its hash.
frozen hook	A hook as the deployment saw it when created.
dispatched job	The job Nomad creates for a run of a hook job.
dispatch meta	The nops_* values Nops passes to a hook.
hook run	One run of one hook for one deployment.