4.3. App Center#

Univention App Center is one of the most important parts of UCS. It’s responsible for the lifecycle management of UCS components and third party applications that add enterprise software to the UCS domain. The App Center simplifies the installation and integration of software with UCS. In this respect, the App Center is similar in principle to the app stores on mobile platforms, with the difference that it applies to the server infrastructure.

Apps is short for software applications. Univention offers components for UCS as apps. And third party vendors, so-called app providers, offer software solutions as apps. Apps consist of software, integration with UCS and metadata, such as texts and logos for presentation. A central idea of the apps is the tight integration with UCS, especially the integration with identity management. For more information about app artifacts, refer to App artifacts.

Like many other product components, administrators interact with the App Center either through the web based management system or a terminal as shown in Fig. 4.4.

../_images/App-Center-architecture-component.svg — Fig. 4.4 Architecture overview of the App Center#

Abstractly speaking, the application service App Center Service offers a web interface through HTTP/HTTPS and a command line interface through Terminal / SSH.

The following list demarcates the App Center from its capabilities. The App Center isn’t:

a tool to distribute software specific to customers or projects.
a solution for every use case. It has limitations for example in large environments that require setups for a cluster or load balancing.

Think of the App Center as a global entity in the UCS domain. The App Center addresses all UCS systems. Administrators can view and install any available app.

App Center service: for the next detail level with description of the architecture of the App Center.

Univention Corporate Server 5.0 Architecture

App Center

4.3. App Center#