An environment instance is a static "snapshot" of a specific combination of component instances that you want to save and provision for each test environment. You can create any number of instances from a single environment.

For example, you might want to configure and save several Functional Testing environment configurations as well as several different Performance Testing environment configurations from a single environment. You can then rapidly switch between environments by simply selecting and provisioning different environment instances.

Working in this manner, you won’t need to manually reconfigure an environment each time you want to access it—and you’ll know that the environment is configured consistently each time you access it.

Creating an Environment Instance

To create an environment instance:

1. Open the environment upon which the instance will be based.
2. Click the Edit Diagram toolbar button to enter Edit mode.
3. Use the available controls to set the state of components that have component instances.
    
4. Choose Create New Instance from the page-level action menu then specify a name for the new instance. 
   
5. If you’re ready to make the environment instance live, click the Provision toolbar button.
   
   This sets each environment component to the state specified in its component instance. Components will remain in this state until they are changed (from CTP or from Virtualize).

Provisioning a Saved Environment Instance

To activate and provision a previously-created environment instance:

1. Open the environment that you want to provision.
2. Do one of the following:
   • In regular (not Edit) mode: Select the name of the instance you want to provision in the top right of the page. 
      
   • In Edit mode: Click the link to the desired environment instance.
     

3.  Click the Provision toolbar button.

All components will be set to the specified state. They will remain in this state until they are changed (from CTP or from Virtualize).