Chapter 3: Automated self-service and catalogue service. Topics covered: 3.1 Datacenter architecture. 3.2 Iaas and its rental cost

Transcription

1 1 Chapter 3: Automated self-service and catalogue service Topics covered: 3.1 Datacenter architecture 3.2 Iaas and its rental cost 3.3 Cloud web access architecture 3.4 Service catalogue 3.5 Change instances 3.6 Use of service templates 3.7 Workflow 3.8 VMware vcenter Orchestrator

2 2 Datacentres A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. The Google Data Centre is shown here: There are two main types of data centres architectures Traditional and Cloud. Traditional Datacenter Architecture The traditional enterprise datacenter is built by adding more compute, more storage and more networking when needed. They (compute resources) are scaled individually. It is slow and very labour intensive, but it has been done for so many years that it has become part of our normal practice. It always incorporate excess capacity upfront because subsequent expansion of power and cooling capacity is extremely difficult and costly. This has resulted in higher upfront capital costs and an inefficient data centre.

3 3 Purpose-built Cloud Datacenter In a cloud environment, PODs or containers of compute, network and storage are used in the form of a resource pool. A point of delivery, or PoD, is "a module of network, compute, storage, and application components that work together to deliver networking services. To grow and increase its capabilities, physical resources are added and then logically carved out using software. These PODs are pre-built and pre-tested. They are added and you connect them and then use your orchestration tools to integrate the newly added resources. The cloud approach is elastic, in that you can very easily add resources and increase capabilities. A hypervisor or virtual machine monitor (VMM) is computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is called a host machine, and each virtual machine is called a guest machine. Management Layer Virtual Hypervisor Layer Physical

4 4 Comparison of Traditional and Cloud Data Centres Traditional Corporate Data Centre Mixed types of hardware environment Multiple management tools Frequent application patching and updating Complex workloads Multiple software architectures Cloud Data Centre (Better) Homogeneous (similar type) hardware environment Standardized management tools Minimal application patching and updating Simple workloads Single standard software architecture A Cloud data centre, is much simpler to organize and operate scales well can be expanded easily eliminates wasteful over-sizing tendency, because its standardized, modular architecture makes adding or reducing capacity to meet real-world, dynamic demand much easier. TCO (total cost of ownership) savings of 30% compared to a typical oversized data centre operating today. Business is about money, and costs need to be kept low. A business that has a TCO of S$1 million would save about $300K at 30% savings. Some IaaS providers are: Amazon AWS. DigitalOcean. Microsoft Azure. Rackspace Open Cloud. Google Compute Engine. HP Enterprise Converged Infrastructure. IBM SmartCloud Enterprise. Green Cloud Technologies.

5 5 IaaS service and its rental cost IaaS means Infrastructure as a Service. IaaS providers maintain the equipment, while users rent or buy the specific services that they need. Characteristics of IaaS: Resources are distributed as a service Allows for dynamic scaling (expansion as and when needed) Has a variable cost, utility pricing model (Charging based on usage) Generally includes multiple users on a single piece of hardware (multitenancy) There is an overabundance of IaaS providers out there from the largest Cloud players like Amazon Web Services and Rackspace to more boutique regional players. Rental costs used in IaaS deployment: When you purchase server and storage resources using IaaS services, you gain immediate virtual access to the resources you need. This concept of renting is an essential element of cloud computing, and it provides the foundation for the cost and scalability benefits of the various cloud models. Although you might not charge each user to access a resource, in the charge-back model, you can allocate usage fees to an individual department based on usage over a week, month, or year. Because of the flexibility of the IaaS model, you can charge more to heavy users. Example of charges: $5/month 512MB Memory, 1Core processor, 20GB SSD disk, 1TB transfer $10/month 1GB Memory, 1 Core processor, 30GB SSD disk, 2TB transfer $20/month 2GB Memory, 2 Core processor, 40GB SSD disk, 3TB transfer Licensing charges: For businesses, software bought can include licensing, such as 10 licenses for installation on 10 PCs. More PCs needed, high costs. Depending on IaaS provider, licensing is for the software you want to run in your cloud environment, not the license between you and the cloud provider. Some IaaS and software providers have created a bring your own license (BYOL) plan so you have a way to use your software license in both traditional and cloud environments.

6 6 Another option is called pay as you go (PAYG), which generally integrates the software licenses with the on-demand infrastructure services. For example, say that you re running Microsoft Windows Server and using the PAYG route. If you re paying ten cents an hour for cloud access, a few cents of that fee might be going to Microsoft. Metering and costs: IaaS providers charge users based on the instance of computing consumed. An instance is defined as the CPU power and the memory and storage space consumed in an hour. When the instance is initiated the charges start and ends when the instance is terminated and removed, and you no longer receive charges. In addition to the basic per-instance charge, your IaaS provider may include charges such as the following (keep in mind that charges can change daily): Storage: A per-gigabyte (GB) charge for the persistent storage of data. Data transfer: A per-gb charge for data transfers. Optional services: Charges for services such as reserved IP addresses, virtual private network (VPN), advanced monitoring capabilities, or support services. Here are the typical billing options: Pay as you go: Users are billed for the resources used based on instance pricing. Reserved pricing: Users are billed an upfront fee, depending on the instance type, and then billed at a discounted hourly usage rate. For some companies, this provides the best rates. Trial use: Some IaaS providers, such as Amazon, offer free usage tiers that allow users to try before they buy. Service Level Agreement (SLA): SLAs are expectations among two or more parties regarding service quality, priorities, and responsibilities. Cloud based SLA is different from the traditional SLA because factors like delivery model and services comes into play.

7 7 The Cloud Standards Customer Council views cloud SLAs as written expectations for service between cloud consumers and providers. It provides guidance to decision makers on what to expect and what to be aware of as they evaluate and compare end user SLAs from cloud computing provider. Cloud web access architecture How you interact with your cloud will depend on many factors, including the provider you use. There are a number of development tools that allow you to build your applications, and several browser options, that you can use to access those applications. In this chapter we ll take a closer look at the tools you can use to connect with the cloud. Tool 1 - Web Application Framework: A web application framework is used to support the development of dynamic web sites, web applications, and web services. Framework is to reduce the overhead that comes with common activities in web development. For instance, frameworks provide libraries that are already written so the developer doesn t have to reinvent the wheel every time a web site is developed. Tool 2 - AJAX: AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It is a technique used for creating interactive web applications, that can retrieve data (updates) from the server asynchronously, without interfering with the display and behaviour of the current web page. Tool 3 - Web Hosting Service: A web hosting service offers your disk space to host your webpages and applications for your website. It is also known as cloud provider. This is the organization that will host your data.

8 8 Example: The Azure Services Platform is Microsoft s cloud solution that spans from the cloud to the enterprise data centre. Further, it delivers content across the PC, web, and phone. The platform combines cloud-based developer capabilities with storage, computational, and networking infrastructure services, all hosted on servers operating within Microsoft s global datacentre network. This provides developers with the ability to deploy applications in the cloud or on-premises and enables experiences across a broad range of business and consumer scenarios. The Azure Services Platform provides developers with the ability to create applications while taking advantage of their existing skills, tools, and technologies such as the Microsoft.NET Framework and Visual Studio Tool 4 Choosing Web Applications You have tons of options when it comes to finding online applications. Your provider may have a stable of premade applications that you can use. Much of your decisionmaking process will come down to your provider and what they offer. For instance, Google offers a slew of applications geared toward productivity. We ll talk about some of those applications in a bit, but what if your provider doesn t offer an application that you want? It may be that someone else has already created the application and it s simply a matter of using what they have created. If you don t see an application that you want, ask your service provider they may have it offline somewhere or they can point you to it. Sample Applications - Google have a slate of apps that are targeted right toward the enterprise. Google Apps, launched as a free service in August 2006, is a suite of applications that includes, Gmail webmail services Google Calendar shared calendaring Google Talk instant messaging and Voice Over IP Start Page for creating a customizable home page on a specific domain Google also offers a premium service called Google Apps Premier Edition. Google Apps Premier Edition has the following unique features: Per-user storage of 10GBs APIs for business integration, APIs for data migration, user provisioning, single sign-on, and mail gateways enable businesses to further customize the service for unique environments. Support for critical issues 24/7 Advertising optional Advertising is turned off by default, but businesses can choose to include Google s relevant target-based ads if desired. Simple and affordable annual fee (US$50 per user account per year) makes it practical to offer these applications to everyone in the organization. Multiple employees can securely work on a document at the same time. All revisions are recorded for editing, and administrative controls allow organizations to define limits on document sharing

9 9 Tool 5 - APIs API stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a set of programming instructions and standards for accessing a web-based program. Software companies release their APIs to the public so that other software developers can design products that are powered by its service. APIs allow one program to speak with another without the user having to be involved. For instance, when you buy something on Amazon and enter your credit card information, Amazon uses an API to send your credit card information to a remote application that verifies whether your information is correct. As a user, all you saw was the place to enter your credit card information, but behind the scenes, APIs were getting the job done.

10 10 Tool 6 - Service catalogue The service catalogue is the key to automated provisioning and deployment. The service catalogue defines in detail all services (servers, services and applications) public and private that are available to business users. It must be kept up to date so that users always have a clear picture of the available resources. The particular implementation of both the public and private clouds needs to be closely aligned with the organization s goals. Service Catalogue Design and Implementation consists of 4 stages: Step 1: Create Service Definition: Creating a clear definition for each service is the first step in designing and implementing the service catalogue. A typical service definition may include the following elements: Service name Service description Features and options Service levels Service response or service fulfilment timeframes Service prices Service billing units of measure Step 2: Define Service Request: After creating a service definition, the next step is to define the form used to request the service. Step 3: Define Fulfilment Process: After creating the service request, the next step is to define the process that fulfils delivery of the service. After the service fulfilment process is defined, it is implemented using the interactive automation predefined workflows.

11 11 Step 4: Publish the Service The final step is to publish the service catalogue to users. Before publishing, it is good practice to perform usability and performance testing, taking into consideration the types and levels of users within the corporate structure, the roles that users have in their business units, and organizational policies. After the service is published, it becomes available to users on a self-service web-based interface Tool 7 - Change instances A Change instance is a former request by a customer to modify the services after the instance has started. IT Orchestration software is the heart of the Cloud based automation management process. It will provide IT administrators with provisioning and automation capabilities to support change instance in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This behind- the-scene automation makes it easier to do business with IT, and enable IT administrators to facilitate a better end - user experience when a chance instance request is initiated As Shown in the figure below the whole automation and management process involves the following: Provisioning Request Create change request Reserve IP address Build virtual machine Configure virtual machine OS customization Register asset Update change request Send notification Typical Cloud Based Management Process Provisioning Request Create change Reserve IP Address Build Virtual Machine Configuratio n of VM OS Customizatio Register Asset Update Change Send Notification

12 12 Tool 8 - Service Templates A service template defines the configuration of a service. It includes information about the virtual machines that are deployed as part of the service, which applications to install on the virtual machines, and the networking configuration needed for the service. It is possible to add virtual machine templates, network configuration, applications and storage in a single container. A workflow composed of tasks as nodes, and task dependencies as directed edges. Directed edges connect the predecessor task with its successor task. A task can only start its execution after its predecessor has finished its own execution as shown below. Workflow templates, use a specific workflow. is executed on a workflow management system that takes care of the individual tasks progress and dependencies. are modelled independently of specific resources (because new resources can be established or existing ones can be omitted or blocked) Workflow instances follow the behaviour of their assigned workflow template for a particular incident. It is comparable to a program s execution Workflows in Clouds

13 13 Self-provisioning User self-provisioning, also known as cloud self-service, is a system that allows end users to set up and launch applications and services in a cloud computing environment without the direct intervention of an IT organization or a service provider. It can be used in public, private and hybrid cloud scenarios.the cloud provider may have its own back-end system for self-provisioning, or engage a third-party provider partnering with the cloud provider. Many self-provisioning portals are normally paired with a service catalogue. The IT organization can establish several back-end policies that automatically assign compute, storage and network resources to support the applications in a service catalogue, along with specific security and performance settings. Benefits: Accelerate the delivery of IT services by giving consumers direct access to customizable service catalogues and virtual assets through role-based web portals. Drastically reduce provisioning and approval times. Self-service consumers no longer hoard services as they can be more readily consumed. VMware vcenter Orchestrator (software) This software is an automation engine that helps automate the cloud, and integrate the VMware vcloud Suite with the rest of your management systems. It provides a user-friendly designer to customize workflows based on your business processes and needs. Launch complex workflows directly from the vsphere Web client. It comes packaged with a production ready virtual appliance or directly on Windows server. Includes vast libraries of pre-defined workflows and many additional VMware and 3rd party plug-ins that can be downloaded Orchestration, saves time, removes manual errors, reduces operating expenses, and simplifies IT management.

14 14 Automate Complex Workflows The workflow engine is delivered as a production-ready virtual appliance and accessible directly from within the vsphere Client, allowing you to quickly integrate vsphere with other VMware solutions such as vcloud Director, vcenter Update Manager, vcenter Chargeback Manager, and vcenter Configuration Manager. Integration with vsphere Web Client The newly redesigned vsphere Web Client allows IT administrators and operators to launch pre-built and custom workflows from a single UI, thereby simplifying operations. Additionally, users can use the vcenter Orchestrator REST API to execute workflows. Develop Workflows with Workflow Designer With an easy-to-use interface and the ability to develop workflows with a few short clicks users can: Easily drag and drop actions and workflows to automate complex processes. Accelerate IT operations by using pre-built workflows to automate tasks and actions. Install as Virtual Appliance The virtual appliance (Linux based, everything has been configured) significantly reduces the time and skill required to deploy vcenter Orchestrator and provides a low-cost alternative to the traditional Windows-based installation. Connect with an Open and Flexible Plug-in Architecture VMware vcenter Orchestrator allows you to automate server provisioning and operational tasks across both VMware and third-party applications. These plug-ins provide hundreds of out-of-the-box workflows to help you both accelerate and dramatically reduce the cost of delivering IT services across your organization.

15 15 In addition to plug-ins included with the vcenter Orchestrator, the latest plug-ins can be found on the VMware Solutions Exchange. Partners can also leverage the vcenter Orchestrator Plug-In Software Development Kit to quickly create custom plug-ins to their management systems. Features for Automated Cloud Management & IT Service Delivery The following details the features of VMware vcenter Orchestrator. Cloud-ready. vcenter Orchestrator provides 100% coverage of the vsphere and vcloud Director APIs, and is integrated with other VMware solutions such as vcloud Director, vcenter Update Manager, vcenter Chargeback Manager, and vcenter Configuration Manager. vcenter Orchestrator virtual appliance significantly reduces the time and skills required to deploy and provides a low-cost alternative to the traditional Windows-based installation. Distributed as an OVF (Open Virtual Machine Format), it is pre-built and pre-configured with all of the components included in the regular Windows-based installation, along with the flexibility to use either the pre-built directory services and database, or to use external ones like Active Directory or Oracle. Workflow engine. Allow workflows creation from custom building blocks initiated by the user or by utilizing the plug-ins from Orchestrator or the Solutions Exchange. Workflow designer. Enables users to drag workflow elements and align them together to produce simple or complex workflows. Available on Windows, Linux, and Mac, the redesigned interface allows you to build complex automation routines with just a few clicks. Built-in workflow library. Designed for system administrators, the Orchestrator library of workflows contains tasks that solve specific daily challenges and performs actions common to the administrator. Scripting engine. The JavaScript based scripting engine provides a way to create new building blocks for the vcenter Orchestrator platform.

16 16 Versioning. All vcenter Orchestrator workflows have an associated version history, packaging and roll-back capabilities, which allows basic change management when distributing processes to different project stages and locations. Check-pointing. Especially useful for long-running processes, each step in the workflow is saved in a content database, which allows for server restarts without losing state and context. Policy engine. The built in policy engine allows monitoring external events to launch appropriate workflows in response to infrastructures failures or state changes. Security. Orchestrator provides the following advanced security functions: o Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to sign and encrypt content imported and exported between servers o Digital Rights Management (DRM) to control how exported content might be viewed, edited and redistributed o Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypted communications between the desktop client and the server and HTTPS access to the Web front end, and o Advanced access rights management to provide control over access to processes and the objects manipulated by these processes Robust performance and scalability to execute hundreds or thousands of concurrent workflows on single or distributed architectures. REST API. vcenter Orchestrator provides REST API to enable other applications to execute workflows.

17 17 Configuring vcenter Orchestrator Once the vco has been installed, you can Start the VMware vcenter Orchestrator Configuration service and then point your browser to the host s IP on port Example: Step 1: Logging it to the vco page. vco Login Page The default username and password to log in is vmware. Below are some useful links to further enhance your understanding of the vcenter Orchestrator and Workflow functionality > Overview > How to configure > How to run a workflow

18 18 Successful configured component Successful configured component vco Navigation Menu Note: You will see green dots or red triangles in the left nav menu. The green dot indicates a successfully configured component whereas the red triangle indicates an error or an item that has not yet been configured. error Status Indicators Step 2: Setting Network Specify the network settings. In the drop down list, select the appropriate IP address for use with vco. Next, enter the FQDN of the machine where vco is installed and accept the specified default ports and click apply changes. Step 3: Configuring LDAP

19 19 The next step is to configure LDAP. You should first verify your directory services information before continuing with the LDAP configuration. You should also create a new AD group specific for vco Administrators. In this example we created one called vcoadmins. You will need to specify a vco Admin group during the LDAP configuration. Navigate to the LDAP section and select your LDAP client from the drop down list. Select the appropriate LDAP client (Active Directory here) and enter the name of your Primary LDAP host (domain controller). If you have another domain controller to use, you can add that to the Secondary LDAP host field. Leave the default LDAP port unless you have something different going on in your environment. You then need to specify the root element of your LDAP service. As you can see, this example is using dc=homelab,dc=local. This example is not using SSL or a GC so those options stay unchecked. Enter the user name and password of a domain account that has browsing privileges in the directory. This account will be used by vco to connect to the LDAP service. vco LDAP Config - Part 1 The next to lookup base boxes are for users and groups. These are the containers that vco will use to look up users and groups in the directory. The next field is where you will specify the vco Admin group that you created earlier. Members of this group will have administrative privileges to vco. Accept the defaults for the remaining options.

20 20 vco LDAP Config - Part 2 Step 4: Configuring the Database The next section is where you configure the database. If you have not done so already, you will need to create a new database for use with vco. This example uses MS SQL Server 2008 and created a new database called vco. Note: Remember which databases are supported for use with vco. VMware provides support for MS SQL and Oracle, as well as experimental support for MySQL and Postgres. You need to specify the connection details for the database. For this you will need the user name and password for a SQL account that has dbo privileges. You will also need the hostname or IP address of the database server and the port. Lastly, you will need to enter the name of the database and if there is an instance name and a domain. After you specify this information, you will see a confirmation status in red in the upper left. If the database configuration was successful, you will need to click on the Install database link.

21 21 vco Database After you configure the database, you ll need to install the Server Certificate. Click on the Server Certificate link and then select Create Certificate database and selfsigned server certificate link. Enter data in all of the fields and then click on the Create link. If the certificate create is successful, you will see the confirmation status in green in the upper left. Step 5: Connecting to vcenter Server Click on the License link and select the option to Use vcenter Server license. Enter the name of your vcenter Server host, port 443 for SSL, and select the Secure channel box. Use /sdk for the path if it s not already entered. Then enter the username and password of an account that can connect to vcenter. It should look

22 22 like this when configured: vco Licensing Navigate to the Plug-ins section. This section is where you will go to add future plugins to vco. Enter the username and password of a user in the vco Admins group and then click apply changes.

23 23 vco Plug-ins After configuring the plug-ins, click on the vcenter 4.X link to configure the connection to vcenter Server. Select Available in the drop down list. Then enter the FQDN of the vcenter host and leave port at the default of 443. Select the Secure channel box and leave the path with the default of /sdk. Specify the credentials for the administrator session and select the Session per user: option. vco vcenter Config Test the connectivity to the vcenter Server by clicking on the Connection test link. Enter the username and password and click OK to test the connection.

24 24 vco vcenter Verification The last step in the configuration process is to install the vco service. Click on the Startup options link and then select the Install vco server as a service link. After the service is installed, you will see a confirmation status in the upper left at which point you can click Start service. vco Service This concludes the installation and configuration of vcenter Orchestrator. > How to configure Orchestrator

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