Infrastructure is simple and easy with a “private cloud”
A month ago, Cisco, NetApp and Microsoft announced the development of collaborative cloud platforms as part of the Hyper-V Cloud FastTrack initiative. This initiative is designed to bring together hardware manufacturers and the Microsoft cloud platform in order to build such solutions as quickly and easily as possible.
Let's now take a closer look at the components of this solution in the performance of NetApp and Cisco. The solution is built on a flexible unified architecture (Unified Architecture). As a rule, the main components of the Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track solution - in terms of hardware - are the following elements:
1) x64-server architecture (It is recommended to pick up several identical server nodes and merge them into a cluster)
2) data storage systems (it is desirable that these systems have virtualization capabilities of disk space)
3) communication equipment for transmitting IP and SAN traffic (these can be either converged devices or individual devices for IP traffic and SAN traffic, respectively)
In our particular case, the scheme looks like this:
1) Cisco UCS servers - Cisco has recently entered the server market, but is actively presenting its solutions in this category. Distinctive features of these servers are optimization for voice and video transmission applications on both virtual and physical platforms. Also, technologies such as Cisco VN-Link and Cisco Extended Memory Technology allow you to simplify data transfer tasks as well as increase RAM capacity, thereby increasing the scalability of the system without unnecessary costs.
2) Unified NetApp Storage System - this component is perfectly adapted to cloud solutions, it has virtualization technology of disk space, and can simultaneously provide access via different interfaces (iSCSI, FC, FCoE) and supports various file systems (NFS, CIFS). This is a truly unified solution - you can easily place your Linux and Windows virtual machines within the same storage system, each on its own file system. Thanks to deduplication technology, the cloud infrastructure is not so “thick”, only unique data blocks are stored, all duplicate data blocks are replaced with links to unique original blocks.
3) Communication equipment Cisco UCS Fabric and Cisco Nexus - unified and converged equipment from the leader of the telecom sector. To provide reliable, fault-tolerant and dynamic cloud infrastructure, you should use solutions for working at a speed of 10 Gbit Ethernet using iSCSI or FCoE over this channel (NetApp supports both). To transfer user data, it is proposed to use switches with lower bandwidth depending on business objectives and opportunities.
We have listed all the main hardware components of the solution, now let's see what the cloud platform does from this pile of metal:
1) Microsoft Hyper-V - the hypervisor, the main component for virtualization, is part of the operating system Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. Allows you to create clustered virtualization platforms, which is an important component of the cloud platform.
2) Microsoft System Center Family - a set of products for managing, supporting and developing a heterogeneous cloud infrastructure. Consisting of a variety of products, the key are as follows:
a. System Center Virtual Machine Manager - Product for creating and managing virtual machines, virtual networks, cloud environments. Allows you to manage data storage by means of the product via SMI-S protocol. Supports various virtualization platforms: VMware, Citrix, Microsoft. It also allows you to manage the process of deploying Hyper-V on bare servers through support for BMC, iDRAC, SMASH protocols. Also responsible for the virtualization server update processes.
b. System Center Operations Manager is a product for optimizing performance and supporting IT infrastructure. When integrating with SCVMM, you can use the PRO functionality of the cloud platform, namely, monitor the load of virtual machines, optimize their placement depending on the load, manage power consumption by disabling redundant server nodes.
c. System Center Data Protection Manager is a product that is responsible for backing up and restoring IT infrastructure components. Works with both physical and virtual components. Supports complete online copying of all Microsoft products (SQL, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync). Closely integrated with NetApp storage, allowing instant and reliable backups.
d. System Center Service Manager is a service desk system that integrates closely with the rest of the System Center components and allows you to automate routine tasks through requests to the service desk. Allows you to implement the work of IT services in accordance with ITIL and MOF.
e. System Center Orchestrator (Opalis) is a product of building and automating IT processes within an infrastructure. It is a key component for integrating solutions and solving tasks of automating routine processes that are present in any IT service (creating new virtual machines, launching backup or recovery when a certain event occurs, etc.)
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All these components together form a cloud. Whether it will be private or public depends on you and your tasks: you can provide your enterprise with high-quality, reliable, flexible and fast IT infrastructure or provide high-quality service for third-party users, implement various cloud solutions - IaaS, SaaS and others.
In Russia, so far there are few such solutions due to the novelty of cloud platforms. But, despite the novelty, some companies are already preparing and are ready to demonstrate similar solutions today. See how the Microsoft cloud platform works, based on Cisco and NetApp equipment, you can at the Microtest test center. The company has a private cloud deployed based on the products of the System Center 2012 family. This product family is still in Beta state, but at the end of 2011 the final product version will be presented. However, today there is an opportunity to try and test in practice what they will literally use tomorrow.
Let's now take a closer look at the components of this solution in the performance of NetApp and Cisco. The solution is built on a flexible unified architecture (Unified Architecture). As a rule, the main components of the Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track solution - in terms of hardware - are the following elements:
1) x64-server architecture (It is recommended to pick up several identical server nodes and merge them into a cluster)
2) data storage systems (it is desirable that these systems have virtualization capabilities of disk space)
3) communication equipment for transmitting IP and SAN traffic (these can be either converged devices or individual devices for IP traffic and SAN traffic, respectively)
In our particular case, the scheme looks like this:
1) Cisco UCS servers - Cisco has recently entered the server market, but is actively presenting its solutions in this category. Distinctive features of these servers are optimization for voice and video transmission applications on both virtual and physical platforms. Also, technologies such as Cisco VN-Link and Cisco Extended Memory Technology allow you to simplify data transfer tasks as well as increase RAM capacity, thereby increasing the scalability of the system without unnecessary costs.
2) Unified NetApp Storage System - this component is perfectly adapted to cloud solutions, it has virtualization technology of disk space, and can simultaneously provide access via different interfaces (iSCSI, FC, FCoE) and supports various file systems (NFS, CIFS). This is a truly unified solution - you can easily place your Linux and Windows virtual machines within the same storage system, each on its own file system. Thanks to deduplication technology, the cloud infrastructure is not so “thick”, only unique data blocks are stored, all duplicate data blocks are replaced with links to unique original blocks.
3) Communication equipment Cisco UCS Fabric and Cisco Nexus - unified and converged equipment from the leader of the telecom sector. To provide reliable, fault-tolerant and dynamic cloud infrastructure, you should use solutions for working at a speed of 10 Gbit Ethernet using iSCSI or FCoE over this channel (NetApp supports both). To transfer user data, it is proposed to use switches with lower bandwidth depending on business objectives and opportunities.
We have listed all the main hardware components of the solution, now let's see what the cloud platform does from this pile of metal:
1) Microsoft Hyper-V - the hypervisor, the main component for virtualization, is part of the operating system Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. Allows you to create clustered virtualization platforms, which is an important component of the cloud platform.
2) Microsoft System Center Family - a set of products for managing, supporting and developing a heterogeneous cloud infrastructure. Consisting of a variety of products, the key are as follows:
a. System Center Virtual Machine Manager - Product for creating and managing virtual machines, virtual networks, cloud environments. Allows you to manage data storage by means of the product via SMI-S protocol. Supports various virtualization platforms: VMware, Citrix, Microsoft. It also allows you to manage the process of deploying Hyper-V on bare servers through support for BMC, iDRAC, SMASH protocols. Also responsible for the virtualization server update processes.
b. System Center Operations Manager is a product for optimizing performance and supporting IT infrastructure. When integrating with SCVMM, you can use the PRO functionality of the cloud platform, namely, monitor the load of virtual machines, optimize their placement depending on the load, manage power consumption by disabling redundant server nodes.
c. System Center Data Protection Manager is a product that is responsible for backing up and restoring IT infrastructure components. Works with both physical and virtual components. Supports complete online copying of all Microsoft products (SQL, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync). Closely integrated with NetApp storage, allowing instant and reliable backups.
d. System Center Service Manager is a service desk system that integrates closely with the rest of the System Center components and allows you to automate routine tasks through requests to the service desk. Allows you to implement the work of IT services in accordance with ITIL and MOF.
e. System Center Orchestrator (Opalis) is a product of building and automating IT processes within an infrastructure. It is a key component for integrating solutions and solving tasks of automating routine processes that are present in any IT service (creating new virtual machines, launching backup or recovery when a certain event occurs, etc.)
')
All these components together form a cloud. Whether it will be private or public depends on you and your tasks: you can provide your enterprise with high-quality, reliable, flexible and fast IT infrastructure or provide high-quality service for third-party users, implement various cloud solutions - IaaS, SaaS and others.
In Russia, so far there are few such solutions due to the novelty of cloud platforms. But, despite the novelty, some companies are already preparing and are ready to demonstrate similar solutions today. See how the Microsoft cloud platform works, based on Cisco and NetApp equipment, you can at the Microtest test center. The company has a private cloud deployed based on the products of the System Center 2012 family. This product family is still in Beta state, but at the end of 2011 the final product version will be presented. However, today there is an opportunity to try and test in practice what they will literally use tomorrow.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/123376/
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