Legal Notice: This document contains privileged and/or confidential information and may not be disclosed, distributed or
reproduced without the prior written permission of EPAM®.
EPAM Cloud Infrastructure
Orchestrator ver.2.1.96
What’s New
May 2017
CI2WN-S93-96
Version 1.0
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 2
CONTENT
1 Overview ................................................................................................................................................ 3
2 Infrastructure updates: Great Migration Goes On ................................................................................. 4
United States: EPAM-US to EPAM-US2 ............................................................................................... 4
3 EO Open-Sourcing: Maestro Python SDK for Orchestrator .................................................................. 5
4 Hybrid Cloud: Deep Dive to Google ...................................................................................................... 6
4.1 Custom Images are Supported ...................................................................................................... 6
4.2 Platform Services on Google ......................................................................................................... 7
Auto-Configuration Service ............................................................................................................ 7
Log Aggregation and Monitoring Services ..................................................................................... 8
5 Reporting and Monitoring ...................................................................................................................... 9
5.1 Low Utilization Reports with Chef .................................................................................................. 9
5.2 Resource Reporting by Owner..................................................................................................... 10
6 Maestro CLI Improvements ................................................................................................................. 11
7 Knowledge Sharing.............................................................................................................................. 12
7.1 EPAM Cloud on Information Resources ...................................................................................... 12
7.2 Documentation Updates .............................................................................................................. 12
Table of Figures........................................................................................................................................... 13
Version history ............................................................................................................................................. 14
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 3
1 OVERVIEW
EPAM Orchestrator Framework version 2.1.96 was released on May 20, 2017. This time, a lot of actual
work has actually been done “behind the scenes” with the aim to stabilize the existing functionality,
improve the performance, increase the usability of certain features. At the same time, there are some
important things we would like to point out:
- The EPAM Cloud infrastructure is gradually migrating to OpenStack, and in this release we
announce decommissioning of EPAM-US region and its replacement with EPAM-US2
- Integration with Google Cloud Platform has been further enhanced by implementing image
management options and the most commonly used platform services
- EPAM Orchestrator has made one more step to open-sourcing its code – the Python SDK has
been developed from scratch and its basic scope has been published for the EPAM community
- In addition to generating low utilization notifications for AWS instances, EPAM Cloud now
sends the same notifications for instances running in EPAM private regions to help you keep
better control over your infrastructure
- The EPAM Cloud Terms and Conditions have been revised to reflect the service changes and
enhancements, particularly, those concerning integration with Google Cloud Platform and default
quotas for AWS
See the EPAM Cloud documentation and online resources for detailed description of all available features
and services. Refer to the EPAM Cloud website for detailed information on the improvements and
features introduced in Orchestrator version 2.1.96.
You can always find the latest Cloud news in our Yammer group. Also, visit our blog where you can find
our latest Cloud-related articles. This time, we have published two articles on the education possibilities
related to Cloud and on the most common Cloud myths.
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 4
2 INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATES: GREAT MIGRATION GOES ON
UNITED STATES: EPAM-US TO EPAM-US2
It’s been a while since EPAM Cloud started its migration to
OpenStack. The process includes introduction of the totally new
regions (such as EPAM-IN1), as well as gradual migration of the
existing regions to the new virtualization platform.
EPAM-US region is one of the subjects for such migration. Several
months ago, we suspended the creation of new resources there, and
now we are ready to decommission the region completely on July 31.
Before this date, we recommend all projects where EPAM-US is used to move their workloads to EPAM-
US2 region. All projects active in EPAM-US have been automatically activated in EPAM-US2 to make your
migration smoother.
The region has the following specifics:
OpenStack-based
Billing coefficient: 0.6 (as opposed to 0.9 in EPAM-US)
Shapes up to 5XL (8CPU, 30GB RAM)
SSD is available and is provided by the same price as HDD
The recommended way to move to the new region is creating new resources in EPAM-US2 and moving
your data there.
In exceptional cases only, you can submit a support request for migrating your existing VMs. Please note:
the process is quite complicated and time-consuming due to the difference in the virtualization types on
EPAM-US and EPAM-US2. Before submitting the request, please review your resources and remove those
that are not necessary on your project.
In case you have any questions on the migration and your resources availability, feel free to address EPAM
Cloud Support team any time (24/7).
The support team will also contact the affected projects separately in the nearest time.
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 5
3 EO OPEN-SOURCING: MAESTRO PYTHON SDK FOR
ORCHESTRATOR
This is an amazing example of cooperation with colleagues from another project
working on the DEP Infrastructure Platform. Their goal is to develop a way of
automating DEP infrastructure and CI/CD setup to reduce time and effort required for
configuring the environment. They use Ansible as the auto-configuration tool with
Molecule as the means of testing Ansible roles. While testing Ansible playbooks, the team has to be sure
that they will perform correctly under different cloud providers and on different platforms – AWS, Microsoft
Azure, OpenStack, etc. And here the logical solution was to adapt their methods to EPAM Orchestrator, as
it provides unified management for all integrated virtualizators – there is no need to create a separate
version for each virtualizator when you can create just one for EPAM Cloud and run testing instances in
different regions.
They looked up the available Orchestrator API sources and found the generally available and continuously
maintained Maestro Java SDK which did not meet their needs. They wanted to create a tool for DevOps,
and DevOps tend to use Python, rather than Java. So, they approached the Cloud developer team to see
if there was a Python SDK as well, and there was none.
The Cloud developers started with providing just a few methods specifically required for the purposes of
their colleagues’ project. They continued working closely together with the guys from DEP making
contributions from both sides, and at one point they asked the question: “Why not make a complete Python
SDK? There are a lot of Python developers in EPAM, and if there is a special SDK, it will make their Cloud
infrastructure deployment much easier”.
This idea has evolved into a not-so-small project of creating a full Python SDK which will include the entire
Orchestrator functionality. The Python SDK will be generally available for the whole EPAM Community to
use for deployment automation.
At this point, the scope of the available Python SDK includes the basic infrastructure management
functions:
- Authorization (basic Orchestrator authorization and access to AWS/Azure/Google Management
Console)
- Instance management
- Properties and tags management
- Ansible service management
- Instance ownership and related functions (permissions, scope of access, etc.)
You can find the Python SDK in the currently available scope in the repository.
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 6
4 HYBRID CLOUD: DEEP DIVE TO GOOGLE
In the beginning of 2017, we introduced Google Cloud platform as
another external cloud now integrated with EPAM Orchestrator and
managed with native Orchestrator tools. In the initial implementation,
EPAM Orchestrator supported only the basic VM management
functionality in Google Cloud Platform, however, with each release, the
scope of infrastructure operations available in Google Cloud becomes
broader.
This time, we have also enhanced the Google Cloud integration by adding the machine image
manipulations and the support of the most common platform services.
4.1 CUSTOM IMAGES ARE SUPPORTED
Custom machine images are a convenient way of cloning your instances or storing their data without
supporting the actual machine. Now custom images are also available in Google Cloud regions.
In Google Cloud, images are managed with the same set of commands that are used for other clouds:
Creating an image:
or2-create-image –i instance_id –p project_name –r region –n image_name
–d image_description
Describing images:
or2-describe-images –p project_name –r region
Deleting an image:
or2-delete-image –p project_name –r region –i image_name
At the same time, please pay attention to the following specifics of machine image creation in Google Cloud:
- During the image creation, a disk snapshot is created and then deleted. The image is generated
from the snapshot. You can observe disk snapshot appearing and disappearing on the Google
Cloud Console if you are logged in to it
- If the original instance has additional volumes, snapshots will be created from those volumes, as
well. Unlike disk snapshots, volume snapshots remain after the image creation, as all new
instances created from such custom image will be created with the same additional volumes. You
can see volume snapshots in the Snapshots page of your Google Cloud Console. The volume
snapshots always have the ivs- prefix standing for “image volume snapshot”:
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 8
or2-chef-mode –p project –r region –m epc
This command will start a virtual machine in the selected Google Cloud region to act as a Chef server.
All other Chef-related commands, such as or2-describe-chef and or2-set-instance-properties are also
available in their full scope. For details on using Chef, see the Auto-Configuration Service page on the
EPAM Cloud website.
In addition, you can do your auto-configuration with the help of Ansible. Set up your Ansible environment
with the or2-ansible-init command as follows:
or2-ansible-init –p project –r region
After the Ansible environment is set up, you can continue with configuring Dynamic Inventory and other
related actions. For details on using Ansible, see the Auto-Configuration Service page on the EPAM Cloud
website and the Ansible User Guide providing detailed instructions on setting up and using Ansible with
EPAM Orchestrator.
Log Aggregation and Monitoring Services
EPAM Orchestrator integration with Google Cloud Platform now supports log collection using the GrayLog
service and infrastructure monitoring via Zabbix. Both services can be started with the same CLI command
that is used to start most of the platform services in EPAM Orchestrator – or2-manage-service (or2ms).
Starting the Log Aggregation Service:
or2-manage-service –p project –r region –s log --activate
Starting the Monitoring Service:
or2-manage-service –p project –r region –s monitoring --activate
In both cases, a properly configured server will be started for your project, and you can add instances to it
using the same set of commands that is used to manage Log Aggregation and Monitoring Services.
For more details on using Log Aggregation Service and Monitoring Service in EPAM Orchestrator, see the
Log Aggregation Service and Cloud Monitoring Service pages on the EPAM Cloud website.
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 9
5 REPORTING AND MONITORING
The value of Reporting and Monitoring for Cloud users cannot be overestimated, as they allow keeping
your cloud infrastructure under control. With properly set up Reporting and Monitoring, you will always know
the cost of your cloud resources, with the possibility of breaking it down be certain criteria, and will be able
to see whether your infrastructure is used in the most optimal way.
This is why we pay special attention to improving and enhancing the Orchestrator Reporting and Monitoring
functionality to make your Cloud usage the most efficient and rational.
5.1 LOW UTILIZATION REPORTS WITH CHEF
Recently, we have implemented a new analytical mechanism informing you that some of your AWS-based
resources are not utilized effectively. This mechanism monitors CPU utilization of all instances running in
AWS regions and generates a Low Utilization Report whenever a machine CPU utilization is detected to
drop below 10% and remain so for two weeks or longer. Having received such alert, you can review the
instance working schedule or take other optimization measures.
Now we have added another parameter which we are monitoring – network traffic. If the traffic drops below
5 MB per minute and remains so for two weeks or longer, together with low CPU utilization, EPAM
Orchestrator alerts the user about it.
Now such monitoring mechanism has been implemented also for EPAM regions. It gathers the Chef
monitoring data on CPU utilization and network traffic and generates an alert when the parameters are
below the threshold values. As the analytics is based on Chef data, it includes all instances having the Chef
client installed. All projects activated in EPAM private regions, have a default Chef server, which means
that all instances will have a Chef client by default, therefore, the new analytics mechanism will include all
instances running in EPAM regions.
Figure 3 - Low utilization email example
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 10
5.2 RESOURCE REPORTING BY OWNER
One of the reporting options is requesting a report by owner to retrieve data of all resources assigned to
the specified user. This option has been available for a long time already, however, in this release it has
been revised to improve its performance.
The command is now executed 4-5 times faster as compared to the previous versions. This ensures more
stable performance and also prevents command failure due to time-out.
If we mentioned the report by owner, we would like to point out one of its not-so-obvious features which
can help you get a complete picture of your infrastructure costs.
If you request a separate report for each of the AWS regions in which your project is activated, you will
receive the cost details of all resources running in this or that region. However, these reports will not show
the costs not belonging to any region and assigned to the region defined as “default for common costs”.
For example, the networking costs (the costs of traffic the instance performs) are typically assigned to the
default region for common costs and will, therefore, be missing in the reports by region.
Moreover, if you request the owner’s report for the default region for common costs, you will not find the
networking costs there, either, it will contain only the data for resources running there.
So, if you only request owner’s reports for each region separately, your total amount will not match the
actual billing for the same period, as you will never see the costs assigned to the default region for common
costs. To get the full amount, request the report without specifying the region.
or2report –p project –o [email protected] –m month –y year
This report will return costs of all resources belonging to the user in all regions, including those with no
region assigned. As the result, the same instance may have several records in the report – one for the
actual usage and several more for other services:
As you can see from the screenshot above, only the bottom record refers to the resource usage, while all
others show data traffic to and from the resource. In this case, the resource is running in the AWS-USEAST
region, while the networking costs are assigned to AWS-EUWEST which is the default region for common
costs.
The report by owner supports only two types – total and resource, with total report displayed in the console
and resource report sent to the requesting user’s email. To request a resource report, add the -t resource
option to the command:
or2report –p project –o [email protected] –m month –y year –t resource
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 11
6 MAESTRO CLI IMPROVEMENTS
The command line interface is constantly revised and updated to correspond to changes and
improvements of the Orchestrator functionality. In this release, we made minor changes to Maestro CLI:
- Administration commands were revised
- Commands and parameters related to Cloudify as a service were removed due to the service
deprecation
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 12
7 KNOWLEDGE SHARING
7.1 EPAM CLOUD ON INFORMATION RESOURCES
The Orchestrator development never stops, and we are
constantly adding, improving and changing something to achieve
the top service quality our users deserve. At the same time, we
use every opportunity to share our news with you, as such
communication, on one hand, allows you always being up to date
with the current Cloud status, and, on the other hand, provides
feedback showing us whether we are on the right track.
Visit the InfoPortal for the story about the CI/CD automation solution in Cloud. The article outlines the
general principle of creating a complete CI/CD environment in EPAM Cloud with properly integrated
components. The detailed instructions on setting up the environment are available by the link at the end of
the article.
Take some time to browse the Cloud blog where you will find two new articles:
- Continuous Education for Continuous Delivery – a brief summary of education possibilities offered
by EPAM Systems with a focus on Cloud-related education resources
- Five Myths about EPAM Cloud – did you think that EPAM Cloud has no UI? Or that it does not
support SSD storage? We tried to fill-in some gaps in the Cloud awareness which we seemed to
overlook before
7.2 DOCUMENTATION UPDATES
All changes and updates to the EPAM Orchestrator functionality are reflected in the documentation and
other EPAM Cloud resources. With the release of EPAM Orchestrator 2.1.96, the following documents were
updated:
EPAM Cloud Services Guide was updated with the information on services availability in
Google Cloud regions and the deprecation of Cloudify as a service
Maestro CLI User Guide was updated with the removal of information about Cloudify as a
service
Hybrid Cloud Guide was updated with the current information of the enhanced integration
with Google Cloud
The EPAM Cloud website was updated to reflect the current functionality
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 13
TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1 - Volume snapshots ........................................................................................................................ 7
Figure 2 - Volume snapshot details ............................................................................................................... 7
Figure 3 - Low utilization email example ....................................................................................................... 9
EPAM Cloud Orchestrator 2.1.96 - What’s New
EPAM SYSTEMS 14
VERSION HISTORY
Version Date Summary
1.0 May 20, 2017 First published
