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Dell™ VIS Self Service Creator Release 2.0 Reference Architecture
Dell™ VIS Self Service CreatorRelease 2.0
Reference Architecture
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© Dell Inc. 2011. All rights reserved. The copyright in the documentation is held by Dell or the original creator of the material.
Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL™ logo, VIS Self-Service Creator™, Dell Precision™, OptiPlex™, Latitude™, PowerEdge™, PowerVault™, PowerConnect™, OpenManage™, KACE™, FlexAddress™ and Vostro™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Microsoft®, Windows®, Windows Server®, MS-DOS®, Windows XP®, Windows Vista®, Windows 7® and Hyper-V® are either trademarks or regis-tered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Red Hat Enter-prise Linux® and Enterprise Linux® are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Novell® is a registered trademark and SUSE ™ is a trademark of Novell Inc. in the United States and other countries. Oracle® is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Citrix®, Xen®, XenDesktop®, XenServer® and XenMotion® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Citrix in the United States and/or other countries. VMware®, Virtual SMP®, vMotion®, VirtualCenter®, vCenter®, and vSphere® are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMWare, Inc. in the United States or other countries. FlexClone is a trademark of NetApp, Inc. in the United States or other countries.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.
April, 2011
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Table of Contents
Overview ............................................................................................1
VIS Creator Solution Components .....................................................1VIS Creator Server ............................................................................................. 1
VIS Creator Agents ............................................................................................ 2
Distributed Execution Manager .......................................................................... 2
Microsoft SQL Server ......................................................................................... 2
VIS Creator Functional Diagrams ......................................................2Single Site Installation ........................................................................................ 3
Multiple Site Installation...................................................................................... 4
High Availability Installation................................................................................ 5
Reference Architectures by Scale......................................................7Small (Up to 500 Virtual Machines) .................................................................... 8
Medium (Up to 5000 Virtual Machines) .............................................................. 9
Large (Over 5000 Virtual Machines) ................................................................ 10
Large, Two Locations (Over 5000 Virtual Machines) ....................................... 12
Scalability ......................................................................................................... 13
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OverviewThis document provides reference deployment topologies used to implement Dell VIS Self-Service Cre-ator (VIS Creator) version 2.0 in different types of computing environments.
This document outlines recommended configurations for most critical elements; exact network and stor-age configuration is highly customer specific and is outside of the scope of this document.
This document presents recommended hardware and virtual hardware specifi-cations. These values do not necessarily represent minimum system require-ments for the specified deployment.
The recommended hardware specifications assume no additional optimizations were applied to the systems.
VIS Creator Solution Components
VIS Creator ServerThe VIS Creator server hosts the central VIS Creator services and the portal web server, which provides user access to VIS Creator.
The VIS Creator server includes the following components:
• Manager service
The Dell VIS Self-Service Creator service, commonly called the manager service, coordinates VIS Creator communication between VIS Creator agents, the VIS Creator database, Active Directory and SMTP.
• Repository
The Repository is used to control data access and security, communicate with the user console and with the Distributed Execution Managers using the REST interface, and manage the execu-tion and distribution of workflows and activities.
• Portal web server
The portal web server hosts the VIS Creator console, a graphical user interface that is utilized by end users to request and manage their virtual and physical machines and by administrators to configure VIS Creator, to create and maintain global elements, and to perform virtual and physi-cal machine lifecycle management activities.
• Reports web server
The reports web server makes VIS Creator reports available to users.
All of these components, with the exception of the manager service, can be installed in multiple instances to improve overall system performance.
The VIS Creator server or its components must be installed on a supported version of Microsoft Win-dows Server 2008.
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Tip: The VIS Creator server compressed log file requires on average about 5KB of disk storage space per machine per day.
VIS Creator AgentsVIS Creator proxy agents are responsible for managing the virtualization platforms on which VIS Creator provisions and manages virtual machines. Other VIS Creator agents interact with some of the external systems with which VIS Creator integrates. Generally, Dell recommends installing each agent on a ded-icated machine (physical or virtual) in the same physical location as the entity it will manage. Up to 25 agents can be installed on the same machine.
Dell does not make recommendations on the architecture or configuration of your external systems and virtualization platforms. Please follow recommenda-tions provided by the vendor for each specific platform/system.
Distributed Execution ManagerA Distributed Execution Manager (DEM) executes workflows that have been installed in the repository. Multiple DEMs can be employed for scalability, availability, distribution, and execution of a workflow by a particular DEM or set of DEMs can be specified by the configuration of execution policies within VIS Creator. DEMs also manage physical machines for VIS Creator, as well as custom integration points.
Microsoft SQL ServerVIS Creator uses a Microsoft SQL Server database to maintain information about the machines it man-ages and its own elements and policies. The SQL Server instance used by VIS Creator can be located on the VIS Creator server or on another virtual or physical system within the datacenter.
TIP: On average, VIS Creator requires about 0.5 MB of space in the database per managed machine per year (events, errors, data collections and so on).
Please note that VIS Creator is very sensitive to the performance and latency of your SQL Server instance. Dell recommends that you dedicate appropriate resources to the SQL Server host and pro-vide the fastest possible network connection between it and the VIS Creator server; a connection of at least 1GBps is recommended.
Each VIS Creator server instance can utilize only one instance of SQL Server. However, SQL mirroring can be used for disaster recovery or high availability.
VIS Creator Functional DiagramsVIS Creator is made up of modular components that can be installed on different hosts and, in some cases, the administrator can choose to install multiple instances of the same component. This imple-mentation provides greater flexibility and scalability in robust enterprise data centers.
A detailed description of VIS Creator’s components can be found in the previous sections. The following diagrams represent generic component layouts for the following situations:
• Single site installation, no high availability (HA)
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• Multiple site installation, no HA
• HA installation
In these diagrams, overlapping boxes indicate architectural components that can be installed in multiple instances.
Almost all VIS Creator elements, except for the manager service and SQL server, can run multiple instances to solve performance issues in specific con-figurations.
Currently the VIS Creator installation process must be customized to enable HA and for some scenarios in which multiple instances of the same component are installed.
Single Site InstallationThe following diagram shows VIS Creator installed at one site.
Figure 1 Functional Diagram of VIS Creator Single Site Installation
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Multiple Site InstallationThe following diagram shows VIS Creator installed at two sites. The second site has its own set of agents managing separate virtualization platforms but interacting with the same VIS Creator server (manager service) as those at the first site.
Figure 2 Functional Diagram of VIS Creator Multiple Site Installation
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High Availability InstallationVIS Creator components can be distributed within a high availability (HA) environment. The portal web server, the reports portal, and the repository can be hosted on existing Microsoft web farms that commu-nicate with the manager service and save state information to a clustered database.
Clustered servers provide active and standby manager service instances and must be installed with SQL-based authorization.
The number of hosting systems required is individually tailored for each implementation, as certain envi-ronmental constraints must be considered (that is, size of the deployment, network latency, and so on).
Microsoft SQL Server should be clustered; at a minimum, log shipping between sites should be in place. SQL mirroring can be used to provide a backup database for high availability and disaster recovery.
Figure 3 Functional Diagram of VIS Creator High Availability Installation
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The following diagram presents a layered view of VIS Creator high availability component architecture and provides ports and protocols used in the setup of the VIS Creator application.
Figure 4 VIS Creator High Availability Component Architecture
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Reference Architectures by ScaleThis section presents sample configurations for VIS Creator managing different numbers of virtual machines. In addition to the number of machines to be managed, other factors can affect design deci-sions, such as:
• Number of VIS Creator users
• Maximum expected number of concurrent user sessions
• Number of host/clusters/pools in virtualization platforms
• Geographical system topology
• Number of sites
The exact configuration of virtualization platforms (that is, number of virtual machines per host, organiza-tion of hosts and clusters/pools, and so on) must comply with the platform vendor’s specifications/recom-mendations. From VIS Creator’s point of view, the lower the number of hosts, clusters, pools and VirtualCenter instances, the less information needs to be stored and processed and the lower the amount of network communications required, improving performance and decreasing resource con-sumption.
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Small (Up to 500 Virtual Machines)In this case, all VIS Creator components with the exception of SQL Server might reside on the same server. Hosts would typically be virtual machines.
Figure 5 VIS Creator Small Reference Architecture
The following table summarizes the configuration:
Table 1 Configuration of Small Reference Architecture
Host Installed Components Specifications
A
VIS Creator manager service,
proxy agent,
portal web server,
reports web server,
repository web server,
DEM
(v)CPU: 4
Memory: 8 GB
Disk: 20 GB
Network: 1 GB/s
B Microsoft SQL Server 2008
(v)CPU: 2
Memory: 4 GB
Disk: 40 GB
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Medium (Up to 5000 Virtual Machines)In this configuration, some components are distributed over additional hosts. Depending on specific site and user requirements, SQL Server might be hosted on a physical machine. In addition, if the number of virtual machines in a VirtualCenter instance exceeds 1500, an additional proxy agent installed on a sep-arate host, but with the same configuration (including name), might be used to improve performance.
Figure 6 VIS Creator Medium Reference Architecture
The following table summarizes the configuration:
Table 2 Configuration of Medium Reference Architecture
Host Installed Components Specifications
A VIS Creator Manager Service
(v)CPU: 2
Memory: 4 GB
Disk: 20 GB
Network: 1 GB/s
B Microsoft SQL Server 2008
(v)CPU: 4
Memory: 8 GB
Disk: 40 GB
C
portal web server,
reports web server,
repository web server
(v)CPU: 4
Memory: 4 GB
Disk: 10GB
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Large (Over 5000 Virtual Machines)In this configuration, VIS Creator components are further distributed. A host has been added for an addi-tional identically-configured agent to help manage a large VirtualCenter instance (as described in the previous section) as well as a second DEM for flexibility.
Depending on specific site and user requirements, SQL Server might be hosted on a physical machine.
Figure 7 VIS Creator Large Reference Architecture
Dproxy agent,
DEM
(v)CPU: 2
Memory: 2 GB
Disk: 20GB
Host Installed Components Specifications
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The following table summarizes the configuration:
Table 3 Configuration of Large Reference Architecture
Host Installed Components Specifications
A VIS Creator manager service
(v)CPU: 2
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 20 GB
Network: 1 GB/s
B Microsoft SQL Server 2008
(v)CPU: 4
Memory: 16 GB
HD: 40 GB
C repository web server
(v)CPU: 4
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 10GB
Dportal web server,
reports web server
(v)CPU: 4
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 10GB
Eproxy agent,
DEM
(v)CPU: 2
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 20GB
Fproxy agent,
DEM
(v)CPU: 2
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 20GB
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Large, Two Locations (Over 5000 Virtual Machines)In this environment, even more VIS Creator components are distributed on different machines. Depend-ing on how large the deployment becomes, components can be scaled out even further. In some situa-tions, for example, additional web servers might also be deployed in remote sites.
Depending on specific site and user requirements, SQL Server might be hosted on a physical machine.
Figure 8 VIS Creator Large, Multiple Site Reference Architecture
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The following table summarizes the configuration:
Table 4 Configuration of Large, Multiple Site Reference Architecture
ScalabilityTo further improve performance and/or scale to grow the environment, the following steps should be con-sidered:
• Adding compute resources to servers
• Separating operating system storage and database storage on the SQL Server host
• Moving the repository to a separate host and/or installing multiple repositories
• Moving the portal web server and reports web server to dedicated hosts; multiple instances of these might also be considered (these can be load-balanced as well)
• Using physical machines instead of virtual machines (especially for SQL Server)
• Improving communication speed between all hosts
• To manage a very high number of virtual machines per virtualization platform, two or more agents of the same type and with same name can be installed on different machines
• Installing two or more DEMs on separate machines
Host Installed Components Specifications
A VIS Creator manager service
(v)CPU: 2
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 20 GB
Network: 1 GB/s
B Microsoft SQL Server 2008
(v)CPU: 4
Memory: 16 GB
HD: 40 GB
C repository web server
(v)CPU: 4
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 10GB
Dportal web server,
reports web server
(v)CPU: 4
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 10GB
Eproxy agent,
DEM
(v)CPU: 2
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 20GB
Fproxy agent,
DEM
(v)CPU: 2
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 20GB
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