XMS FULLY AUTOMATED
PROVISIONING: SERVER
CONFIGURATION AND QUICK START
GUIDE
ABSTRACT
This white paper in the form of screenshots explains how to capture the vCenter infrastructure details using vSphere Client and map that information to configure xMS Server Administration tab in Management Center. The xMS Server uses this
information and resources to create environment templates, provision environments in fully automated provisioning method.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ... 4
AUDIENCE ... 4
OVERVIEW ... 4
XMS SERVER ADMINISTRATION ... 5
Configure Media Location ... 6
VMWare Connections ... 6
Organizations ... 8
Virtual Data Center ... 9
vDC Resources ... 10
VDC Domain Policy ... 11
VDC Network Policy ... 12
Switch configuration ... 12
Network Type - UNMANAGED ... 13
Network Type - MANAGED ... 14
Host Templates ... 15
vCenter Host Template ... 16
System VDC ... 17
VAPP ENABLE TEMPLATE ... 17
PROVISIONING THE ENVIRONMENT ... 19
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The xCelerated Management System (xMS) manages environments and applications deployed into those environments. Fully Automated provisioning means xMS provisions deployment environments into the VMware infrastructure as virtual applications (vApps). The resulting virtual machines (VMs) appear in vSphere Client or vCloud Director. In fully automated provisioning, IP configuration and other network customizations are done by xMS. xMS also configures domain on those machines, if needed. Then xMS installs components on those machines.
The xMS Management Center UI lets you create and provision environments using the automated or orchestrated provisioning method. Following table compares these available methods of provisioning an environment in xMS Management Center User Interface.
Figure 1. Deployment Methods
All information included in this document is provided "as-is" and does not guarantee EMC's support or approval. Please consult the official product documentation or the Product Support team regarding any questions of supportability.
AUDIENCE
The information in this guide is for application and system administrators who use xMS software to deploy and administer environments.
This is intended for Administrators, EMC support personnel, professional services and customers.
Overview
This white paper is in the form of screenshots explains how to capture the vCenter infrastructure details using vSphere Client and map that information to configure xMS Server Administration tab in Management Center. The xMS Server uses this information and resources to create environment templates, provision environments in fully automated provisioning method.
This whitepaper is applicable for xMS 1.1 and xMS 1.2 releases. xMS consists of:
xMS Tools: The command-line interface (CLI). User use a blueprint to define the environment structure, build an environment template based on the blueprint, and provision an environment based on the environment template.
xMS Server: The engine that executes xMS commands. xMS Server can provision environments and patch those provisioned environments.
xMS Agent: A lightweight service for application deployment and endpoint resolution in both manually created environment and xMS-provisioned environments.
their need. The xMS catalog contains these environment templates and host templates. The system uses a host template as a base when user prepares environment templates and provision environments.
For automated provisioning, a host template specifies a base VM template on vSphere or vCloud with a pre-installed operating system and other software.
User can use either default or custom environment templates to create and provision environments. In both cases, you can provision multiple environments from the same environment template. Environment Templates commonly define different types of
environments. With different environment templates such as clustered, non-clustered, and developer, user can provision environments as needed.
xMS Server Administration
The xMS Management Center enables you to specify information and resources for the xMS Server. It interacts with the xMS Server to perform validations and system updates. The xMS Management Center UI has 5 tabs as shown in Figure 1 below:
Environments Catalog Operations Administration Users
Figure 2. xMS Server Main Page view
Here we will establish a relationship between xMS Server Administration and vCenter infrastructure components from vSphere Client or vCloud Director.
After successfully installing xms-server.war using install-xms-server.bat in {xms-tools-home}\bin as per details in installing xMS Server section ‘Setting up xMS Tools and installing the xMS Server’ in xMS Deployment Guide, open the following URL in a browser:
https://<host>:<port>/xms-server
You can find the host and port information in xms-server.properties in ${xms-tools-home}\config on the machine where you installed xMS Server.
Login to xMS Management Center UI and configure xMS Server Administration details for fully automated provisioning as explained in sections below:
1. Configure Media Location 2. VMWare Connections 3. Organizations 4. vDCs
5. System VDC
Configure Media Location
Specify the credentials to connect to shared media or NAS storage where installers are present as shown in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3. Configuring Media Location
VMWare Connections
xMS requires connection information to communicate with virtual infrastructure through its API. One xMS Server connects to only one vCenter at any time.
As shown in Figure 4 below:
Organizations
There can be multiple organizations in the xMS system.
Figure 5. Mapping of xMS Organization name to vCloud Director Organization
Organization Name
o Organization name should point to the organization name in vCloud Director in case of vCloud executions as shown in Figure 5 above.
o Organization name is just a placeholder in case of vCenter. o The organization name cannot be edited once saved.
Organization Key value can be an abbreviation for the organization name and this will be referenced by vDC for the VM
Virtual Data Center
A virtual datacenter (vDC) is an xMS entity corresponding to the vSphere or vCloud datacenter. There can be multiple vDCs and the xMS system requires at least one vDC.
Figure 6. Mapping of VDC name to vCloud Organization VDCs
The VDC name cannot be edited once saved.
The VDC name should point to the Organization vDC name in vCloud Director if the management type is vCloud as shown in Figure 6 above.
The VDC name can be user-defined if the management type is vCenter.
vDC Resources
As shown in Figure 7 below:
Resource Pool Name can be identified from vSphere Client console at Home -> Inventory -> Hosts and Clusters. If you don’t specify resource pool name, the system generates the resources such as VMs and vApps in the root default cluster or default host.
Default Data Store specifies the vSphere datastore for generated resources. Get the Default Data Store value from vSphere Client console at Home -> Inventory -> Datastores and Datastore Clusters.
If you intended datastore is part of clustered datastore then specify as <clustered datastore name>/<datastore name>in xMS configuration. For Example, in Figure 7 below, if you intend to use datastore ‘NewStorageDisk’ which is part of clustered datastore ‘storage’, then specify as ‘storage/NewStorageDisk’ for Default Data Store value in Resources configuration in xMS. Get the Default Cluster or Default Host values from vSphere Client console at Home -> Inventory -> Hosts and Clusters.
VDC Domain Policy
Figure 8. VDC Domain Policy as External
OS Domain Policy can be Local or External
VDC Network Policy
Switch configuration
Figure 9. Switch name from vCenter infrastructure
As shown in Figure 9 above:
Network Type - UNMANAGED
Figure 10. VDC Network Type UNMANAGED configuration for vCloud
The system assumes the address type as HOSTNAME if you select the network type as UNMANAGED vCenter: When the network type is UNMANAGED, the DHCP Server manages the IP addresses for the VMs.
Network Type - MANAGED
Figure 11. VDC Network Type MANAGED configuration for vCloud
vCloud: When the network type is MANAGED, the system assigns the IP address from the IP range specified in Network Details for VDC configuration. The Subnet, Mask, Gateway, Primary DNS and Secondary DNS are taken from Network Specification properties of External Networks in vCloud Director as shown in Figure 11 above.
Host Templates
vCenter Host Template
Figure 12. Host template path configuration for vCenter execution
Note: Do not specify here, the domain account credentials or any other local account credentials having administrative
privileges.
For vCenter, the VM Template Path is the absolute path from the Datacenter to the template folder followed by the template name as shown in Figure 12 above.
For vCenter the VM Template Path is the vApp name present in the organization having the host template VM.
System VDC
Figure 13. System vDC Configuration- Build Path during environment template creation for vCenter
Select the vDC that you want to use as the system vDC.
The build path for vSphere is the relative path from “vCenter Datacenter Path” (Refer Figure 5) specified in VDC configuration as shown in Figure 13 above. The Environment Template vApp will be created at this folder location under templates folder. The xMS system clones the base VM template in this vApp during vApp Enable Template operation for Fully Automated provisioning method.
The build path is optional if the System vDC is of type vCloud. In vCloud, the system creates all templates in the vCloud utility organization catalog.
vApp Enable Template
In xMS Management Center UI and select the Environment Template which you want to use to provision a fully automated environment. vApp Enable this template by following the details steps in Chapter 4: Preparing Environment Templates of xMS
groups to the Host Template name configured for Fully Automated provisioning as discussed above in Host Templates section and as shown in Figure 14 below.
Figure 14. Updating Host Template mapped to Host Groups for Environment Template
xMS vApp Template execution reads environment template services, gets the component installers from the media location, clones the base VM template, and vApp enables the environment template. xMS vApp Template operation performs following:
Instantiate VMs
Silently (without user interaction) install and configure components into VMs Build environment templates and store them as vApps.
Figure 15. Environment Template created in vCenter
For vCloud executions, xMS stores the environment template as a vApp in Organization’s catalog in the vCloud Director. The organization is as per the organization referenced in the VDC mapped to System vDC in xMS Server Administration tab.
Provisioning the Environment
After vApp Enable an environment template, use xMS to provision that environment template. xMS provisions the environment and creates a vApp with fully configured VMs. The system saves the new environment as another vApp in the deployment-environments folder in vCenter. The deployment-environments folder will be created by xMS if not already present; the location of folder would be relative to vCenter Data Center path specified in VDC configuration as shown in Figure 16 below.
Figure 16. Provisioned Environment vApp stored in vCenter
The system generates the provisioned VM names with the following format:
<Host template key><VM key><environment key><instance ID>–<org key>
Host template key is the 3 character Environment Template Key for the vApp Enabled Environment Template. VM cluster key is 1 character vm-cluster key in the module-template file. It is unique for each service provisioned. Environment Key is 2 character key given during Create Environment operation in xMS Management Center UI before
provisioning the environment.
Instance ID is 1 character. It is always 1 for non-clustered VMs.
Org key is 1-6 alphanumeric character organization key specified during creating organization in Administration tab of xMS Management Center UI.
Considering an example of Host Template key as X12, environment key as RC and organization key as XMS, figure 15 above shows the sample provisioned VM names.
