IBM SmartCloud Entry for IBM Power BAE starter Guide

I recently attended the IBM http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13696.html ">smartcloud Entry for power BAE seminar in Sydney, I was impressed by what I saw and heard. This article is my first impression of the product, but far from showing its full potential.

First Impressions

I'm a command-line enthusiast, so I'm interested in using a graphical user interface (GUI) to deploy a complete IBM aix® environment.

After all, why would anyone have anything to do with GUI aesthetics when there is a chance to indulge in the charm of commands through a secure Shell (SSH) client?

Over the years, I've configured power BAE, deployed logical partitions or lpars (VMS), and also written fully automated NIM (receptacle installation Management, network setup Management) installer, including scripted compile-time tasks, These tasks provide a mature, production-ready LPAR for minimal workloads. But in the course of our study of this changing technology, I was modestly involved in the seminar, and I'm very happy that I did.

The 4-day seminar was presided over by IBM's Red Steele, who had excellent speech and teaching skills. We specifically configured the appropriate environment (Virtual I/O Server or VIOS and VM) the previous two days. The latter half of the seminar was spent on installing and experiencing IBM smartcloud Entry.

SmartCloud Entry for power BAE overview

IBM SmartCloud Entry combines the virtualization features of IBM powervm® with a web-based fashion interface to deploy and manage VMs. SmartCloud Entry Software leverages IBM BAE Director and IBM Bae Director.

During our workshop, the overall configuration used is shown in the following illustration.

The components required by IBM SmartCloud Entry can be installed into an existing environment, and although the workshop focuses on a single VIOS configuration, it also supports dual VIOS configurations. Bae Director and SmartCloud Entry can be installed on a VM.

Installation time

Each environment is different, but as a guide, we spent two days and a half to build and install the configuration used during the workshop. This includes building VIOS and LPARs, and installing the required software.

Even basic settings provide the foundation for familiarity with the product and, more importantly, help us understand how simple and easy it is to deploy a new VM through it, without mastering any knowledge of the VIOS, NIM, or hardware management Console (HMC).

Ease of Use

The web-based front-end interface should be kept simple, neat and intuitive. This is what IBM smartcloud Entry for power Bae is trying to achieve.

The deployment of a new VM takes only a few clicks, and after the AIX installation is complete, you can log on to the new VM. It's as simple as that.

Of course, in the background, the HMC is busy building the LPAR profile, VIOS has created and mapped a virtual small computer system interface (VSCSI) client disk, Nim created and set the required NIM resources, and initialized and completed an unattended Nim BOS (Base keyboard-based system, Base operating system installation. However, if you just want a new VM, you don't really need to care about any of these details, which makes IBM SmartCloud Entry for power BAE an excellent product.

From the purists ' point of view, the naming convention for virtual devices (such as the VSCSI disk on VIOS) or the virtual adapter number in the LPAR configuration file may differ from the one you created yourself, but that has no effect.

Building a VM is essentially deploying a MKSYSB, which is called a device in the SmartCloud Entry front-end.

During the test, we tried to capture a new device from a VM that had multiple volume groups (ROOTVG and Datavg). From a NIM perspective, capturing a new device can be seen as cloning an existing VM or LPAR.

We found that MKSYSB mirrors/devices contain only information about ROOTVG, no datavg, and no option to select multiple volume groups when attempting to capture. Therefore, even if deploying a new VM is very simple, you may still need to perform further work to allocate storage space to the VM.

Another aspect of our inability to test during the workshop is how to process VSCSI disk mappings under a dual VIOS configuration. We assume that under a dual VIOS configuration, the disks from each VIOS will be displayed in the SmartCloud Entry so that one disk from each VIOS can be associated with the new VM. But I want to see it for myself and see what it's really like.

Possible uses of IBM SmartCloud Entry for power Bae

The self-service functionality of the solution means that it is ideal for environments that often request new VMS because deploying a new VM with IBM SmartCloud Entry for power Bae is quick and easy, enabling technicians to spend more time elsewhere, such as spending on projects.

Another example is when the end user or consumer needs to pay for the amount of resources (processor, memory, and disk) used by the VM during the VM run. You can configure the measurement or settlement functionality for the IBM SmartCloud Entry for power Bae. System resource utilization is collected and calculated in units or in monetary terms to facilitate allocation. You can configure currency values to meet the needs of individual organizations.

Consider using this software to create LPAR profiles and virtual adapters. Manage the mapping and allocation of VSCSI disks and install AIX via a silent installation, which can be said to be free of self-service restrictions and to benefit from its simplicity and consistency, and easily become the default way to deploy each VM. Of course, you may need to perform some late tasks, such as assigning additional disks to other volume groups, but SmartCloud Entry is responsible for a lot of work in the VM deployment.

Concluding

IBM SmartCloud Entry for power Bae provides a simplified way to deploy and manage VMs, a web-based front-end that is intuitive and easy to use. Even though the tests performed during the workshop have clearly shown that technicians need to provide storage space for the VM so that other volume groups can use it after the VM is deployed, much of the work on building a new VM is still done through the software.

The billing feature is implemented through the metrics, billing, and billing options provided by SmartCloud Entry, and administrators have the ability to configure automatic expiration for newly created VMS. You can configure a new account and assign it to different projects, creating and managing new VMs with new accounts.

Unfortunately, during the seminar, we were unable to test the dual VIOS configuration. Therefore, we cannot confirm that the VSCSI disk can be allocated to the VM from two VIOS instances during deployment, that is, one disk is from VIOS1, another disk is from VIOS2, and then the recovery is achieved by mirroring two disks on AIX. However, dual VIOS is also a supported configuration.

From my limited understanding of the product, I'm not saying it's a one-stop solution with a fully configured VM, because people who have limited smartcloud Entry training (without the knowledge of AIX or IBM PowerVM) can create a VM, However, further configuration of additional disk and volume groups requires professional skills.

Starting in October 2012, the AIX Enterprise Edition contains IBM smartcloud Entry Bundle, which means that the software is already available.

After seeing the actual application of the product during the workshop, I strongly recommend evaluating SmartCloud Entry for power Bae in your organization to recognize its potential.