Managing Private Cloud: WebSphere Cloudburst Appliance Command Line interface Introduction

Ibm®websphere®cloudburst™appliance enables you to construct, deploy, and maintain a WebSphere application Server virtual system in a private cloud. To manage the full lifecycle of these systems in a private cloud, WebSphere Cloudburst provides multiple management interfaces, including a rich Web 2.0 interface for GUI-based management behavior, and a command-line interface (CLI) that supports scripting and automated management methods. This article describes how to take advantage of the WebSphere Cloudburst CLI and comes with examples to show how to use the CLI in your own WebSphere Cloudburst environment.

Brief introduction

Before delving into the management capabilities of the IBM WebSphere Cloudburst Appliance, first briefly introduce it.

WebSphere Cloudburst is a device that enables you to create, deploy, and monitor WebSphere application Server virtual systems in a private cloud. The way to do this is to create value on top of the IBM WebSphere application Server Hypervisor Edition, which is an IBM WebSphere application optimized for virtualized environments Serve R bag. The WebSphere application Server Hypervisor Edition is a virtual image packaged according to the Open virutal Format (OVF) standard, which runs on top of the supported hypervisor.

The virtual image contains an operating system, WebSphere application Server binaries and configuration files, and IBM HTTP server, all of which are preinstalled. Preinstallation Multiple profiles will enable the image to be customized after activation (used outside of WebSphere Cloudburst). This lays the groundwork for the value implemented by WebSphere Cloudburst.

In addition to the WebSphere Application server Hypervisor Edition image, WebSphere Cloudburst is shipped with WebSphere Application Server configuration, known as schemas, which Build the components from within the image. For example, the WebSphere Application Server cluster model may contain the development Manager component and two custom node components from the WebSphere Application server Hypervisor Edition image. You can copy and modify the accompanying pattern and create custom patterns using any of the components in the WebSphere application Server Hypervisor Edition. WebSphere Cloudburst automatically configures tuning for optimal performance based on decades of domain experience, and all patterns are stored in devices, enabling you to request these configurations again when needed.

In addition to greatly simplifying the WebSphere application Server configuration build process, WebSphere Cloudburst assigns patterns to a private cloud to create WebSphere virtual systems. WebSphere Cloudburst supports "Introducing your own cloud," which means you can define your own cloud resources for the device. This is achieved by providing a set of supported management programs and a pool of IP addresses that can be used for private clouds. Once these resources are defined, WebSphere Cloudburst can intelligently place virtual systems into private clouds by addressing other issues such as the availability of cloud resources (CPU, memory, and disk space) and high availability.

To provide full lifecycle support for WebSphere Application Server virtual systems in a private cloud, WebSphere Cloudburst provides the ability to monitor and manage these systems. You can view all of the virtual systems created by WebSphere Cloudburst and can easily monitor their resource usage. In addition, WebSphere Cloudburst tracks the use of devices by users. Each user's memory usage, CPU, IP utilization, and so on, is tracked to support charging within the enterprise.

In addition, WebSphere Cloudburst enables you to apply ifixes and service patches to virtual systems in a private cloud. WebSphere Cloudburst dramatically reduces the risk of patching applications by automatically creating snapshots of virtual systems before applying patches. If you want, you can roll back to the previous state by simply clicking the button.

WebSphere Cloudburst provides a comprehensive solution for managing the full lifecycle of virtual systems in a private cloud. It provides a solution for each component of the virtual system lifecycle, while providing ease of use, providing an unprecedented level of consumer accessibility for the management of the middleware environment.

Basic Management in WebSphere Cloudburst

The fact that WebSphere Cloudburst provides complete control over the lifecycle of WebSphere application Server virtual systems implies robust management capabilities. You must be able to perform many different tasks, including defining your private cloud, creating custom schemas, deploying patterns to the cloud, and monitoring the state of the virtual system. To help you perform these behaviors, WebSphere Cloudburst provides a web-based 2.0-based graphical interface, an HTTP REST interface, and a command-line interface based on Jython 2.2.1 (CLI). Graphical interfaces are ideal for temporary users, or for infrequently occurring actions that require user intervention. The HTTP REST interface provides a method that is independent of the programming language for device interaction. It can also be used to include some WebSphere cloudburst management tasks as part of a rich enterprise mashup. CLT is the best choice for tasks that perform frequently, or that require little or no intervention.

When you log on to the WebSphere Cloudburst console, the first panel appears similar to Figure 1.

Figure 1. WebSphere Cloudburst Administration Console

The console provides a graphical gateway from which you can perform all the necessary administrative functions on the WebSphere cloudburst appliance. This rich interface is very intuitive and compelling, especially if you are using the device for the first time. In addition, the console will change according to the current user, so that the user can only see links to the features that he accesses. For example, if you have only cloud deployment mode permissions, you cannot see Cloud, appliance, or Catalog links on the top of the toolbar.

The WebSphere Cloudburst CLI provides you with the ability to create a set of automated, scripted administrative tasks, and provides an easy-to-use and powerful API.

The remainder of this article will further describe the use of the CLI.

Start using CLI

Before you start using the WebSphere Cloudburst CLI, you first need to download the tool from the WebSphere Cloudburst Management console:

Log on to the console and click the Download now! below the use command line tools Link. A. zip file that contains command-line tools is downloaded to your machine.

Extracts the download file to a directory to create the CLOUDBURST.CLI directory. This is the root directory of the WebSphere cloudburst CLI tool.

You must install IBM Java™runtime Environment (JRE) version 6 (SR3 or later) on your machine, if the JRE provided by IBM is used.

Resource and resource collections are the core concepts in the WebSphere Cloudburst CLI:

Resources (Resource) are used to represent the various entities managed by the WebSphere cloudburst appliance. For example, each management program, schema, and virtual system are a resource. The Cloudburst CLI uses resource objects to read or update information about an entity.

A Resource collection (resource collection) refers to a set of resource objects that are associated in some way. For example, a resource collection can contain all the administrative programs that are defined for the WebSphere cloudburst appliance, or some of the content contained in a given pattern. A collection of resources is used to define new resources and to set up or search for existing resources.

The WebSphere Cloudburst CLI is based on the Jython version 2.2.1, which is the implementation of the Python language that runs inside the Java virtual machine. The command lines and scripts for the WebSphere Cloudburst CLI are represented as Python statements and expressions.

Within the Jython environment, the WebSphere Cloudburst CLI provides a special Cloudburst module to interact with the device. All resources and resource collections are accessed through this Cloudburst module, providing consistent access patterns and reducing the risk of namespace conflicts in user scripts. In addition to this particular module, because the CLI environment is based on Jython, you can take advantage of the functionality of the Java language to manage interactions.

The WebSphere Cloudburst CLI supports interactive and batch mode of operation, as described in the following section.

Using interactive mode

In interactive mode, you enter commands into the command prompt, and the console displays the results. To begin an interactive session, you must provide information about the location of the WebSphere Cloudburst appliance and your logon credentials.

In Listing 1, an interactive CLI session is started, as long as you enter Cloudburst and provide the following information for the device:

Use parameter-H to provide host name

User name provided with the-u option

Provide a password through the-P option

All commands entered during the session are sent to the WebSphere Cloudburst appliance located in mycloudburst.com.

Listing 1. Initiating a CLI session

C:\cloudburst\cloudburst.cli\bin>cloudburst　-h　mycloudburst.com　-u　cloudburstUser
　-p　password