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Deployment & Recoveryof Linux, Windows and ESXi
Physical and Virtual Systems
Laurent Gharda, Founder and CEOwww.LinMin.com
Automating Server Provisioning
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 2
Audience for this Presentation
Data Center Technical and Business Leaders
System Administrators and Management
NOC Engineers and Management
Technical Support Engineers and Management
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 3
Definitions
Bare Metal: disk(s) on a physical system or Virtual Machine
Bare Metal Provisioning: Remote, "native", unattended Operating System installation onto Bare Metal
"Native" and " OS Installation" mean the system hardware is detected and proper drivers are installed "just like from DVD"
System configured and made "Customer Ready"Settings, password, applications, IP Address, etc.
Bare Metal Imaging: Remote, unattended full-disk backup and restore to Bare Metal: rollback to a known-good state
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 4
Why Automate System Provisioning?Increase Business Agility & Reduce Elapsed Time, e.g.:
Quickly get 5 to 500 new servers online for a customerLet customers re-provision systems 24x7 with no assistanceRepurpose systems from a prior customer for a new one
Predictability, Quality, RepeatabilityEach system will be exactly like the others (when desired)
Labor costs: no more time wasted building systems by handSys Admins should do skilled, not repetitive work
Scalability: grow your infrastructure w/o headcount growthSys Admins can be located anywhere & service many sites
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 5
System Provisioning at a Glance
• OS Media (ISO files)
• OS Role Templates
• IP & MAC Addresses
• Answer Files
• Scripts
• Applications
• Drivers
• Backup Disk Images
• Rescue Systems
Provisioning Server:
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 6
LinMin Bare Metal at a GlanceIT Software that Controls the Pre-Operating System Domain
The Time Between Power-On and System Boot
Provisions (remotely installs) the Operating SystemWindows, Linux (and applications, scripts, files) & ESX/ESXiProvisioning by Push (for Production) and Pull (for Sandbox or PC deployments)Deployment of Rescue Systems for troubleshooting, recovery
Images (disk capture and restore of) Windows, Linux
For Physical Systems and Virtual Machines
Managed via GUI (browser) or API (HTTP)
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 7
LinMin Controls the Pre-OS Domain:The Time Between Power-On and System Boot
LinMin Server (local or remote)
Data Center Servers
IT Applications• Control Panels
• IT Automation
• Orchestrators
Browser
PXE, TFTP, HTTP, NFS
HTTP via API
LinMin Business Rules upon system power-on:
• Take no action (steady state): boot to disk
• Never Provision (fail safe)
• Provision just once, then switch to "Never"
• Provision every time (e.g., Sandbox)
• Perform full system (disk image) backup
• Perform full system restore ("roll back")
PCs
Optional
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 8
LinMin Bare Metal Provisioning in 3 Steps
Repeatability, Accuracy, Continuity in Bare Metal System Deployment
OS:Red Hat®Windows®ESX®/ESXi®Ubuntu®CentOSDebianNovell® SLESFedoraRescue System CD
+PackagesFilesApplicationsConfigurationsScriptsImages
Upload into LinMin: Deploy to Physical and Virtual Machines
Create "Roles" for "Push" &
"Pull"Bare Metal Provisioning
Steps: 1 2 3
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 9
Provisioning Method 1:MAC-Independent Provisioning (“Pull”)
Select OS & Profile to install from the client screen (up to 400 choices)MAC-Independent: no server-side setup needed for each clientIdeal for desktop environments and for server sandboxes
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 10
MAC-Independent Provisioning Roles Menu:Selections Will Appear on Client Screen
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 11
"Pull" Provisioning: 2 Clicks to Create a Windows Server 2008 R2 Provisioning Role
Step 1:Select
Step 2:Done
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 12
Provisioning Method 2:MAC-Specific Provisioning (“Pull”)
Gives IT Precise Control Over Each SystemOS, apps, host name, password, IP, time zone, scripts, files
Lets IT Pre-Stage Systems for RepurposingSwitch systems to a dedicated provisioning VLAN then back to the Live/Customer VLAN
Lets IT Decide What Actions a System Takes:LinMin to ignore the system, tell it to boot from local disk (Safe Mode)LinMin to provision each time a system boots to the networkLinMin to provision once, then go to "Safe Mode" (boot from HD)LinMin to deploy Rescue OS to RAM: Ubuntu Live & Clonezilla Live
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 13
MAC-Specific ProvisioningStep 1: Create Provisioning Role Templates
Step 1:Select
Step 2:Done!
The form is auto-filledwith path
to kernel & RAM disk,configuration file and
optional kernel parameters
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 14
MAC-Specific Provisioning:View All Available Provisioning Templates
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 15
MAC-Specific ProvisioningStep 2a: Assign Template to a System
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 16
MAC-Specific ProvisioningStep 2b: Assign Unique Settings to System
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• Each system will be provisioned with a pre-determined profile (OS/hypervisor, web/app/DB server, workstation)
• Full hardware discovery is performed such that the client systems can have different CPU types, NICs, RAM, discs, etc.
MAC-Specific ProvisioningDashboard: All Systems at a Glance
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 18
Deploying Rescue System OSs
For remote repair of systems: deploy to RAM, not to diskLive Ubuntu = Ubuntu + Clonezilla Live (disk imaging)Red Hat/CentOS Live
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 19
API: Application Programming InterfaceFor integrating provisioning functionality into IT appsExample: hosting control panel (below), orchestrator, etc.
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 20
API: Sample Code Generator Makes it Easy
"Teaching Mode" generates working API code for easy implementation
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 22
Imaging: Backup, Restore, CloneSystems at a Glance
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 23
Imaging: a System Profile
• IT Staff Pre-configures snapshot/rollback profiles through the Browser-based GUI
• Each system will have all its partitions backed up and stored on the network
• Systems can be restored to a fully "known-good" point in time upon IT request
• Since the OS is not running during snapshots, full file/service/database integrity is ensured
• System-Specific (tied to MAC address) "Hardware Specific Backup/Restore" = Snapshot/Rollback
• Can be used to clone systems with identical hardware
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 24
Combining Provisioning and Imaging
Provision systems, fully configure them, then:Capture an image for easy rollback or cloning
Customer systems are now in operational use:Capture an image during a maintenance window
About to re-purpose a system?Capture an image first, then provision it. Roll back if needed ("oops, I didn't mean to do that")
Deploying 50 identical systems?Deploy the same image to 50 identical systemsImaging is typically faster than provisioning
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 25
Blending Physical & Virtual EnvironmentsProvisions ESX/ESXi on Bare Metal Systems, VMs & Physical Systems
Provisions Physical and Virtual systems with the same RoleCreate, maintain & refine recipes for both physical & virtual systems
Captures Physical Systems and Restores them on Virtual MachinesP2V (Physical to Virtual) Conversion
Images physical systems: ESX/ESXi and its VMs/Guest OSs
Use LinMin to create, fine-tune and test and maintain "that first VM" or "Virtual Golden Image" for each Role
After you create "the Virtual Golden Image" use your native virtualization tools to snapshot, clone and deploy VMs and use LinMin to deploy them to physical systems
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 26
Which Approach to Use When?
"Pull": MAC-Independent Provisioning
"Push", MAC-Specific Provisioning
Imaging and Snapshot/Rollback
When many systems have the same OS/App requirements with DHCP IP addressing (Desktops, servers in a sandbox)When client-side users need to be given the choice of working OS & configurations (e.g., built-to-order; employee desktop rollouts)
When deterministic control over selected systems' configuration is needed ("This system will always have this OS/Distro, these applications, this IP address and be configured just so, regardless of its hardware")
When all system OS, Apps, data and system state needs to be restored to a known-good state, or to clone to like systemsWhen Physical Systems need to be converted to run in Virtual Machines
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 27
Who Uses LinMin? Partial Customer List
2013-3-11 © Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - www.linmin.com 28
Analyst and Customer Quotes…
"LinMin is doing for the system provisioning space what Henry Ford did to the automobile industry: they introduced a product that works, is reliable and that everybody can afford."
Industry Analyst
"I installed LinMin in just a few minutes and immediately started to provision dozens of Linux blades. LinMin is easy to use and allows me not to have to set foot in my data center. It saves me incredible amounts of time while giving me full control over how each system is provisioned. And with its incredibly low price, LinMin paid for itself in a few days."
Customer
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