Click to add text May 2012Taking advantage of Virtualisation1 TWA : Taking Advantage of Virtualisation on IBM Platforms TWS Education

May 2012 Taking advantage of Virtualisation 1

TWA : Taking Advantage of Virtualisation on IBM Platforms

TWS Education

May 2012 Taking advantage of Virtualisation 2May 2012 Taking advantage of Virtualisation 2May 2012 Taking advantage of Virtualisation

Agenda

DefinitionsBase SupportAdvanced scenariosConclusions


Virtualisation vs Cloud

Virtualisation is a technology acting at the level of a machine (intended as OS)

Cloud is a set of methods and technologies that impacts the whole DataCenter (IT, Business, Organisation)

Cloud relies heavily on VirtualisationImpossible to draw a precise line when

passing from one to the other


Support for Virtualised platforms - Scenario

Obtain regular support through the whole chain Sometimes includes equivalence clauses: Problems

are supported unless they cannot be reproduced outside the virtualised platform, etc.

Precise instruction for installation or additional tech notes

Obtain base capacity data


Support for Virtualised platforms – State of the art

A documentation wiki page gives all up-to-date details here.

Some platforms are the object of legal discussion might include conditions for support.

Commonly used hypervisor are also used inside IBM and have very good knowledge base.

TWS is not a picky product to the hypervisor Rare cases of virtualisation-specific failures Exceptions in the installation (for inst. Solaris Zones)


So you are virtualised! What more?

Several direction can be takenUse virtualisation for High Availability (software)Use virtualisation to sustain Business SLAsUse virtualisation to accelerate provisioning and

deprovisioning actionUse virtualisation for Disaster Recovery


Virtualisation for HA

TWS Blueprint suggests to cover central network parts (MDM, BMDM, Broker server) with hard HA. Agent parts (dynamic agents) with soft HA

Avoid any confusion! Virtualisation manipulates only machines, and performs HA at such

level TWS manipulates workloads and performs HA by rerouting Be very careful when you want to implement both

Key difference is the policy engine Who decides the pieces that have to move

Explored policy engines Tivoli System Automation Multi-Platform HACMP (AIX) Microsoft Cluster Administrator (Windows)


Virtualisation for HA

Soft HA has been described in previous ASAP 2011, W403 High Availability on Windows Cluster

through Dynamic Load Rerouting

Soft HA with System Automation Multi-Platform has been covered in a redbook. Most advanced policies to switch loads according to

multiple criteria.

Explanations for HACMP is in the TWS documentation


Virtualisation to sustain Business SLAs

In the general idea, the flexibility of virtualisation is put to serve SLAs by providing pools of nodes, on which computation can be accelerated. Bigger pool = quicker result Needs an application capable of exploiting

multiple nodes Take advantage of Workload Service Assurance

Avoid any confusion with provisioning actions Serving the SLA through Workload Service

Assurance is very quick Acts as an optimisation and “shock absorbing”

mechanism Collaborates with provisioning actions

Small pool

Big pool

1h

2h


Virtualisation to accelerate provisioning

The environment is undergoing constant change

Requires applications that exploit the scaling of nodes

Requires Template Library Typical Cloud scenario

Supported by IBM products like IBM Service Delivery Manager, or IBM SmartCloud Provisioning

Also possible on raw VMWare stack, but more complicated

Differences: rights, image handling, pre-installed and pre-configured TWS agent

Deprovision is always harder Pools help defining persistent vs non-

persistent data TWS workflows should always include

cleaning the local node from any important information

Templates Llibray

Linux Servers pool

Accounts DB

Reporting App

Enterprise Scheduler

Create VM TemplatesDefine time-windows reqsDefine QoS/SLAs

IT Administrator

Database

Cloud Mgmt Platform (TSAM)

Provision environmentMonitor environmentElastic scaleDeprovision

TWA Administrator

Model, schedule, monitor and manage WA jobs

Configure Scheduler


Virtualisation for Disaster Recovery

Idea: capability to recreate a production environment from a template in rapid times Requires a higher level of environment

description Requires a joint description of environments

and workloads

Big savings can potentially be realised


So, what’s the take out?

Applications are a big gating factor What is supported, how flexible are they

Enterprise introduction should follow Business and Application interest

Observed interest is prioritised like High Availability > Optimisation >

Provisioning

It’s a constructive roadmap Early steps support later steps Deployment can climb the layers from

virtualisation to cloud.

Dashboards and Global reports

Self Service Portals

SmartCloud Foundation stack

Individual Applications

Infrastructure pieces (storage, network)

Documents

Click to add text May 2012Taking advantage of Virtualisation1 TWA : Taking Advantage of Virtualisation on IBM Platforms TWS Education