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John Kennedy TME SAVTG
Stateless Computing with UCSM and VMware AutoDeploy – Best Practices
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 2
What does “Stateless” mean?
Statefull := stuck to the hardware
Maybe the OS is installed on a local disk, that isn’t replicated…
Maybe an Application depends on a burned in identifier, like WWPN or MAC or UUID…
Stateless := free to migrate where needed
Nothing in the hardware prevents the software from running on other hardware
MAC addresses, WWPN, etc. move from machine to machine based on the needs of the business
Stateless vs. Statefull
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 3
StorageSME
ServerSME
NetworkSME
Traditional Element Configuration
• Subject matter experts consumed by manual configuration chores
• Serial processes and multiple touches inhibit provisioning speed
• Configuration drift and maintenance challenges
• FC Fabric assignments for HBAs
• RAID settings• Disk scrub actions
• Number of vHBAs• HBA WWN
assignments• FC Boot Parameters• HBA firmware
• Number of vNICs• PXE settings\• NIC firmware• Advanced feature settings
• VLAN assignments for NICs• VLAN tagging config for NICs
• QoS settings• Border port assignment
per vNIC• NIC Transmit/Receive
Rate Limiting
• Remote KVM IP settings• Call Home behavior• Remote KVM firmware
• Server UUID• Serial over LAN settings• Boot order• IPMI settings• BIOS scrub actions• BIOS firmware• BIOS Settings
LAN SAN
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 4
Unified, Embedded ManagementAligns People, Policy, and Configuration With Workload
Server Policy…
Storage Policy…
Network Policy…
Virtualization Policy…
Application Profiles…
Subject Matter Experts Define Policies1
StorageSME
ServerSME
NetworkSME
Policies Used to Create
Service Profile Templates
2
Service Profile Templates
Create Service Profiles
3
Associating ServiceProfiles with Hardware
Configures ServersAutomatically
4
Unified Management
Server NameUUID, MAC, WWNBoot InformationLAN, SAN ConfigFirmware Policy
Server NameUUID, MAC, WWNBoot InformationLAN, SAN ConfigFirmware Policy
Server NameUUID, MAC, WWNBoot InformationLAN, SAN ConfigFirmware Policy
Server NameUUID, MAC, WWNBoot InformationLAN, SAN ConfigFirmware Policy
Server NameUUID, MAC, WWNBoot InformationLAN, SAN ConfigFirmware Policy
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 5
How does Cisco UCS enable stateless computing?
UCS hardware can have any MAC, WWPN, UUID applied to it through software
Choose layout
Then select the layout with the background you would like
Service profile basics
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 6
What are the benefits of Stateless Computing?
Simplified provisioning
Upgrades of hardware
Migration to a new datacenterWithout a forklift…
Disaster recovery
Allows migration of server functionality
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 7
How does UCS enable stateless computing?
UCS applies a “Service Profile”XML collection of metadata
Service Profile is centralized, for ease of management
Service Profiles can be removed from one server and applied to another
Host OS, Applications, Network and Storage cannot tell the difference
Service Profiles can be created from Service Profile TemplatesRepeatability, ease of management, reliability…
When Template is updated, attached profiles get the updates.
By overriding the servers current WWPN, MAC, UUID, etc.
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 8
But Doesn’t VMware enable Stateless Computing?
Server boot from the network, not a SAN or local disk
State data kept in Host Profiles
Allows Elastic Capacity on Demand
Yes, with vSphere AutoDeploy
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 9
AutoDeploy Basics
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 10
Frailties of vSphere AutoDeploy
Requires DHCP, TFTP, all must be managed
If AutoDeploy server fails, ESXi servers can’t reboot
In the event of a Power outage, AutoDeploy has to be running before ESXi can boot from it.
If AutoDeploy is running in a VM…Chicken? Egg?
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 11
New Feature in vSphere 5.1: Statefull AutoDeploy
Allows AutoDeploy to leave a copy of the ESXi server state on a local disk
FlexFlash© , SATA drive, …
If server reboots, and AutoDeploy or vCenter isn’t available, server retains it’s identity.
When AutoDeploy is available, reboot the server, and it is once again stateless.
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 12
Does AutoDeploy conflict with Service Profiles?
The two work together… When a Service Profile moves to another server, vCenter and
AutoDeploy don’t see a new MAC or IP addressESXi server retains it’s host profile, and it’s state
When a Service Profile moves to another server, the local disk can be “scrubbed”
Assumes you use a Full Scrub profile in UCS, so be sure you do…
This is an advantage of current servers!
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 13
Attributes unique to UCS
The best practice method for autodeploy is to create a deploy rule that is associated with a Service Profile or Service Profile Template so that he infrastructure is consistent for a give deployment.
UCS populates the oemstring variables with profile, template, and system name attributes:
These attributes enable the creation UCS-specific DeployRules!
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 14
Best PracticesSpecific to this topic… Make your AutoDeploy, DHCP and TFTP highly available!
Ensure the IPMI address stays with the profileEnables Distributed Power Management
Make DHCP reservation for your Service Profiles
Make individual Host Profiles for each Service Profile
Set your Host Profiles to use Stateless install on local diskFlexFlash is available on C series only
Don’t move B series SP to C series or vice versa
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 15
Best PracticesSpecific to this topic… Set your boot order profile to boot from:
CDROM (for troubleshooting)
vNICA (Best to use just one…)
Local Disk
Set your vNIC to use Native VLANOtherwise either DHCP or gPXE will break
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 16
In summary
vSphere AutoDeploy 5.1 lets the ESXi server retain state on the local disk
But that’s not good if you want to repurpose that server
You have to scrub the server yourself
The replacement server will have a new MAC, new IP, and won’t look the same to vCenter
But with UCS Service Profiles, the MAC, WWPN, etc. go on whatever server you wish
So your ESXi server remains available after moving to a new piece of hardware
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 17
Where can I learn more?
AutoDeploy documentationhttp://bit.ly/OgLlZj
VMware KB article 2005131http://bit.ly/OgLH27
Cisco UCS solutionshttp://www.cisco.com/go/ucs
© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialPresentation_ID 18
Questions?