Automating Server Provisioning

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Cynthia Howard
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1 Automating Server Provisioning Deployment & Recovery of Linux, Windows and ESXi Physical and Virtual Systems Laurent Gharda, Founder and CEO

2 Audience for this Presentation Data Center Technical and Business Leaders System Administrators and Management NOC Engineers and Management Technical Support Engineers and Management Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - 2

Engineers and Management Technical Support Engineers and

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 Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - 3

"just like from DVD" System configured and made "Customer Ready" Settings, password, applications, IP Address, etc.

4 Why Automate System Provisioning? Increase Business Agility & Reduce Elapsed Time, e.g.: Quickly get 5 to 500 new servers online for a customer Let customers re-provision systems 24x7 with no assistance Repurpose systems from a prior customer for a new one Predictability, Quality, Repeatability Each system will be exactly like the others (when desired) Labor costs: no more time wasted building systems by hand Sys Admins should do skilled, not repetitive work Scalability: grow your infrastructure w/o headcount growth Sys Admins can be located anywhere & service many sites Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - 4

5 System Provisioning at a Glance Provisioning Server: OS Media (ISO files) OS Role Templates IP & MAC Addresses Answer Files Scripts Applications Drivers Backup Disk Images Rescue Systems Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - 5

Scripts Applications Drivers Backup Disk Images Rescue Systems

6 LinMin Bare Metal at a Glance IT Software that Controls the Pre-Operating System Domain The Time Between Power-On and System Boot Provisions (remotely installs) the Operating System Windows, Linux (and applications, scripts, files) & ESX/ESXi Provisioning 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) Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - 6

Pull (for Sandbox or PC deployments) Deployment of Rescue Systems for troubleshooting, recovery Images (disk capture and restore of) Windows,

7 LinMin Controls the Pre-OS Domain: The Time Between Power-On and System Boot IT Applications Control Panels IT Automation Orchestrators Optional Browser 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") LinMin Server (local or remote) PXE, TFTP, HTTP, NFS Data Center Servers PCs Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - 7

Provision just once, then switch to "Never" Provision every time (e.g.

8 LinMin Bare Metal Provisioning in 3 Steps Upload into LinMin: OS: Red Hat Windows ESX /ESXi Ubuntu CentOS Debian Novell SLES Fedora Rescue System CD + Packages Files Applications Configurations Scripts Images Create "Roles" for "Push" & "Pull" Bare Metal Provisioning Steps: Deploy to Physical and Virtual Machines Repeatability, Accuracy, Continuity in Bare Metal System Deployment Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - 8

for "Push" & "Pull" Bare Metal Provisioning Steps: 1 2 3 Deploy to Physical and Virtual Machines Repeatability,

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 client Ideal for desktop environments and for server sandboxes Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation - 9

no server-side setup needed for each client Ideal for desktop environments and

12 Provisioning Method 2: MAC-Specific Provisioning ( Pull ) Gives IT Precise Control Over Each System OS, apps, host name, password, IP, time zone, scripts, files Lets IT Pre-Stage Systems for Repurposing Switch 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 network LinMin to provision once, then go to "Safe Mode" (boot from HD) LinMin to deploy Rescue OS to RAM: Ubuntu Live & Clonezilla Live Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation

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 network LinMin to provision

13 MAC-Specific Provisioning Step 1: Create Provisioning Role Templates Step 1: Select Step 2: Done! The form is auto-filled with path to kernel & RAM disk, configuration file and optional kernel parameters Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation

The form is auto-filled with path to kernel & RAM disk,

17 MAC-Specific Provisioning Dashboard: All Systems at a Glance 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 Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation

workstation) Full hardware discovery is performed such that the client systems can have

Ubuntu + Clonezilla Live (disk imaging) Red Hat/CentOS

hosting control panel (below), orchestrator, etc.

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 Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation

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 systems Imaging is typically faster than provisioning Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation

25 Blending Physical & Virtual Environments Provisions ESX/ESXi on Bare Metal Systems, VMs & Physical Systems Provisions Physical and Virtual systems with the same Role Create, maintain & refine recipes for both physical & virtual systems Captures Physical Systems and Restores them on Virtual Machines P2V (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 Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation

26 Which Approach to Use When? "Pull": MAC-Independent Provisioning "Push", MAC-Specific Provisioning 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") Imaging and Snapshot/Rollback When all system OS, Apps, data and system state needs to be restored to a known-good state, or to clone to like systems When Physical Systems need to be converted to run in Virtual Machines Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation

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 Copyright 2013 LinMin Corporation

LinMin Bare Metal Provisioning April 15, 2009. Functional Overview White Paper

LinMin Bare Metal Provisioning April 15, 2009 Functional Overview White Paper Introduction... 2 Architecture... 3 Operational Description... 4 MAC-Independent Provisioning... 6 MAC-Specific Provisioning...