Driving Down the Cost and Complexity of Application Networking with Multi-tenancy

Transcription

1 White Paper AX Series Driving Down the Cost and Complexity of Application Networking with Multi-tenancy February 2013 WP_ADC_ADP_

2 Table of Contents 1 Introduction Application Delivery Partition Overview: Role Based Administration and Layer 3 Virtualization IP Addressing Considerations ADC Resource Provisioning Considerations Advanced Application Delivery Features Reducing Complexity and Cost With ADP: Microsoft Lync Deployment Example Consolidated ADC and Microsoft Lync Configuration Example Conclusion Appendix A. CLI Configuration Files

3 1 Introduction Multi-tenancy provided by virtualization technology is a rising topic for IT management; an increasing number of enterprises plan to transition towards cloud architectures to operate complex applications. Server virtualization technologies have delivered a wealth of benefits through increased adoption within the past few years by enterprises of all sizes. Benefits range from consolidated resource efficiency leveraged from virtual machines, to enhanced performance of immediate disaster recovery solutions, increasing business agility and continuity, as well as proven quick return on investment solutions. At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2012, Philip Dawson, Research Vice President of Gartner opined 1 : "Virtualization will continue as the highest-impact issue challenging infrastructure and operations through 2015, changing how you manage, how and what you buy, how you deploy, how you plan and how you charge. With such significant influence, there is no question why virtualization is being heavily adopted by enterprises to solve multiple issues, including inefficient provisioning, immense costs and capacity issues. According to VMware 2, a leader in cloud and virtualization software, consolidation has proven to: " reduce hardware and operating costs by as much as 50% and energy costs by 80%, saving more than $3,000 per year for every server workload virtualized and reduce the time it takes to provision new servers by up to 70%". Enterprises frequently evaluate the ability of an Application Delivery Controller (ADC) to support and operate in virtual environments in addition to strengthening load balancing, powerful SSL offloading, application optimization, advanced high availability and overall enhanced security features. A10 offers multiple virtualization and multi-tenancy solutions. The hypervisor based SoftAX and Application Delivery Partitions (ADPs) are both proven virtualization solutions that accomplish these goals. This white paper specifically concentrates on A10's ADP features within the AX Series and its value for enterprises seeking cost efficient, time efficient and management efficient solutions, using the popular Microsoft Lync software as the application example. 1 Philip Dawson, Gartner, Virtualization: Key Initiative Overview. 2 VMWare, Server Consolidation. 3

4 2 Application Delivery Partition Overview: Role Based Administration (RBA) and Layer 3 Virtualization (L3V) AX Series ADP technology deals with the virtualization of a 64-bit AX Series appliance; a separate form of virtualization from the SoftAX for VMware and other hypervisors. The AX device provides ADPs that can allow the device to be segmented virtually, such that each segment can operate and appear as a separate ADC entity. These partitions can either be RBA partitions or RBA partitions with L3V. (From here on, this document refers to these solely as L3V partitions.) RBA partitions provide Layer 4-7 support and offer no direct access to system and networking resources. In this way, an RBA partition s network resources are shared across all partitions; for example, there can be no overlapping IP addresses, as shown in diagram 1. L3V enhances standard RBA partitions with completely isolated Layer 2/3 networking and system resources. So, for example, overlapping network ranges and individual IP addresses can be used on each L3V-enabled RBA partition. This network isolation helps to further make each partition feel like a truly separate ADC device, as shown in diagram 2. Diagram 1: Role-based Administration Diagram 2: Layer 2/3 Virtualization So how does one choose whether to deploy RBA or L3V? There is no right or wrong answer when deploying RBA or L3V virtualization. There are differences between the two options, and the choice depends on the application requirements. While these two options are similar, there are a few points to consider, which are addressed in the next sections. 4

5 2.1 IP Addressing Considerations As mentioned previously, RBA does not provide network isolation, whereas L3V does. Here are some IP addressing considerations: With L3V, duplicate IPs are allowed in different partitions. In RBA, duplicate IPs are not allowed in different partitions. With L3V, tagged ports can have the same subnet across different partitions under different VLAN IDs. For RBA configuration, tagged ports are not allowed to have the same subnet across different partitions. Access Lists (ACLs) in L3V are applicable only to traffic for that specific partition, while in RBA, all ACLs are common across all partitions. 2.2 ADC Resource Provisioning Considerations Beyond Layer 3 IP addressing and network considerations, ADP implementation choice also extends to other ADC resources that need to be provisioned. In RBA, because resources use a shared concept schema, the IP address and names must be unique on the AX Series ADC. L3V and RBA have differences in features when it comes to Layer 4 provisioning. In L3V configuration, names of virtual servers (VIP), virtual services, service groups, NAT pools and servers can be reused. In addition, IP addresses can have duplicates as long as the IP addresses are in separate partitions. 5

6 2.3 Advanced Application Delivery Features Regardless of whether an administrator provisions ADPs with RBA or L3V, all Layer 7 features such as RAM Caching, Compression, aflex scripting and URL switching are all still available. One significant advantage with A10 ADP functionality is the support for Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) across all ADP partitions and not just the shared partition. When enabling multiple partitions with GSLB, the cost savings can be very significant, providing a significant functionality enhancement for device tenants. 3 Reducing Complexity and Cost With ADP: Microsoft Lync Deployment Example Over the years, the number of applications deployed in the enterprise has substantially increased. There has also been a trend toward consolidating features into one platform. Multi-tiered applications, such as Microsoft Lync, have integrated various real-time and non-real-time communication features such as phone, presence, IM conferencing, Audio/Video Conferencing, fax, voic , collaboration, conferencing and many others. Despite the fact that these applications are unified into one application, application servers that host applications must be deployed in multiple layers across multiple servers for redundancy, features, and capacity support requirements. ADCs such as the AX Series provide high-performance multi-tenancy functionality with faster client response times, while reducing the escalating cost of deploying ADCs through ADPs. The ADPs reduce the ratio of physical-to-virtual ADC device requirements from three hardware load balancers to a single hardware load balancer for Microsoft Lync deployments. This significantly simplifies ADC deployment, time to implement and the total cost of ownership (TCO). Exploring this scenario further, in a standard Lync deployment that requires external and internal client access, the deployment must have at least three ADCs to load balance traffic from the External Edge, Internal Edge, and Front End Servers within the topology. The AX Series can support the Microsoft Lync deployments with either RBA or L3V partitioning. Diagram 3 and Diagram 4 show the consolidation of three AX devices into a single AX device by using ADP. 6

7 Diagram 3: ADC Physical Consolidation (Before) Diagram 4: ADC Physical Consolidation (After) 7

8 4 Consolidated ADC and Microsoft Lync Configuration Example The ADPs enable the consolidation of three hardware load balancers into a single unit with three ADC partitions to meet the load balancing requirements for a Microsoft Lync topology. The AX Series now hosts three ADC partitions: One for the External Edge One for the Internal Edge One for the Front End pool of servers In our example, where we also have virtualized the Lync servers with VMware, you will need at least two Network Interface Cards (NICs) on the VMware host where the Lync servers are deployed. The AX ADP configuration is shown in Diagram 5. The first NIC will be strictly used for management (vswitch0) and the second NIC will be used for the data link (vswitch1) to the AX device. On the AX Series, VLAN tagging (802.1Q) is applied to the frames that travel from the AX device to the Lync VM Servers. Each partition uses a VLAN ID that matches with the VLANs within the Lync VM server. In this configuration, L3V solutions are used. Refer to Diagrams 5 and 6 as to how the VLANs are configured. Diagram 5: VLAN Configuration on AX Series 8

9 Diagram 6: VLAN Tagging Configuration 9

10 Diagram 7: vswitch Lync VM Host Configuration 5 Conclusion AX Series ADPs offer significant advantages; both RBA and ADP features are included at no additional cost. The key advantages of ADP are: Key ADP Advantages: Reduced ADC Costs Consolidation of multiple devices into a single physical device, such as for Lync load balancing, can help reduce capital equipment and maintenance costs, and lower data center operational costs. Additional enterprise applications such as Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, Web Applications, and many other applications also can be optimized, further reducing overall ADC costs. Reduced Management Complexity With fewer ADCs in the network, the AX Series ADP technology offers better rack space utilization, helping companies to focus on green initiatives and reduce data center operational costs. 10

11 Cost-effective Production-quality Multi-tenancy With ADP technology, administrators can provision different partitions for different applications that are assigned to different organizational groups. Increased Flexibility Beyond AX Series ADP technology, AX ADC virtualization options include Virtual Chassis System (avcs) for scalability, SoftAX for flexibility, acloud for IaaS and AX-V for high performance, strong isolation. Multi-tenancy empowered through virtualization has a significant impact on the constantly evolving ADC market, with new technology continually emerging to keep up with demand. Virtualization has proven to be an effective solution to multiple IT issues, reducing application complexity, and speeding up implementation times. Virtualization also reduces OPEX, and very significantly reduces CAPEX requirements. With the added benefit of TCO and short-term ROI, it may be beneficial to explore what multi-tenancy and ADPs can do to streamline and enhance your infrastructure. Appendix A. CLI Configuration for Deployment Example Configuration for ExtEdge active-partition ExtEdge vlan 101 tagged ethernet 1 router-interface ve 101 name "101" interface ve 101 ip address Configuration for IntEdge active-partition IntEdge vlan 102 tagged ethernet 1 router-interface ve 101 name "102" interface ve 102 ip address

12 Configuration for FrontEnd active-partition FrontEnd vlan 103 tagged ethernet 1 router-interface ve 103 name "103" interface ve 103 ip address