FEDERATION ENTERPRISE HYBRID CLOUD 3.1 Microsoft Applications Solution Guide

Transcription

1 FEDERATION ENTERPRISE HYBRID CLOUD 3.1 Microsoft Applications Solution Guide ABSTRACT This solution guide describes how to use the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1 to provision and manage new and existing Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft SharePoint Server applications for onpremises or hosted cloud services. September 2015 Solution Guide

2 Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA. Published September 2015 EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. The information in this publication is provided as is. EMC corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. EMC 2, EMC, Avamar, Data Domain, Data Protection Advisor, Isilon, PowerPath, RecoverPoint, ScaleIO, ViPR, VMAX, VNX, VPLEX, XtremIO, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com. Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1: Microsoft Applications Solution Guide Part Number H

3 Contents Contents Chapter 1 Executive Summary... 6 Federation solutions... 7 Document purpose... 7 Audience... 7 Solution purpose... 7 Business challenge... 8 Technology solution... 8 Essential reading... 9 Terminology... 9 Chapter 2 Microsoft Applications Solution Architecture Overview...12 VMware vrealize Application Services...13 VMware vrealize Hyperic...13 Key components...14 Software resources...15 Chapter 3 Provisioning Microsoft Applications Overview...17 VMware vrealize Application Services...17 VMware Cloud Management Marketplace...18 Cloud providers...18 vrealize Automation blueprints...19 Deployment environments...20 Application owners and business groups...20 Logical templates...21 Services in vrealize Application Services...21 Application blueprints...22 Publishing application blueprints...23 Service catalog...25 vrealize Automation services...26 vrealize Automation catalog items...26 vrealize Automation actions...26 vrealize Automation entitlements...27 Approval policies...27 Storage service offerings...28 Provisioning Microsoft Active Directory services...30 Provisioning Microsoft Exchange...30 Exchange Server application blueprints...31 Requesting an Exchange Server virtual machine...32 Verifying an Exchange Server deployment

4 Contents Provisioning Microsoft SQL Server...35 SQL Server application blueprints...36 Requesting a SQL Server virtual machine...37 Verifying a SQL Server deployment...39 Provisioning Microsoft SharePoint Server...39 SharePoint Server application blueprints...39 Requesting a SharePoint Server virtual machine...41 Verifying a SharePoint deployment...42 Configuring the SharePoint farm...42 Chapter 4 High Availability for Microsoft Applications on Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud Overview...45 vsphere High Availability...45 Microsoft Exchange DAG...45 vsphere HA with Exchange Server DAG...46 vsphere DRS and anti-affinity rules for Exchange Server virtual machines...46 Provisioning an Exchange Server DAG...47 Application blueprints for Exchange Server DAG...48 Verifying the Exchange Server DAG deployment...49 Microsoft SQL Server with AlwaysOn Availability Groups...49 Anti-affinity rules for SQL Server virtual machines...50 Provisioning a SQL Server AAG...50 Application blueprints for SQL Server AAG...50 Verifying the SQL Server 2012 AAG deployment...51 Microsoft SharePoint availability...52 Chapter 5 Monitoring Microsoft Applications Overview...54 VMware vrealize Hyperic...54 vrealize Hyperic agent...54 Auto-discovery...55 VMware vrealize Operations Manager...56 Integrating Hyperic with vrealize Operations Manager...56 Monitoring Microsoft Exchange Server...58 Exchange Server metrics...58 Microsoft Exchange Server dashboards...59 Monitoring Microsoft SQL Server...60 SQL Server metrics...60 Microsoft SQL Server dashboards...61 Monitoring Microsoft SharePoint Server...63 SharePoint Server metrics...63 Microsoft SharePoint Server dashboards...64 Chapter 6 Elasticity for Microsoft Applications Overview

5 Contents Threshold alerts...66 Elasticity for Microsoft Exchange Server...67 Elasticity for Microsoft SQL Server...69 Elasticity for Microsoft SharePoint Server...71 Chapter 7 Database as a Service with Microsoft SQL Server Overview...77 Publishing DBaaS resource actions...78 Creating Microsoft SQL Server instances...79 Creating Microsoft SQL Server user databases...81 Deleting a Microsoft SQL Server user database...83 Deleting a Microsoft SQL Server instance...85 Managing Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups...86 Adding a database to an AAG...86 Removing a database from an AAG...88 Chapter 8 Conclusion Summary...92 Findings...92 Chapter 9 References EMC documentation...94 VMware documentation...94 Microsoft documentation...94 Tables Table 1. Table 2. Table 3. Table 4. Table 5. Terminology... 9 Solution software requirements...15 Exchange 2013 service property values...32 SQL Server service property values...36 SharePoint Server service property values

6 Chapter 1: Executive Summary Chapter 1 Executive Summary This chapter presents the following topics: Federation solutions... 7 Document purpose... 7 Audience... 7 Solution purpose... 7 Business challenge... 8 Technology solution... 8 Essential reading... 9 Terminology

7 Federation solutions Chapter 1: Executive Summary Document purpose Audience Solution purpose EMC II, Pivotal, RSA, VCE, Virtustream, and VMware form a unique Federation of strategically aligned businesses that are free to execute individually or together. The EMC Federation businesses collaborate to research, develop, and validate superior, integrated solutions and deliver a seamless experience to their collective customers. The Federation provides customer solutions and choice for the software-defined enterprise and the emerging third platform of mobile, cloud, big data, and social networking. The Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1 solution is a completely virtualized data center, fully automated by software. The solution starts with a foundation that delivers IT-as-a- Service, with options for high availability, backup and recovery, and disaster recovery. It also provides a framework and foundation for add-on modules such as application services, database as a service, platform as a service, and cloud brokering. This Solution Guide describes the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud for Microsoft Applications solution, which enables automated deployment and management of Microsoft applications, such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft SharePoint Server, within a Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud built with VMware vcloud Suite. The guide introduces the architecture, features, and functionality of the solution and demonstrates the use cases enabled by the solution. Data protection for Microsoft applications within the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud is described in a separate Solution Guide. This guide is intended for customers, partners, and EMC personnel who plan to deploy this solution. Users should have the necessary training and background to install and configure Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, Exchange Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and the associated infrastructure. Users should also be familiar with the infrastructure and security policies of the customer installation. This solution provides a reference architecture that integrates all the key components and functionality necessary for deploying, managing, and protecting Microsoft applications in a hybrid cloud. The solution enables customers to leverage the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1 for: On-demand, self-service provisioning of Microsoft Enterprise applications such as Exchange Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint Server Complete management of the application service lifecycle Provisioning, monitoring, protection, and management of the infrastructure services by line-of-business end users, without IT administrator involvement Provisioning of application blueprints with associated infrastructure resources by lineof-business application owners without IT administrator involvement Provisioning of backup, continuous availability, and disaster recovery services as part of the cloud service provisioning process Database as a service (DBaaS), with rapid, on-demand, self-service provisioning of SQL Server instances and databases on SQL Server virtual machines, post deployment 7

8 Chapter 1: Executive Summary Business challenge Technology solution While many organizations have successfully introduced virtualization as a core technology within their data center, end users and business units within the organizations have not experienced many of the benefits of cloud computing such as increased agility, mobility, and control. Transforming from the traditional IT model to a cloud-operating model involves overcoming the challenges of legacy infrastructure and processes, such as: Inefficiency and inflexibility Slow, reactive responses to customer requests Inadequate visibility into the cost of the requested infrastructure Limited choice of availability and protection services To meet these challenges, public cloud providers have built technology and business models catering to the requirements of end-user agility and control. Many organizations are under pressure to provide these same service levels within the secure and compliant confines of the on-premises data center. As a result, IT departments need to create cost-effective alternatives to public cloud services, alternatives that do not compromise enterprise features such as data protection, disaster recovery, and guaranteed service levels. Deciding where to deploy Exchange Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint Server can involve trade-offs. Traditional on-premises infrastructure gives IT teams more control, but provisioning can take weeks. Public clouds speed up provisioning, but they do not necessarily meet business requirements for data protection, disaster recovery, and guaranteed service levels. For this Microsoft applications solution, Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1 provides on-premises or hosted cloud services to meet these business requirements. The Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud solution integrates the best of EMC and VMware products and services to deliver a fully integrated, enterprise-ready solution across all three data center pillars compute, storage, and network. The solution empowers IT organizations to accelerate the implementation and adoption of a hybrid cloud while still enabling customer choice for the compute and networking infrastructures within the data center. The solution caters to customers who want to preserve their investment and make better use of their existing infrastructure and to customers who want to build new infrastructures dedicated to a hybrid cloud. Developed by EMC and VMware product and services teams, the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud solution takes advantage of the strong integration between EMC technologies and the VMware vcloud Suite. The solution includes EMC scalable storage arrays and integrated EMC and VMware monitoring and data protection to provide the foundation for cloud services within customer environments. This Microsoft Applications solution uses VMware vrealize Application Services and VMware vrealize Hyperic to enable automated deployment, management, and protection of Exchange Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint Server applications, and to enable application monitoring during the application lifecycle. 8

9 Chapter 1: Executive Summary Essential reading Terminology The following documents describe the architecture, components, features, and functionality of the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1 solution: Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1: Foundation Infrastructure Reference Architecture Guide Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1: Concepts and Architecture Solution Guide Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1: Operations Solution Guide Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1: Security Management Solution Guide This guide provides external references where applicable. EMC recommends that users implementing this solution are familiar with these documents. For details, refer to Chapter 9: References. Table 1 provides definitions for some of the terms used in this guide. Table 1. Terminology Term Active Directory (AD) AlwaysOn Availability Group (AAG) Application blueprint Business group Database availability group (DAG) High availability (HA) Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) IT as a service (ITaaS) Definition Provided with Microsoft Windows Server as a special-purpose database or directory that is designed to store system-specific data for handling a large number of read and search operations, which are hierarchical, replicated, and extensible. A high-availability and disaster-recovery feature included with SQL Server as an enterprise-level alternative to database mirroring. Logical topology of an application for deployment in a virtual cloud. An application blueprint captures the structure of an application with logical nodes, their corresponding services and operating systems, dependencies, default configurations, and network and storage topology requirements. The blueprint is published as a catalog item in the common service catalog. A set of users, often corresponding to a line of business, department, or other organizational unit, that can be associated with a set of catalog services and infrastructure resources. A set of highly available Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox servers that host a set of databases and provides automatic database-level recovery from failures that affect individual servers or databases. A mechanism that enables a system or infrastructure to continue providing services in the event of isolated component or resource failures. A standard set of automated resources that include compute, storage, and networking capabilities provided through a hosting company or service provider. Enterprise IT that acts and operates as a competitive service provider for an organization that has many provider options for IT services, including outsourcing companies and public cloud providers. 9

10 Chapter 1: Executive Summary Term Key performance indicator (KPI) Logical template Pod vra vrealize Application Services properties vrealize Automation Application Services service Web front-end (WFE) Definition A quantifiable measure that compares performance criteria, including strategic and operational goals of an organization. A predefined virtual machine definition in vrealize Application Services that can be mapped to a cloud template (and supporting services) in the cloud catalog enabling an application blueprint to remain cloud-agnostic. A collection of virtual machines that has a specific function within the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud. An abbreviation for vrealize Automation used in diagrams in this guide. vrealize Application Services configuration name-value pairs for services and application components. These are variables used by scripts to set parameters and run various configurations. vrealize Application Services scripted software that can be installed on a virtual machine and reused in multiple applications. A Web-based user interface for a back-end service such as a database. It is a Web server that handles Web page requests from users. A SharePoint farm can use multiple WFE servers and a Network Load Balancer (NLB) to distribute requests for scalability and redundancy. 10

11 Chapter 2: Microsoft Applications Solution Architecture Chapter 2 Microsoft Applications Solution Architecture This chapter presents the following topics: Overview...12 Key components...14 Software resources

12 Chapter 2: Microsoft Applications Solution Architecture Overview This Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud for Microsoft Applications solution provides the following application-specific functionality, in addition to the core Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud functionality: Automated deployment, management, and protection of Microsoft applications Application monitoring during the application lifecycle Database as a service for Microsoft SQL Server (see Chapter 7) Figure 1 shows the architecture of the solution, which is deployed on a Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud platform and uses the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud components outlined in Key components. The solution adds VMware vrealize Hyperic, a component of vrealize Operations, to monitor metrics specifically related to Exchange Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint Server. Figure 1. Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud reference architecture 12

13 Chapter 2: Microsoft Applications Solution Architecture The management, network, and tenant resources for the solution are divided into several pods, as shown in Figure 1, with each pod performing a solution-specific function: Core Pod The Core Pod hosts a core set of resources that must exist before the remainder of the cloud can be deployed. These core resources include VMware vcenter Server, Microsoft SQL Server 2012, and VMware NSX Manager. Automation Pod The Automation Pod hosts the virtual machines that automate and manage the cloud infrastructure that supports the workloads consumed by the clouds tenants. The Automation Pod supports the components responsible for functions such as the user portal and automated provisioning, monitoring, metering, and reporting. NEI Pod The NEI Pod hosts the VMware NSX Edge appliances and VMware NSX Controller nodes and becomes the convergence point at which the physical and virtual networks connect. Workload Pods The Workload Pods are configured and assigned in vrealize Automation as shared resources, to host application virtual machines deployed by the different business groups in the hybrid cloud environment. These Workload Pods are deployed as VMware vsphere clusters in VMware vcenter endpoints. VMware vrealize Application Services vrealize Application Services automates application provisioning in the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, including deploying, configuring, and updating the application's components and dependent middleware platform services. This simplifies complex deployments of both custom and packaged applications. vrealize Application Services enables you to construct application blueprints for rapid deployment of Microsoft applications on a Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud. These application blueprints are created in Application Services and published to the vrealize Automation service catalog. The published blueprints contain virtual machine deployment information, as well as application deployment information and ancillary scripts for deploying services to a virtual machine (Hyperic agents, for example). Virtual machine and application blueprints can apply to single systems or multiple systems, covering both bare-metal server deployments and virtual machine deployments. From predefined blueprints, you can easily deploy multitier enterprise applications that require multiple application, database, and web components, and related services. VMware vrealize Hyperic VMware vrealize Hyperic is a component of the VMware vrealize Operations Management Suite. It monitors operating systems, applications, and services running in physical, virtual, and cloud environments. vrealize Hyperic offers the unique ability to automatically discover, inventory, and monitor servers, regardless of type or location, and enables application operations teams to ensure that business-critical applications run without fail. The integration of vrealize Hyperic with vrealize Operations Manager provides a single UI for monitoring a wide range of metrics relating to the availability and use of Microsoft applications. The Management Pack for vrealize Hyperic provides metrics reports specific to Microsoft applications in vrealize Operations Manager. 13

14 Chapter 2: Microsoft Applications Solution Architecture Key components This Microsoft applications solution uses the following components of the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud: Note: For an overview of these components, refer to the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1: Foundation Infrastructure Reference Architecture Guide. Data center virtualization and cloud infrastructure VMware vsphere ESXi and VMware vcenter Server VMware vrealize Suite including: VMware vrealize Automation (vra) VMware vrealize Automation Application Services VMware vrealize Operations Manager VMware vrealize Configuration Manager VMware vrealize Business Standard VMware vrealize Log Insight VMware vcenter Orchestrator VMware NSX for vsphere or VMware vcloud Networking and Security networking EMC storage services EMC ViPR software-defined storage EMC VNX, EMC VMAX, EMC ScaleIO, EMC VPLEX, EMC Isilon, and EMC XtremIO storage platforms this guide discusses VNX and VMAX only EMC ViPR SRM EMC PowerPath /VE Data protection EMC RecoverPoint VMware vcenter Site Recovery Manager EMC Avamar and EMC Data Domain data protection platforms EMC Data Protection Advisor Data protection for Microsoft applications is discussed in a separate document. Figure 2 shows the key components of the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, with Exchange Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint Server deployed on the IT-as-a-service platform. 14

15 Chapter 2: Microsoft Applications Solution Architecture Figure 2. Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud solution components Software resources Table 2 lists the application software components and supporting services specific to this Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud for Microsoft Applications solution. For a complete list of Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1 software requirements, refer to the relevant EMC E- Lab EMC Simple Support Matrix at elabnavigator.emc.com. Table 2. Solution software requirements Software Version Notes Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012, and 2012 R2 Supported operating systems Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and 2013 Versions of Exchange Server supported in this solution Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 SP2 and 2013 SP1 Versions of SharePoint Server supported in this solution Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, 2012, and 2014 Versions of SQL Server supported in this solution VMware vrealize Hyperic A component of vrealize Operations used in this solution 15

16 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Chapter 3 Provisioning Microsoft Applications This chapter presents the following topics: Overview...17 VMware vrealize Application Services...17 Publishing application blueprints...23 Service catalog...25 Approval policies...27 Storage service offerings...28 Provisioning Microsoft Active Directory services...30 Provisioning Microsoft Exchange...30 Provisioning Microsoft SQL Server...35 Provisioning Microsoft SharePoint Server

17 Overview Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications This chapter describes how to provision Microsoft applications on a Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud. The Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud provides a foundation for successful and consistent deployments of Microsoft applications. Generic blueprints are available for each application; these can be adapted for specific organizational requirements to guarantee a standard industry level of service. This chapter describes the high-level process and methodology required to successfully deploy the applications by using vrealize Application Services with the vrealize Automation service catalog and the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud selfservice portal. Figure 3 illustrates the workflow used in this solution for each of the Microsoft applications deployed. Figure 3. Workflow for publishing vrealize Application Services blueprints VMware vrealize Application Services In VMware vrealize Application Services, an application blueprint defines the logical topology of an application for deployment in a virtual cloud. The blueprint captures the structure of an application with logical nodes, their corresponding services and operating systems, dependencies, default configurations, and network and storage topology requirements. You can create an application blueprint after certain required elements are established on vrealize Application Services. The required elements include a vrealize Automation blueprint, a cloud provider, a deployment environment, one or more logical templates, and the services that contain the scripts necessary to install, customize, update, and decommission the application. vrealize Application Services provides a drag-and-drop GUI for constructing application blueprints. This enables you to quickly deploy Microsoft applications on a Federation 17

18 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Enterprise Hybrid Cloud. The blueprints are easily transportable across Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud environments. You can create application blueprints for each application and set of business requirements. You can then either deploy the blueprints directly from vrealize Application Services or publish them to a specific business group in the vrealize Automation service catalog so that users can request them through the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud self-service portal. For Microsoft application deployments, users can request multiple versions of Exchange Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, from the self-service portal. Application-related parameters can be modified prior to submitting the request. VMware Cloud Management Marketplace In vrealize Application Services, you can download published application blueprints from the VMware Cloud Management Marketplace on VMware Solution Exchange (VSX) and import them into Application Services. For more information, visit the VMware Cloud Management Marketplace. Microsoft application blueprints imported from the Marketplace provide preconfigured services and scripts for installing and customizing applications in a Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud environment. Figure 4 shows some of the available blueprints and services. Blueprints imported from the Marketplace can be customized to meet the requirements of the application and the business. Figure 4. VMware Cloud Management Marketplace blueprints Note: For this solution, we imported and customized some application blueprints from the Marketplace. We designed and created others specifically for the solution. Application blueprints designed for and provided with this solution are not available on the VMware Cloud Management Marketplace. Contact your EMC representative for information. Cloud providers To enable application blueprints to be published to a particular business group in vrealize Automation, a cloud provider must be registered on vrealize Application Services for that business group, as shown in Figure 5. The cloud provider enables vrealize Application Services to communicate with vrealize Automation. 18

19 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Figure 5. Adding a cloud provider After a cloud provider is created for a specific business group, vrealize Automation blueprints can be added to that cloud provider and then to a logical template, as shown in Figure 6. Figure 6. Blueprints and logical templates added to a cloud provider in vrealize Application Services vrealize Automation blueprints vrealize Automation blueprints define important parameters such as the minimum and maximum CPU size and memory. They can also specify a reservation policy, though this can alternatively be specified in a deployment environment in vrealize Application Services. vrealize Automation blueprints also identify the virtual machine templates used for application deployments. In the example blueprint in Figure 7, the Clone from field is set to 19

20 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications use a Windows 2012 virtual machine template, and minimum and maximum values are set for the CPU and Memory parameters. Figure 7. Configuring parameters for a vrealize Automation blueprint Deployment environments Before application blueprints can be published from vrealize Application Services to vrealize Automation, a deployment environment must be configured. A deployment environment maps to one or more reservation policies in vrealize Automation, as shown in Figure 8. Figure 8. Deployment environment Application owners and business groups Application architect roles manage the deployment design in vrealize Application Services. These roles then publish application blueprints to vrealize Automation for deployment to meet business requirements. Specific users within business groups (for example, finance or HR) can be given permission to request application deployments from the vrealize Automation service catalog. These requests are then approved or denied by the application owners. 20

21 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Logical templates A logical template is a predefined virtual machine definition in vrealize Application Service. It can be mapped to an actual cloud template and supported services in the cloud library. Logical templates enable application blueprints to remain cloud agnostic. The logical template specifies a supported operating system version to ensure that only supported services can be used when constructing an application blueprint. You can add services to a logical template when building the template. Alternatively, you can add services when designing the application blueprint. Multiple vrealize Automation blueprints can be added to one logical template. This allows application blueprints to be published with different reservation policies. Services in vrealize Application Services In vrealize Application Services, a service is scripted software that runs on a virtual machine during deployment. A service can include scripts created with Windows PowerShell, the Windows Command Prompt, or the Linux Bash shell. Similar to building a logical template, tags and a supported operating system version are required when creating a service. The same service can house multiple scripts for example, an application installation script, an application configuration script, and an application update script. Services are a fundamental element in creating application blueprints with vrealize Application Services. They are available for reuse and selection during the application blueprint creation process, as shown in Figure 9. Administrators can add properties to a service and predefine the property values. They can also mark properties as Overridable so that users can override the property values when deploying a catalog item from the self-service portal. Property values set by the user are specific to the deployed application. Figure 9 shows the Overridable option set for several properties in a service. Figure 9. Example of a service in vrealize Application Services When Microsoft applications are implemented, the scripts contained in associated services run automatically after the virtual machine is deployed. A number of services can be added to a single application blueprint and a service installation order can be specified across multiple virtual machines in the blueprint. 21

22 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Application blueprints An application blueprint can be created after the required elements, such as a deployment environment, logical templates, and services, are established on vrealize Application Services, as shown in Figure 10. Tags are added to an application blueprint to indicate the type of service it defines and the category in which to list the service. Figure 10. Creating an application blueprint vrealize Application Services provides a drag-and-drop GUI for creating application blueprints. Users select and position logical templates on a blank canvas and drag services and application components into the logical templates. Depending on the application requirements, multiple logical templates can be added and clustered. Figure 11 shows an example of a completed application blueprint where components have been dragged from the Logical Templates and Services menus to create a reusable Microsoft application blueprint that can be deployed into the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud. Figure 11. Drag-and-drop GUI in vrealize Application Services Figure 11 also shows how you can edit the compute resources and host name for a blueprint in Application Services. Depending on your requirements, the host name can be assigned randomly on each execution of a blueprint by specifying ${random}. After the application blueprint is created, it is ready to be published to the required business unit on vrealize Automation. Users can then request the Microsoft application deployment from the vrealize Automation service catalog via the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud self-service portal. 22

23 Publishing application blueprints Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications After application blueprints are imported or created in vrealize Application Services, they can be published to the vrealize Automation service catalog. Figure 12 shows the Deploy option used to initiate the publishing process. Figure 12. Publishing application blueprints to vrealize Automation During the publishing process, you have several opportunities to customize the application blueprint: You can use the Map Details option to ensure correlation between vrealize Application Services logical templates and vrealize Automation blueprints, as shown in Figure 13. Figure 13. Mapping template details during the blueprint publishing process You can select a default logical network or specify a cloud network for the deployment. You can change the value of service properties that are specified as Overridable in the application blueprint, as shown in Figure

24 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Figure 14. Editing service properties during blueprint publishing You can modify the compute resources to ensure that the Microsoft application is deployed on virtual machines that meet the performance requirements of a particular business group. The ability to edit the compute resources during publishing enables the same application blueprint to be published with different specifications. You can review the execution plan to ensure that the implementation sequence deploys the correct application services in the correct order, as shown in Figure 15. Figure 15. Reviewing the deployment plan during blueprint publishing As shown in Figure 16, the final step in the publishing process is to review all application related properties and click Publish. The name and description of the item are then published and the item is ready to add to the vrealize Automation service catalog. Figure 16. Reviewing and publishing the application blueprint Application blueprints that are published from Application Services into vrealize Automation are automatically activated. However, they are not visible in the service catalog until they are added to an applicable active service with configured entitlements and actions. 24

25 Service catalog Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications The vrealize Automation service catalog lists the catalog items that an end user, application owner, or business group can request. After a request is approved, the application virtual machine is deployed and the owner is notified. Figure 17 shows examples of published applications in the service catalog for this solution. Figure 17. Viewing the vrealize Automation service catalog Figure 18 shows a subset of the catalog items for SQL Server 2014 these include multiple deployments with varying storage offerings. The SQL Server with AlwaysOn service includes items for SQL Server 2012 and 2014 with AlwaysOn Availability Groups. Figure 18. Viewing the vrealize Automation service catalog for SQL Server

26 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications vrealize Automation services Entitled users or groups can activate and deactivate services in vrealize Automation, as shown in Figure 19. Activated services appear in the service catalog to users with the appropriate entitlements. Selecting a service displays the catalog items associated with that service. Figure 19. Viewing vrealize Automation services vrealize Automation catalog items In this Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud for Microsoft Applications solution, all catalog items are published from vrealize Application Services. All catalog items are linked to a service, as shown in Figure 20. Figure 20. Managing vrealize Automation catalog items vrealize Automation actions vrealize Automation actions enable administrators to specify which actions users can perform for a particular catalog item, as shown in Figure 21. This helps to control the level of actions that users can perform. For example, an administrator might want to prevent a user from being able to destroy a virtual machine, as specified by the business unit. 26

27 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Figure 21. Viewing vrealize Automation catalog item actions vrealize Automation entitlements Entitlements in vrealize Automation control which users or groups have access to particular catalog items, as shown in Figure 22. They ensure that only specified users can request specific deployments. For example, administrators can specify that only SQL Server application owners can view and select SQL Server catalog items. Figure 22. Viewing vrealize Automation entitlements Approval policies After entitlements have been assigned to users or groups, approval policies can be created and edited in vrealize Automation and applied to particular catalog items. After an approval policy is applied to a catalog item, designated approvers receive an approval whenever a request is submitted. The approver can then either approve or reject the request, with a justification message. The deployment proceeds after the request has been approved. Implementing approval processes provides essential control over enterprise application deployments and provides important governance over Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud environments. A wide range of approval policy types are available. Approvals can be configured so that a single approver or multiple approvers are required for deployments. Figure 23 shows an example of an approval request sent to an approver. 27

28 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Figure 23. Storage service offerings Approving or rejecting a request The Microsoft applications deployed in this solution take advantage of the various storage service offerings within the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud. The applications are provisioned on storage services that meet the particular workload requirements of SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and Exchange Server. In vrealize Application Services, separate deployment environments can be created with separate reservations on vrealize Automation, as described in Deployment environments on page 20. When publishing an application blueprint, you can select a deployment environment. The deployment environment ensures that the application is provisioned on the storage service offering with which the deployment environment is associated. Alternatively, as described in VMware vrealize Application Services, you select a vrealize Automation blueprint (as a logical template) when creating an application blueprint. The vrealize Automation blueprint contains multiple storage service offerings, such as SATA, all flash, and mixed storage services, as shown in Figure 24. When publishing the application blueprint, you select the storage service required for the catalog item you are creating. This enables different storage service offerings to be published from the same application blueprint, as shown in Figure 25. Figure 24. Storage service offerings for application blueprints during the publishing process When users request an application from the service catalog, they can select the catalog item that offers the appropriate storage service for the application. Figure 25 shows examples of catalog items for SQL Server 2014 with different storage service offerings. 28

29 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Figure 25. Selecting a storage offering for SQL Server In this solution, we implemented storage service offerings by using VMAX and VNX storage arrays. The solution also supports XtremIO storage. Storage service offerings can include a dedicated storage type or mixed storage. We created the following storage service offerings based on the requirements for each Microsoft application: Option 1 Extreme performance tier with all flash drives Option 2 Balanced capacity and performance tier with FC and SAS drives Option 3 Capacity tier with large SATA and NL-SAS drives The ability to request a catalog item with the required storage service offering and compute resources ensures that applications can perform workloads with guaranteed input/output operations per second (IOPS). For example, we used the all-flash storage service for the SQL Server deployment to optimize performance, and we used the capacity storage service for the Exchange Server deployment to provide the required mailbox capacity and performance. With EMC array-based technologies such as EMC FAST Cache and EMC FAST VP, applications of varying I/O profiles can be added to storage services. These EMC storage service offerings can include different disk technologies, and can promote and demote workloads to best serve the operating requirements of an application. EMC ViPR is a key component of the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud that centralizes and automates storage management on a single platform. Through the vrealize Automation service catalog, you can create volumes on ViPR and provision them to the required ESXi servers. The volumes are then used to make up reservations on vrealize Automation. This enables the storage services required for Microsoft applications to be assigned by a fully automated process. Note: For more details on the storage offerings in the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, refer to the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud 3.1: Concepts and Architecture Solution Guide. 29

30 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Provisioning Microsoft Active Directory services Cloud tenants require a Microsoft Active Directory infrastructure for successful deployments of Microsoft applications such as Exchange Server and SQL Server. Users need to provide information about their Active Directory infrastructure if it already exists. This information is necessary because these Microsoft applications are heavily integrated with Active Directory. Alternatively, administrators can deploy a new Active Directory infrastructure as described in this section. Users with the appropriate rights can choose to deploy and customize a Domain Controller to create an Active Directory domain before the application is provisioned. During deployment, the Domain Controller settings can be modified to specify an IP address, Domain Name, and administrator credentials. DNS can also be configured during Domain Controller deployment. Provisioning a new Microsoft Active Directory Domain Controller includes the following tasks: Creating a Domain Controller application blueprint in vrealize Application Services Publishing the Application Services blueprint to vrealize Automation Configuring services and entitlements for the Active Directory service To provision Microsoft Active Directory from the vrealize Automation service catalog: 1. Select a Domain Controller from the catalog and click Request, as shown in Figure 26. Figure 26. Provisioning Microsoft Active Directory from vrealize Automation Provisioning Microsoft Exchange 2. Set the required property values and click Submit. 3. After the Domain Controller is deployed, record the IP address and host name; these values are required when provisioning each Microsoft application. Microsoft Exchange Server application blueprints that are published from vrealize Application Services facilitate the deployment of multiple editions of Exchange Server across any business group within an organization, whether the business group is a highly utilized production environment or a test and development unit. These editions can be provisioned easily and are ready for use within minutes of being requested. The following are prerequisites for deploying Exchange from the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud self-service portal: The Active Directory infrastructure with DNS services must exist before Exchange Server can be installed. 30

31 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications The account used to perform the Exchange installation must have the rights necessary to make changes to the Active Directory schema. Refer to Microsoft Exchange Server documentation for further information. The following options are currently available for provisioning Microsoft Exchange Server: Option 1 deploys a stand-alone Exchange Server virtual machine, with preconfigured CPU, memory, and storage resources for a specified number of users. Mailbox Server and Client Access roles are combined in this deployment. Option 2 deploys Exchange Server in a high-availability configuration as part of an Exchange database availability group (DAG), with preconfigured CPU, memory, and storage resources for a specified number of users. This option deploys two servers in a DAG with two database copies. Mailbox Server and Client Access roles are combined in this deployment. Option 3 deploys a new Exchange Server instance, with preconfigured CPU, memory, and storage resources, to an existing DAG. Mailbox Server and Client Access roles are combined in this deployment. Note: This section describes Option 1. Option 2 is described in High Availability for Microsoft Applications on Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud. Option 3 is described in Elasticity for Microsoft Exchange. The following Microsoft Exchange Server deployments are supported in this solution: Exchange Server 2010 Standard and Enterprise Editions on Windows Server 2012 and Windows 2008 R2 Exchange Server 2013 Standard and Enterprise Editions on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 Note: If installing a Mailbox Server role as a member of a DAG, you must use Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2. Windows Server 2008 R2 SP 1 Standard Edition does not support the features needed for DAGs. Exchange Server application blueprints To provision a stand-alone Exchange Server virtual machine on the Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, the application architect must first configure the application blueprint in vrealize Application Services. The application blueprint consists of a virtual machine template with services and custom scripts to automatically provision Exchange Server, as shown in Figure 27. In this solution, the stand-alone deployment option combines the Exchange Mailbox Server and Client Access roles on one server. For larger configurations, you can deploy separate servers to host each role. Figure 27. Exchange Server application blueprint 31

32 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications For the solution, we created the installation and customization scripts with Microsoft Windows PowerShell. Figure 28 shows the properties we created for services in the application blueprint, including the organization name, the administrator credentials, and the source location for the installation files. Note: You can customize and reuse installation scripts for multiple blueprints. Figure 28. Properties and actions for an Exchange Server 2013 application blueprint Table 3 provides details some of the service properties that can be configured in an application blueprint for Exchange Server. Other properties can be added as required. Table 3. Exchange 2013 service property values Property name Blueprint property value example Description Domain exlab.local The Active Directory domain to which Exchange Server is joined UserName Administrator Domain user account with administrator rights to install Exchange Password Password User account password SetupEXEpath c:\software\exchange Path to the folder containing the setup.exe file for the Exchange Server installation OrganizationName Exchange Exchange organization name After an Exchange Server application blueprint has been created, it can be published to vrealize Automation, as described in Publishing application blueprints. Entitlements and approval policies can then be configured for the catalog item. Implementing an approval process for an Exchange Server deployment helps to guarantee that the application is deployed based on the best practices within an enterprise. Requesting an Exchange Server virtual machine Figure 29 shows an example of a vrealize Automation service catalog that includes various items for deploying Exchange Server. The catalog items that are visible and available to a user depend on the user s assigned permissions. 32

33 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Figure 29. Viewing service catalog items for Exchange When users initiate a request, they are prompted for a description and a reason for the deployment. The requester then has the option to modify the compute resources and the Exchange Server virtual machine hostname, as shown in Figure 30. Figure 30. Modifying Exchange Server node properties during deployment The requester can also edit the service properties specific to the Exchange Server instance and domain, as shown in Figure 31, if the properties are specified as Overridable in the application blueprint. 33

34 Chapter 3: Provisioning Microsoft Applications Figure 31. Viewing application parameters for Exchange Server After the user submits the request, the deployment begins. The user can view the status of the request in the Requests tab in vrealize Automation. When the deployment is complete, the state of the request changes from In Progress to Successful, as shown in Figure 32, and the user also receives a notification . If the deployment includes an approval process, the request remains in a Pending Approval state until approved. Figure 32. Confirming a successful Exchange Server deployment vrealize Automation provides several ways to view details of the deployment. Figure 33 shows the Items > Application Deployments option. Figure 33. Viewing a provisioned Exchange Server application deployment 34