B u i l t f o r P u r p o s e a n d D i r e c t i o n B u i l t f o r P u r p o s e a n d D i r e c t i o n WHITE PAPER LIGHTHOUSE Private Cloud Built on Microsoft Cloud Platform Published by: Groupware Technology Publish date: September 2015 Abstract: With LIGHTHOUSE, Groupware offers a turnkey, purpose-built private cloud solution ready to consume. The pre-configured FlexPod solution, built on Cisco and NetApp components, empowers business units (BU) to meet business requirements with cloud-scale capabilities providing the organization with greater control and security. While keeping IT and Dev resources focused on business objectives, this scalable Microsoft Cloud Platform environment quickly delivers a secure, self-service platform for rapid resource provisioning. A fully-integrated IaaS platform, LIGHTHOUSE is architected to accelerate innovation and drive IT effciency. The design is based on Cisco Validated Design (CVD) principles and jointly developed reference architectures, which allow for a faster, more reliable and predictable deployment. Disclaimer: This report is for informational purposes only. GROUPWARE TECHNOLOGY MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS or IMPLIED, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. 2015 Groupware Technology, Inc. Product names, logos, brands and other trademarks featured or referred to within this report are the property of their respective trademark holders in the United States and/or other countries. GROUPW ARETECH. com
Contents Executive Summary... 1 Introduction...1 System Overview... 3 LIGHTHOUSE Hardware and Software... 3 Installation...3 Support...4 Add-Ons...4 System Capabilities... 5 Order Fulfillment... 5 Conclusion...6 FAQs...7 Compute...8 Network...8 Storage...8 Windows Azure Pack (WAP)...9 Appendix...10 GROUPW ARETECH. com
Executive Summary The LIGHTHOUSE private cloud solution is an agile, efficient and scalable platform for hosting infrastructure software and business applications in a virtualized environment. The solution includes an integrated portfolio of compute, network and storage hardware from Cisco and NetApp, delivered in a rack that integrates seamlessly into your existing IT infrastructure. It is designed for automation and rapid deployment of resources using a Microsoft Azure-consistent self-service portal. LIGHTHOUSE is built on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 for virtualization and management along with Windows Azure Pack for a rich, self-service, multi-tenant cloud experience. It is easy to begin with a starter solution that has the capability to increase capacity on your terms and timeline. This whitepaper is for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and organizational IT decision makers seeking a solution to accelerate deployment, lower TCO, enhance productivity, increase security and improve business agility. LIGHTHOUSE can help you optimize your budget from CAPEX to OPEX, all while increasing your ROI and productivity. Building a secure and scalable private cloud is no easy task. It can be quite time consuming and complex, depending on the configuration and its capabilities. It can also take months to deploy and configure in a scalable, secure and highly-available manner. Groupware has taken on this challenge for you so that you can allocate your resources where they are most useful. We provide a pre-built, fully configured, private cloud in weeks, not months. Introduction In today s IT landscape, many businesses are starting to explore cloud computing be it public, private or hybrid. Some businesses see the public cloud as a security risk with little control while others see it as an opportunity to decrease CAPEX and outsource some of the responsibilities for maintaining a data center. For many, security and control are concerns for public cloud computing, and many organizations are opting for private cloud computing. Private cloud is a model of cloud computing that involves a secure cloud-based environment, including scalability and self-service, in which the organization has complete control. A private cloud provides compute, network and storage, leveraging a virtualized environment and using an underlying shared pool of physical resources. In addition, a private cloud offers hosted services to users behind a well-defined security perimeter so it minimizes security risks. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 1
For those organizations looking to take advantage of both private and public cloud models, a hybrid cloud deployment allows for scaling or bursting of computing resources into the public cloud. Private clouds utilize a self-service Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, which provides the business unit (BU) with the capabilities to deploy virtual machines as guests from pools of hypervisors. This allows for scale-up and scale-down activities, all residing behind an organization s firewall. However, a considerable amount of time and effort are required to design and provision such a solution. With LIGHTHOUSE, Groupware delivers a private cloud with an Azure-consistent experience that supports business agility, reduces costs, increases ROI, improves development quality and increases elasticity. It is designed as a pre-validated, integrated solution using the Cisco Validated Design (CVD) 1 and Microsoft Fast Track (FT) 2 Reference Architecture, which includes the following: Hardware required to run the system, compute/network components from Cisco and storage from NetApp all neatly racked, cabled and labeled, and then delivered as a complete solution ready to consume. Software required to run the system, including the operating system, hypervisor and management software used for monitoring and provisioning workloads. With a pre-validated design, you get a solution that minimizes the risk associated with a private cloud deployment; thereby, allowing your organization to deploy revenue-generating applications and services much faster. 1. Cisco Validated Designs provide the foundation for systems design based on common use cases or current engineering system priorities. They incorporate a broad set of technologies, features and applications to address customer needs. Each one has been comprehensively tested and documented by Cisco engineers to ensure a faster, more reliable and fullypredictable deployment. For more info, click here. 2. Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track is a reference architecture designed to help build private clouds to reduce the complexity, risk and time involved in deployment. The FT program provides faster deployments, reduced risk and lower costof-ownership by delivering a validated, pre-configured solution. For more info, click here. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 2
System Overview The initial offering of LIGHTHOUSE is a 42U rack with an additional 6U of side-mounting capabilities that includes both the management environment and the tenant environment with additional space for future expansion. The first rack allows for an Expansion Unit (EU) to be added to increase capacity. As the capacity requirements increase beyond the first rack, additional racks can be added into the solution without the requirement of another management stamp. This allows you to increase the tenant capacity as needed. The solution is designed not to disrupt your existing IT environment, but to co-exist with it to utilize supporting services. LIGHTHOUSE Hardware and Software The cost of the LIGHTHOUSE solution is based on industry-standard pricing for components sourced directly from the vendor: The hardware solution is based on five nodes (80 cores) of rack-mount Cisco C-series servers used for management; a single Cisco B-series chassis with eight nodes (192 cores); Cisco Nexus switching; and a NetApp dual-controller with four disk enclosures for a total of 60TB of usable storage. In addition, virtual load balancers are used in the management stamp. The software solution is based on Microsoft Windows Server, Hyper-V and System Center for management and monitoring of the private cloud. The cost of Microsoft software licensing is not included in the total price based on the assumption that customer has existing licensing agreement(s) in place. Cisco and NetApp software are incorporated into the pricing. Installation The installation costs are for one-time professional services related to the start-up and integration of the system into the customer environment. LIGHTHOUSE ships to a customer site as a fullyintegrated solution. This allows for a simple startup that requires a few customer integration steps around Layer 3 handoff, authentication, DNS, NTP, certificates and password resets. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 3
Support Most vendors require customers to pay annual hardware and software support fees. The cost of Cisco and NetApp support is included in the cost of the hardware. Cisco SmartNet 8x5xNBD support NetApp SupportEdge Premium NBD Onsite Groupware s first-call GroupWatch 3 Support team will handle all hardware break-fix repairs and will interface directly, on your behalf, with the vendors on a 24x7x365 schedule. The GroupWatch team will open, provide status, manage and escalate cases as necessary with the OEMs to ensure the contracted SLAs are met. GroupWatch Support will also help maximize your support investments and reduce the amount of time your administrators spend managing support cases. With our resources committed to the most efficient resolution of your support cases, your systems are back in production sooner, leading to increased ROI and efficiency of your data center operations. Add-Ons Veeam Backup and Replication for Windows Server with Hyper-V can be added into the solution if the customer does not already have a preferred backup solution in place. As the leading data protection vendor in the virtualization backup industry, Veeam has been proven to be the disaster recovery tool of choice among many organizations. Cloud Cruiser is a software platform that provides usage and cost data. It provides fullyautomated showback, chargeback and billing for environments using Windows Azure pack. The Express version is included in the solution but is limited to 100 licenses. The Express version can be upgraded to the Full version if there is a requirement for collecting usage data for more objects or if advanced analytics are required. Network Virtualization Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) is a network virtualization technology that helps alleviate scalability problems and virtualize IP addresses. This feature allows tenants to create and manage their own software-defined networks. It also allows for over-lapping IP address spaces in addition to Network Address Translation (NAT) capabilities to allow tenant virtual machines to have Internet connectivity. 3. GroupWatch Support is Groupware s first-call support team of highly-specialized engineers who are capable of providing break-fix repairs and interfacing on your behalf, directly with vendors, to provide resolutions on a 24x7x365 schedule. For more info, click here. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 4
Console Connect is a feature that allows you to connect to a tenant virtual machine through the underlying host. Whether the virtual machine has an IP address or not, you are still able to connect as you are used to through the Hyper-V Manager console. Tenants need to use client devices that support Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 8.1. System Capabilities System Center Virtual Machine Manager Management of virtualization hosts, networking and storage resources. System Center Operations Manager Provides monitoring, reporting, performance and availability of management workloads. Windows Azure Pack Multi-tenant, self-service VM deployment service that provide IaaS capabilities for Windows and Linux workloads. Automation Allows the capabilities of automation using Service Management Automation (SMA), Desired State Configuration (DSC) and Windows PowerShell. Federated Identity Allows federation with existing ADFS environment or Azure Active Directory. Update Management Provides capabilities to patch management environment. Automated tenant capacity expansion Scale up and scale out Jump servers (management servers) Included as a central place to manage the infrastructure, which includes the management tools for all included components. Showback/Chargeback and billing (Optional) Backup solution (Optional) NVGRE (Optional) Console Connect (Optional) Order Fulfillment The process for ordering LIGHTHOUSE is quick and simple. The estimated time frame from when an order is placed to when it arrives onsite is around four weeks. The process is as follows: Order Site Survey (gather IPs, domain info, initial password) GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 5
Factory build and testing at Groupware Shipped and delivered to customer site Customer on-site installation Customer integration (2 4 days) o o o o o o Network handoff Authentication Password resets Certificates NTP DNS Customer acceptance and sign off Conclusion As a CIO or IT decision maker, it is your responsibility to the organization to ensure they have the right tools in place to deliver end-to-end services that allow the company to transform the way it delivers IT services. By optimizing application delivery and utilizing the capabilities of automation, you can respond to your business demands. Technological advancements in the cloud have enabled organizations to become more agile and more productive, and they shorten time-to-market. Built upon the foundation of a Cisco and NetApp reference architecture using the Microsoft Windows Server platform, Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft System Center and Windows Azure Pack, LIGHTHOUSE brings the cloud to your data center. The solution is ideals for organizations needing solutions that scale up and out with high availability and which also run workloads quickly and at a lower cost. The LIGHTHOUSE solution is simple to set up and use and offers optional integration to a public cloud, which provides greater value to the business. The solution architecture is pre-validated with a high-value support model. Most importantly, it serves the service-centric IT environment, which allows provisioning of resources in a self-service model, securely and in an efficient manner. Groupware Technology has the knowledge and experience in building these solutions. Allow us to do the hard work for you and deliver a solution that will increase productivity within your organization and within your budget. Provide your team with a Microsoft private cloud that is optimized for service delivery and offers both the flexibility and control to harness the full power of the cloud on your terms. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 6
FAQs What is LIGHTHOUSE? LIGHTHOUSE is a private cloud built on Microsoft Windows Server, System Center and Windows Azure Pack based on a FlexPod reference architecture that allows for self-service deployment of IaaS workloads. What is your initial offering? The initial offering consists of a five-node management cluster with supporting network gear, an eight-node tenant cluster and 60TB of usable storage. Additional Expansion Units can be purchased to increase capacity as needed. Why did you build a private cloud solution on Microsoft vs. VMWare or OpenStack? Microsoft Hyper-V is an advanced hypervisor that allows the solution to take advantage of its maturity, capabilities and cost over a VMWare or OpenStack offering. Are there any showback or chargeback capabilities? Yes, Cloud Cruiser Express is included and provides fully-automated showback, chargeback and billing for environments using Windows Azure Pack. However, the Express version is limited to 100 licenses. The Full version can be purchased for additional license capacity or if advanced analytics are needed. What is the backup solution? Customers may choose to use their existing backup solution, or Veeam can be included for an additional cost. Can I customize the solution to my needs? Yes, there is flexibility in the configuration of the number of CPUs, the amount of memory, the NetApp storage model and the capacity. This will change the final pricing but provides the maximum flexibility for our customers. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 7
Compute How many VMs can you deploy in the initial offering? LIGHTHOUSE can support the deployment of 378 standard VMs for tenant workload (a standard VM is 2vCPU, 3.5GB RAM and 135GB HD). Are you using oversubscription in your calculations? LIGHTHOUSE uses a 4.5:1 vcpu/pcpu ratio; we have no memory oversubscription and no storage oversubscription. How do you expand tenant capacity? Tenant capacity is purchased in Expansion Units (EU) consisting of one Cisco UCS Chassis with eight nodes and three NetApp storage shelves totaling 50TB of usable storage. The cost of one tenant expansion unit depends on configuration requirements. Network Can you extend the Private Cloud into Azure? Yes, by using a site-to-site VPN, you can extend your network into Microsoft Azure. What load-balancing capabilities exist? Web services in the management cluster are load-balanced, but no load-balancing capabilities exist for tenant workloads at this time. This will come in the next release of Windows Azure Pack called Azure Stack. Are you using any network virtualization? Yes, network virtualization with GRE (NVGRE) is included, which allows tenants to deploy networks in a secure isolated manner from the physical network, allowing for greater scalability and simplicity for both deployment and management. Storage How much usable storage is available in your initial offering? The initial offering consists of 60TB of usable storage. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 8
Why did you choose to use NetApp over other vendors? The industry is moving to a software-defined data center, and NetApp has already positioned solutions to address this change. It has been pre-validated and has extensive PowerShell integration to ease installation, management and automation. In addition, NetApp addresses scalability, reliability and efficiency while supporting multiple protocols and can be used in a hybrid environment with NetApp Private Storage (NPS) for Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS). What storage protocols did you use and why? LIGHTHOUSE leverages FCoE, which allows for a consistent and simplified architecture. With FCoE, there are fewer cables supporting multiple protocols and architectures within LIGHTHOUSE, which results in reduced costs, reduced management and less hardware. What is your partnership level with NetApp? We hold a Star partnership with NetApp. Windows Azure Pack (WAP) What operating systems are supported for tenant workloads? Microsoft Windows and most Linux distributions are supported. What gallery items are included in the WAP gallery? The latest releases of Windows Server and Linux. What automation capabilities exist? Service Management Automation (SMA) is included as an IT process automation solution that enables you to automate the creation, monitoring and deployment of resources in your WAP environment. It includes a runbook editor and execution environment. It is also possible to add other configuration management and automation tools inside the LIGHTHOUSE solution such as Chef, Puppet, Ansible or SaltStack. Can you checkpoint tenant workloads? Yes, tenants can create a checkpoint of a VM and restore it as needed. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 9
Appendix A: About Groupware Technology Founded in 1992, this leading information technology solution provider is managed by industry veterans with a passion for customer service and satisfaction. Based in Silicon Valley, Groupware delivers services and solutions to customers to increase business and IT agility, and to increase ROI on technology investments. Our commitment to our customers is to help optimize their existing IT assets, evaluate and implement new technologies, and provide a roadmap toward cloud-centric infrastructure models. Groupware specializes in data center infrastructure and cloud computing solutions, rack integration services and first-call support. For more information, visit www.groupwaretech.com. B: System Specifications LIGHTHOUSE Microsoft Private Cloud Notes Product: FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud Reference Architecture: NetApp TR-4094 (July 2014), Cisco CVD Hypervisor: Microsoft Hyper-V Management: System Center 2012 R2, Windows Azure Pack Chassis: 1 Cisco UCS 5108 server chassis Capacity Nodes: 8 Cisco UCS B200-M3 blades Processors: 16 Dual, 12-core Intel E5-2695 v2 per blade Cores: 192 Memory (GB): 1536 96GB per processor Clock Speed (GHz): 2.4 Management Nodes: 5 Cisco UCS C220-M3 Processors: 10 Dual, 8-core Intel E5-2650 per server Cores: 80 Memory (GB): 960 96GB per processor Clock Speed (GHz): 2.0 Load Balancers: 2 KEMP VLM-x000 (mgmt. only) Storage Controllers: 2 NetApp FAS8020 Storage Controller Storage Shelves: 4 NetApp DS2246 Disk Shelves with 24 disk capacity Number of HDs: 96 HDD Size (TB): 1.2 RAW Storage (TB): 96 Total raw hard disk capacity Usable Storage (TB): 60 Total usable storage for VM workloads GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page 10