PRODUCT SHEET: CA Server Automation CA Server Automation agility made possible CA Server Automation is an integrated data center management solution that automates provisioning, patching, and configuration of operating system, storage, network and application components across physical, virtual and public cloud systems. It greatly simplifies server operations and system management tasks and increases the speed and accuracy of delivering IT services. Overview As complex virtualized data centers become the norm for enterprise organizations, IT teams already struggling to maximize physical server utilization and efficiency are now facing new and unique challenges introduced by virtualization and cloud computing. To meet these challenges and allow the benefits of virtualization and cloud to not be negated by new complexity, many IT organizations are seeking a holistic management approach to physical and virtual server provisioning. They need a comprehensive solution that integrates and automates provisioning processes, standardizes configurations, and simplifies workflows to successfully manage the complexity of continuously changing data center environments. Benefits CA Server Automation is designed specifically to address these needs by automating provisioning across platforms, from basic bare metal provisioning to complex dynamic resource allocation, to help IT organizations: Accelerate application deployment Streamline service provisioning Improve server and storage utilization Build elasticity to accommodate changing business needs Improve operational efficiency
Product overview Because server provisioning tasks vary widely depending on the environment and deployment context, CA Server Automation provides a comprehensive array of automated provisioning methods and techniques for both physical and virtual servers, from a centralized administrative console. CA Server Automation offers automatic and on-demand balancing of physical and virtual server resources to accommodate changing business needs. The solution monitors and collects real-time application performance and infrastructure utilization data. It then evaluates rules and thresholds for the servers and server groups within the data center and uses this information to dynamically provision, patch, and deploy applications and services based on key performance metrics and standard templates. Capabilities CA Server Automation unifies server management across Windows, UNIX and Linux platforms and provides a single pane of glass management point for physical, virtual and public cloud infrastructure. It includes out-of-the box capabilities for bare metal provisioning, application deployment and system configuration. Software packaging and OS installation management features help IT teams standardize service deployment tasks, increase consistency and reduce provisioning cycle time. In addition, the solution provides self-service virtual machine (VM) provisioning, management of resource pools, and individual VM tracking with chargeback/ showbackaccounting and reporting. A choice of several provisioning methods allows IT architects and administrators to improve the provisioning processes for the specific services they wish to deliver to the business: Unattended installation provides flexibility and control that is well suited for deployment of new physical systems from standard OS images. IT teams can create and use fewer standardized OS reference images and separate application packages to build and personalize systems based on their intended purpose at the time of deployment. Individual build components can be patched or updated without affecting the other components which saves time and reduces the need for large scale provisioning content updates. Template-based provisioning of virtual machines leverages hypervisor-based templates for creation of new virtual server instances. Included application packaging and deployment functionality allows IT teams to customize server build content and reduce the number of templates they need to maintain on the hypervisor platform. Administrators can also apply custom specifications, add additional disks and make other configuration changes using the provisioning wizard. Image-based rapid server provisioning enables bi-directional server content mobility between physical and virtual systems. Complete system images can be captured from servers or hypervisors and deployed to other dissimilar physical or virtual systems in near real-time without worrying about driver differences, or the underlying physical or virtual infrastructure. 2
Because enterprises increasingly operate in 24x7 environments where server build cycle time and accuracy are critical to end-user experience, CA Server Automation provides several methods to initiate system deployment actions: Operator-initiated performed by an authorized user within the administrative interface Scheduled automatically initiated at predetermined date and time to meet anticipated service demand Event-driven automatically executed based on the policy-driven response to a known event, performance degradation or system failure Dynamic automatically executed based on real-time system utilization, performance or unanticipated demand Template-based server and application provisioning Template-based server and application provisioning is ideally suited for deployment of new physical systems. A limited number of standard reference images can be maintained as a basis for server deployments. Individual systems can be customized with appropriate application packages then staged and deployed based on policy. Bare metal provisioning and a streamlined administrative interface reduce the need for platform-specific expertise. Our centralized and modular approach to system deployment has significant advantages over manual installation processes. The content and deployment sequences are strictly controlled, minimizing the number of templates that need to be updated and patched on an ongoing basis which reduces and simplifies management efforts. This approach is equally effective for deployment of virtual server instances. Software packaging and delivery help reduce the number of VM templates and our exclusive dynamic resource allocation capabilities allow efficient allocation of hardware resources based on real-time usage. Image-based provisioning rapid server imaging 1 Rapid server imaging is a fast and reliable provisioning technology that is most useful for migration, recovery and scaling of existing server environments. Designed to capture and deploy system images quickly and accurately, rapid server imaging is much faster than template-based provisioning, which requires incremental deployment and configuration of operating system and application components. Whether you need to consolidate servers or data centers, automate disaster recovery, or construct a multi-data center cloud environment, rapid server imaging can help you to do it more quickly, consistently and with fewer resources. With rapid server imaging, users can capture live system images from any physical or virtual server in the data center. The system images can be stored and then provisioned on demand to any other physical or virtual server, regardless of hardware type, and across major operating systems, hypervisors and public cloud computing platforms. 3
Full system capture allows you to capture and store system images in a single operation. Legacy production system images can be reproduced even if the original files are unavailable. Provides a roll-back reference to save work-in-progress on self-service automation systems, and conveniently captures and stores gold reference images for rapid scale-out provisioning. Live capture allows administrators to make image snapshots of the running environments without taking the systems offline. This is particularly critical for gaining improved reliability with reduced operational impact for executing server migration or consolidation projects. Image mobility the ability to capture, store and deploy hardware-independent images to quickly move the personality of a system between virtual and physical servers or between dissimilar physical server platforms. Rapid server imaging provides true system portability that maintains configuration integrity, including network and storage configuration references. Driver injection compares the configurations of the source and destination servers and reconfigures the necessary components and device drivers to allow the source image to be run on the destination equipment. Large scale simultaneous deployments enables deployment of one or more images to hundreds of systems simultaneously; provisioning load is distributed to a light-weight agent on each target server for minimal performance degradation. The scale is only limited by infrastructure factors such as network bandwidth and storage throughput. Figure A. Rapid server imaging is designed to capture and deploy system images quickly and accurately. 4
Virtual Machine (VM) lifecycle management CA Server Automation helps automate and simplify the complex, labor-intensive tasks that support the VM lifecycle, including self-service VM request, provisioning, utilization reporting, and chargeback/showback. Specifically, the product provides the following capabilities: Self-service reservation management designed to allow requestors to rapidly provision new VMs from a predefined list, helping reduce IT intervention, provisioning delays, and staff costs Integrated chargeback/showback designed to apply lease rates to specific services that allow IT to track, allocate, and even recoup VM usage and associated costs Detailed resource and usage reporting designed to provide better resource utilization by tracking utilization trends and managing capacity within and across resource pools Dynamic storage provisioning CA Server Automation works in conjunction with a storage vendor s native provisioning manager to automate storage provisioning in the context of server deployments, allowing administrators to shorten and simplify overall server provisioning cycles. Specifically, CA Server Automation can: Acquire multi-level storage policies for provisioning from an from storage vendor s integrated service catalog Leverage policy-based storage automation to create repeatable, automated provisioning processes Align storage resources with service level agreements (SLAs) to improve resource utilization and quality of service Dynamically deploy storage based upon application performance and availability requirements By cataloguing and aligning storage services with your business SLAs and by standardizing and automating storage provisioning, CA Server Automation enables: Increased storage efficiency and utilization Reduced storage management costs and errors Faster response time to service requests Currently, CA Technologies partnwers with NetApp to support such dynamic storage provisioning. Network Automation integration With integration into CA Network Automation, CA Server Automation provides the ability to create, configure and deploy VMware VLANs as part of the VM provisioning process. CA Network Automation also provides the ability to: Automate common network configuration operations, such as pushing new or updated configuration settings to devices, performing operating system upgrades, pushing patches all while tracking all changes made in the process Proactively discover and analyze network configuration issues with thorough and ongoing discovery of L2/3 network and topology Manage and better enforce compliance with built-in rules, policies and reports so you can manage the standardization 24x7 and quickly demonstrate compliance data for internal audits or external mandates like PCI, ISO, HIPAA, DISA or others. 5
Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) support CA Server Automation integrates with and builds on the Cisco UCS System Manager to provide a computing platform that is dramatically more efficient to maintain and operate than traditional blade systems. With this powerful combination, you can more easily manage resources according to predefined SLAs for each business application.ca Server Automation provides a single interface for performing common management tasks on Cisco UCS blade instances, so you can: Manage service profiles/templates across multiple Cisco UCS instances; rapidly create, reuse, centrally store, or delete service profiles on demand Automate provisioning of software stacks (OS and applications) and Cisco UCS platforms, as defined by service profiles, to provide robust cloud services Create and deploy multiple instances of applications without replicating common configuration specifications Rapidly migrate existing servers to Cisco UCS from dissimilar hardware platforms using rapid server imaging Easily migrate any workload between available Cisco UCS servers Instantly provision a server from a logical pool according to application requirements Apply advanced policy-based automation such as: Define policy rule sets for the Cisco UCS platform using CA Server Automation and/or Cisco UCS Manager metrics Automate user-specified actions to initiate when rules are triggered, such as dynamically scaling application services up or down or VMotion live migration of virtual machines Cloud service provisioning on CA AppLogic With integration into CA AppLogic, CA Server Automation provides the ability to automate provisioning and deployment of cloud services within a CA AppLogic grid. Specifically, the integrated solution can: Discover the components of a CA AppLogic application environment, including grid servers, grids, applications and templates Automate the deployment and provisioning of a CA AppLogic template Execute basic management capabilities such as start, stop, re-start, delete, rename, migrate (from grid to grid) and copy applications Automate the migration of non-cloud applications into the CA AppLogic infrastructure as a template for redeployment to the cloud Leverage Rapid Server Imaging to quickly and easily image the application environment and perform the migration to CA AppLogic 6
Software compatibility CA Server Automation supports major data center operating systems and hypervisor platforms, including Linux, MS Windows, AIX, Sun Solaris (SPARC and x86), VMware, and MS Hyper-V. Additionally, rapid server imaging allows you to provision images across a wide range of hardware from key vendors, including Dell, Sun, HP, IBM, and Cisco UCS blades. Figure B. CA Server Automation helps you automate, integrate, and standardize many critical data center operations activities. Opportunities CA Server Automation helps you create a more agile and dynamic infrastructure with unified automation across the data center so that you can: Accelerate application deployment automate the application deployment process and improve overall deployment results Streamline service provisioning consolidate and centralize activities across platforms Improve server utilization balance physical and virtual server resources to accommodate changing business needs Build elasticity to dynamically allocate resources deploy application workload to efficiently match server resources with policy-based provisioning Improve operational efficiency automate provisioning, patching and deployment tasks to improve server-to-administrator ratios 7
Related products CA Server Automation is also part of CA Automation Suite for Data Centers, a modular approach to automation that also includes CA Process Automation and CA Configuration Automation, as well as optional add-ons including CA Network Automation and CA AppLogic. The CA Technologies advantage CA Technologies has over 30 years of recognized expertise in robust, reliable, scalable, and secure enterprise-class IT management software. CA Technologies has made an unparalleled commitment to emerging technologies and IT delivery models such as automation, virtualization, Software-as-a-Service, and cloud. Additionally, CA Technologies solutions deliver forward-thinking best management technologies garnered through strategic acquisition and developed from within. CA Server Automation and CA Automation Suite for Data Centers offer uniquely comprehensive, unified automation across the data center to help enable the financial benefits and operational efficiencies you need today, while providing an evolutionary path to achieve and maximize the benefits of cloud computing. 1 Rapid Server Imaging (RSI) is an optional add-on component to CA Server Automation. Copyright 2011 CA. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. This document is for your informational purposes only. CA assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information. CA does not provide legal advice. Neither this document nor any software product referenced herein serves as a substitute for your compliance with any laws (including but not limited to any act, statute, regulation, rule, directive, standard, policy, administrative order, executive order, and so on (collectively, Laws )) referenced herein or any contract obligations with any third parties. You should consult with competent legal counsel regarding any such Laws or contract obligations. To the extent permitted by applicable law, CA provides this document as is without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. In no event will CA be liable for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, from the use of this document, including, without limitation, lost profits, business interruption, goodwill, or lost data, even if CA is expressly advised in advance of the possibility of such damages. CS1880_1111