Chapter 1 Sun N1 System Manager Overview

This chapter provides a summary of Sun N1 System Manager 1.2 functions and components.

Sun N1 System Manager Features

The Sun N1 System Manager is a system management tool that enables you to manage racks or other groupings of horizontally scaled servers using a single browser user interface. The Sun N1 System Manager browser interface provides an integrated command line interface. You can also run the same command line interface from a UNIX shell on the management server.

The Sun N1 System Manager system or N1 System Manager enables you to do the following tasks:

• Discover servers on the network that can be provisioned by the N1 System Manager

• Manage provisionable servers

• Provision operating systems on the provisionable servers

• Manage provisionable server firmware and patches

• Monitor provisionable server health

• Automate provisionable server configuration, recovery, and replacement

• Maximize server utilization

• Minimize user-visible hardware downtime

• Log N1 System Manager and provisionable server events

Sun N1 System Manager Components

The following figure provides a high-level overview of the hardware components of the N1 System Manager.

Figure 1–1 N1 System Manager Components

The above diagram represents one of the possible N1 System Manager configurations. For further information, see Reference Configurations in Sun N1 System Manager 1.2 Site Preparation Guide.

The following list describes each of the components.

• Management server and provisionable servers

  • The management server is the Solaris or Linux based server on which the N1 System Manager software is installed and run.

    The management server DHCP service allocates IP addresses to the provisionable servers for use by the provisioning network. The management server uses the provisioning network to load operating systems and updates to provisionable servers.

    For a list of the supported provisionable servers, see Management Server Requirements in Sun N1 System Manager 1.2 Site Preparation Guide.

  • A provisionable server is one that has been successfully discovered by the N1 System Manager. A single rack can include up to 32 provisionable servers. The N1 System Manager can manage hundreds of provisionable servers.

  For a list of the supported provisionable servers, see Provisionable Server Requirements in Sun N1 System Manager 1.2 Site Preparation Guide.

• The Corporate Network connection to the provisioning and data network switch enables corporate users to access provisioned servers over the data network.

  An Ethernet connection of 100 megabits per second is the minimum requirement. A 1,000 megabits (1 Gbit) connection is advised.

• The Management Network provides the path to and from the management server and the provisionable server's management processor port. The management server uses the management network for server discovery, provisionable server firmware updates, and for provisionable server hardware management and monitoring.

  The management network should be a private network that is accessible by the management server, and not accessible by the data network. An Ethernet connection of 100 megabits per second is the required minimum.

• The management network switch provides connectivity to a management port on each provisionable server, and should be a VLAN- programmable switch

• The data and provisioning switch provides provisioning network and data network connectivity to and from the management server and the provisionable servers. The provisioning and data switch should be a VLAN- programmable switch

  The provisioning and data network requirements are as follows.

  • The provisioning network is used by the management server to configure and provision the operating and application environments on the provisionable servers, to monitor provisionable server OS resources, and to apply OS updates to provisionable servers. Ethernet connections of 1 Gbit per second are the required minimum.

    Due to the use of the DHCP protocol and the bandwidth requirements for OS provisioning, the provisioning network should be isolated from the data network.

  • The data network provides the connections from the provisionable servers to the corporate network through the management server for the end user. The corporate DHCP service allocates IP addresses to the provisionable servers to provide end user access to the provisionable server.

    The data network should not have access to any of the N1 System Manager networks.

The following diagram illustrates a sample production environment in which the data and provisioning network are on separate VLANs, and in which multiple VLAN assignments have been used to configure the data network for end user access.