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N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Installation Guide

Chapter 1 N1 Provisioning Server Overview

This chapter provides overviews of N1TM Provisioning Server architecture and components, concepts, software, security, and the implementation and installation process.

This chapter discusses the following topics:

Architecture and Components

The N1 Provisioning Server consists of various hardware components, such as one or more blade system chassis, server blades, servers, switches and the N1 Provisioning Server software. N1 Provisioning Server software combines your computing and networking resources into a contiguous automated fabric of infrastructure called an I-Fabric, and controls how I-Fabric components interoperate.

N1 Provisioning Server software enables you to manage and control I-Fabric components, and to partition, allocate and assign server blades to specific accounts that are known as a logical server farms. I-Fabric resources are dedicated to a server farm until returned to the common resource pool. With root access to devices, you can deploy any software or application onto the server blades within a farm. Secure partitions enforced by N1 Provisioning Server software and methodologies enable you to exercise independent administrative control over each farm.

The following sections provide descriptions of the physical and logical components of an N1 Provisioning Server Blades Edition system.

Physical Components

The following diagram is an example of the hardware that comprises a typical N1 Provisioning Server system.

Figure 1–1 Representative N1 Provisioning Server System

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The following sections describe the hardware components shown by the above diagram.

Sun Fire B1600 Blade System Chassis

Each blade system chassis contains the following components:

Each blade system chassis can support up to 8 B200x server blades, or 16 single-slot server blades.

Control Plane Server

The control plane server hosts all N1 Provisioning Server software, which includes the control plane software, the control plane database (CPDB), the Control Center server and database, the Control Center software, and, in a standard install, the N1 Provisioning Image Server.

Control Center Management PC

The Control Center Management PC provides access to the Control Center software using a web browser-based user interface. The Control Center is used to design and deploy logical server farms, and to define numerous characteristics including network topology, storage requirements, monitors, and alerts. The Control Center is also used to define the kinds of monitoring you want to perform. The monitoring definition is saved using the Monitoring Mark-up Language (MML).

N1 Image Server

The N1 Image Server (N1 IS) is used to store operating system disk images for each type of server blade in a chassis, and to load the disk images to server blades using the JumpStartTM and Flash archives depending on the type of server blade and operating system. The image server is typically installed on the control plane server. If desired, the image server can be installed on a separate machine.

Note –

For best results, use a Gigabit copper Network Interface Card (NIC) for the image server.

Control Plane Switch and Data Plane Switch

The control plane switch connects all management and control interfaces on a designated control subnet and virtual local area network (VLAN). The control plane switch is optional only for a single blade system chassis installation in which the chassis contains a single switch and system controller (SSC). The control plane switch is required for an installation if any chassis contains two SSCs or if there is more than one chassis.

The data plane switch provides connectivity between the control plane Server, the N1 image server, the blade system chassis SSCs and server blades, and your network.

Logical Components

The following diagram shows a representative example of the N1 Provisioning Server after N1 Provisioning Server software has been installed.

Figure 1–2 Example of N1 Provisioning Server System After N1 Provisioning Server Software Installation

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The following sections describe the logical components of the N1 Provisioning Server, Blades Edition.

Resource Pool

The Resource Pool contains a one-blade to twelve-blade blade system chassis. Each chassis contains server blades that you can provision to a server farm. The resource pool within an I-Fabric starts out as a blank physical infrastructure with no predefined logical structure. The infrastructure can be configured into many different logical structures under the control of the N1 Provisioning Server software. The different logical structures, called logical server farms, are dynamic and securely partitioned.

The following diagram shows an example of the Resource Pool (unallocated server blades) and two farms (allocated server blades).

Figure 1–3 Example Server Farms and Resource Pool

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Each server blade in a farm is allocated to the farm as an individual server, and securely networked to prevent access from other server farms. When the user is finished using a farm, the server blades that were assigned to the farm are returned to the Resource Pool.

Control Plane

The control plane provides intelligence, management, and control of an I-Fabric. The N1 Provisioning Server software, providing the intelligence that enables an I-Fabric, resides within the control plane. The control plane consists of all N1 Provisioning Server software and hardware, third-party software and hardware, and the N1 Provisioning Server databases. The control plane does not include the resource pool and fabric layer. If desired, you can also connect an optional terminal server to the control plane to provide access to all device's console ports.

The control plane resides on a private virtual local area network (VLAN) that ensures that the control plane is securely partitioned from access by unauthorized servers or any external network traffic. N1 Provisioning Server software manages devices within an I-Fabric through secure out-of-band connections over Ethernet or serial connections.

The control plane software automates the configuration of the Ethernet switch connections and assignment of VLANs to the I-Fabric components. The automated management of VLANs enables you to securely add or remove devices in the resource pool from any network topology designed through the Control Center. Additional security is provided by the assignment of one or more VLANs to a farm. A VLAN assigned to one farm cannot be used by a different farm.

The N1 Provisioning Server VLAN assignments are as follows:

Fabric Layer

The fabric layer contains the networking infrastructure that ties the resource pool together. The switched fabric consists of industry-standard Ethernet switching components that provide connectivity to devices within the resource pool and connectivity to internal networks, and optionally, the Internet.

The Ethernet switches provide connectivity to devices within the resource pool as well as network connectivity to the Internet or internal networks. Through the automated management of VLANs on an Ethernet switch, you can add or remove devices in the resource pool from any network topology designed using the Control Center.

N1 Provisioning Server Concepts

This section provides summaries of the major N1 Provisioning Server logical components.

Administration

Administrative functionality for N1 Provisioning Server software and an I-Fabric is available in two forms: through the Administration screen within the Control Center and alternatively, by a set of command-line interface tools that interface directly with the Control Center.

Control Center

The Administration screen is the central point of administration within the Control Center. Using the Control Center from the Control Center Management PC, you can define classes of users that have access to the administration screen and its associated functionality. From the Control Center Administration screen, you have a comprehensive view of all users and logical server farms within an I-Fabric. You can do the following tasks from the Control Center Administration screen:

You also can manage security rights and administration privileges from the Administration screen. The Control Center has three levels of access privileges:

For more information about the Control Center, see N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Control Center Management Guide.

For more information about access privileges, see Applying Role-Based Access Control in N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide.

Command-Line Tools

The command-line tools provide an interface to the Control Center that is used for managing an I-Fabric in conjunction with the Control Center administration functionality. The tools offer a more granular level of control, and also provide an interface for accessing devices and configuration data.

The tools are commonly used to view and track resources within an I-Fabric. Using the command line tools, you can:

When a device, such as a server blade, is added to an I-Fabric, the command-line tools facilitate the wiring and configuration auditing required for integrating the new device into the available resource pool. Command-line tools also assist in the management of software images, the reconfiguration of devices, and the activation and updating of logical server farms.

For a list of the available command-line tools and a brief description of each tool, Appendix B, Command-Line Tools in N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide.

Resource and Network Virtualization

An important aspect of the design of N1 Provisioning Server software is the virtualization provided for all the hardware devices within the resource pool of an I-Fabric. This virtualization enables the rapid and dynamic association of devices to network connectivity and provides the capability to create a logical server farm from a pool of physical devices within an I-Fabric. Virtualization of network connectivity provides the foundation for deploying drag-and-drop connectivity between devices that can then be logically wired together.

Figure 1–4 Control Plane Resource Virtualization

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Virtualization of the network provides security, and enables the transparent management, configuration, and allocation of network devices. N1 Provisioning Server software utilizes VLANs and automates all aspects of VLAN configuration to enable network virtualization.

Network virtualization provides two distinct benefits:

Figure 1–5 Control Plane Network Virtualization

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Logical Server Farms

The control plane, switched fabric, and resource pool work together to dynamically create logical server farms within an I-Fabric. Logical server farms are securely allocated from the Resource Pool and managed by N1 Provisioning Server software. N1 Provisioning Server software creates server farms from the resources available within the Resource Pool. Logical server farms are built using the same physical resources as traditional server farms but they are established and managed under the flexible control of N1 Provisioning Server software. Logical server farms are analogous to traditional, manually built, dedicated server farms except that you can create, grow, shrink, and delete them as data structures that reside within N1 Provisioning Server software.

Logical server farms have the same performance and control characteristics as traditional server farms. N1 Provisioning Server software is not in the data path and does nothing to limit the performance of the devices or prevent the logical server farm from running at wire speed.

Secure partitions enforced by N1 Provisioning Server software and methodologies enable you to exercise independent administrative control over each logical server farm. Even though the user of a specific logical server farm has full administrative access on all devices within that farm, the user cannot view, access, or modify the devices or data associated with a different logical server farm.

The following graphic illustrates the life cycle of a logical server farm in the Control Center.

Figure 1–6 Logical Server Farm States

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For more details on how to manage logical server farms, see Chapter 4, Building, Updating, and Monitoring Server Farms in N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Control Center Management Guide.

Description Languages

A logical server farm within an I-Fabric is constructed from a number of basic building blocks. Capturing a logical description of these building blocks and their interrelationships enables the creation of a digital blueprint that specifies a farm's logical structure. This logical blueprint facilitates the automation of many manual tasks involved in constructing logical server farms.

N1 Provisioning Server software uses the following three description languages to capture logical descriptions of server farms:

Network Packages

N1 Provisioning Server software runs with the following network packages:

Hardware Abstraction Layer

Hardware Abstraction Layers (HALs) are sets of application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide device independence for the Control Center software. HALs are used to automate the interaction with physical devices within an I-Fabric. The HAL module translates abstract Control Center actions into device-specific commands. HALs might provide interfaces to specific manufacturer's Ethernet switches.

Because the Control Center software deals with only the abstract behavior of the device, HALs enable the Control Center software to manage different devices that exhibit the same overall behavior but might differ in how they are configured and managed. This difference could exist because the equipment is from different manufacturers or because of differences between current and next-generation products.

Provisioning Server Software

The Provisioning Server software resides on the control plane server and provides the infrastructure automation services required to manage and deploy logical server farms within an I-Fabric. At a high level, the Control Center manages the logical-to-physical mappings between a logical server farm and the physical resources assigned to it. The Control Center also provides an extensive command-line interface (CLI) for I-Fabric and farm management.

Provisioning Server Features

The N1 Provisioning Server software provides the following services.

The N1 Provisioning Server software does not offer the following functions:

Components

The Provisioning Server contains the following software components:

Service Processor

The Service Processor (SP) provides a variety of infrastructure management services such as provisioning, network virtualization, and monitoring. It contains the following subcomponents:

Control Plane Database

The control plane database (CPDB) is a persistent, central repository of data that guarantees consistent access and updates of data by using database locks and transactions. The CPDB uses an Oracle database featuring remote access and control. This database contains the following information pertaining to logical server farms, physical devices, and software associated with an I-Fabric:

Note –

The request table in the CPDB keeps growing as the Control Center processes requests. By keeping the requests, you can obtain a history of activities in the control plane. You can also manually delete requests that are no longer needed. For more information, see Managing the Request Queue in N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide.

Image Server

The image server manages operating system images. The image server is installed on the Control Plan server, but can optionally be installed on any standalone server that supports network file server (NFS) file access.

Control Center Functionality

The Control Center software provides the infrastructure automation services required to manage and deploy logical server farms within an I-Fabric. At a high level, the Control Center manages the logical-to-physical mappings between a logical server farm and the physical resources assigned to it. The Control Center understands the physical topology of the resources deployed within the I-Fabric and provides the capability to deploy and configure these devices to unique topologies and configurations to match account-specific designs created in the Control Center.

The Control Center provides six key areas of infrastructure automation services:

Each of these five capabilities is built on a foundation of I-Fabric and security technologies that are leveraged by each service area.

Provisioning and Configuration

The ability to automatically provision and configure resources within the resource pool of an I-Fabric is a core capability of the Control Center. The following summary of the steps required to activate a logical server farm should help you understand the provisioning and configuration process.

  1. Allocate – The control center dispatches requests to the provisioning server to provision and configure resources. When this request is received, the Control Center performs resource allocation. Resources are randomly allocated from the resource pool and tracked within the CPDB. IP subnets can be allocated from both public and private IP address spaces.

  2. Wiring – Following the physical allocation of resources, the network fabrics for Ethernet connections are configured. This process includes configuring network resources such as IP subnets and VLANs. Images are copied to the servers at this time.

  3. Dispatch – Following the virtual wiring of the logical server farm, DHCP and DNS services are initiated. The Control Center automates the configuration and management of these services. When these services are available, the devices within the logical server farm are powered up through addressable power devices.

  4. Activate – On activation, the logical server farm is monitored to enable automated failover services.

    The Control Center manages and automates the ongoing evolution of logical server farms as well as their initial activation. As resources are added to or deleted from logical server farms, the Control Center continues to manage and automatically configure all wiring as well as DHCP and DNS services.

Flexing

Flexing is the ability to add or delete capacity on a logical server farm. N1 Provisioning Server software rapidly and automatically provisions and configures resources. You can apply flexing to address temporary surges in demand or to adjust capacity on a long-term basis. In either case, flexing enables you to employ infrastructure resources more efficiently. The N1 Provisioning Server software provides two types of flexing services:

You can add or delete servers from an active logical server farm at any time. Servers are added from the Control Center by dragging the server icon into the existing logical server farm design and attaching it to the appropriate subnet. All DNS and DHCP services are automatically configured. Adding an additional server does not require you to reinitiate the farm activation process. You also can delete servers by using the Control Center.

The server group is a unique logical structure supported within N1 Provisioning Server software. Server groups enable rapid flexing of servers by associating a predefined role or image for all servers within the group. All servers in a server group are considered identical and start off with the same software image. This software image is a global image that is replicated for every server within the server group.

When a server group is flexed up, the global image associated with the server group is automatically stored onto each server added to the group. Although you can make changes to individual servers within a server group, those changes will not be reflected in a flex operation unless you have updated the designated global image. When a server group is flexed down, the servers and their associated storage are returned to the resource pool. Server group flexing is done through the Control Center server configuration dialog box.

Software Image Management

The Control Center manages software images, and the configurations of servers and switches. The Control Center supports creation and management of two categories of images: global and account images.

Using the snapshot tool available from the Control Center, you can capture software images to be stored in an image library and use them to subsequently configure similar devices. You can use these images for global or account images. A disk snapshot is the logical equivalent of making a master copy of a local disk image. The original image is stored in an image library and a reference to the image is entered in the CPDB. Depending on the I-Fabric configuration, images reside on the local disk or on a remote NFS file server. Snapshot images are named and catalogued in the Control Center image library. The image library is listed in the Control Center server configuration dialog box. You can choose from prebuilt images to be associated with a server or server group.

You can take a snapshot of any software image associated with any server (individual servers as well as a specific server within a server group). The snapshot function automatically shuts the server down to ensure that the resulting image is a stable, production-ready replication of the original image. After the snapshot is completed, the Control Center reboots the server automatically.

The snapshot function enables functionality such as server flexing and server failover. If a server fails, the system can automatically replace the failed server with a substitute by using the last snapshot of the failed server to create the image for the new server.

Monitoring

The Control Center actively monitors the state and health of devices in an I-Fabric. Monitoring provides visibility of an I-Fabric and supports failover and recovery or to restart failed processes.

The Control Center enables the following farm monitoring capabilities within an I-Fabric:

Monitoring messages are forwarded to the service processor. The service processor then sends the messages to a central message repository in the CPDB. You can view monitoring data using the Control Center monitoring screen. You can also configure monitoring events for farm server utilization, such as disk and CPU, by using the Control Center monitoring screen.

Optionally, you can configure the CPDB to forward messages to an external network management system (NMS). An SNMP connection and a management information base (MIB) extension are required for forwarding messages to an external NMS.

Additional tools for monitoring system health include operating system and Control Center commands. For details regarding system health monitoring, see Chapter 4, Monitoring and Messaging in N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide.

Physical Infrastructure Management

As a part of the N1 Provisioning Server initialization process, the Control Center performs resource and wiring validation. This validation enables the Control Center to have a complete physical topology map of all resources within an I-Fabric. The wiring validation provides an automated way of confirming the physical wiring map of equipment in a given data center. The Control Center's ability to successfully manage the virtual wiring of a logical server farm relies on the integrity of the physical wiring of the resources within an I-Fabric. Automating this physical wiring validation removes a common source of errors in an I-Fabric, namely the potential for human error caused by incorrectly cabling the physical infrastructure.

The Control Center uses this wiring data to make resource allocation decisions. Physical infrastructure data is stored in a database that you can access using the Control Center CLI.

N1 Provisioning Server Security

By default, an I-Fabric is configured to apply a high level of security at all levels. You can configure I-Fabric security according to your company's needs by using any suitable combination of security levels as described in the following sections.

An I-Fabric provides several levels of security throughout the infrastructure to ensure that each logical server farm is secure from intrusion or attack from within or outside the I-Fabric. Security solutions have been implemented at the following levels within the I-Fabric:

Password Encryption

Password encryption is provided at all levels within the I-Fabric for security purposes. You can configure the system to use clear-text passwords. However, clear-text passwords are problematic.

Control Plane Security

The server responsible for running the N1 Provisioning Server software resides within the control plane. The security of this server depends significantly on the deployment architecture of the servers and network responsible for running the N1 Provisioning Server application. The I-Fabric design provides a secure methodology for deploying the N1 Provisioning Server software.

Depending on the management requirements of an I-Fabric, you can deploy the Control Center without connectivity to external networks or to the Internet. Control Center security is implemented at several levels. For further information, see Provisioning Server Security. The Control Center communicates with the Control Center through a privileged VLAN that is not available from outside of the I-Fabric.

Control Center security prevents tampering from within the I-Fabric. Security for Control Center software is implemented by using dedicated VLANs. For further information, see Ethernet Security.

Provisioning Server Security

The following list describes the three types of connections to the Control Center, each of which has security measures in place:

Accessing the Control Center

Secure access to the Control Center is based on login accounts. These login accounts provide security from accounts outside a company as well as inside a company. An account may have one of the following available login roles assigned to it, depending on the users job functions:

For more details about accounts, see the Control Center Management Guide.

Login Name and Password Management

The Control Center processes login name and password changes. You are responsible for issuing the initial name and password to the users of an account. The Control Center network system automatically verifies passwords.

Login Lockout

By default, users are locked out of the Control Center if their login attempts fail a configurable number of times within a configurable number of minutes. The lock is automatically released after another configurable number of minutes. However, you can use the Control Center Login Status screen to unlock users before the automatic unlock process takes place. This screen also enables you to force-lock existing users if a security issue involving a user becomes apparent. You can also unlock or force-lock another administrator by using the same method. See the Control Center Management Guide.

Reaccessing the Control Center After a Failure

When a software or hardware failure occurs during a session on the Control Center, users must log in again when reaccessing the Control Center.

Encryption and Filtering

Transactions performed using the Control Center are encrypted securely using the hyper-text transfer protocol secure sockets (HTTPS). External access to the Control Center is filtered at all points using IP filtering to ensure secure web access.

Resource Pool Security

The ability to repurpose servers over time as they come in and out of the resource pool presents security challenges. Server integrity is protected by power cycling and scrubbing the storage and memory of all servers before they are added to a resource pool.

Ethernet Security

Within the Ethernet portion of the switched fabric, logical server farms are implemented using port-based virtual local area networks (VLANs). From a security perspective, port-based addressing provides a superior implementation when compared to VLAN implementations that are defined by Media Access Control (MAC) or IP addresses. This enhanced security is due to devices being connected physically through the switch rather than through logical addresses. The implementation of a network virtualization layer eliminates the possibility of VLAN hopping or IP spoofing, or the possibility of controlling VLAN membership from outside the Control Center.

To prevent IP spoofing attempts, an incoming IP packet on a VLAN must have the same VLAN tag and MAC address as the logical interface on which it is arriving. The Control Center sets VLAN tags for the appropriate ports and networks.

To ensure that the Control Center is protected from unauthorized access from within the I-Fabric, the control plane server on which the Control Center software runs resides within its own dedicated port-based VLAN. This architecture physically eliminates the possibility of unauthorized access to the Control Center from within the I-Fabric. Logical server farm users cannot manipulate their own or any other logical server farm's VLAN configuration.

Server blades within an I-Fabric are dedicated to only one unique logical server farm at any time. While servers may be added or subtracted from a particular logical server farm over its life cycle, no single physical server blade will ever be used by more than one logical server farm simultaneously. Thus, servers are protected from intrusion by the VLAN and the Control Center security measures previously described.

Farms are implemented in an I-Fabric using VLANs, which are based on physical switch ports and configured through the Control Center. The switch configuration is protected by the VLAN, not an administrative password. VLAN configurations are password protected on the applicable switch.

Access to services on the Control Center from the farms is restricted by IP filtering. IP routing through a control plane server is not possible. Access to the Farm Manager and the Segment Manager from a farm is not possible.

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Only the Control Center is authorized to make modifications to virtual wiring and virtual farm security perimeters.

Physical Network Security

Implement security policies that protect the physical network from internal unauthorized access based on your site's setup and facilities.

Network Virtualization and Security

By using port-based VLAN technology, network virtualization provides a network security perimeter for all the computing and network devices associated with a given farm. When a device is logically assigned to a farm, the device is transitioned to the appropriate logical network associated with that logical element of the farm.

Network virtualization uses physical port-based VLAN technology built into current generation Layer-2 switches. The VLAN enables you to create a secure virtual network between a set of network nodes that appears as a transparent Layer-2 interconnect to these sets of network nodes. These virtual Layer-2 interconnects are then used as virtual wires to connect the devices on the switched fabric into the desired Layer-2 network topology.

Ethernet switching equipment must be capable of supporting VLAN tagging for use in network virtualization to protect against VLAN hopping or other kinds of VLAN penetration attempts. In addition, standard password encryption protects the management of these switches from unauthorized modifications from any server or device in the resource pool. Any switching equipment must meet the standards of 802.1q.

The management of these switches is protected from unauthorized modifications from any server or device in an I-Fabric. Only the Control Center administrator is authorized to make modifications to the virtual wiring and virtual logical server farm security perimeters.

Logical Server Farm Security

Logical server farms on an I-Fabric are implemented using port-based VLANs. These VLANs are configured through the Control Center. The Control Center restricts access from the farms. Farm users cannot change their own or any other farm's VLAN configuration.

Server blades within an I-Fabric are dedicated to one unique farm at a time. While you can add or subtract server blades from a particular farm over its lifecycle, no single physical server blade is ever used by more than one farm simultaneously.

When you deactivate a server blade, the N1 Provisioning Server software cycle its power sufficiently to clear volatile memory. You should also reset server blades to their factory values before returning them to the idle pool so that any account-specific, nonvolatile memory components are erased. Follow the best practices to configure and check your server blades for security. If you want to perform a recommended audit, an I-Fabric supports industry-standard third-party auditing tools.

Server Accounts and Passwords

Set up administrator server accounts and passwords by following conventions and best practices. See also security web sites such as http://www.cert.org, http://www.sun.com, and http://www.cisco.com for recommendations on keeping network servers protected from unauthorized access.

External Ethernet Port Connection Security

Ethernet port connections are optional with an I-Fabric. The connections can be either virtual private network (VPN) or leased-line connections. You can configure your I-Fabric for Ethernet port connections based on your site's needs and by using industry-standard security mechanisms.

Implementation and Installation Roadmap

This section provides a summary of the N1 Blade Provisioning Server implementation and installation process.

This guide does not discuss the following prerequisite knowledge and tasks:

You should have related designs and plans in place before implementing an I-Fabric.

The following diagram describes the major steps required to implement and install N1 Provisioning Server, Blades Edition version 3.1.

Figure 1–7 N1 Provisioning Server Installation Flow Diagram

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The following checklist describes the major steps required to implement and install N1 Provisioning Server, Blades Edition: