N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Installation Guide

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

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:

One or two chassis switch and system controllers (SSCs). An SSC must be installed in SSC0 in each chassis.
One or more of the following server blades:
- B100s: SPARC architecture, Solaris Operating System
- B100x: Single processor x86 architecture, Solaris x86 or Linux operating system
- B200x: Dual processor x86 architecture, Solaris x86 or Linux operating system
  
  Note –
  The B200x blade occupies 2 chassis slots and is treated as an unmanaged device.
- B10n: Content Load balancing blade
- B10p: SSL Proxy blade
  
  Note –
  The SSL proxy blade is treated as an unmanaged device.

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 JumpStart^TM 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

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

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:

VLAN 1 – reserved
VLAN 2 – reserved
VLAN 3 – reserved
VLAN 4 – assigned to I-Fabric devices that are not allocated to a farm
VLAN 5 – reserved
VLAN 6 – reserved
VLAN 7 – reserved
VLAN 8 – assigned to disk image transfers from the N1 image server to server blades
VLAN 9 – assigned to control plane command traffic
VLANs 10 through 255 – available for farm allocation

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.