Glossary

account

A method of controlling access to the Control Center and server farms. An account may have user or account manager login roles assigned to it.

account image

Account images are assigned to specific accounts or farms and are managed by users. Account images consist of user-specific customizations of global images, and application and data images. See also global image.

account manager

An account manager has all the Control Center access privileges of a user and can edit account information including creation and removal of other users in the account. See also user and administrator.

administrator

An administrator has the highest level of Control Center access privileges and operates an overall I-Fabric.

agent

See N1 Provisioning Server agent.

automated provisioning

The capability of building unique, complex, and secure computing environments in near real time without manual intervention. Automated provisioning includes powering up and configuring resource pool servers, and configuring load balancers and network topologies.

backhaul

See unmanaged devices.

blades

Individual server blades located in the chassis. See also server blades.

blade system chassis

Also known as the Sun Fire Blade Platform or the Sun Fire B1600 Intelligent Shelf. Individual server blades are located in the chassis. See also chassis.

chassis

Also known as the Sun Fire Blade Platform or the Sun Fire B1600 Intelligent Shelf. Individual server blades are located in the chassis. See also blade system chassis.

chassis switch

An Ethernet switch that is part of the switch and system controller (SSC) unit. The chassis switch controls access to server blades. See also system controller.

chargeable events

Events that occur within the N1 Provisioning Server environment for which you can bill customers.

Control Center (CC)

Control Center software

Control Center database

The Control Center database.

Control Center Management PC

The PC used to access the Control Center graphical user interface (GUI).

Control Center GUI

The Control Center graphical user interface.

Control Center dialog box

Used in the Control Center to denote a dialog. There are four types of dialogs:

• Standard dialog. The user may leave that dialog open while opening another one.

• Modal dialog. The user must provide a response before being able to click outside this dialog.

• Alert dialog. A message generated by the software for the user's benefit.

• Confirmation dialog. The user may choose to click OK or Cancel.

control plane (CP)

All N1 Provisioning Server software and hardware, 3rd-party software and hardware, and the Oracle or Postgres database, but not resource pool servers and fabric layer.

control plane database (CPDB)

The Control Plane database.

control plane server (CP server)

Server hardware that hosts the N1 Provisioning Server software.

control plane switch

Network switch and fabric that manages the transfer of instructions, such as commands, from the Control Planer server to other I-Fabric components. See also fabric layer.

data plane

Network hardware, such as switches, used for transferring data within an I-Fabric. See also fabric layer.

Data plane switch

Manages the data transfer, such as images, within an I-Fabric. See also fabric layer

data VLAN

VLAN on which the virtual IPs reside.

disk size

The size of the resource pool server disk onto which to copy a global or account image.

deployable image

An image in the image repository that has been validated for deployment to a resource pool server.

device identification number (DEVID)

A unique identifier assigned to a piece of equipment in an I-Fabric.

disk controller type

The disk controller type used for the disk, such as IDE or SCSI. This information is used when working with the image command.

fabric layer

The fabric layer consists of networking fabrics and switches within and I-Fabric that are controlled and managed by the control plane.

failover

The process of automatically switching to a redundant or standby server, system, or network upon failure or abnormal termination of the currently active server, system, or network.

farm

A collection of resource pool servers that are assigned to a particular account. See also server farm and logical server farm.

farm elements

Graphical representations of I-Fabric components in the Control Center GUI.

Farm Export Markup Language

An XML-based language that is used to import and export logical server farms.

farm life cycle

A farm life cycle includes the design, provisioning, use, and eventual return of a device to the resource pool. These life cycle events are tracked in the Control Center or on the command line by various farm states. The following list shows example of possible farm states:

• Design. A new farm has been created, but not yet submitted.

• Pending. The user has submitted a farm for approval and activation.

• Active. The farm has been activated and is running.

• Standby. All farm elements are in the process of being returned to the resource pool.

• Inactive. The farm is inactive and all hardware resources are returned to the resource pool.

farm manager

A process that monitors and manages activities related to server farms.

Farm Markup Language (FML)

An XML-based language that is used to provide a logical description of a farm.

farm state

A farm life cycle is defined by various states. A farm's state is displayed graphically in the State Diagram icon in the Control Center GUI. See also farm life cycle.

FEML

See Farm Export Markup Language.

Flexing

Making any kind of change to an active server farm. Changes can include the following:

• Editing the configuration

• Adding new elements

• Resizing a server or server group

• Adding or deleting a server or server group

FML

See Farm Markup Language.

global image

An image that consists of the operating system (including patches and service packs), integrated N1 Provisioning Server agents, and certain customizations. A global image is considered the master image and may be duplicated for use in other resource pool servers within an I-Fabric. Global images may also include applications.

Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)

An application programming interface (API) to a hardware device.

image

An archive of operating system, N1 Provisioning Server agent software, and optional application software and data combinations. See also deployable image and non-deployable image.

image architecture

The architecture type of an image. N1 Provisioning Server supports two architectures: Sun SPARC and x86.

image archive type

The archive type of an image. N1 Provisioning Server supports three image archive types: disk, flash, and JumpStart.

image attributes

Meta information about a specific image, such as image name, image ID, image configuration file, and image description.

image operating system (image OS)

The operating system on which an image is based.

image repository

A collection of images within the N1 Provisioning Server environment.

image server

Software or hardware (if the image server runs on a separate host) on which the image repository resides.

image size

The size of the image to be copied onto a resource pool server. The image size must always be less than the disk size. See also disk size.

image type

N1 Provisioning Server supports two types of images: global images and account images. See also global images and account images.

image wizard

A command-line user interface within the N1 Provisioning Server used for creating, upgrading, listing, importing, updating, and deleting images.

Infrastructure Fabric (I-Fabric)

All components of the control plane, the resource pool, and the fabric layer.

life cycle

See farm life cycle.

lockout

Users are locked out of the Control Center access if their login attempts fail a configurable number of times within a configurable number of minutes.

logical server farm

A collection of resource pool servers that are assigned to a particular farm or account. See also server farm and farm.

load balancer

A server blade that performs load balancing tasks within a server farm. Also referred to as a load balancing blade.

management VLAN

VLAN on which resource pool servers are load balanced.

messaging

A message routing framework provided by the N1 Provisioning Server software for directing farm- and monitoring-related messages to a central repository on the CPDB or to an external NMS. Three types of messages are generated:

• Informational messages

• Farm messages

• Billing messages

message repository

A collection of messages within an N1 Provisioning Server environment. The monitoring manager forwards messages to the message repository.

MML

See Monitoring Markup Language.

Monitoring Markup Language (MML)

An XML-based language that is used to provide a logical description of the monitoring parameters of any logical server farm.

monitoring manager

A process that monitors the health and performance of devices in the control plane.

N1 Provisioning Server

All product software and hardware, including the Control Center and Control Plane software and hardware.

N1 Provisioning Server agent

A process that performs device interface configurations within an I-Fabric.

network virtualization

A concept that allows for the creation of a digital map of the physical I-Fabric network using XML-based markup languages. See also FML, FEML, MML, and WML.

non-deployable image

An image in the image repository that has not been validated for deployment to a resource pool server.

power controller

A network device that provides and manages power for the servers in the resource pool.

preconfigured image

An operating system image with basic configurations and software packages that is included in the N1 Provisioning Server software package.

provisioning

The ability to add or delete capacity on a logical server farm using the N1 Provisioning Server software.

queuing mechanism

Processes all farm-related requests, such as farm activation and update.

resource pool

A supply of unused devices that are available for provisioning to server farms.

resource pool server

A hardware server in the resource pool.

resource virtualization

A concept that allows for the creation of a digital map of the physical resources within an I-Fabric using XML-based markup languages. See also FML, FEML, MML, and WML.

scrubbing

The process of overwriting a memory device with 1s or 0s so that the data formerly stored on the device cannot be recovered. Resource pool servers are scrubbed by N1 Provisioning Server software before they are returned to the resource pool.

segment manager

A process that controls and coordinates activities for an I-Fabric.

server blades

Refers to the individual servers blades located in the chassis. See also Blades.

server farm

A collection of resource pool servers that are assigned to a particular farm or account. See also farm and logical server farm.

server group

A unique logical structure that enables rapid flexing of multiple servers by associating a predefined role or image for all servers within a group.

service unit

A way to abstract any individual device to enable a utility-like computing service.

service VLAN

The VLAN on which traffic flows from the load balancer to the resource pool server.

snapshot

An image of the contents of a disk.

SSC

See switch and system controller.

state

The condition of a server or server farm in terms of its variable attributes, configuration, or content. See also farm life cycle.

storage manager client (STMC)

The interface required by the farm manager for accessing storage functionality.

Sun Fire Blade Platform

Also known as the Sun Fire B1600 Intelligent Shelf. See also chassis.

switch and system controller (SSC)

A component of the chassis that comprises the chassis switch and the system controller. The chassis switch controls access to server blades. The system controller monitors the operational status of all devices in the chassis and provides a command-line interface (CLI) to the chassis configuration software. See also chassis switch and system controller.

system controller

An interface that is part of the switch and system controller (SSC) unit. The system controller monitors the operational status of all devices in the chassis and provides a command-line interface (CLI) to the chassis configuration software. See also chassis switch.

terminal server

A network device that provides a serial connection to servers in the resource pool.

unmanaged devices

Ethernet-capable devices that are not officially supported by the N1 Provisioning Server software, but that are visible to other Ethernet devices within an I-Fabric. Such devices can include routers and network-attached storage (NAS) devices.

user

Lowest account login level at the Control Center GUI.

user groups

A Control Center feature that allows for grouping users for automatic messaging.

Wiring Markup Language (WML)

An XML-based language that is used to provide a logical description of the physical wiring and configuration of an I-Fabric.

WML

See Wiring Markup Language.