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.