Components

The Provisioning Server contains the following software components:

• Service processor (SP)

• Control plane database (CPDB)

• Image server

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:

• Segment Manager

  The Segment Manager controls and coordinates activities for an I-Fabric, and is the only entry point to state transitions in the Control Center. The Segment Manager selects and sets the logical server farm ownership at logical server farm activation time, monitors the Farm Manager process, and sends requests to Farm Managers in the I-Fabric. Each time a request for the logical server farm arrives, a Farm Manager is started. There is one Farm Manager process per logical server farm. The Segment Manager starts the Farm Manager process as needed. See the command-line tools man pages for details.

• Farm Manager

  Farm Managers instantiate, monitor, and control activities related to logical server farms. A single service processor instance can contain many different Farm Manager processes. Each Farm Manager is assigned to one logical server farm. Farm Managers are only present when a change in a logical server farm occurs. Farm Managers communicate through the Segment Manager and through information stored and retrieved from the CPDB.

  Farm Managers use logical descriptions of logical server farms stored in the CPDB in the form of an FML document to identify all resources required for the logical server farm. Farm Managers request resources from the idle pool of resources such as servers.

• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name Server (DNS) services

  The service processor uses the DHCP facility to configure the servers in a logical server farm with their hostname and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. The service processor uses the DNS facility for hostname resolution for servers and network devices in a logical server farm.

• Storage Manager Client (STMC)

  The STMC loads global images onto server blades and administers snapshots. The STMC also provides the interfaces required by the Farm Manager to access the storage functionality. The STMC also contains tools that perform the individual storage functions. These tools are available to any control plane server on which the STMC package is installed.

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:

• Properties and connections of devices, such as servers

• Logical server farm configurations

• Resources, such as VLANs and IP addresses

• State of network-specific applications

• State of requests

• Software images and their state

• WML

• FML

• MML

• DNS and DHCP configurations

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.