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.