I-Fabric Overview

N1 Provisioning Server software provides a comprehensive infrastructure automation solution that enhances the visibility, and control of complex computing environments. An I-Fabric consists of various hardware components, such as blade system chassis, server blades, and load balancer blades, and the N1 Provisioning Server software. N1 Provisioning Server software controls how I-Fabric components interoperate. An I-Fabric, controlled and managed by N1 Provisioning Server software, combines computing and networking resources into a contiguous automated fabric of infrastructure that you deploy and reallocate to meet changing requirements. Resources are dedicated to a farm until returned to the common resource pool. With root access to devices, you can deploy any software or application onto the servers. Secure partitions enforced by N1 Provisioning Server software and methodologies enable you to exercise independent administrative control over each logical server farm.

Resources within an I-Fabric are accessed through the Control Center, a web-browser-based graphical user interface (GUI). This drag-and-drop interface enables you to design and deploy logical server farms. Within a design, you can define numerous characteristics, including topology, monitors, and alerts.

When you create a logical server farm design and apply it within the Control Center, N1 Provisioning Server software creates a logical description of the server farm design. The logical description is captured in the Farm Markup Language (FML), an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) dialect developed for N1 Provisioning Server software. FML enables the abstraction of design and configuration data for the deployment of actual physical resources. Abstraction of monitoring processes is captured using the Monitoring Markup Language (MML). Abstraction of the wiring configuration is captured using the Wiring Markup Language (WML).