6 Administering Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Ravello Service

In this section, you can learn to configure, monitor and troubleshoot Ravello.

Topics

• Users and Permissions Groups

• Granting Ephemeral Access

• Tracking Your Ravello Cloud Usage with Cost Monitoring Buckets

• Monitoring Resource Usage

• Setting up Public Profile

• Viewing System Log

Users and Permissions Groups

You can perform various actions in the console depending on the permissions assigned to you. A user’s permissions are determined by the permissions group to which the user is assigned.

There are two predefined groups:

• Admin — has permissions for all the functionality.

• Users — default user has read only permissions for all resource types.

Depending on the requirement, you can create a customized permissions groups. When a custom permissions group is created, it does not contain any permissions. The specific permissions must be added manually by the Admin user. Different levels of permissions can be added for each resource type in keeping with the needs of your organization and the functionality required by different types of users. For example, you can grant pricing information and payment editing access to finance department personnel, without granting the permissions to manage applications, VMs, and blueprints.

Note:

If a user is assigned to more than one permissions group, that user inherits the combined permissions of both groups. For example, if one group assigns Read permissions for applications and another allows Read and Create permissions for application, a user that is assigned to both permissions groups can Read and Create applications.

Permissions Group Management

You can assign more than one permission to a user or a permissions group. A user with appropriate Admin permissions can create and edit permissions groups and assign users to those groups. The existing permissions groups are listed in the Admin > Permissions Groups page.

Important:

Note the following before you create permissions group:

• A permissions group can have one or more users.

• A user can belong to multiple permissions group.

• A permissions group can have multiple resource types.

• For each resource type, there is a corresponding permission.

Defining Permissions groups

When you create a new permissions group, there will not be any default permission assigned to it. Permissions are granted per resource type. Custom permissions groups allow you to grant specific combinations of permissions to groups of users, ranging from highly restricted access to broad-reaching permissions.

To define permissions to a group:

1. Navigate to Admin >Permissions Group and create a group.

2. Create permissions for the created group.

   • Resource Type — select the resource for which want to add permissions

   • Actions — select the check boxes for the permission levels.

   • Filter — select the condition for the filter. If a filter is not defined, the permission will apply to all the objects of the resource type.

   • Create Criterion — select the object to be matched, the condition for a match, and the partial or full string to be matched. Repeat this step for additional criteria, as required.

3. Save the permissions for the group. A resource type is added to the Permissions page for this group.

4. Repeat the steps for additional resource types until all of the necessary permissions have been set for the group.

Editing Permissions Group

You can edit the permissions granted to custom permissions groups. Changes in permissions are automatically applied to all users assigned to the permissions group. Click on the name of the permissions group and edit. If users are assigned to the permissions group, then it appears in the lower left corner.

Note:

You cannot edit the predefined permissions groups. You can duplicate the permissions group and edit if necessary.

Deleting Permissions Group

Select the name of the permissions group that you want to delete and click Delete. Deleting a custom permissions group does not delete the users assigned to that group. However, users previously assigned only to the deleted group will no longer have any permissions. For this reason, it is recommended that you first assign those users to a different permissions group and remove them from the group you are deleting.

User Management

Primary admin of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Ravello Service will receive an email for setting up a Ravello account. Once the account is set up, admin can add users, set permissions, and assign each user to permissions groups. Users are managed in the Admin > Users page.

The ability of users to perform various actions in the console depends on the permissions assigned to that user. By default, there are two users (Admin and User) assigned to predefined permissions groups.

Inviting Users

If you have Admin permissions, you can invite additional users to use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Ravello Service. To invite users, enter the user’s name and e-mail address in Admin > Users > Invite User.

Changing Password

You can change the password anytime by clicking Change Password on the right hand side of the title bar. If you have admin permissions, then you can select a user on the Admin > Users page and reset the password for them.

Adding Users to a Permissions Group

Admin can assign the user to the appropriate permissions groups. If a user is not assigned to any permissions group, the user cannot use the product.

Users can be assigned to more than one permissions group. If a user is assigned to more than one permissions group, that user inherits the combined permissions of both groups. For example, if one group assigns Read permissions for applications and another allows Read and Create permissions for application, a user that is assigned to both permissions groups can Read and Create applications.

Note:

If there is a need to prevent a user from performing a specific action, then make sure that the user is not assigned to any permissions group that allows that action.

To add a user to a permissions group, select a user on the Users page and click Add to Permissions Group . In the Permissions Group dialog box, select the relevant permissions group.

Disabling a User

If you have admin permissions, then you can select a user to disable on the Admin > Users page. After you disable, the user will be removed from the permissions group as well.

Granting Ephemeral Access

Ephemeral access allows you to provide limited, time-based access to a specific resource or set of resources to another person, without them being a part of your organization.

This can be very useful when integrating your own portal on Ravello infrastructure or when you want to provide an external user with temporary access. For example, you can use these tokens to grant your partners limited access to a specific demo environment, without creating a user in your environment or providing your users an extended demo environment for a limited period of time.

Creating Ephemeral Access Tokens

You can create limited or extended access tokens for your applications or blueprints. Use these tokens to grant access to one or more resources.

To create an ephemeral access token:

1. Select one or more applications in the Applications page or blueprints in the Blueprints page. Note that more than one token can be created for an application or a blueprint.
2. Click More > Grant Ephemeral Access.
   The New Ephemeral Access Token window is displayed.
3. Enter a name and description for the access token.
4. Set the time limit and permissions to grant access.
5. If you have selected more than one resource, then you can grant either Different token for every application or All applications in a single token.
6. Click Create.
   The dialog box is refreshed to display the Ravello UI URL and the API token details. Send the URL in an email to the users to allow temporary access.

   Note:

   When the time expires, users cannot access any of the granted applications or blueprints. If you want to extend the access, you can do it at any time by changing the token validity in Applications > More > Show Ephemeral Tokens.

You can view a list of all tokens on the Admin > Ephemeral Access Tokens page. Alternatively, you can create and edit tokens from the Applications and Blueprints pages. To view the details for a specific token, select a resource on the Applications or Blueprints page and click More > Show Ephemeral Tokens .

Tracking Your Ravello Cloud Usage with Cost Monitoring Buckets

With cost monitoring buckets, you can accurately track the cost of the Oracle Ravello Cloud applications that you have published. You can group your applications into categories (or buckets) and track the cost of running the applications within each bucket. Cost monitoring buckets track all the costs associated with the applications in the bucket, including compute resources, volume storage and network.

You can picture each cost monitoring bucket as a budget for a category of applications you publish. To help you stay within each budget, you can create Email-based alerts when the total costs associated with a bucket approach or reach a specific threshold.

The following sections explain how cost buckets can help you plan and monitor your Ravello Cloud usage:

• Cost Monitoring Buckets: A Typical Example

• Getting Started with Cost Monitoring Buckets

• Monitoring Your Cost Monitoring Buckets

Cost Monitoring Buckets: A Typical Example

The best way to learn about cost buckets is to review an example.

Consider a scenario where you have the following categories of Oracle Ravello Cloud applications:

• Under-development applications that your software developers are using to validate new product features and see their latest code in action

• Test applications that your QA team is using to run their test plans

• Evaluation or sandbox applications that your team is using to evaluate Ravello Cloud or to experiment with a particular application topology

With cost monitoring buckets, you can create a cost bucket for each category and track how much money you are spending on each. You can then set alerts to let you know immediately when one or more of the application categories is nearing your weekly, monthly, or quarterly budget.

Getting Started with Cost Monitoring Buckets

As you gain experience with Oracle Ravello Cloud, you will likely start using it for a variety of purposes. And, as your organization publishes more applications, you will want to track your Ravello Cloud usage in more detail.

To get started, go to Admin > Billing and Budgeting. By default, the Billing and Budget page shows you the total cost of your published applications for the current month. This includes the cost of running all your published applications for the month. Each application you published is also listed, so you can see the breakdown of costs for each application. Use the drop-down in the first column to select a different month.

Creating a New Cost Monitoring Bucket

Consider creating a cost buckets for category of applications for which you have a separate budget. For example, if you typically track your testing costs versus your development costs, create a separate cost bucket for each.

To create a new category (or cost bucket) from the Billing and Budgeting page:

1. Click Create Bucket.
2. Enter a name and description for the cost bucket.
3. Select where you want the cost bucket to appear by selecting a value from the Containing Bucket drop-down menu.
4. Click Create.

The new cost bucket appears under the selected containing cost bucket in the left navigation pane.

Adding a Published Application to a Cost Monitoring Bucket

After you create a cost monitoring bucket, you can move applications into the bucket and track the costs that are generated by all the applications in that bucket.

To add one of your Oracle Ravello Cloud applications to the new cost bucket:

1. From the Billing and Budget page, click the Organization cost bucket to display the list of all your current applications.
2. Click the Applications tab below the page title to manage the applications currently tracked in the top-level Organization cost bucket.
3. Select one or more of the applications on the Applications tab. When you select one or more of the applications, the +Move button above the last column becomes active.
4. Click +Move to move the selected applications to a new cost bucket.
5. Click Create.

Alternatively, you can add applications to a cost monitoring bucket:

• From the Settings tab when you are viewing or editing an application.

• On the Create Application dialog box when you are creating a new application.

Note:

When you have more than one cost bucket, you can move multiple applications from one cost bucket to another.

Monitoring Your Cost Monitoring Buckets

After you set up your cost buckets, you can select each cost bucket and review the costs generated by the various applications.

To scan, sort, and filter the costs within each cost bucket, select the cost bucket and then use one of these options available from the each cost bucket page:

• View the detailed breakdown of costs for the selected bucket for a selected time period. You can view the total costs, as well as the cost breakdown for the applications, Elastic IPs, and Library storage.

• View the costs for a specific month or a custom time period.

• Sort the list of applications by the available columns in the table; for example, sort the applications by total cost, total up-time, or by owner.

• Search for a specific application or all the applications owned by a particular employee in your organization.

• Export the table to a CSV file, so you can pull the cost into your own spreadsheet or financial planning application.

Editing the Name or Description of a Cost Monitoring Bucket

For each cost monitoring bucket you create, you can modify the properties and set alerts. After you create a cost bucket, you can later modify the name or the description of the cost bucket.

To change the name or description of a cost bucket:

1. Click the name of a cost monitoring bucket in the left navigation pane.
2. Roll the mouse cursor over the title of the cost bucket until the edit (pencil) icon appears next to the cost bucket title.
3. Click the edit (pencil) icon.
4. In the resulting dialog box, you can edit the name or the description of the bucket.

Note:

You cannot move a cost monitoring bucket to another enclosing bucket. To move a cost monitoring bucket, you must:

1. Move all the applications out of the cost bucket, and then delete the cost bucket. You cannot delete a cost bucket that contains applications.

2. Create a new cost bucket and add the applications to the new cost bucket.

Setting Alerts for a Cost Monitoring Bucket

After you create a set of cost buckets, you can set alerts that remind you when a particular cost bucket is nearing a particular total. This allows you to create and manage a budget for the applications in each cost bucket.

To set an alert for a cost monitoring bucket:

1. From the Billing and Budget page, click the name of a cost monitoring bucket in the left navigation pane. By default, you will see the Billing tab, which lists the applications currently tracked by the selected cost bucket, as well as details about each application.
2. Click the Alerts tab to manage the alerts for the selected cost bucket.
3. To create a new alert, click Create Alert. The Create Alert dialog box appears. 
4. In the Limit ($) field, enter a cost threshold. The amount you enter here represents the amount you'd like to budget for this bucket of applications in the given time period.
5. From the Reset Alert drop-down menu, select how often you want to reset the budget monitoring for the current bucket. For example, if you want to define a budget for each month, then set the Limit ($) field to your monthly budget amount, and then select Monthly from the Reset Alert drop-down menu.
6. In the Description field, optionally enter a brief description of the alert.
7. In the Alert section of the dialog, first indicate when you want an alert to be generated. Oracle Ravello Cloud can alert when the budget limit is reached, or when the cost total for the current bucket reaches a certain percentage of the limit.
8. In the Send alert to field, select the email address to which the alert will be sent.
9. Click Create.

Viewing your Billing Reports

By default, the Billing and Budget page shows you the total cost of your published applications for the current month. This includes the cost of running all your published applications for the month.

From the Billing and Budget page, click the name of a cost monitoring bucket in the left navigation pane. By default, you will see the Billing tab, which lists the applications currently tracked by the selected cost bucket, as well as details about each application. Each application you published is also listed, so you can see the breakdown of costs for each application. Use the drop-down in the first column to select a different date, month, or a specific time period.

Viewing Your Deleted Buckets

You can always go back to your deleted billing and refer to it for any historical data. Click Show Deleted Buckets at the lower end of the left navigation pane. You will see a summarized history of transactions and activities against them by an organization for a specified date range.

Exporting Your Billing Report

You can export your organization billing report to a CSV format. To export, select an organization and click Export to CSV. Select all the options that you want to include in the bill and export to the CSV format.

Monitoring Resource Usage

Each user is allocated to a defined resources including running VMs and CPU hours. Admin can view the resource usage levels and status in the Admin > Usage page.

The Admin > Usage & Quota page provides the following details:

• Concurrent Running VMs — The maximum number of VMs that are allowed to run simultaneously. When the number of VMs reaches the maximum value, you cannot start new VMs without stopping some of the running VMs.

• Public IPs — The maximum number of public IP addresses that are allowed to run simultaneously.

• Elastic IPs — The maximum number of Elastic IP addresses that are allowed to run simultaneously.

An orange progress bar indicates that the available resources are almost entirely utilized. When additional resources are no longer available, then the progress bar turns red.

Note:

The CPU resources available during the two-week free trial period are limited and cannot be increased. To change your account status, click Upgrade at the top of the Ravello Management Console.

Setting up Public Profile

You must set up your public profile if you are sharing library items on Ravello Repo.

To set up your public profile:

1. Click your username at the top of the Ravello interface and select My Profile from the drop-down list.
2. To enable others to view your profile, select Show my profile in Ravello Repo.
3. Fill other fields as required and save.

Viewing System Log

You can view or filter messages that are logged by the system.

To check log messages, go to Admin > Log. To include/exclude the list of messages according to Level (Trace, Information, Warning, or Error), select or clear the corresponding check box. You can even filter the list in any tab by entering a partial or full string in the Filter field.