Reference Architecture

Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:
Dell Inc. 20
7.1 Active System Manager
Active System Manager is an intelligent and intuitive converged infrastructure and workload manager.
Active System Manager leverages templates to automate infrastructure provisioning, on-boarding, and
re-configuration, which greatly simplifies and speeds up the process, and also significantly reduces
errors associated with manual configuration. The result is better infrastructure and workload quality
with fewer configuration errors that can be costly. Key features provided with Active System Manager:
· Template-Based Provisioning — Streamline and standardize workload deployments through
centralized capture and application of best practices & operational steps
· Infrastructure Lifecycle Mgmt — Discovery, inventory, configuration, provisioning, and ongoing
management of physical and virtual infrastructure
· Resource Pooling & Dynamic Allocation — Create and manage physical and virtual resource
pools; efficiently schedule or allocate resources on-demand
· End-To-End Automation — Multi-tier automation across physical (server, storage and network)
and virtual layers
· Workflow Orchestration — Intelligent workflow orchestration engine for rapid physical and
virtual workload provisioning
· Centralized Management — Intuitive centralized, role-based management and access through
self-service web portal
Note: Active System Manager offers limited functionality on Microsoft Hyper-V platforms with Active
System Manager version 7.0. The capabilities and benefits outlined above will be available on the
Microsoft Hyper-V platforms with the Active System Manager version 7.1 scheduled for release in mid
2013.
7.2 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Built-In tools
Windows Server 2012 provides the following built-in new or updated management features and tools for
the virtualization solution:
· Server Manager: Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 is re-designed as the primary
management console for all the systems including the remote servers in an environment. Server
Manager also manages the virtual machines and installed Windows roles on all managed
systems. It includes a role-based dashboard, which aggregates the data from managed servers.
It reports system health state and surfaces issues which require attention. The Server Manager
also creates customized groups for managed systems. Figure 9 illustrates an example of
managing a Dell Active System 800m with Server Manager.