Provisioning and Extensibility Overview for Dell VIS Self-Service Creator A Dell Technical White Paper Tom Harrington Global Solutions Engineering
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Contents Overview .................................................................................................................... 2 VIS Self-Service Creator Concepts ................................................................................... 3 Workload Lifecycle ........................................................................................................ 4 Extensibility and Integration Options .................
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Overview With the advent of private cloud, end-to-end provisioning must be completely automated and zero touch. When a user requests a new workload, all aspects of the provisioning process must occur automatically and completely. This white paper provides an overview of provisioning, extensibility, and integration options available with VIS Self-Service Creator.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator VIS Self-Service Creator Concepts Within this white paper, we utilized several VIS Self-Service Creator specific terms. For readers who are not familiar with VIS Self-Service Creator, we provide a brief description of each term we utilize. Custom Properties: User-defined name-value pairs that are used extensively within VIS-Self Service Creator. This may also refer to system-defined name-value pairs.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Workload Lifecycle Virtually everything has a lifecycle associated with it. In the IT world, the lifecycle of a workload typically starts with the requestor’s original requirements and ends with the final decommissioning of the workload. At its core, VIS Self-Service Creator manages the complete lifecycle of workloads in your environment.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Table 1: Sample Custom Properties Custom Property Name VirtualMachine.Admin.Name VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner VirtualMachine.Admin.Hostname VirtualMachine.Memory.Size VirtualMachine.Storage.Name VirtualMachine.CPU.Count VirtualMachine.Network0.MacAddress VirtualMachine.Network0.Name Description Name of the machine as generated by VIS Self-Service Creator. Username of the machine’s owner. Name of the host on which the machine resides.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Figure 2: Request Workflow Extensibility Requestor Custom SharePoint Portal Manager Service VIS Self-Service Creator User Portal RESTful API Requestor 3rd Party Request System Requestor The request workflow has various customization and integration options. Within the administrator’s UI, the portal can be easily rebranded with the customer’s logo and name.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator process is not completely automated end-to-end, this also provides an opportunity for manual intervention. With custom integration, workflows may be modified to allow the approval actions via email or through external systems such as Microsoft SharePoint. Provisioning Workflow Since all environments are not the same, VIS Self-Service Creator offers a variety of workflows to integrating with your existing environment.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator With VMware clones, administrators create a master image (template) and a customization spec within vCenter. VMware Template clones provide an easy way to build and maintain a master image. VMware customization specs provide the ability to customize your OS deployments. For Windows OSs, customization specs also alleviate the need for administrators to sysprep systems and create potentially complex sysprep.xml or sysprep.inf files.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Once the master image is created, the administrator must create a sysprep.inf or unattend.xml file, sysprep the image, and power off the VM. To ease future updates of the master image, it is advisable to take a hypervisor level snapshot prior to executing sysprep. While in the powered-off state, the master image is captured using the Microsoft ImageX utility and stored on a CIFS accessible file server.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Table 2: Modifiable Sysprep Properties for Windows 7 & 2008 Sysprep Section GuiUnattended Sysprep Property AdminPassword EncryptedAdminPassword TimeZone UserData ProductKey FullName ComputerName OrgName Identification DomainAdmin DomainAdminPassword JoinDomain JoinWorkgroup For multi-national environments, where time zones need to be set appropriately to the end users locality, the WIM image can be modified on a per request basis
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Figure 5: RHEL Kickstart Extensibility Overview Linux Boot ISO 1) User Places Request 15) User Notified on Success Requestor 3) Request to VMM Create VM Attach Boot ISO VIS Self-Service Creator 4) VMM : Create VM 6) Power-On VM 14) Detach Boot ISO Reboot VM 8) Installer %POST execution : Install VIS-SSC Agent 10) VIS-SSC Agent : Customizes OS 12) VIS-SSC Agent : Execute Post-Provisioning Script VMM 9) VIS-SSC Agent : Requests I
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Manage Workflow Once the workload provisioning process has completed, the workload moves into the manage phase. During this phase, the workload is up, running, and ready for end user use. To provide more functionality to the workload owner, VIS Self-Service Creator allows event-driven execution of workload tasks through the end-user portal.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator With Dell Services, integration can be extended further into a robust snapshot management portal. Extensions to the VIS Self-Service Creator User Interface allow a Snapshot Manager portal where users can create, commit, and rollback snapshots. Archive Workflow The archive workflow is triggered at the end of the workloads lease. Out-of-the-box, the VM is gracefully powered down and remains in this state until the archive time expires.
Provisioning and Extensibility Overview of Dell VIS Self-Service Creator Additional Resources VIS Self-Service Creator User Guide, https://partners.dynamicops.com/DellVISCreator VIS Self-Service Creator Release Notes, https://partners.dynamicops.com/DellVISCreator VIS Self-Service Creator Reference Architectures, http://www.dell.com/vis VIS Self-Service Creator Support Matrix, http://www.dell.com/vis VMware vSphere™ Reference Architecture for Small Medium Business, http://www.dell.
