Deploying and Managing Private Clouds

The Essentials Series

Steps to Migrating to a Private Cloud

sponsored by

Dan Sullivan

TheEssentialsSeries:DeployingandManagingPrivateClouds

DanSullivan

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TheEssentialsSeries:DeployingandManagingPrivateClouds

DanSullivan

IntroductiontoRealtimePublishers.................................................................................................................i StepstoMigratingtoaPrivateCloud..............................................................................................................1 AdvantagesofaPrivateCloud.......................................................................................................................1 ImprovedHardwareOptimization.........................................................................................................2 . ReducedSupportCostswithSelfServiceManagement................................................................3 ReducedCapitalExpenditures..................................................................................................................3 ReducedTimetoDeployApplicationsandServices.......................................................................3 WhenaPrivateCloudIsNottheRightOption........................................................................................3 AssessingtheCurrentStateofReadinessforaPrivateCloud.........................................................4 IncrementallyMovingtoaPrivateCloud..................................................................................................5 Summary.................................................................................................................................................................5

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TheEssentialsSeries:DeployingandManagingPrivateClouds

DanSullivan

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TheEssentialsSeries:DeployingandManagingPrivateClouds

DanSullivan

StepstoMigratingtoaPrivateCloud
Advancesinserverhardware,networkinfrastructure,andvirtualizationallowforarange ofITarchitectures,includingtheuseofcomputingclouds.Cloudsarecollectionsof computing,storage,andnetworkservicesthatcanberapidlyallocatedforparticularjobs andtheneasilyreleasedtobeemployedforothertaskswhenthejobsarecompleted.The adoptionandcontinueduseofpubliccloudservicesdemonstratetheeffectivenessand efficiencyofthiscomputingmodel.Businessesandotherorganizationswithunderutilized servercapacitymaybewellservedbyredeployingtheirhardwareinaprivatecloud configuration. Thisseriesprovidesanoverviewofprivateclouds,theiradvantagesanddisadvantages, andasuggestedplanformigratingtoaprivatecloudarchitecture.Thisarticlewillbegin thediscussionwithanassessmentprocessandtalkabout: Advantagesofaprivatecloud Whenaprivatecloudisnottherightoption Currentstateofreadinessforaprivatecloud Incrementalmovementtoaprivatecloud

Anobviousquestionyoumustfirstanswerinthisprocessis,Whyuseaprivatecloud?

AdvantagesofaPrivateCloud
Theadvantagesofaprivatecloudstemfromfourcommoncharacteristicsfoundincloud environments: Improvedhardwareoptimization Reducedsupportcostswithselfservicemanagement Reducedcapitalexpenditures Reducedtimetodeployapplicationsandservices

Eachofthesecharacteristicsisaproductofthecloudarchitecture.

TheEssentialsSeries:DeployingandManagingPrivateClouds

DanSullivan

ImprovedHardwareOptimization
Traditionalmethodsofdeployingasingleservertorunasingleapplicationoftenresultin underutilizationofservercapacity.Serversdesignedtomaintainacceptablethroughput duringperiodsofpeakdemandwastecomputingcapacityduringnonpeakperiods. Runningmultiplevirtualserversonasinglehardwareservercanhelptoimprove utilization,butbecausetheseconfigurationsarerelativelystatic,theremaycontinuetobe periodsoflowutilization. Consideranexample.Afinancereportingserverexperiencespeakdemandsinthemiddle ofthenightandearlymorningasdailyreportsaregenerated.Ahumanresources applicationserverexperiencesthegreatestdemandduringnormalbusinesshours, especiallythelatemorningandearlyafternoon.Thesetwoapplicationscouldrunona singleserverusingvirtualizedhosts,improvingtheoverallutilizationrate.Therearestill, however,periodswhentheCPUsandotherserverresourcesaresignificantly underutilized. AsweseeinFigure1,evenwithvirtualization,therearetimeswhenanothervirtual machinecouldmakeuseofthephysicalserver.Adrawbackofvirtualizationisthatit requiressignificantefforttoinstall,configure,andmonitoreachnewvirtualmachine. AlthoughwehaveavailableCPUcapacity,thetimeandeffortrequiredtoinstallanother virtualmachineoutweighthebenefitsofmoreefficientserverutilization.Cloudcomputing softwareeliminatesthistypeofadministrativeoverheadandallowsforrapiddeployment ofvirtualmachines.

Figure1:Virtualizationcanimproveutilizationbuttheremaycontinuetobeperiods ofunderutilization.

TheEssentialsSeries:DeployingandManagingPrivateClouds

DanSullivan

ReducedSupportCostswithSelfServiceManagement
Withaprivatecloud,ITdepartmentscanestablishcatalogsofvirtualmachineimages, sometimesreferredtoasaservicecatalog.Enduserscanselectanimagefromtheservice catalogandhaveitrunononeormorevirtualmachinesintheprivatecloud.Asystems administratorisnolongerneededtostartanewvirtualmachine.Endusersdecidewhento startandstoptheirvirtualmachines.Asaresult,hardwarecanbemoreefficientlyutilized whileatthesametimereducingsupportcoststhroughselfservicemanagement.

ReducedCapitalExpenditures
Moreefficientuseofserverhardwarecanquicklyleadtoreducedcapitalexpenditures.In thepast,anewbusinessservicemayhaverequiredadditionalhardwaretosupportthat service.Usingaprivatecloud,anITdepartmentcanpoolitsserverresourcesandallocate virtualserversasneeded.Newbusinessservicescantapintothesamepoolofservers withouthavingtopurchasehardwarebasedonpeakdemandexpectations.Cloud administratorsmonitorusageandplanforexpansionbasedontheaggregateneedsofall usersnotonthepeakdemandperiodsofeachindividualapplication.

ReducedTimetoDeployApplicationsandServices
Eliminatingorreducingtheneedtotightlycouplehardwaretoapplicationscanalsoreduce thetimerequiredtodeploynewapplicationsandservices.Applicationownersandsystem architectscandesignanddeploynewservicestothecloudwithouthavingtowaitto procure,install,andconfigurenewhardware. Theadvantagesofcloudcomputingarecompellingreasonstoshifttothismodel,butisit alwaystherightchoice?

WhenaPrivateCloudIsNottheRightOption
Idealsolutionsinsomecircumstancesarenotidealinothers.Cloudcomputingisno exception.Ingeneral,cloudcomputingcanbeanefficientandcosteffectivewayof deployingITresourceswhenthefollowingconditionsaremet: Thecloudproviderhasstandardizedhardware Thecloudproviderhasstandardizedoperatingsystem(OS)andapplication stacks Sufficientnetworkinginfrastructureisinplacetosupportcloudcomputing Managementtools,suchasserverandnetworkmonitoring,areinplace Thedistributionofjobslendsthemselvestodistributedcomputingplatforms

Aprivatecloudmaynotbethebestoptionifthehardwareyouplantodeployisnot standardized.Acommonhardwarefoundationwillmakedeploymentandmanagement mucheasier.Ifdifferentplatformsrequiredifferentdriversandseparateversionsof machineimages,thecloudwillrequireadditionalmanagementandunderminesomeofthe costadvantagesofacloud.

TheEssentialsSeries:DeployingandManagingPrivateClouds

DanSullivan

Ifjobsarenoteasilydividedamongvirtualmachines,aprivatecloudmaynotbe appropriate.Forexample,abusinessintelligenceapplicationthatgeneratesalargenumber ofreportscanbesplitoverseveralvirtualmachineswitheachinstancegeneratingreports fordifferentdepartments.Incontrast,anoptimizationproblemthatrequiresalarge amountofsharedmemoryonasinglemachineoragraphicsrenderingapplicationthat requiresspecializedgraphicshardwarearebestrunondedicatedhardware. Anotherrequirementthatiseasilyoverlookedishavingpropermanagementtoolsinplace. Cloudsrequiremonitoringtoensureservicesarerunningasexpectedintheshorttermand toprovidedataforlongertermcapacityplanning.Ifappropriatemonitoringtoolsarenot inplacealready,theyshouldbeincludedintheplansfordeployingaprivatecloud.Thisis justoneoftherequirementsthatyoushouldassessbeforemigratingtoaprivatecloud.

AssessingtheCurrentStateofReadinessforaPrivateCloud
Planningistheprocessofidentifyinghowtogetfromwhereyouaretowhereyouwantto be.Thefirststepinthecaseofprivateclouddeploymentsisunderstandingwhereyouare intermsofexistingITinfrastructure,includinganassessmentof: Existinginfrastructure Resourceutilizationlevels PoliciesandproceduresgoverningIToperations Reportingandcostallocationprocedures

Eachoftheserepresentsimportantelementsforsuccessfullydeliveringprivatecloud services. Existinginfrastructureincludesservers,storagesystems,andnetworkinginfrastructure. Ideally,privatecloudsmakeuseofsimilarservers.TheyhavethesameCPUcores,amounts ofmemory,typesofpowersupplies,andnetworkinterfacecomponents.Asyouinventory yourhardware,determinehowmanyofyourexistingserverscanbeusedinacloud. Serversthatareatorneartheendoftheirusefullifeshouldnotbeincludedinacloud. Olderhardwaremaystillbeusefulforlessdemandingapplications,suchasprintservers. Similarly,plantodeploystoragearraysbasedonsimilartechnologies.Themoreweuse standardizedhardware,themorewecanreducethemanagementoverheadofthecloud. Assessnetworkcapacity.Aretheresegmentsofthenetworkwithhighlatency?Isexisting bandwidthsufficientforcurrentneeds?Itisimportanttounderstandifanypartsofthe networkinfrastructurewillneedtobeupgradedpriortomovingtoaprivatecloud.Itis possiblethatashifttoacloudmodelwillnotsignificantlyalterthedemandfornetwork services,butmonitoringisessentialtounderstandtherequirementsforyourparticular environment.Forexample,itmaybedifficulttoestimatethegrowthindemandfor networkserviceswhendeployingaprivatecloud.Withreducedcoststodeploynew servicesandgreaterselfmanagement,businessunitsmaybegintoexperimentwithnew applicationsandincreasethenumberofjobstheyrun.

TheEssentialsSeries:DeployingandManagingPrivateClouds

DanSullivan

Formalpoliciesandproceduresshouldbeinplacepriortomigratingtoaprivatecloud. Manyaspectsofthesepolicieswillbeembodiedinsystemsthatimplementthecloud.User authenticationpolicies,forexample,mustbeinplaceinordertocontrolaccesstocloud resources.Similarly,billingandcostrecoverypoliciesmustbedefinedsothatuserscan makechoicesaboutthetypesandamountsofcloudservicestouse.Proceduresshouldbe inplacetoautomateasmuchaspossibletheaccountingandbillingaspectsofdelivering cloudservices.

IncrementallyMovingtoaPrivateCloud
Deployingaprivateclouddoesnothavetooccurinashortperiodoftime;itmaybe advantageoustotakeanincrementalapproachtoimplementingacloud.Thiscanbedone followingabasicthreepartprocess: Identifyhardwareandapplicationsthatcanbemovedtoaprivatecloud.Again, notalljobsaresuitableforacloudenvironment,butmanybusinessapplications are. Determinetheutilizationlevelsneededtosupportaninitialsetofcloud applications.Usemonitoringlogsonexistingserverstounderstandpeak demandlevels,thedurationofpeakdemandperiods,aswellasaverageCPU, memory,storage,andnetworkutilizationoveranextendedperiodoftime. Establishamonitoringprogramtocapturedataabouthowthecloud infrastructureisused.

Onceaprivatecloudisdeployed,youwillstilllikelyhavenoncloudresourcesoperatingas partofthebroaderITinfrastructure.Itisimportanttocontinuetomonitortheseresources aswell.Asbusinessusersmigratetheirapplicationstothecloud,additionalresourcesmay beneededintheprivatecloud.Someofthisneedmaybemetbyserversthatoperate outsidethecloud.Acomprehensivemonitoringprogramwillhelptooptimizethe allocationofresourcesbetweencloudandnonclouddeployments.

Summary
Privatecloudcomputingenvironmentsofferanumberofadvantagesforoptimizingtheuse ofservers,storage,andnetworkservices.Althoughcloudarchitecturesarenotappropriate forallrequirements,manybusinessapplicationsarewellservedbycloudcomputing. Organizationsplanningamovetoaprivatecloudshouldconductareadinessassessment priortodeployingaprivatecloud.Aspartoftheimplementation,ensurepoliciesand proceduresareinplacetoeffectivelymanagethecloudandhavemonitoringtoolsinplace tocollectthedatathatwillbeneededtoensureboththeshorttermavailabilityandlong termefficiencyoftheprivatecloud.