Basic Infrastructure Deployment Guidelines

This page explains how to prepare a hosting/cloud environment for the Cloud OSS CloudWorks Service Manager installation. The CloudWorks Service Manager currently supports the following hypervisor environments:

• Hyper-V cluster based on Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 and managed by System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 (SCVMM)
• VMware vSphere Cluster based on ESXi v5.1 or v5.5 hosts and managed by vCenter Server v5.1 or v5.5 respectively

Deployment Scenarios

Deployment scenarios include:

1. One VMware based infrastructure: Cloud Gateways and Cloud Servers (VMs) are provisioned in the same infrastructure. vCenter Server is responsible for managing the entire infrastructure and communicating with the Service Manager
   
   
2. One Hyper-V based infrastructure: Cloud Gateways and Cloud Servers (VMs) are provisioned in the same infrastructure. SCVMM is responsible for managing the entire infrastructure and communicating with the Service Manager
   
   
3. Mixed VMware/Hyper-V based infrastructure: Cloud Gateways are provisioned in the VMware environment and Cloud Servers are provisioned in the Hyper-V environment. vCenter Server and SCVMM are responsible for managing each environment and handling communication with the Service Manager.

Deploying VMware vSphere Infrastructure

This guide assumes that you have deployed and configured vSphere in high availability mode. The Service Manager can only interact with the vSphere infrastructure through vCenter Server, therefore vCenter Server must be installed and properly configured to manage the entire infrastructure. At the very least, two physical servers running ESXi hypervisors are required in order to form a vSphere cluster for production use.

The CloudWorks Service Manager requires that the following configuration settings are applied:

• A cluster of two or more ESXi Hosts is created and configured appropriately
• A Datastore Cluster is configured with one or more datastores
• A Datacenter object container is defined. The Cluster and Datastore Cluster must be linked under this Datacenter container
• Network and storage configuration of each ESXi Host is set up correctly
   

The vSphere administrator should also ensure that various other settings such as Time Configuration, DNS and Routing, Power Management, etc. are properly configured.

Note: Further configuration of the hosts and cluster regarding settings such as HA, FT, Monitoring, EVC, DRS, SDRS, etc. is out of scope of this guide

Deploying Hyper-V Infrastructure

The Service Manager requires interaction with both SCVMM and the Hyper-V hosts comprising the cluster. The following actions should be executed for proper configuration of the cluster

• Install Windows 2012 R2 and configure hardware (storage and network) settings consistently across all hosts
• Install all latest updates and hotfixes for all hosts
• Plan for adequate network adapters for each host (using the same naming conventions) to ensure proper operation of the cluster and high availability as per Microsoft guidelines and best practices (CSV traffic, Live Migration traffic, Management, etc.)
• Install Hyper-V and Failover Clustering on all hosts
• Create a virtual switch on each host setting the connection type to External Network and using the same name
• Create the cluster (Also add disks as CSV as desired) and validate the cluster configuration
• Install and configure System Center Virtual Machine Manager and connect it to the configured cluster
• Install all latest updates and hotfixes for System Center Virtual Machine Manager servers and agents (on Hyper-V hosts)

Proper deployment and configuration of Hyper-V/VMware environments implies that you should be able to create a Virtual Machine, install an operating system using a template and verifying correct operation of the VM inside the cluster (including high availability checks, live migration, network access to external or private networks, etc.)