Understanding the HP CloudSystem Matrix Technology

Technical white paper

Table of contents

Introduction..................................................................................................................................2

Overview: HP CloudSystem Matrix .................................................................................................3

How CloudSystem Matrix is used ...................................................................................................4 Designing and provisioning infrastructure services ........................................................................5 Optimizing the infrastructure for capacity planning and showback/chargeback .............................13 Protecting service continuity with automated cost-effective failover and disaster recovery .................16

Enabling technology ...................................................................................................................17 BladeSystem c-Class ................................................................................................................17 Virtual Connect.......................................................................................................................18 Matrix Operating Environment..................................................................................................20 Multi-tenancy features in Matrix OE...........................................................................................20 Cloud Service Automation for Matrix.........................................................................................21 Storage technologies ...............................................................................................................21 Security .................................................................................................................................22 Integrating HP CloudSystem Matrix into customer environments ....................................................22 Expanding beyond IaaS: CloudSystem portfolio .........................................................................24

Purchase and delivery .................................................................................................................25 HP services to make the most of CloudSystem.............................................................................27 Ready capacity when business demands with bursting and pay-as-you-use resources ......................28

Summary and conclusion.............................................................................................................29

Appendix A: Implementing an IaaS ..............................................................................................30

Appendix B: HP CloudSystem Matrix use cases..............................................................................30 Move your Test & Development environment to a Cloud ..............................................................30 Expand the Cloud to include your production infrastructure ..........................................................30 Deliver and monitor both infrastructure and applications..............................................................30

Appendix C: HP Cloud Maps—an example...................................................................................31

Glossary of terms........................................................................................................................34

For more information...................................................................................................................37

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Introduction Businesses are moving to the cloud in accelerating numbers. Business users recognize cloud advantages that help speed innovation, accelerate business processes, and reduce time to revenue. Frequently, these users turn to public cloud services for the solutions they need. In fact, a Forrester study found that business is adopting cloud 2.5 times faster than is IT operations.1 IT directors, faced with the challenges associated with the rush to cloud-based services, are concerned: how can IT maintain adequate security, ensure service levels, integrate cloud-based services with existing traditional IT systems, and provide governance across the entire IT value chain? In addition, IT directors want to be sure that the decisions they make today about cloud technology suppliers don’t prevent them from innovating in the future.

At the same time, IT departments are under tremendous pressure to keep pace with business demand. While IT infrastructure has made significant advances in performance and availability, the effort to meet increasing business demands has frequently led to “IT sprawl.” Computing resources proliferate, but remain underutilized and too hardwired to redeploy easily when business needs change. IT increasingly employs virtualization and automation to improve the flexibility and increase utilization of computing resources. However, this course has not yet eliminated the issues of over-provisioning and complexity. Too frequently, IT resources are dedicated to a particular application or business unit and any excess capacity remains unavailable for other uses. IT continues to be hampered in its ability to focus its resources on strategic objectives and driving innovation, resulting in slow time to revenue and lost opportunity.

IT departments are evolving from the role of sole supplier to becoming both builder and broker of IT services. As such, IT must build its capability as an internal service provider that matches the transparency and flexibility of externally available services, as well as be able to source and consume services from a network of trusted suppliers.

HP offers you a path to providing secure, predictable cloud-based services through Converged Infrastructure. Your IT staff can consolidate physical and virtual server, storage, and network assets into pools of virtualized resources. These resource pools can host sets of infrastructure services, which typically map to application services, including complex multitier, multi-node applications. IT personnel can flexibly provision and re-provision services, and can confidently optimize the underlying resources for performance, resiliency, and efficiency.

HP Converged Infrastructure technologies are at the core of the HP CloudSystem portfolio: a comprehensive, integrated, and open solution that provides IT with a unified way to provision and manage services across private, managed, and public clouds. HP CloudSystem equips you to respond to customers or business units faster, more predictably, more efficiently, and with lowered costs. HP CloudSystem offerings provide a range of services as well as an avenue for growth and expansion. As shown in Figure 1, HP CloudSystem has three integrated offerings.

• HP CloudSystem Matrix: Enables you to deliver infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and provisions infrastructure and basic applications in minutes.

• HP CloudSystem Enterprise: For those looking to deploy private and hybrid cloud environments and the full range of service models (IaaS, platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS). This offering provides a single service view of your environments, from private cloud to public clouds to traditional IT, with advanced application-to-infrastructure lifecycle management.

• HP CloudSystem Service Provider: Public or hosted private cloud designed for service providers to provide a public cloud IaaS and SaaS, including aggregation and management of those services.

1 Forrester Research, Inc., Ignoring Cloud Risks A Growing Gap Between I&O And The Business, March 24, 2011

Figure 1: Three integrated HP CloudSystem offerings for a full range of cloud capabilities

This whitepaper describes the HP CloudSystem Matrix solution, with a focus on how it delivers IaaS. The document is intended for IT directors, IT architects, solution architects, and other readers who are familiar with current HP BladeSystem offerings and existing server virtualization technology. The content should assist you in understanding how HP CloudSystem Matrix can benefit your IT environments with more flexible, efficient use of physical and virtual IT resources. The paper begins with a discussion of key architectural and operational concepts and then highlights the key enabling technologies; it concludes with a brief overview of the purchase and implementation process, including available services.

Overview: HP CloudSystem Matrix HP CloudSystem Matrix is an IaaS solution for private and hybrid cloud deployments, built on proven HP Converged Infrastructure technologies, such as HP BladeSystem, Matrix Operating Environment and Cloud Service Automation for Matrix. HP CloudSystem Matrix allows you to:

• Provision infrastructure and applications in minutes for physical and virtual environments.

• Reduce TCO up to 56%2 with built-in infrastructure life-cycle management.

• Integrate heterogeneous environments into your IaaS infrastructure.

HP Cloud Maps accelerate automation of cloud service deployments and ensure consistency and reliability of the implementation of infrastructure service catalogs.

CloudSystem Matrix is an integrated hardware, software, and services solution that helps you realize the full value of cloud computing as quickly as possible. The core elements of a CloudSystem Matrix solution are:

• HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosures (one or more)

• HP Virtual Connect

• HP Matrix Operating Environment

• HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) for Matrix

• HP Implementation Service

2 Compared to traditional infrastructure, based on analysis with the BladeSystem and BladeSystem TCO calculators: http://www.hp.com/go/matrixtco

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HP CloudSystem Matrix is optimized for HP ProLiant and HP Integrity servers as well as HP storage and HP networking, but also supports 3rd party x86 servers, networking, and storage. Supported operating systems are Windows®, Linux and HP-UX. Supported hypervisors include VMware, Microsoft® Hyper-V, and Integrity VMs.

The Matrix Operating Environment includes an integrated service designer, self-service infrastructure portal, and auto-provisioning capabilities. It includes the tools to manage and optimize resource pools, multi-tenancy, and a recovery management solution for ProLiant. Recovery management for HP-UX is available with HP Serviceguard. Using included Cloud APIs, you can easily customize the operating environment to your specific requirements, enabling chargeback and billing integration, integration into approval processes, and other process automation tasks. CSA for Matrix integrates basic application provisioning, monitoring, and patch and change management. And because it is vital to get started down the right path, CloudSystem Matrix also includes a comprehensive Implementation Service. This service is performed by HP trained experts, including a project manager to manage the technical preplanning, installation, configuration, testing, demonstration, and orientation of your integrated Matrix package solutions.

There is also an upgrade path for future HP BladeSystem purchases as IT needs grow, all while protecting the existing HP BladeSystem investment. The HP CloudSystem Matrix Conversion Services provide a cost-effective way to start realizing the benefits of shared services and a private cloud today. CloudSystem Matrix is available as a small, medium, or large configuration, which can be expanded with additional hardware and software from HP or third parties.

Figure 2 provides a diagram of the HP CloudSystem Matrix solution with Virtual Connect FlexFabric.

Figure 2: Solution diagram of HP CloudSystem Matrix with Virtual Connect FlexFabric module*

* Optionally, Virtual Connect Flex-10 modules can be used for LAN connection and Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Modules for SAN connection.

** Cloud Service Automation for Matrix is an optional component of the CloudSystem Matrix solution.

How CloudSystem Matrix is used Perhaps the best way to understand the unique value of the solution is to examine how you can build a private and hybrid cloud, and deliver and operate infrastructure services, using HP CloudSystem Matrix and the capabilities of the Matrix Operating Environment and CSA for Matrix (illustrated conceptually in Figure 3).

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Figure 3: CloudSystem Matrix automates the entire lifecycle to build and manage a private and hybrid cloud

The Matrix Operating Environment enables provisioning and re-provisioning of the shared pools of servers, storage, power, and network connectivity as needed, based on pre-defined templates. Typically, each template represents the complete infrastructure needed to host a specific application service, such as Microsoft Exchange, Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), an enterprise resource planning solution, or even a custom application, and may include the application itself. An IT architect uses a graphical designer tool to build and publish these infrastructure service templates. Using a self-service infrastructure portal, IT users can view a catalog of published service templates and request an instance of a service to be automatically provisioned. Through its infrastructure orchestration and core multi-tenancy capabilities, Matrix provides standardization, resource sharing across client organizations, and efficient provisioning control for a private/hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Compared to a manual process that requires coordination among different teams across a data center or IT organization, CloudSystem Matrix enables administrators to provision an entire infrastructure service, including the application, in just minutes or hours instead of weeks or months. Administrators can also continuously monitor and optimize the cloud infrastructure—for example, by managing capacity, moving workloads or adjusting infrastructure service lease periods—as well as protect service continuity with disaster recovery and automated server failover. Advanced capabilities enable an IT administrator to provision services outside of the private cloud managed by Matrix by “bursting” into a public cloud to provision template-defined services as needed. The following sections describe in further detail how CloudSystem Matrix enables provisioning, optimizing, and protecting continuity of cloud infrastructure services. (For definitions of many of the terms used here, see the Glossary of terms.)

Designing and provisioning infrastructure services The most powerful attribute of HP CloudSystem Matrix is the speed and simplicity with which pools of infrastructure resources can be “carved up” and flexibly configured and reconfigured to match the infrastructure requirements of nearly any application. You can deploy a single CloudSystem Matrix environment in place of multiple different server configurations to satisfy varied application requirements for CPU, memory, network, and storage and quickly build your private cloud. Matrix resources are then available on demand as infrastructure services for IT users to request using a service catalog.

In a traditional IT environment, the deployment of a new application requires the involvement of many people and a high degree of coordination among them. An IT architect might draw up a design specifying the servers, virtual machines, storage, and networks needed to support the application. The design would specify the connections between those resources and adhere to established policies and standards. Based on this design, the different IT staff responsible for servers, storage, virtualization, networking, and facilities would assemble and/or activate the needed

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resources. This process could take multiple weeks, if not months, and involve repeated communication between the different IT groups.

Making use of role-based infrastructure orchestration software, Matrix enables:

• Administrators to create pools of resources and oversee and control their use.

• IT architects to design the infrastructure to support business applications and publish service templates to drive implementation.

• Users of IT services to select from a service catalog and request infrastructure services.

The CloudSystem Matrix software simplifies, streamlines, and coordinates these processes and automates the provisioning of the infrastructure resources to satisfy approved requests.

Creating and managing resource pools An administrator can use the management console to define pools of server, network, and storage resources to support infrastructure services (Figure 4). Through the console, the administrator can also define virtual machine images and software deployment jobs, register user accounts, and assign resource pools to users.

Figure 4: Creating server pools

Storage pool entries describe the storage requirements for the infrastructure services. The Matrix administrator (typically a server administrator) can create a storage pool entry to define the storage needs of a physical or virtual server (for example, a boot disk of a specific size, a shared data disk, and a private transaction log disk).

A storage administrator can create a storage catalog representing the available storage assets. These assets can include existing storage volumes that have been pre-provisioned by the storage administrator as well as specifications for volumes that can be created on demand. Storage templates encapsulate policies (specifying for example, RAID level, capacity constraints, use of thin provisioning, and on-demand provisioning if applicable) associated with the storage volumes. The storage administrator controls the visibility of the storage volumes and templates in the catalog and the operations that can be performed.

The storage catalog serves as a formal, automated communication mechanism in Matrix between Matrix administrators and storage administrators. It eliminates the need for manually communicating storage needs and then manually entering the storage information. Instead, the Matrix administrator can directly generate a storage request by creating the storage pool entry and then select an appropriate candidate from the storage catalog. If there are no

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matches in the catalog, the storage administrator can see the unfulfilled request and provision appropriate storage. The storage administrator can then fulfill the request with the newly provisioned storage, and the Matrix storage definition automatically updates to reflect that storage. Using the Matrix storage catalog as a communication device significantly improves the efficiency of the interactions between server and storage staff.

Matrix can also auto-generate storage pool entries based on the logical disk specifications in the service templates. In this case, Matrix automatically matches the best candidate from the storage catalog to the request. (More information on the software that enables these capabilities is contained in Storage technologies.)

Designing the infrastructure and creating service templates The architect uses a graphical designer (shown in Figure 5) to plan and design infrastructures to fit the needs of business applications. For example, a design can be a three-tier architecture, with the database tier running in physical mode and the application and web tiers configured to run in virtual mode, or it can be a simple virtual machine. By dragging and dropping and connecting icons representing the required resources, the architect creates a template, saved as an XML file, for an infrastructure service. The architect can also import and export template files. The architect specifies attributes for the logical resources, such as minimum memory required, IP address allocation, network/VLAN characteristics, requirements for physical or virtual servers, and the software required on the boot disk.

When considering the storage needed for a service, the Matrix architect has the option to browse storage templates created by the storage architect, then select and edit an appropriate storage template for the type of service. If no appropriate choice is available, or based on architect preference, the Matrix architect can specify the logical disk attributes manually (including information such as size, RAID level, and storage tier or other optional tags). The architect saves each service template to a catalog for access only by specified, approved users. The infrastructure orchestration software validates the design and presents information about any issues so that they can be resolved before the service template is published.

Figure 5: Creating a template using the graphical designer

The CloudSystem Matrix designer interface enables the architect to:

• Design infrastructure service templates for a range of application needs—from a simple virtual machine cluster for a web front end, to a configuration for a test and development organization, to complex, multi-tier designs for e-shopping, enterprise resource planning (ERP), or customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

• Take advantage of Matrix core multi-tenancy capabilities to create and designate separate infrastructure service templates for individual business groups.

• Incorporate established IT policies and standards with assurance that they will be followed in the provisioning process.

• Specify costs to support budget tracking and reporting.

• Attach custom workflows that automate key pre- and post-provisioning tasks.

• Use workflows and processes to enable smooth transitions between roles or teams (Figure 6). Example workflows:

– Open Request For Change (RFC) tickets for requests in ticketing/ change management systems

– Pass customer, cost, and lease duration into a chargeback system

– Apply patching and compliance policies in configuration management tools

– Maintain status in change management systems when new services are created or changed

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Figure 6: Adding workflows

The architect can design service templates from scratch, modify previously created templates, or leverage best practice templates. HP Cloud Maps, developed with key independent software vendors (ISVs), include standard templates and other resources to aid in designing and customizing service templates for applications such as Microsoft Exchange, Oracle RAC, and SAP NetWeaver, and others (visit www.hp.com/go/cloudmaps).

Included HP Cloud APIs enable the architect to integrate Matrix with business processes or other IT operations. For example, the architect can link Matrix provisioning to a company chargeback system. In designing a template, the architect can associate a cost with each of the elements of a service; the service template then displays the overall cost of the service. Using the interfaces provided, the architect (or administrator) can easily build the links to enable the chargeback system to capture usage and cost summaries from CloudSystem Matrix at the desired intervals. (See also Optimizing the infrastructure for capacity planning and showback/chargeback.) For more information on Cloud APIs, see the white paper, Customize your Cloud with HP Matrix Operating Environment at http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA3-6357ENW&cc=us&lc=en.

Enabling multi-tenancy CloudSystem Matrix provides multi-tenancy capabilities to help enterprises share IT resources securely among separate business groups. Matrix allows a Matrix administrator, referred to in this context as the “Service Provider” administrator, to support multiple clients or tenants by creating a virtualized instance of Matrix infrastructure orchestration software for each tenant group, here referred to as an “Organization.” Each Organization supports business requirements for separate infrastructures and services that include computing, storage, and network resources. Matrix infrastructure orchestration uses these separate infrastructures to isolate user information securely for each Organization. The Matrix Service Provider administrator can provide each Organization access to specific infrastructure service templates and to certain pools of servers, storage, and networks—including single or multiple VLANs (Figure 7). Administrators at the Organization level can manage and assign only the resources within their Organization, and Organization users can request infrastructure services based only on the catalog of service templates assigned to their Organization.

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Figure 7: Managing Matrix Organizations for a multi-tenant environment

Extending provisioning to application Through integration with optional HP CSA for Matrix software, CloudSystem Matrix offers automated application provisioning, monitoring, and compliance management. CSA for Matrix, the integration of HP Server Automation (SA) and HP SiteScope, enables the Matrix architect to select both the OS and application software needed for a service (Figure 8), create a single service template that comprehends both infrastructure and application, and thus include applications in the service catalog. Then, when a user requests the service, Matrix provisions the infrastructure including OS (virtual or physical or both) and application software as a single process.

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Figure 8: Selecting software using SA of CSA for Matrix as a provisioning engine

Requesting infrastructure and application services An approved user can initiate the creation of a new service from the published templates, which may include infrastructure services or infrastructure and application services. Through the Matrix self-service infrastructure portal, the user can:

• Select a service template from the catalog (example in Figure 9).

• Select one or more assigned resource pools.

• View associated costs for the service and specify a lease period.

Since provisioning infrastructure resources is generally the domain of IT, the Matrix portal is designed for IT staff as the typical users. However, line of business users can also use the portal to request infrastructure services. Users are able to browse only the service templates that they are authorized to use based on their functions. For example, members of a test and development team might see a variety of infrastructure services, while members of the finance department would see only services needed to support finance, and human resources (HR) personnel would see only services needed for HR functions. The self-service portal displays all of the user’s service requests, with their status, and provides email notification when a status changes.

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Figure 9: Template catalog in self-service portal

Approval and provisioning The Matrix software sends an email notification of pending service requests to the administrator. Through the management console, the administrator can review each request, and approve or deny the request. Approval of a request initiates the provisioning process.

To the infrastructure orchestration software, the components of each service template are logical objects. A key capability of the software is allocation—the process of finding the resources that match the logical objects. After a user submits a service request through the self-service portal, the Matrix software validates the needed infrastructure for the service request and performs an allocation. If the software can locate the resources that match the template, the allocation is successful; the software reserves the selected resources and provisioning proceeds.

CloudSystem Matrix performs automated provisioning for both virtual and physical servers by including physical server and virtual machine configurations, allocating appropriate SAN volumes, deploying and customizing the OS—and, with CSA for Matrix, installing the applications. CloudSystem Matrix supports a variety of mechanisms for deploying OS software. The software source can be virtual machine templates or HP server deployment software. When provisioning several virtual machines from the same virtual machine template, Matrix can utilize linked clones, which speeds up the provisioning process and reduces the amount of storage required.

When the storage template associated with an infrastructure service request calls for on-demand storage provisioning, Matrix automatically provisions the storage—providing “just in time” use of storage resources—at the point of service creation. Matrix uses the specifications and policies in the storage template: creating and presenting the volume and performing SAN zoning in Brocade SAN environments. When the associated storage template calls for pre-provisioned storage, Matrix automatically matches the service request to the appropriate pre-provisioned storage at the time the compute and network resources are provisioned.

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During provisioning, the Matrix infrastructure orchestration software invokes any associated workflows at their respective execution points. Because the service template automates and controls the provisioning, administrators can enforce established standards and avoid variances due to human error.

Managing provisioned services Matrix notifies both the administrator and the user who requested the service when provisioning is complete. The administrator can view status, progress, and details of all completed and in-progress requests and take action to resolve failed requests. The administrator can also modify service infrastructures as required, for example, migrating workloads between server blades to support proactive maintenance activities in the physical environment.

The provisioned service is available to the user for the duration of the specified lease period. A user can manage provisioned services through the infrastructure self-service portal—setting the servers to standby to reduce power consumption if a service is not needed temporarily, resuming the service and reactivating the servers when needed again. The user can also easily request a modified service lease period or request additional servers or storage. When a service is no longer needed, the user can delete it to make resources available for other purposes. Administrators can choose one of three options for a service at the end of its lease period: ignore the service lease end and notify the user, suspend the service, or delete the service.

Ongoing monitoring and compliance management using CSA for Matrix Upon provisioning of a new service, Matrix communicates the IP addresses of the associated physical and virtual servers to CSA for Matrix. CSA for Matrix, through the SiteScope component, then automatically deploys infrastructure monitors for CPU, memory, and disk utilization of those servers. Easily configurable application, database, and OS monitors are also available for deployment—without installing any agents—to help ensure the availability and performance of application as well as infrastructure components.

The SA component of CSA for Matrix not only enables automated application provisioning, it also enables ongoing compliance management of physical and virtual servers and applications. IT staff can establish a baseline of servers, local storage, and software and define compliance policies that govern patch levels and other configuration variables. Administrators can then run compliance checks and quickly correct configurations that do not comply with defined standards. CSA for Matrix greatly improves the speed and consistency of deploying patches and other software across hundreds of servers simultaneously using best practices and proven configurations.

Tapping additional resources through cloud bursting Out-of-the-box dual bursting capability offered with HP CloudSystem allows enterprises to access additional resources on an as-needed and pay-per-use basis. The need may be for more processing capacity to deal with a sudden spike in demand, for a localized datacenter presence to extend reach or improve performance in a distant geography, or for specialized capabilities to address compliance or other unusual service requirements. Dual bursting means that the additional resources accessed can include both locally hosted Utility Ready Computing resources offered by HP and public cloud resources offered by HP and other service providers. CloudSystem easily handles bursting to locally hosted resources, to public cloud services, or to any combination of the two.

The Matrix Operating Environment represents resources available from public clouds as server pools. Users see and work with both internal and public cloud server pools in the same way. Service templates can be designed with private or public cloud deployment in mind. Matrix employs a simple allocation policy when provisioning resources, selecting the first of the user-selected pools that can accommodate the service needs. If resources have been allocated to a public cloud server pool, Matrix sends provisioning calls to the public provider to deploy an OS image, to add data disks, and to put the servers onto the appropriate public cloud network. CloudSystem monitors progress and reports status of public cloud deployments just as it does for on-premise provisioning.

You can find more information on HP programs supporting cloud bursting in the Ready capacity when business demands section of this document.

Optimizing the infrastructure for capacity planning and showback/chargeback Integrated capacity planning capabilities keep infrastructure services provisioned in HP CloudSystem Matrix running optimally. CloudSystem Matrix enables administrators to quickly rebalance and repurpose physical and virtual servers to address changing business priorities. As energy costs continue to rise, power consumption is an increasingly important consideration when planning for server consolidations or growth. Energy-aware capacity planning tools and what-if scenarios help identify optimal workload placement based on projected resource utilization, power

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consumption, and other pertinent criteria. On an ongoing basis, built-in technologies throttle resources when not needed, keeping power consumption in line with actual server utilization. Dynamic power saver features can place power supplies in standby to keep power supply efficiencies above 90% for all normal operating conditions.

In addition to enabling effective IT planning, Matrix resource utilization tracking can support business purposes as well. As noted in Designing the infrastructure and creating service templates, CloudSystem Matrix includes features to facilitate integration with external chargeback and/or billing solutions (although CloudSystem Matrix itself does not include a chargeback and/or billing mechanism).

• APIs, CLIs and customizable workflows provide a means for external programs to capture and store chargeback/billing information

• Chargeback/billing related customer selectable fields are provided in the service catalog and user self-service portal. These can be used to set and track cost and billing codes of services

This detailed white paper, Collecting Usage Data for Showback, Chargeback, and Billing Purposes at http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-8068ENW.pdf, describes some tools and techniques that can be used to extract usage data in a Matrix environment for showback, chargeback, and/or billing purposes. It describes the services model in Matrix, the attributes that would be of interest in a cloud environment, and the APIs and CLIs to extract the related usage data. It also describes two different architectural approaches for gathering this data into an external database for report generation.

Ongoing capacity management Using the integrated real-time capacity planning and workload balancing capabilities of CloudSystem Matrix, administrators can easily accommodate the varying resource requirements of an application workload. For example, varying the resources based on time of the month can address dramatic increases in peak use during end-of-month processing or a sales promotion.

The capacity planning capability of CloudSystem Matrix measures the traditional resource metrics of CPU, memory, networking, and disk I/O. Matrix also measures power consumption, based on data collected every five minutes for the Matrix server blades. In the management console, administrators can view both current utilization and historical data by the type of resource. When resource utilization is low for a set of physical or virtual servers, administrators can evaluate consolidation alternatives using consolidation planning scenarios.

It is helpful to understand the CloudSystem Matrix approach to analyzing capacity requirements, which is more sophisticated than simply determining the maximum memory or CPU utilization. A common practice in capacity planning is to take simply the peak of the various loads and use that to determine the maximum required peak capacity; this method is the “sum of peaks”. Although it will provide a robust solution, this method does not take into account the timing of the peaks of the loads and may end up planning for much more capacity than is actually used. A more efficient planning solution, referred to as the “peak of sums” and easily accomplished with Matrix, takes into account the timing of the maximum utilization peaks in the individual loads. By adding together utilization at each measured interval and then taking the maximum of the resulting time sequence, the “peak of sums” method used by CloudSystem Matrix results in a more accurate measure of the required maximum resource, thus reducing costs.

Consolidation planning using what-if scenarios When planning for consolidation, an IT administrator can simulate the placement of server workloads prior to implementation and compare resources used under multiple scenarios, taking into account future trends. By analyzing these planning scenarios, the administrator can determine optimal workload placement.

With the Matrix scenario editor, the administrator can create a baseline scenario based on an existing solution and then generate the desired number of alternative scenarios for comparison. For each of the alternatives, the administrator can apply what-if actions, for example, automated system consolidation to virtual machines. The administrator can also specify configuration parameters and include growth projections for CPU, memory, disk I/O, and networking I/O, as well as utilization limits for each of these resources. The capacity planner compares the alternatives and provides a recommended solution, including a 5-star headroom rating and projected utilization. The administrator can then run a comparison report to determine possible outcomes. For example, administrators can compare relative improvement in power consumption from various alternative scenarios, as illustrated in Figure 10. Details of the consolidation planning scenarios give the administrator additional relevant data on which to base a decision regarding the best consolidation solution. The administrator can then move the workloads to the selected host and free up the server blade for other applications or power it down to save energy.

Figure 10: Consolidation planning scenario comparison report

Additionally, administrators now have the capability to easily spot the peaks of individual servers and monitor the average utilization across all servers through a peak summary report. The administrator can then view a consolidation candidate report and determine the best candidates for consolidation based on real, historical data. Finally, a cost allocation report presents utilization in percentage format, ready for further cost allocation reporting if desired.

Advanced power management: dynamic power capping The dynamic power capping feature of Matrix safely limits peak power consumption without impacting system performance and without risk of over-subscribing data center branch circuits. This capability is enabled for every ProLiant server blade and blade enclosure. Administrators can set power caps for individual server blades, for groups of blades or for an entire enclosure. Embedded management and power microprocessors on each blade work together both to measure and control power usage. When enforcing the user-defined power cap, the power microprocessor first will lower the CPU P-state. If this action does not achieve the required reduction in power, it will continue to reduce CPU clock speed to prevent peak power consumption from exceeding the cap. (HP does not recommend setting a cap that would throttle performance at a single server level, blade group or enclosure level.)

When applied at the enclosure level, dynamic power capping spreads the administrator-defined cap across multiple servers, dynamically adjusting the power caps for individual server blades, based on workload intensity. The feature reduces power caps for server blades running lighter workloads and increases power caps for server blades running more intense workloads. Because workload intensity will peak and subside at different times in most environments, the ability to adjust power caps dynamically lets IT administrators set the enclosure-level dynamic power cap below the sum of peak power consumption for each blade without affecting blade performance.

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Protecting service continuity with automated cost-effective failover and disaster recovery CloudSystem Matrix protects continuity of services by providing, enabling, or enhancing a range of availability and recovery solutions. For ProLiant and Integrity platforms, these solutions range from server-aware and application-aware availability to disaster recovery solutions for distances from campus to continental and supporting both physical and virtual server environments.

Server failover and high availability With BladeSystem at its core, CloudSystem Matrix has redundant components, so the failure of a single component such as a power supply or fan does not affect operations. In addition, you can optionally configure the Central Management Server (CMS) for Matrix into a high availability clustered environment, whether a single or federated CMS model. (For more information see the white paper, Backing up and restoring HP Insight Software Central Management Server, at www.hp.com/go/matrixoe/docs). Even if the CMS is unavailable for some reason, the CloudSystem Matrix environment (and workloads) will continue to operate in its current configuration.

A simple but powerful feature of CloudSystem Matrix is server failover: if a server fails, the application can restart on a spare server and thus be running again in about the time it takes to power on another server blade, boot the OS (which resides on shared storage), and start the application service. Failover can take place within an enclosure, within a data center, or between data centers. Failover requires no special software to be run on the servers. It can draw from a pool of spare servers, so the total number of spare servers can be less than the number of protected operational servers.

Disaster recovery CloudSystem Matrix recovery management provides an easy to use disaster recovery solution for ProLiant servers that protect workloads running on either physical blades or virtual servers using VMware ESX VM or Microsoft Hyper-V VM software. The solution is licensed for every ProLiant server blade in CloudSystem Matrix.

The two-site recovery solution enables push-button disaster recovery, automating the transition of production workloads from their preferred site to a remote recovery site in the event of a site-wide disaster or planned outage. Subsequent failback is similarly supported. Matrix recovery management can be implemented across metro, continental, or intercontinental distances.

Matrix recovery management integrates with replicated storage environments to ensure proper transition of data to the recovery location and restoration of access to storage from the recovered servers. Out-of-the-box integration is enabled for HP EVA and HP XP disk arrays using Continuous Access technology, and for HP 3PAR storage using synchronous replication. Additionally, administrators can integrate their own storage failover scripts into Matrix recovery management using the User Defined Storage Adapter interface, enabling fully automated, one-touch disaster recovery of other SAN storage solutions.

Matrix recovery management enables flexible and cost effective protection against site-wide disasters with support for physical-to-physical (p2p) and virtual-to-virtual (v2v) server recovery, as well as cross-technology physical-to-virtual (p2v) recovery between physical servers and ESX VMs. The physical-to-virtual recovery scenario can deliver extra cost savings by enabling consolidation of multiple physical workloads to a single virtual machine host with multiple guests.

HP CloudSystem Matrix also supports dynamic recovery models, which enables recovery to either a physical or a VMware virtual resource, without locking in a recovery target in advance. In this scenario, the administrator can set up a workload to fail over from a physical server to either a physical server or a VMware virtual server, depending on the failover preference specified and resource availability. If the preferred (physical or virtual) server type is not available at the time of recovery, the workload can recover to an available alternative (virtual or physical) server. The automated recovery of a given workload to either a virtual or a physical environment can enhance the cost-effectiveness of a disaster recovery implementation by enabling more flexible use of the target recovery site.

For additional efficiency and flexibility in recovery management, Matrix also supports both uni directional and bi-directional disaster recovery. Uni-directional recovery configurations are designed to protect services running in a single production environment. In the event of a site-wide disaster at the production facility, all disaster recovery-protected workloads can be failed over to a dedicated recovery site, located remotely, where production operations can then resume. Once the preferred production site has been brought back online, workloads can be failed back from the recovery site to the preferred production site. The relative simplicity of this architecture can be an appealing benefit. In situations where production servers need to operate in different locations, a bi-directional disaster recovery

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configuration can be used. In such configurations, each site functions as both a preferred site for some number of servers, as well as a secondary (recovery) site for additional servers that normally run at the paired site.

For those environments where business-critical and mission-critical availability and recovery are required, CloudSystem Matrix integrates with “application-aware” solutions to provide a faster and more granular level of solution recovery. For Integrity servers, the HP Serviceguard family of products (available through an upgrade) provides the level of mission-critical availability that customers require in these environments. Integrated with key CloudSystem Matrix technologies, Serviceguard defines “packages” that define how to start, stop, and monitor a database or any customer application along with all of the required resources. The software monitors for faults in hardware (servers, storage, and networking), in the OS, and in the application package environment. In the event of a fault, it automatically initiates a failover sequence to a new node (physical or virtual) and restores services in seconds, often completely transparently to application users. Serviceguard manages failovers within a data center and between one, two, or three data centers by using HP Metrocluster and Continental cluster technologies. Application-specific extensions and tools ease deployment and manageability through the standard configuration of popular applications in Serviceguard packages. For example, Serviceguard Extensions for SAP and for Oracle provide tight integration with SAP and Oracle RAC, delivering superior availability for these mission-critical environments. (For more information see the white paper, Wielding HP’s Serviceguard Solutions Availability Portfolio to Maintain Mission-Critical Service-Level Objectives, at http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-3913ENW.pdf, and listen to the podcast, HP-IT Uses Serviceguard Solutions, at www.hp.com/go/ServiceguardSolutions.)

Enabling technology HP Converged Infrastructure technologies at the core of CloudSystem Matrix—BladeSystem with Virtual Connect, the Matrix Operating Environment, and CSA for Matrix—enable the powerful capabilities just described that enable you to auto-provision, continuously optimize, and protect the continuity of an IaaS environment. This section provides more information on these and other, complementary technologies available as extensions to CloudSystem.

BladeSystem c-Class In designing the HP BladeSystem architecture, HP worked very closely with our customers to understand their requirements and challenges in managing their data centers. The resulting BladeSystem c-Class design incorporates modular and flexible compute, embedded management, network, and storage resources to provide a common, modular infrastructure that is cloud-ready and can accommodate continually changing business needs. As such, BladeSystem c-Class provides the ideal foundation for CloudSystem.

Key components of this architecture include the following:

• Embedded management: HP iLO Management Engine is a comprehensive set of embedded management features supporting the complete lifecycle of the server, from initial deployment, through ongoing management, to service alerting and remote support.

– Provisioning: Intelligent Provisioning takes all the strengths of products like HP SmartStart, Service Pack for ProLiant, and Smart Update Manager, enhances them with the latest ease of use features and places them where you can use them immediately: on the system board.

– Monitoring: HP now offers agentless management. Base hardware health monitoring and alerting functions now run directly on the iLO hardware, independent of the operating system and the x86 processor.

– Diagnostics: While HP server failures are rare, some failures can be extremely difficult to reproduce, can escape routine diagnostics, and consequently may take too long to fix. With HP Active Health System, diagnostics are always running in the background, recording constant feeds of telemetry data, every configuration change, and every alert. This facilitates faster root-cause analysis and problem resolution, all achieved without impact to performance.

– Support: With iLO Management Engine administrators also get faster access to HP Insight Remote Support, HP’s 24x7 “phone home” remote support software.

• Shared cooling and power: HP consolidated power and cooling resources conserve power and provide efficient cooling, while efficiently sharing and managing the resources within the enclosure. HP “Thermal Logic” capabilities throughout the BladeSystem c-Class servers enable IT administrators to optimize their power and thermal environments. These capabilities include:

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– HP Active Cool fans—High-performance, high-efficiency, and hot-pluggable fans provide redundant cooling across each enclosure

– HP Sea of Sensors—Embedded sensors within every blade and enclosure provide constant information to optimize cooling and save energy

– HP 94% efficiency power supplies—Platinum level power supplies offer the highest level of power efficiency available in the IT industry

– HP Power Regulator—Embedded technology constantly monitors processor utilization, automatically throttles the processor input power and frequency to match the application load, and returns the processors to full capacity whenever necessary

– HP Dynamic Power Saver—Power mode enables more efficient use of power in the server blade enclosure by placing power supplies in standby or active modes based on server utilization levels

• Virtualized connectivity: HP Virtual Connect technology provides a way to virtualize the server I/O connections to Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks. (See Virtual Connect.)

HP Insight Control power management software leverages embedded BladeSystem capabilities to provide:

• Power Regulator—Dynamic or static control of CPU performance and power states

• Dynamic Power Capping—Reclaiming of trapped power and cooling capacity, as described in Advanced power management: dynamic power capping

• Power Metering—Real-time measurements of actual power consumption to enable finding and fixing inefficiencies

• Calibrated Maximum Power—A power planning tool based on accurate measurement of peak potential power for each device instead of estimates

• Data Center Thermal Mapping—Generation of a thermal map of the room based on aggregating data from thermal sensors in the servers

• Data Center Power Control—Protection for critical loads by reducing power to non-critical servers during cooling system failures

For additional background on HP BladeSystem technologies, see the BladeSystem technical resources at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/c-class-tech-function.html. For details on servers and OS supported by Insight Control power management capabilities, see the HP Insight Software Support Matrix at www.hp.com/go/insightcontrol/docs. For more information on HP Insight Control software, visit www.hp.com/go/insightcontrol.

Virtual Connect Virtual Connect is an essential foundation element in CloudSystem. Inherent in CloudSystem functionality and the powerful automation capabilities of its operations is the ability to move workloads from one server to another without human intervention or coordination. Virtual Connect technology enables this capability.

Most LAN and SAN networks rely on the unique addresses of NICs and host bus adapters (HBAs) within each server. Replacement of a server necessitates changes to the MAC addresses and WWNs associated with network adapters and HBAs on the server and adjustments in the LANs and SANs attached to those servers. As a result, even routine server changes are often subject to delays for coordination among IT operations groups.

Virtual Connect brings all of the necessary capabilities into the domain of the system administrator. Virtual Connect is a set of interconnect modules and embedded software that implements server-edge virtualization. It adds an abstraction layer between the servers and the external networks. It assigns and holds all MAC addresses and WWNs at the server bay, instead of on the servers themselves. At the addition of a new server, its NICs inherit their assigned server bay MAC addresses and the HBAs inherit their WWNs. Similarly, upon removal of a server, its replacement inherits the same addresses so that the LANs and SANs do not see server changes and do not require updating for them. Using the local Virtual Connect Manager, or the data-center-wide HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager software, the system administrator can preprovision and preassign to the enclosure all of the LANs and SANs that the server pool might ever need (from those predefined by the network and storage administrators)—even before any servers are installed. SAN and LAN administrators retain sufficient control over their domains but are freed from interruptions for routine server maintenance.

Through an extension of the same mechanism, Virtual Connect establishes server connection profiles for each server, and an administrator can move these profiles from one server bay to another in a single enclosure or across the data center with a single mouse click, within seconds. When these capabilities combine with boot from SAN and the Virtual Connect management tools, administrators can move application workloads from one server to another very quickly, securely, and automatically and with their storage and network configurations intact. The change is transparent to application users, because the OS image and data reside on shared storage accessible from a pool of servers. Figure 11 compares HP Virtual Connect to the traditional network model.

Figure 11: Comparison of HP Virtual Connect to traditional model

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HP FlexFabric, built on Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology and HP Networking innovation, enables fully virtualized network connections and capacity from the edge to the core. This enables IT to deliver “network-as-a service,” wire connections once, and move applications freely across or between servers or even across or between data centers. HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules enable Matrix to connect to any Fibre Channel, Ethernet, and iSCSI network with a single device. By eliminating the need for multiple interconnects, Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules reduce network equipment needs up to 95% and the power needed to drive them by 40%.3 Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules allocate the bandwidth of a single 10 Gb network port into up to three independent FlexNIC and one FlexHBA or four independent FlexNIC server connections. Administrators can dynamically adjust the bandwidth for each FlexNIC and FlexHBA connection in increments of 100 Mb between 100 Mb and 10 Gb. The result is network capacity applied where applications need it rather than oversubscribed everywhere.

HP Virtual Connect architecture uses industry standard Ethernet and Fibre Channel for simple integration with familiar brands, such as Brocade, Cisco, and HP Networking. The Virtual Connect architecture is built into every HP BladeSystem enclosure, taking advantage of the high performance interconnect channels, integrated I/O connections, embedded communication and control channels, and modular interconnect bays delivered as standard with HP BladeSystem. (More information on HP Virtual Connect technology is available at www.hp.com/go/virtualconnect.)

HP is committed to serving the diverse needs of modern data centers without imposing a specific operating model, proprietary architecture, or network fabric. HP is continuing to build out the Converged Infrastructure vision with the addition of storage network protocols to its Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology. This combines the capabilities of Virtual Connect and Flex-10 with Data Center Bridging (DCB), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and accelerated iSCSI technologies to enable BladeSystem customers to use a single pair of Virtual Connect interconnect modules to access both storage and server networks.

Ultimately, the HP goal is to allow IT to plug new systems into a Converged Infrastructure that will automatically discover capacity, add it to resource pools, and put it to work to support the needs of business applications. For more information on HP FlexFabric, see www.hp.com/go/flexfabric.

3 Based on HP analysis of networking equipment (adapters and enclosure interconnects)

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Matrix Operating Environment The HP Matrix Operating Environment (Matrix OE) is cloud management software for infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and is at the core of the HP CloudSystem Matrix. It provides an integrated toolkit enabling the capabilities described in How CloudSystem Matrix is used:

• Design and provision infrastructure services in minutes via a self-service portal

• Optimize infrastructure for capacity planning and showback/chargeback

• Protect service continuity with automated cost-effective failover

Matrix OE provides full capabilities for both HP ProLiant and HP Integrity servers as well as provisioning for third-party x86 virtual machine environments. Matrix OE gives IT staff a full view and easy access to all functions to manage your Matrix infrastructure. Figure 12 shows the home page.

Figure 12: Home page for the Matrix Operating Environment

Matrix OE includes and is tightly integrated with HP Insight Control and enables administrators to manage HP BladeSystem c-Class blades, standalone physical servers, virtual machine hosts and guests on ProLiant and Integrity servers as well as physical hardware partitions on Integrity servers, all from a single management console. In particular, HP Insight Control delivers capabilities that enable the proactive management of ProLiant server health—whether physical or virtual, the quick deployment of ProLiant servers, optimized power consumption, and control of ProLiant servers from anywhere. Matrix OE enables management of both physical blade servers and virtual machines as logical servers so they can be moved and migrated easily within a CloudSystem Matrix environment. It delivers a full range of deployment, management, capacity planning, migration, and movement capabilities.

Matrix OE runs on a Central Management Server (CMS). A federated CMS model permits scaling Matrix infrastructure orchestration capabilities to manage up to four times the number of resources possible when using a single CMS. In this model, a primary CMS, with Matrix infrastructure orchestration software installed, can direct automated provisioning of resources across multiple secondary CMSs. The Matrix federated CMS architecture supports multi-site operations—with secondary CMSs at geographically distributed locations. For more information on federated CMS environments, please refer to the current documentation in the HP Insight Software library at: www.hp.com/go/matrixoe/docs.

Multi-tenancy features in Matrix OE Matrix OE infrastructure orchestration includes multi-tenancy features for heterogeneous managed environments, as described in Enabling multi-tenancy. These environments support VM hosts running on blade or rack-mounted servers, physical blade servers, private cloud resources, and clusters. One such feature is support for VLAN network segmentation, which enhances isolation between Organizations in a multi-tenant environment. The software uses

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VLAN tags in network packets for data separation. This enables a single wire to carry network packets from separate network broadcast domains managed by switching technology in the data center infrastructure and in virtualization hypervisors such as ESX and Hyper-V. Matrix configures and manages VLAN segmentation with Operations Orchestration workflows, and uses the Network Automation utility for network configuration and management. The Service Provider administrator is able to use these services to only expose certain segments of the network to each Organization. This allows for the separation of VLANs between Organizations and secure network access within each Organization.

Matrix also supports vSphere resource pooling, where a “capacity pool” specifies the capacity of the resource instead of VM hosts. This allows you to specify a pool of CPU and memory belonging to a host or a cluster, providing better resource sharing. Use of capacity pools offers additional security for multi-tenancy by shielding the actual VM location from Organizations, allowing you to share a cluster or host between different Organizations.

For more information on CloudSystem Matrix multi-tenancy capabilities see the white paper, Multi-Tenancy in HP Matrix Operating Environment Infrastructure Orchestration at: http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA3-9202ENW&cc=us&lc=en.

Cloud Service Automation for Matrix HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) for Matrix incorporates a starter edition of HP Server Automation software and HP SiteScope software. Server Automation automates lifecycle management for physical and virtual servers and applications—from establishing a baseline to provisioning, patching, configuration management, and compliance assurance. SiteScope provides agentless monitoring of infrastructure platforms and key performance indicators for applications such as CPU, disk, and memory usage. As described in How CloudSystem Matrix is used, CSA for Matrix combines with Matrix OE to enable seamless deployment, monitoring, and management of applications along with infrastructure services in HP CloudSystem Matrix.

CSA for Matrix is available as an optional, integrated solution for CloudSystem Matrix for ProLiant. Comparable functionality is available for CloudSystem Matrix with HP-UX with the addition of HP Server Automation and SiteScope software. For more information, see the HP Cloud Service Automation for Matrix data sheet, http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA3-1176ENUS&cc=us&lc=en.

Storage technologies Key to the flexibility of the Matrix solution is having the OS image and data reside on shared storage. Logical servers can then migrate from one physical server to another and retain their personality, and continue to provide application support after reboot. For physical servers, Matrix supports Fibre Channel storage. Matrix can connect to your existing SAN or you can order Matrix with an HP 3PAR Storage System or an HP EVA or XP disk array.

For virtual servers, Matrix supports VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Integrity Virtual Machines whose boot and data storage are files within the hypervisor file system. For VMware and Hyper-V, that file system could be on local disk, FC SAN, or iSCSI. For iSCSI SAN storage solutions, HP recommends the HP P4300/P4500/P4800 G2 SAN solutions. In VMware environments, Matrix also supports hypervisor file systems on NAS and virtual machines using Raw Device Mapping (RDM) to access a FC LUN directly. RDM is a key enabler to allow a logical server to move from a physical environment to a virtual one yet still access the same boot and data volumes. For Integrity Virtual Machine environments, Matrix supports the use of SLVM (Shared Logical Volume Manager) volumes on physical FC disks.

For the most current information on supported and recommended storage solutions, see the HP CloudSystem Matrix Compatibility Chart at www.hp.com/go/matrixcompatibility.

HP 3PAR Utility Storage is designed to provide the agility and efficiency specifically required by virtual and cloud data centers. The integration of HP 3PAR F-Class or T-Class Storage Systems with CloudSystem Matrix provides you with a simplified way to provision and scale storage for private cloud environments. The use of thin provisioning technologies reduces overall capacity requirements and keeps utilization rates high over time, enabling you to save 50% or more on the cost of a storage technology refresh.4 For general information on the full benefits of HP 3PAR storage, see the HP 3PAR Utility Storage Benefits Summary white paper at http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-4024ENW.pdf.

4 Based on deploying HP 3PAR Storage Systems and HP 3PAR Thin Provisioning and Thin Conversion Software. See “Thin Technologies” at

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/solutions/3par/technologies.html.

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The HP Storage Provisioning Manager (SPM), which is included as part of the Matrix Operating Environment, provides the means for storage architects to create storage templates, used for all storage provisioning requests, and for storage administrators to publish a storage catalog of storage volumes that can be consumed as needed.

Using SPM the storage architect can define storage templates containing parameters and policies appropriate for the intended environment. For instance, template parameters may include volume size and RAID level along with optional tags. Tags, or naming conventions, can indicate quality-of-service levels—“gold,” “silver,” or “bronze” for example—based on performance and/or availability characteristics, identify storage volumes according to intended usage—such as “production” or “database,” or signify other user-defined criteria. Policies in the templates can control how storage resources are provisioned such as:

• Fulfill with on-demand provisioned volumes (with appropriate restrictions such as a maximum capacity), pre-provisioned volumes, or both

• Use a particular type of array, a particular array, or a particular storage pool on an array

• Use (or do not use) thin provisioning

Once the storage architect specifies these parameters and policies within the template definitions, they are applied repeatedly as the storage templates are used for fulfillment of service requests. By populating the storage catalog with pre-provisioned storage volumes (and associated templates) as well as storage templates for volumes to be automatically provisioned on demand, the storage administrator is freed from the need to respond each time a request for storage is made. The storage administrator retains control of the storage catalog, storage-related processes, and permissions.

When CloudSystem Matrix is paired with the HP 3PAR Storage System or the HP EVA solution, the storage catalog in SPM can automatically discover existing volumes and enable the storage administrator to import them into the storage catalog and assign authorizations, thus avoiding manual entry. The storage administrator can also load volumes created in other arrays (HP or third-party) into the storage catalog, automatically using workflows or manually. In addition, the storage catalog can represent volumes from multiple arrays in the same catalog.

For customers wanting to integrate with their own storage provisioning processes, whether automated or manual, there is command line access to the storage definitions (requests) and the ability to import results back into the Matrix storage definitions. For more information, see the HP Storage Provisioning Manager User Guide at www.hp.com/go/matrixoe/docs.

Security The CloudSystem Matrix solution provides a consistent, integrated, and configurable security management framework, utilizing security mechanisms in individual components and security services across the integrated solution.

• The Matrix security framework is designed to:

• Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of management communications

• Log all actions that manipulate server instances

• Provide separation of duties and role-based access control for provisioning and management

Matrix security mechanisms include identification and authentication, access control, authorization and auditing, and use of secure communication protocols. To support its security framework, Matrix makes use of services and facilities such as HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) core authentication services, Microsoft Active Directory (if available), the HP SIM audit facility, the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) transport protocol, the SSH (Secure Shell) network protocol, and HTTPS (HTTP Secure) for web-based communications. For a detailed discussion of security in Matrix, see the white paper on HP Converged Infrastructure solution security at http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01755823/c01755823.pdf.

Important extensions available for CloudSystem for security (described in HP CloudSystem Extensions) include HP TippingPoint technology, HP ArcSight software, and HP Fortify software.

Integrating HP CloudSystem Matrix into customer environments Because it is an open, standards-based solution, HP CloudSystem Matrix works seamlessly with your existing operating systems, hypervisors, networks, SANs, and applications. In addition, the Matrix Operating Environment

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integrates with HP and third-party management software and manages third-party servers to ensure effective management of your entire IT environment.

Support for most common operating systems and hypervisors Matrix supports these native server operating systems: Microsoft Windows Server, HP-UX, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

Matrix supports VMware ESX and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V hypervisors, as well as Integrity Virtual Machines.

For the latest and most complete information on CloudSystem Matrix compatibility, see www.hp.com/go/matrixcompatibility.

Compatible with existing networks Matrix connects seamlessly to existing Ethernet networks. Because Virtual Connect is a layer-2 bridge, not a switch, it integrates smoothly with any existing network. HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 and FlexFabric interoperate with any industry standard Ethernet switch while providing 4-to-1 network hardware consolidation of the server NICs and interconnect modules.

Compatible with existing SANs The HP Virtual Connect 8 Gb Fibre Channel and FlexFabric interconnects are fully compatible with all standard Fibre Channel switches. The shared storage for logical server boot and data disks can be any pre-presented FC LUN, although there are additional capabilities with HP storage solutions, such as validation of the storage definitions and the ability to import discovered volumes into the storage catalog.

HP Cloud Maps for accelerated cloud service design HP has collaborated with key industry-vertical and infrastructure software partners to deliver Cloud Maps for HP CloudSystem and help you fast track the design of cloud services tailored to your environment. Cloud Map pre-packaged workflows and guides can save days or weeks of solution design time. Cloud Maps contain tested engineering components, such as best practice templates for hardware and software configurations, workflows, sizers, and deployment scripts, along with supporting white papers to guide customization. For access to the most up-to-date HP Cloud Map resources available, visit www.hp.com/go/cloudmaps.

HP CloudSystem Developers Resource Center for IT and business operations integration With growing interest from partners and customers in HP CloudSystem, HP has seen the need to provide a single point of access to a greater knowledge base for CloudSystem. This online resource center presents the CloudSystem information in an organized way to help accelerate cloud solutions. Here you will find best practices and links to the most important HP CloudSystem web pages. Included are tips on taking advantage of the CloudSystem embedded workflow automation engine and HP Cloud APIs to enable integration with IT and business processes and initiation of lifecycle operations on infrastructure services. Examples include linking into chargeback systems and customizing the self-service portal to reflect company branding and standards. The resource center also contains highlighted toolkits and samples content showing the packages addressing specific integration, automation, and customization use cases. You can find the HP CloudSystem Developers Resource Center at www.hp.com/go/csdevelopers.

Management of the extended infrastructure From the CloudSystem Matrix CMS, you can manage not only the Matrix infrastructure, but also select ProLiant, Integrity, and third-party servers that the Matrix Operating Environment manages. Supported capabilities include automated provisioning of virtual machines, capacity planning, and recovery management. For details on server models supported by the Matrix Operating Environment, see the latest HP Insight Software Support Matrix at www.hp.com/go/insightcontrol/docs (refer to the Matrix OE supported servers); for information on licensing requirements, see the Matrix OE for ProLiant Quick Specs, http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13050_div/13050_div.html.

Integrated virtualization management The IaaS cloud management—Matrix OE—builds on years of experience in virtualization management with HP Integrity systems, combined with HP expertise in integrated management with key virtualization partners, VMware and Microsoft. It gives IT administrators a unified method to manage both VMware ESX/ESXi and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtualization technologies.

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Matrix infrastructure orchestration supports use of VMware vSphere native templates to deploy VMware VMs as well as use of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) native templates to deploy Hyper-V VMs.

Matrix API integration works with tools such as VMware vCenter, vSphere, and vMotion, and with Microsoft System Center. The combined HP and partner capabilities provide robust lifecycle management of virtual environments, including automated deployment, migration, capacity and power management, health monitoring, and disaster recovery. For example, when Insight Management receives a ProLiant pre-failure hardware alert, it works with VMware vCenter to initiate the movement of all the virtual machines on that server before the failure occurs.

Matrix OE takes full advantage of the vSphere 5 Auto Deploy capability to provide automated ESX host and cluster provisioning. This support allows you to use a cloud infrastructure service template to create and add a single VM host to an existing cluster or create a new cluster with a number of VM hosts. The provisioning process starts from “bare metal” hardware and is fully automated through embedded Operations Orchestration workflows to include:

• Adding network and storage configuration

• Installing software

• Registering with vCenter server

• Making the VM host available for infrastructure orchestration management and VM deployment

Expanding beyond IaaS: CloudSystem portfolio Whether you’re an Enterprise or Service Provider, when you are ready to move beyond an on-premise IaaS cloud environment, HP has a solution for you on your cloud journey: HP CloudSystem Enterprise and CloudSystem Service Provider.

To expand your on-premise cloud infrastructure to a hybrid private/public cloud model and the full range of service delivery models (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS), HP Technology Services can assist you in making the transition to CloudSystem Enterprise. Like all CloudSystem offerings, CloudSystem Enterprise is built on the modular HP BladeSystem architecture and the Matrix Operating Environment, with the addition of full-featured Cloud Service Automation software. Cloud Service Automation manages the entire cloud lifecycle, including advanced application and infrastructure lifecycle management.

For more information on CloudSystem Enterprise, see the Moving Beyond IaaS with HP CloudSystem Enterprise whitepaper at: http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA3-6846ENW&cc=us&lc=en.

HP CloudSystem extensions CloudSystem extensions build on the core technologies and capabilities to provide an optimized platform for your cloud infrastructure. Available extensions for CloudSystem include:

• HP TippingPoint technology—Offers continuous protection of both physical and virtual assets from a single, integrated offering, allowing you to deploy security policies that automatically adapt to changes in virtual environments, such as introducing a new virtual machine.

• HP ArcSight software—Can help organizations safeguard physical and virtual digital assets, comply with corporate and regulatory policy, and control the internal and external risks associated with cybertheft, cyberfraud, cyberwarfare, and cyberespionage.

• HP Fortify software—A suite of integrated applications for identifying, prioritizing, and fixing security vulnerabilities in software, dramatically reduces the risk of catastrophic attacks on applications deployed as cloud applications on the Internet and helps ensure compliance with government and regulatory mandates.

• HP software—HP Application Lifecycle Management software accelerates application development with a test and development private cloud environment on HP CloudSystem to improve service quality, end-user performance, and availability management.

• HP 3PAR—Customers familiar with utility storage can build out an HP CloudSystem using HP 3PAR technology for the most advanced cloud infrastructure available. Consider that four out of five service providers in the Gartner Magic Quadrant Leaders are HP 3PAR customers.

• HP FlexNetwork—Cloud computing reshapes the way applications are deployed and consumed and influences data center network designs. HP CloudSystem together with our HP FlexNetwork solutions can deliver a unified, open, cloud-optimized data center network design reducing workload mobility transit time by 80% and doubling VM application performance.

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For more information on CloudSystem extensions, see the Understanding the HP CloudSystem Reference Architecture white paper at http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/pdfs/4AA3-4548ENW.pdf.

Purchase and delivery Customers can implement CloudSystem Matrix by ordering a Starter Kit containing all the necessary hardware and software or by using Matrix Conversion Services. The Matrix Conversion Services program allows customers to convert their existing BladeSystem environment to Matrix without purchasing a separate Starter Kit.

The Matrix Starter Kit includes all the infrastructure required for a working Matrix environment:

• A fully-redundant c7000 enclosure

• Virtual Connect modules

• Software to enable all of the advanced Matrix functionality for an enclosure fully loaded with ProLiant or Integrity server blades

• Hardware and software support

• Implementation services

Customers populate the enclosure with the desired number and type of server blades and add storage, CMS, rack, and other options appropriate for different Starter Kit configurations (Table 1).

Table 1. HP CloudSystem Matrix Starter Kits

Matrix with Virtual Connect Flex-10 & FC

Matrix with Virtual Connect FlexFabric

Matrix with HP-UX & Virtual Connect Flex-10 & FC

Matrix with HP-UX & Virtual Connect FlexFabric

Virtual Connect modules

Virtual Connect Flex-10 & Virtual Connect 8 Gb

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Virtual Connect Flex-10 & Virtual Connect 8 Gb

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Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager for the enclosure Software licenses

Matrix Operating Environment for up to 16 ProLiant server blades

CSA for Matrix (optional)

HP-UX VSE-OE* for up to 4 2-socket Integrity server blades

Server Automation and SiteScope (optional)

Support 3-year, 24x7 4-hour response hardware support

3-year, 24x7 software support and updates**

Blades supported

ProLiant or Integrity Integrity or ProLiant

*HP UX Virtual Server Operating Environment includes the Matrix Operating Environment with Integrity Virtual Machines and the right to use the HP UX Operating System as a guest

**Performing upgrade to Matrix environment requires purchase of a separate service

Customers wanting to minimize their equipment can order one of the Matrix Starter Kits with Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules. Doing so enables you to combine Ethernet and storage networks onto one converged fabric within the BladeSystem enclosure and eliminate the need for FC HBAs and interconnect modules. For traditional server edge implementations having separate networks for Ethernet and storage, the Matrix Starter Kits with Virtual Connect Flex 10 and 8 Gb FC modules are available. In all configurations, Matrix connects directly to any industry standard Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks.

The CloudSystem Matrix Starter Kits with HP-UX are optimized for use with Integrity server blades. Each kit includes eight per-socket HP-UX 11i v3 Virtual Server Environment-Operating Environment (VSE-OE) licenses. VSE-OE includes the HP UX Operating System as well as the Matrix Operating Environment for Integrity featuring the Integrity Virtual Machines. Similarly, the CloudSystem Matrix Starter Kits for ProLiant are optimized for use with ProLiant server blades. These Starter Kits include the Matrix Operating Environment licenses for 16 ProLiant server blades. HP supports mixed ProLiant and Integrity server blade environments; mixed orders require the addition of the appropriate management software licenses not included with the Starter Kit.

A Windows-based CMS hosts the Matrix management software—the Matrix Operating Environment, consisting of Matrix infrastructure orchestration, Matrix capacity planning, and Matrix recovery management for ProLiant, as well

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as Insight Control (with HP SIM), Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager, and Storage Provisioning Manager. HP offers the ProLiant DL360 G8 as the recommended option for a CMS. Using this rack-mount server rather than one of the server blades allows you to use all available and licensed enclosure blade bays for managing target blades and workloads. Though the ProLiant DL360 G8 is the recommended default CMS option, you can substitute any other server of your choice provided the server matches the Insight Management CMS requirements (see the HP Insight Software Support Matrix at www.hp.com/go/matrixoe/docs).

Customers purchasing Matrix Starter and Expansion Kits have the option of including the HP CSA for Matrix software for important IaaS capabilities such as basic application deployment and monitoring and automated patching and compliance. Customers purchasing Matrix Starter and Expansion Kits with HP UX can add HP Server Automation and SiteScope for these IaaS capabilities. CloudSystem Matrix with HP UX allows seamless upgrades of the HP UX VSE OE to the HP UX Data Center Operating Environment (DC OE). Upgrading to DC OE adds HP Serviceguard for mission-critical high availability and disaster recovery.

Fibre Channel storage options from HP include the HP 3PAR F Class and T Class Storage Systems and HP EVA and XP FC arrays . For iSCSI SAN storage, HP recommends the HP P4000 G2 SAN solutions. Matrix also supports third-party FC SANs; for details on the SANs supported, see www.hp.com/go/matrixcompatibility.

You can scale the capacity of the Matrix infrastructure by ordering one or more Expansion Kits, either with the initial Matrix purchase or as needs grow. Table 2 shows recommended small, medium, and large configurations for CloudSystem Matrix using ProLiant and Integrity server blades.

Table 2. Recommended configurations for CloudSystem Matrix for ProLiant and CloudSystem Matrix with HP-UX

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

ProLiant configurations

Servers Matrix Starter Kit

8 ProLiant Server Blades

DL360 CMS

Matrix Starter Kit

16 ProLiant Server Blades

DL360 CMS

Matrix Starter Kit

3 Expansion Kits

64 ProLiant Server Blades

DL360 CMS

Storage EVA P6300 5.4 TB* 3PAR F200 9.5 TB* 3PAR F400 48 TB*

Software Matrix Operating Environment

CSA for Matrix*

3rd Party Extensions: VMware or MS Hyper-V *

Services CloudSystem Matrix Implementation Service

CloudSystem Matrix Enablement Service**

Cloud Consulting & Implementation Services**

Integrity configurations

Servers Matrix Starter Kit with HP-UX & FlexFabric

4 BL860c i2

DL360 CMS

Matrix Starter Kit with HP-UX & FlexFabric (fully populated)

4 BL870c i2

DL360 CMS

Matrix Starter Kit with HP-UX & FlexFabric (fully populated)

Expansion Kit with HP-UX (fully populated)

4 BL890c i2

DL360 CMS

Storage EVA Storage 5.4 TB* 3PAR F400 55 TB* 3PAR F400 111 TB*

Software 8 VSE-OE or DC-OE licenses with Matrix OE & HPVM

Server Automation Starter Edition*

SiteScope*

16 VSE-OE or DC-OE licenses with Matrix OE & HPVM

Server Automation Starter Edition*

SiteScope*

32 VSE-OE or DC-OE licenses with Matrix OE & HPVM

Server Automation Starter Edition*

SiteScope*

Services CloudSystem Matrix Implementation Service

CloudSystem Matrix Enablement Service**

Cloud Consulting & Implementation Services**

*Optional components, may require additional hardware

**Optional services

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Every Matrix Starter Kit comes with an on-site Implementation Service that will ensure the integration of the Starter Kit, as well as up to four Expansion Kits purchased with the Starter Kit, into your environment (power, network cabling, for example). Matrix Expansion Kits purchased after the initial CloudSystem Matrix Starter Kit order include the CloudSystem Matrix Expansion Kit Integration Implementation Service. Each Implementation Service will integrate up to four Matrix Expansion Kits into an existing Matrix customer environment.

For details on ordering a Matrix solution, see the Quick Specs for Matrix at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13297_div/13297_div.html and the Quick Specs for Matrix with HP UX at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13755_div/13755_div.html.

HP services to make the most of CloudSystem HP CloudSystem implementation services facilitate fast and reliable deployment and startup of your CloudSystem solution. All HP CloudSystem Matrix Starter and Expansion Kit orders include factory services to:

• Configure, rack, and cable the infrastructure.

• Verify and update firmware for the entire solution being purchased (the CloudSystem Matrix kits and the supported blades and options purchased with those kits) to the latest current CloudSystem Matrix firmware release set.

• Coordinate hand-off to Technology Services (TS) or an authorized partner.

An assigned TS or partner project manager manages pre-engagement planning, and assigns a team of engineers to perform the implementation service at your site. Implementation services include unpacking and inspection; integrating the hardware to the customer environment, including power and network cabling; installation and configuration of the CMS and other required software; and CloudSystem Matrix solution orientation.

In addition to the all-in-one Implementation Service integrated with CloudSystem Matrix, HP Technology Services offers an extensive portfolio of cloud and virtualization consultant services as well as warranty upgrades and support services for all stages of the lifecycle, including infrastructure design, deploy, test, integrate, migrate, upgrade, and ongoing support.

HP Technology Services can tailor an offering to help you achieve your specific goals. Additional services available include:

• Enablement Service: HP CloudSystem Matrix Enablement Service accelerates the deployment of service-oriented environments. It is designed to bring together key technologies and service components to help you get into the cloud faster. The Enablement Service features service planning, service deployment, installation verification tests (IVT), and customer orientation sessions.

• Proactive Service Solutions: HP Mission Critical Services provide integrated proactive and reactive solutions to help you operate more efficiently and sustain the availability of your environment. These solutions include services such as Critical Advantage to manage your critical IT infrastructure. HP experts mitigate people, process, and technology-associated risks while increasing operational efficiency.

• Education Services: Innovative HP training solutions help keep your staff up to date on CloudSystem, virtualization solutions, IT management, and topics related to Microsoft, Linux, VMware, and Citrix. (For more information, visit http://h10076.www1.hp.com/education/.)

• Converged Infrastructure Services: These services help you implement a shared services model, whether you plan to make the make the move incrementally or undertake a complete data center transformation. Offerings include visioning workshops, needs assessments, data center design, operations assistance, and implementation assistance. The HP Converged Infrastructure Maturity Model (CI MM) helps you assess the current and desired future state of your data center. CI MM uses a set of metrics, based on research and industry best practices, to help align business and IT objectives and output an action-oriented roadmap for meeting those objectives.

Cloud Discovery Workshop The HP Cloud Discovery Workshop is a one-day, strategic workshop that helps facilitate faster decision making and cross-team collaboration—so that you can shape your own cloud path. Through an interactive session and informative visual displays, HP experts share their experience, explain the possibilities, risks, and business implications of the cloud, and make recommendations for using the cloud. Business and IT stakeholders have an opportunity to discuss cloud concepts, service portfolio concepts, governance, security, business case issues, and HP solutions. For details, see the service brief at http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-2331ENW.pdf.

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Matrix TCO Calculator The Matrix TCO Calculator is an online tool designed to generate TCO estimates over a three-year period. The tool enables comparisons of each step in the move toward a CloudSystem Matrix environment including: rack servers to Matrix; server blades to Matrix; server blades to blades with HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric technology; and server blades with Virtual Connect FlexFabric technology to CloudSystem Matrix. The tool allows you to customize inputs to compare the relative costs of specific infrastructure configurations. Access the tool at http://www.hp.com/go/matrixtco.

HP CloudStart Solution Built on HP CloudSystem Matrix, the HP CloudStart Solution (currently available for ProLiant servers only) is a pre-integrated, turnkey solution—consisting of hardware, software, and services—that simplifies and speeds up the launch of your private cloud. With CloudStart you can be delivering private cloud services within thirty days after hardware and software installation. As part of HP CloudStart, HP consultants will help you plan and define up to four cloud services. They will help you implement security, backup, chargeback, and automation policies so your services can be available quickly. HP CloudStart is also extendible and can be customized to the unique needs of your organization. For more information visit the CloudStart web page at: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/business-services/it-services.html?compURI=1077482.

HP CloudSystem Matrix Conversion Services If you have already invested in HP BladeSystem or HP VirtualSystem (highly optimized, turnkey server virtualization) solutions, you can protect and build on this investment with HP CloudSystem Matrix Conversion Services. These services, performed by HP Services experts, let you move from the HP BladeSystem investment you already have, to a complete HP CloudSystem Matrix environment. The resulting converted HP enclosures and server blades will enjoy the full functionality and full support of the HP CloudSystem Matrix environment. For details, see the data sheet at http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-9863ENN.pdf.

For more information on HP Technology Services, visit http://www8.hp.com/us/en/services/it-services.html.

Ready capacity when business demands with bursting and pay-as-you-use resources To help you ensure that resources are available at all times to meet even unanticipated business demands; HP CloudSystem provides dual bursting capability. As described in Tapping additional resources through cloud bursting, this capability allows enterprises to dynamically scale and provision IT resources, either locally through an onsite pay-as-you-use utility computing model or externally through a public cloud provider.

For local bursting, CloudSystem combines with HP Utility Ready Computing service to enable rapid deployment of pay-per-use infrastructure resources that reside on your site. You pay for the resources only when they are in use through a monthly billing based on metered usage at a fixed price per blade per hour. You can ensure that capacity is configured and available instantly when business needs demand it, yet reduce the risk of investment in underutilized equipment. The Matrix Operating Environment simplifies implementation by automatically powering resources on and off as needed, and by incorporating the utility ready resources automatically into the Matrix private cloud environment.

With bursting offered by cloud service providers, you can access external resources from within the CloudSystem environment. Services may be offered as either virtual private cloud or public cloud services, and can be provided by cloud service providers, including HP and HP CloudAgile bursting partners. CloudSystem enables you to use external resources side-by-side with your private cloud resources, leveraging the same service design, provisioning, and management tools for both. Of critical importance to IT, bursting to public clouds from HP CloudSystem brings public clouds into the sphere of IT governance and control, and makes them accessible and manageable from the same environment used to access and manage private clouds.

Whether these additional resources are located on site or off the premises, they are always poised ready to go into action on demand, eliminating the need to go out and purchase them before you can deploy. For more information on bursting and Utility Ready Computing, see the white paper, Bursting with HP CloudSystem at: http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/pdfs/4AA3-6847ENW.pdf. Learn more about HP CloudAgile bursting partners at: www.hp.com/go/cloudagile.

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Summary and conclusion Moving to a model of delivering infrastructure as a service and establishing a private cloud can help IT regain control while responding to ever-increasing business demands. HP Converged Infrastructure helps you align server, storage, and network resources into pools of virtualized and integrated assets that can be shared by many applications, optimized, and managed as a service. This accelerates delivery of IT services and simplifies ongoing infrastructure management. HP CloudSystem Matrix, the entry offering of the HP CloudSystem portfolio built on HP Converged Infrastructure technologies, provides the ideal platform for your private cloud and infrastructure as a service. The HP CloudSystem portfolio provides IT with a unified way to build, provision, and manage services across private clouds, public cloud providers, and traditional IT solutions. Out-of-the-box bursting capabilities in HP CloudSystem give you instant, simplified access to pay-as-you-go resources so you never run out of capacity.

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Appendix A: Implementing an IaaS As IT departments witness their business units attempting to fulfill their IT requirements by going straight to the public cloud, they are seeking ways to regain control. They want to put in place private cloud solutions that match the perceived speed, flexibility, and affordability of the public cloud yet provide better security and integration into the enterprise. To achieve this objective, the basic requirements that the private cloud must satisfy include the following:

• Self-service delivery on demand—A business unit should be able to view a selection of standardized services and initiate deployment as needed.

• Single governance & security model—Mechanisms must be in place to minimize business risk.

• Automated metering & chargeback—A business unit must be able to see the costs for the services.

• Instant scalability with mission critical availability—Services must be able to scale as business needs grow.

• Optimization for business applications—A private cloud could excel in this area over public cloud offerings.

• Openness and extensibility—These attributes are necessary to achieve integration with the enterprise.

Implementing a private cloud to deliver IaaS can be a complex and daunting task. HP has built CloudSystem Matrix to simplify and accelerate just such a task. As discussed in this paper, the capabilities of Matrix—with its tool for designing standardized services, self-service infrastructure portal, automated provisioning, and shared resource pools that can be dynamically scaled—enable you to move quickly to an IaaS model in which users can provision services in minutes. Integration with HP CSA for Matrix allows you to design application services that fit your business. Matrix integrated management tools help you optimize resources and deliver on the requirements for security and service availability. Embedded workflows and included Cloud APIs enable you to connect your private cloud to your chargeback system and incorporate other established business and IT processes.

HP Cloud Maps provide a wealth of resources to get you started in implementing your private cloud and IaaS. For customers wanting additional assistance, HP has introduced Cloud Consulting Services, including the HP CloudStart solution designed to achieve a private cloud solution in less than 30 days after hardware installation and start-up. (See http://h20219.www2.hp.com/services/us/en/consolidated/cloud-overview.html.)

Appendix B: HP CloudSystem Matrix use cases This section contains a selection of use cases that show how CloudSystem Matrix can help address common IT challenges. Your organization may benefit from the solutions described in one or more of these use cases, which are detailed in the reference provided.

Move your Test & Development environment to a Cloud Create a dynamic test and development infrastructure. Rapidly activate and deactivate test and development environments, to quickly repurpose infrastructure without reinstallation. Resources may be pooled and shared, improving utilization and reducing cost. Cloud bursting further allows you to provision services beyond the private cloud by bursting into a public cloud for a specific template-defined service. The resources in the public cloud are paid for only when used, and released when the usage is complete, offering optimized cost as well as flexible use.

Expand the Cloud to include your production infrastructure HP Matrix infrastructure orchestration capabilities are used to accelerate delivery of shared infrastructure services, while reducing complexity, cutting costs, and improving reliability. Use of capacity planning can help to contain server sprawl, improve utilization, and achieve space and power efficiencies. Finally, you can freely move workloads, during planned or unplanned downtime, to ensure and increase availability.

Deliver and monitor both infrastructure and applications Provide advanced provisioning and management of applications and infrastructure with industry best practice templates, a highly flexible architecture with advanced workload optimization and metering, service assurance, application lifecycle management, security, and compliance.

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For additional information on these use case, including guides, and demos, please visit: www.hp.com/go/matrixusecases.

Appendix C: HP Cloud Maps—an example This example shows how a typical enterprise can make use of HP Cloud Maps with CloudSystem Matrix to create a catalog of templates for provisioning infrastructure services. This example, based on industry best practices, describes the design of a complex multitier service running Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 for 5000 users with 1 GB mailboxes. The design conforms to the gold tier service classification of the HP tiered solution program for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. For the gold tier, each of the Exchange roles (Mailbox, Client Access, and Hub Transport) resides on a dedicated physical server or virtual machine. For redundancy, a second dedicated server or virtual machine (located on a separate server) is configured for each role. The two mailbox servers are configured in a database availability group (DAG) with two copies of the databases providing mailbox server resiliency if an active mailbox server fails. The resources for this service include:

• Virtual machines for Exchange Client Access servers

• Virtual machines for Exchange Hub Transport servers

• Physical servers for Exchange Mailbox servers

• Production networks

• Management network

• Replication networks

• Storage resources

The HP Cloud Map for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 (see http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/us/en/partners/cloudmaps-microsoft.html) includes a template, sizer, workflow, and scripts, as well as white papers describing how to use and customize the template and workflow. The import function of the Matrix designer interface enables the architect to accelerate the design process by starting with the provided Cloud Map template for Exchange (Figure A-1) and making modifications needed to complete the design and customize it for the customer environment.

Figure A-1: HP Cloud Map reference architecture infrastructure template for Microsoft Exchange service

The architect can also use the HP Sizer for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 to derive customized requirements and generate a template based on these requirements. In this example, the architect generates a recommended configuration using the following starting requirements:

• Number of Mailboxes: 5000

• Mailbox Size: 1000 MB

• Workload Definition: 20 sent and 80 received

• Tiered Solution Level: Gold

• Total number of database copies: 2

• Additional mailbox servers to add fault resilience: 1

• Number of database copies in secondary site: 0

• Server Platform: Blade

• Processor Vendor: Sizer recommendation

• Server: Sizer recommendation

• Storage Architecture: SAN—Fibre Channel

• Array Type: Sizer recommendation

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Using these entries, the sizer for produces recommended configurations for each of the Exchange server profiles and associated storage, including server processor and memory requirements, size, type, and RAID level for internal and external storage. The sizer provides the option to generate a template (as an XML file) based on these configurations for import into the Matrix designer interface. The architect can then complete the imported template in the Matrix designer by setting the OS deployment jobs, adding required network resources, and completing any optional customization steps. The template is then ready to be saved and published. By following similar steps, the architect can create a catalog of service templates from which users can provision the infrastructure services needed.

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Glossary of terms

Allocation—The process of assigning server, storage, and network resources to a service request based on the criteria defined in the service template, the resource pools assigned to the user, and the current reservations or allocations of resources completed as part of infrastructure orchestration by the Matrix Operating Environment.

Approval—Action by an administrator for a service request submitted by a self-service user, required before the provisioning of the service can commence.

API—Application programming interface.

Bi-directional failover— A Matrix recovery management feature that allows recovery group sets to be activated or deactivated at either the local site or the remote site. At any point in time there can be activated and deactivated recovery group sets at both sites. In the event of a disaster, or to accommodate site maintenance, all of the recovery group sets in the Matrix recovery management configuration can be deactivated at one site, and activated at the other site. See also recovery management.

Cloud bursting—The process of augmenting a cloud environment with resources from a third-party vendor to provide additional capacity when needed. The customer (who is doing the bursting) is charged by the cloud service provider on a pay-per-use basis. Cloud bursting is often used for non-sensitive workloads that have uneven or unpredictable demand.

Chargeback— Cost allocation to business units via an internal cost transfer. The chargeback process allows IT to allocate costs to internal users or cost locations for their services, while the billing process allows creation of invoices to external parties. See also showback

Central management server (CMS)—A system in the management domain that hosts and executes the HP SIM software. All central operations within HP SIM are initiated from this system.

Cloud APIs—A set of web service interfaces provided by HP to permit customers, partners, and integrators to integrate Matrix infrastructure orchestration capabilities into their business and IT operations processes or to combine with their own offerings to provide new capabilities. HP has submitted these interfaces to the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Cloud Management Working Group in support of an industry open standard cloud services API. See also API.

Cloud computing—A delivery model for technology-enabled services that provides on-demand access to an elastic pool of shared computing assets. These assets include applications, servers, storage, and networks. The entire pool can be rapidly provisioned and scaled up or down as needed on a pay-per-use basis. In other words, these assets can be consumed “as a service.” Cloud computing deployment models include private cloud; public cloud—in which provider-owned assets are shared, and service is provided on a pay-per-use basis to multiple entities; and hybrid cloud—which combines public cloud, private cloud, and traditional IT. See also private cloud, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS.

Cloud Map—An HP navigation system for use in creating service catalogs. HP Cloud Maps contain engineering components such as best practice reference architecture templates, workflows, sizers, and deployment scripts, as well as supporting white papers to assist with customization.

Cloud Service Automation for Matrix—Integrated software, based on HP Server Automation starter edition and HP SiteScope, that enables seamless infrastructure and application deployment and provides application monitoring and lifecycle management for physical and virtual servers and applications.

Continuous Access—Array-based applications that provide synchronous or asynchronous data replication over distance between HP Enterprise Virtual Arrays and between XP Disk Arrays.

FlexFabric—HP virtualized, high-performance, low-latency network architecture for Converged Infrastructure. HP FlexFabric consolidates Ethernet and storage network protocols into a single fabric.

IaaS---Infrastructure as a service. Cloud model in which the computing infrastructure, including physical and virtualized servers, storage, and networking, is delivered as a service. See also cloud computing.

Infrastructure orchestration—The set of processes, enabled by the Matrix Operating Environment, for designing, provisioning, and managing infrastructure services. The software includes an embedded workflow automation engine powered by HP Operations Orchestration software.

The Matrix Operating Environment defines and enables three distinct orchestration roles:

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– Architect—Uses the infrastructure orchestration graphical design tool to develop, test, and publish service templates that capture the requirements to provision infrastructure services. The architect specifies attributes for the logical resources, may author and attach workflows, and may make use of HP Cloud APIs to integrate business processes. See also Cloud APIs, service template, workflow.

– Administrator—Uses the infrastructure orchestration console to create pools of servers and storage, manage the available networks and software inventory, approve user requests, and modify user service infrastructures. The administrator may also perform manual tasks within a semi-automated operation. See also resource pools.

– User—Uses the infrastructure orchestration self-service portal to request infrastructure services by selecting a service template, selecting one or more assigned resource pools to use, and specifying a lease period for the start and end of the overall service. During the lease period the user can update the service. See also lease period, service request.

Infrastructure service—A running configuration of infrastructure resources that supports a business application such as a multitier web application. Infrastructure resources include server blades, virtual machines, SAN disks, networks, and IP addresses. It is also referred to as a service or service instance. CloudSystem Matrix provides lifecycle management of such a service, including start and end controls, ability to extend service period and accompanying resource allocation, or adding server or storage resources per template definition.

Lease period—The duration, or lifetime, of an infrastructure service. The user sets or changes the lease period.

Logical server—A management abstraction defined by a server profile that describes the system resources needed for a given OS, application, and workload to operate. For example, a profile includes resource specifications such as processors and memory and unique identifiers such as Media Access Control (MAC) addresses and World-Wide Names (WWNs). A logical server profile can be created for a physical server or a virtual machine and moved across physical or virtual machines. Logical servers allow administrators to manage physical and virtual machines using the same management construct. (For more information on logical servers, see Introducing logical servers: Making data center infrastructures more adaptive, http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01402013/c01402013.pdf.)

Matrix Operating Environment—A shared services management platform that automates infrastructure lifecycle management. It enables optimization of server, storage and network resources in compliance with core business, security, and regulatory policies.

PaaS—Platform as a service. Cloud model in which an entire computing platform, including infrastructure and a solution stack and development platform, is delivered as a service. See also cloud computing.

Planned failover— A failover of all recovery group sets from one site to another site, initiated in anticipation of an imminent disaster or for planned downtime. See also recovery management.

Preferred site— The site where you prefer a recovery group to be activated unless circumstances require activation of the recovery group at the secondary site.

Private cloud—A cloud computing deployment model in which cloud assets are operated solely for a single entity. The assets may be located on or off premises and may be owned and managed by that entity or by a third party.

Provisioning—The process within Matrix of creating an infrastructure service from a template. The Matrix software searches its inventory before allocating the infrastructure resources to all logical resource definitions in the template.

Recovery group set— A set of recovery groups that share the same preferred and secondary sites. All recovery groups that share the same preferred and secondary site must be activated or deactivated as a set. See also recovery management.

Recovery management—Function of CloudSystem Matrix software for ProLiant servers that provides automated disaster recovery of physical and virtual logical server environments, enabling the transfer, or fail over, of workloads from a preferred site to a secondary site. Recovery management integrates the replication capabilities of HP storage environments. Recovery management identifies recovery groups, a pairing of one or more logical servers, and a single Storage Replication Group. During a site failover, recovery groups are failed over from the preferred site to the secondary site in a pre-established order. See also preferred site, secondary site, recovery group set. Recovery management for HP UX-based Integrity servers is available through an upgrade to HP Serviceguard disaster recovery solutions.

Resource pools—A group of physical and virtual infrastructure resources. An administrator controls resource utilization by allowing users access to one or more resource pools.

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Secondary site— The site where you prefer a recovery group to be on “standby” (in a deactivated state), unless circumstances require activation of the recovery group at the secondary site. See also recovery management.

Server group—Defined in a service template, a set of one or more servers with the same role that can be treated as a tier, enabling the construction of a multitier infrastructure service.

Service request—Online submission by a user through the Matrix self-service portal to initiate provisioning and ongoing changes to the infrastructure. Users can monitor and cancel requests. Requests can be approved, rejected, canceled, or continued by administrators.

Service template—A design blueprint that specifies the requirements for an infrastructure service in terms of server groups, networks, and storage, and contains customization points that use workflows during the execution of a request. A template may also include the application for the service. See also infrastructure service.

Showback—Report of services provided, with or without associated costs, but without cost transfer. See also chargeback.

SaaS—Software as a service. The cloud model that makes the infrastructure, the platform, and the software applications running on that platform available as a service.

Unplanned failover— A failover of all recovery group sets from one site to another site, initiated in response to an unforeseen event that caused an outage at the site where the recovery group sets where activated. See also recovery management.

Workflow—A set of actions that execute customer-specific IT tasks. Workflows can define integration with IT processes, including approvals, manual OS deployment, manual storage provisioning, and notifications. Making use of the workflow automation engine embedded in CloudSystem Matrix (powered by HP Operations Orchestration software), architects can associate workflows with service templates, to be executed before or after provisioning (or both), based on the associated templates.

For more information For more information on HP CloudSystem Matrix see:

www.hp.com/go/cloudsystem

www.hp.com/go/matrix

www.hp.com/go/insightsoftware

www.hp.com/go/convergedinfrastructure

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© Copyright 2010-2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

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4AA0-5550ENW, Created February 2010; Updated March 2012, Rev. 3