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 Mapsan 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 dont 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 infrastructurefor example, by managing capacity, moving workloads or adjusting infrastructure service lease periodsas 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 needsfrom 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 networksincluding 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 users 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 allocationthe 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 OSand, 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 storageproviding just in time use of storage resourcesat 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 portalsetting 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 deploymentwithout installing any agentsto 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 HPs 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 MatrixBladeSystem with Virtual Connect, the Matrix Operating Environment, and CSA for Matrixenable 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, HPs 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 fansHigh-performance, high-efficiency, and hot-pluggable fans provide redundant cooling across each enclosure

HP Sea of SensorsEmbedded sensors within every blade and enclosure provide constant information to optimize cooling and save energy

HP 94% efficiency power suppliesPlatinum level power supplies offer the highest level of power efficiency available in the IT industry

HP Power RegulatorEmbedded 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 SaverPower 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 RegulatorDynamic or static control of CPU performance and power states Dynamic Power CappingReclaiming of trapped power and cooling capacity, as described in Advanced power

management: dynamic power capping

Power MeteringReal-time measurements of actual power consumption to enable finding and fixing inefficiencies Calibrated Maximum PowerA power planning tool based on accurate measurement of peak potential power for

each device instead of estimates

Data Center Thermal MappingGeneration of a thermal map of the room based on aggregating data from thermal sensors in the servers

Data Center Power ControlProtection 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 healthwhether 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 operationswith 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 applicationsfrom 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 levelsgold, silver, or bronze for examplebased on performance and/or availability characteristics, identify storage volumes according to intended usagesuch 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 managementMatrix OEbuilds 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 youre 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 technologyOffers 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 softwareCan 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 softwareA 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 softwareHP 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 3PARCustomers 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 FlexNetworkCloud 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

FC

Virtual Connect FlexFabric

Virtual Connect Flex-10 & Virtual Connect 8 Gb

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Virtual Connect FlexFabric

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 softwarethe 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 Implement