Topics In Advanced Cloud Management

Nand MulchandaniCEO & Co-Founder

ScaleXtreme

nand@scalextreme.com"

About ScaleXtreme"•  Cloud-based Systems Management & Server

Automation"•  Founded 2010"

•  Manage servers inside the enterprise & public cloud – all through a single interface"

•  Patch management, budgets and cost control, monitoring, server templates, configuration management for Windows and Linux servers"

"•  Try this at home – free monitoring + cloud management

trial at http://www.scalextreme.com/register!""

May 14, 2013" 2"

The Cloud: Easy To Start, Hard To Get Right …"

May 14, 2013" 3"

Tradeoffs"

•  Lots of enterprise applications (older client-server, web) were written with vertical scaling in mind – just easier to architect and write"

•  Good practice is to re-architect and cleanup applications when moving them to the cloud"

May 14, 2013" 4"

Considerations In Server Architecture"

•  Broadly speaking, you have to deal with 2 types of servers"•  Stateful – turn them on once, keep them running over long

periods of time – backup, cleanup, update, patch"•  Stateless – no state, typically no data, no updates, no

patching"•  Architected for horizontal scaling"•  Consider what platform services to use"•  Architect for failure (includes “spot” instances)"•  How to build and maintain your VM’s and

applications"

May 14, 2013" 5"

Evolution?"

May 14, 2013" 6"

Physical   Virtual   Cloud  

Vertical Scaling"

May 14, 2013" 7"

Ver2cal  Scaling  

Horizontal Scaling"

May 14, 2013" 8"

Horizontal Scaling With Spot Instances"

May 14, 2013" 9"

Stateful/Structured Servers"

May 14, 2013" 10"

Machine  Templates   System  +  Applica2on  Monitoring   Autoscale  Provision  New  Server  

Configura2on  (Chef/Puppet)  

Manual,  2med,  and  autoscaling  mainly  work  with  *structured*  servers  

Orchestra2on  

“Unstructured”/Stateful Servers"

May 14, 2013" 11"

Machine  Images  

System  +  Applica2on  Monitoring  

Patch/  Maintainence/

Management/Job  Automa2on  Provision  New  Server  

Pre-­‐Exis2ng  Server  

Configura2on  (Chef/Puppet)  

Workflow,  Job  Scheduling  

Motivation for Cloud Federation"•  Fundamental promise of the cloud"

•  The lowest cost of compute with a particular SLA and security"

•  Cost"•  Dynamically distribute “stateless” workloads across

multiple providers based on cost"•  Disaster Recovery"

•  Have “hot” standby ready in case primary datacenters go down"

•  Bursting & Elastic Demand"•  For certain workloads be ready to handle overflow capacity

outside of your core capacity"

May 14, 2013" 12"

SLA/Security/Cost Drive Cloud Decisions"

May 14, 2013" 13"

éSLA"éSecurity"é$$$"

êSLA"êSecurity"ê$$$"

Private  Cloud   Hosted-­‐Managed  Cloud   Public  Cloud  

“It’s not in the center anymore, it’s all over the place!”"

May 14, 2013" 14"

Physical   Virtual   Public  Cloud  

The Problem: Isolated Silos With Different Technology Stacks"

May 14, 2013" 15"

+   +  

Problems  •  Mul2ple  management  consoles  •  No  cross-­‐plaQorm  server  deployment  capabili2es  •  Different  API’s  (EC2,  CloudStack,  OpenStack,  vCloud)  •  No  cross-­‐cloud  automa2on  capabili2es  

Physical   Virtual   Public  Cloud  

The Most Important Issue To Think About In Designing VM’s"

•  Choose the right “abstraction” for your infrastructure"•  Machine image level"•  Operating system level"•  Programming language level"•  Application level"

•  Just like anything else, the “abstraction” will define your portability"

May 14, 2013" 16"

Cloud Lock-In: Play By the House Rules"

May 14, 2013" 17"

Just A Service Or A New Platform?"

May 14, 2013" 18"

When Disaster Strikes!"

May 14, 2013" 19"

Are  you  good/awake  enough  to  pull  this  off  at  2am  in  the  morning?  

Move  from  old  Cloud  to  new  Cloud  …  

What Customers Are Looking For"

May 14, 2013" 20"

Core,  common  capabili2es  across  mul2ple  clouds  •  Visibility  •  Control  •  Automa2on  

Physical   Virtual   Public  Cloud  

What Makes It Hard?"•  3 different areas – compute, storage, networking"

•  Compute – relatively easy"•  Network – little harder but still manageable (switches, DNS, LB’s,

caching)"•  Storage – super hard (almost completely proprietary, and very

app specific)"

•  Compute - no cross-platform VM standards"•  OVF is a “container” format, but what’s inside is not standardized

…"•  Different operating system kernel and device driver

support on different virtualization/cloud providers"•  So the same image might not run at all, even after conversion"

May 14, 2013" 21"

Server & Machine Formats"•  Xen"

•  Xen VM format"

•  VMware"•  OVF/VMDK – also includes “Delta Disk Compression” –

this can cause some issues when re-creating systems on a new systems without the “root” image"

•  vApp – glues together multiple servers"

•  Amazon EC2"•  AMI’s (basic server)"•  Cloud Formation - glues together multiple servers"

"May 14, 2013" 22"

Pros/Cons of Full-Stack Machine Images As Your Abstraction"

•  Pros: Benefits of using images"•  Everything is in one place"•  “Instant on”"

•  Cons: When there’s a change"•  Power up image"•  Update OS, application or configuration (patching,

etc.)"•  Freeze image again"•  Upload image all over again (multiple GB’s, lots of

time, cost)"

May 14, 2013" 23"

Creating & Managing Machine Images"

•  Example products – Citrix Project Kensho, VMware Studio, SuSe Studio"

•  Other considerations"•  Single VM vs. Multiple VM’s – EC2 CloudFormation,

VMware vApp"

May 14, 2013" 24"

A Solution: Dynamic Server Assembly™"

•  Model once, run anywhere"•  Template contains instructions on what

applications and configuration to deploy at runtime"

•  Can be re-deployed on any cloud provider on-demand"

•  Machine is dynamically created at runtime – only decisions are"•  OS (from virtualization or provider catalog)"•  Parameters for apps/configuration"

•  Additional template options"•  Can be pre-bound to a specific provider or

parameters (defaults)"•  Can also be deployed on a pre-existing server

(unlike other products)"

May 14, 2013" 25"

Opera2ng  System  

App1   App2   App3  

Server  Template  

Physical   Virtual   Public  Cloud  

Find Single OS Layer Across Multiple Providers"

May 14, 2013" 26"

Virtualiza2on  PlaQorm  

Opera2ng  System  

App1   App2   App3  

Kernel  +  Device  Drivers  

Virtualiza2on  PlaQorm  

Opera2ng  System  

App1   App2   App3  

Kernel  +  Device  Drivers  

Same  

Different  

Dynamic Assembly Not Limited To Single Servers"

•  Dynamic Assembly is helpful for multi-tier applications as well, consisting of multiple servers"•  Needed to deal with dependencies between multiple

servers and the connections between them"•  Dynamic input-output chaining"

•  Examples"•  Amazon CloudFormation"•  VMware vApp (although does not clearly define

application level input-output chaining)"

May 14, 2013" 27"

Deployment – Multiple Machines"

•  Specify Machine Templates and how they are linked together"

•  Need to specify order"

•  Apply configuration during or after machines are created"

May 14, 2013" 28"

DB  Server  1  

App  Server  1  

App  Server  2  

Web  Server  1  

Web  Server  2  

Web  Server  3  

Some Drawbacks & Unaddressed Issues"

•  Finding a common OS version across providers"•  Not hard for common OS’s, but tricky if you are using a

special/custom OS"•  But that would have been an issue anyway J"

•  Have to use a dynamic assembly product or script it yourself"

•  Things that are hard/impossible to handle"•  Storage differences"•  Networking configuration differences"•  Firewall, Load balancer configurations"

"May 14, 2013" 29"

Demo!"

May 14, 2013" 30"

End-To-End Server Lifecycle Management"

May 14, 2013" 31"

Workflow  Designer   Cloud  Provisioning   Monitoring  Patch  Management  

Cloud  Cost  &  Budget  Controls  

Manual  scaling  Timed  scaling  Autoscaling  

Conclusion"

•  Very important to work through architecture issues up-front – hard to change or fix later"•  The right architecture enables portability and choice,

unlocking the true value of cloud computing"•  Easy to get right for simple deployments with lots

of considerations as you build out larger systems"•  Separating the operating system from the

applications and configuration and dynamically assembling a server or system gets you most of the way there"

May 14, 2013" 32"

But – it sounds easier than it really is …"

May 14, 2013" 33"

ScaleXtreme Cloud Architecture"

5/14/13" 34"

   Database  

Web Browser

iPhone/iPad

HTTPs Virtualiza2on  PlaQorm  

VM  

API  

VM   VM  

Discovery  Server  Tier  

App  Server  Tier  

HTTPs

Virtualiza2on  PlaQorm  

VM  

API  

VM   VM  

Private  Cloud  

Public  Cloud  HTTPs

HTTPs