N1 Grid Provisioning Server

The N1 Grid Provisioning Server 3.1 Blades Edition software provides a highly scalable and powerful management environment for the Sun Fire B1600 Blade platform. Running on a dedicated server, in an out-of-band management network, the N1 Grid Provisioning Server 3.1 Blades Edition enables users to rapidly design, configure, provision, and scale blade-based server farms automatically. The N1 Grid Provisioning Server 3.1 Blades Edition software manages this pool of blades, along with other networking resources, in a way that enables multiple users to create, scale, reconfigure, and decommission multiple securely separated blade-based server farms on the fly.

By creating a pool of repurposable IT resources, the N1 Grid PS software delivers significant reductions in costs, as well as improvements in overall resource utilization. Through intelligent automation of labor-intensive tasks, it increases the adaptability and flexibility of the data center, enabling data center managers to optimize resources. The N1 Grid PS solution helps transform the economics of computing, creating new efficiencies and new opportunities that can deliver a critical advantage in an increasingly competitive business world.

For an extended overview of implementing the N1 Grid PS, go to:

http://wwws.sun.com/software/solutions/n1/N1economics_computing.pdf

Creation and Configuration of Server Farms

N1 Grid Provisioning Server 3.1 Blades Edition software automates the deployment of a server farm. It controls the virtual wiring of blades based on the networking diagram drawn by the user through the web-based "drag and drop" design interface. Users can specify the following:

• Server types and configurations

• Server blade type (SPARC or x86 systems)

• Host names and network gateway

• Initial software image to be deployed to the blade (Solaris OS or Linux OS)

• Load balancer configuration

• Blade deployment

• Load balancing policy

• Load balancer virtual IP address (VIP)

• Arbitrary network topologies

• User-defined subnets and VLANs

• Ethernet connectivity to networks and devices outside the blade platform

After a farm is designed, the N1 Grid Provisioning Server 3.1 Blades Edition provides a full set of capabilities to manage the complete life cycle of deployment, including design activation, scaling, standby, and deactivation.

Activation

When the user has completed and submitted the design, N1 Grid Provisioning Server 3.1 Blades Edition software automatically manages a number of processes to build the farm, including:

• Blade allocation and inventory tracking

• "Bare metal" software image distribution to server blades

• Configuration of load balancer blades

• Ethernet switch management (automated VLAN creation)

• Automated IP address and DNS management

Software Image Management and Distribution

N1 Grid Provisioning Server 3.1 Blades Edition software provides a software image management system that houses a library of master software images. This library can be stored on any NFS or FTP server connected to the N1 Grid software's management network. With the software image management system, you can:

• Distribute images to blades to activate a new server

• Replicate deployed servers or scale up an existing environment

• Change the role or update images on currently deployed blades

• Create new master images by executing "snapshot" commands against existing blades from the web-based GUI

• Track software image deployment on blades across server farms and users

For more information on implementing N1 Grid Provisioning Server 3.1 Blades Edition, go to:

http://wwws.sun.com/software/products/provisioning_server/