cloud ready solution technical whitepaper 2013 1001

Cloud Ready for Linux on System z Technical White Paper

Version 1.1 Date: October 2013

Cloud Ready for Linux on System z IBM 2013 2

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................. 3 2.0 Solution Definition ...................................................................................................... 3 3.0 Solution Value ............................................................................................................. 4 4.0 Solution Architecture.................................................................................................. 5 5.0 Cloud Reference Architecture and NIST Cloud Computing Contexts.................. 6 6.0 Solution Functions ...................................................................................................... 9 7.0 Solution Requirements, Delivery, and Implementation ........................................ 11 8.0 Extensibility ............................................................................................................... 12

Acknowledgements This white paper was produced by the IBM zChampions Cloud and Virtualization Work Group.

Authors: Mike Bonett, Tony Liu Contributors/Reviewers: Roy Duke, Wally Brunk (StreamFoundry, Inc.), Douglas Shute (StreamFoundry, Inc.).

Please provide any feedback and comments to Mike Bonett at [email protected] .

Trademarks The following are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Not all common law marks used by IBM are listed on this page. Failure of a mark to appear does not mean that IBM does not use the mark nor does it mean that the product is not actively marketed or is not significant within its relevant market.

Those trademarks followed by are registered trademarks of IBM in the United States; all others are trademarks or common law marks of IBM in the United States. For a complete list of IBM Trademarks, see http://www.ibm.com/legal/us/en/copytrade.shtml

AIX, DB2 , developerWorks, IBM, IBM (logo), ibm.com, MVS, NetView, OMEGAMON , Parallel Sysplex , PR/SM, pSeries, RACF System z, Tivoli, VTAM , WebSphere, z/OS, z/VM, zEnterprise, zSeries

The following are trademarks or registered trademarks of other companies. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Oracle Corporation, in the United States, other countries, or both. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States,

other countries, or both. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.


1.0 Introduction

The IBM Cloud Ready for Linux on System z solution offering enables the provisioning of Linux on System z under z/VM, using a common service catalog in a highly available environment, including availability, performance, monitoring, backup and recovery.

The offering provides services for the installation and customization of a specific set of products running on Linux guests under z/VM. These products can be used to support and manage the System z Cloud environment enabled by the offering. The services are delivered in partnership with Stream Foundry, Inc., an IBM Business Partner.

The offering can be extended, with additional product licenses and/or billable services, to include integration of additional products, program design, implementation and ongoing support.

More information on Cloud Ready for Linux on System z can be found at the following link:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/services/consulting/offers-systemz-zenterprise.html#cloud_ready_on_zlinux

This paper provides a high level technical overview of the solution components and their functions. Refer to the above link for contacts and pricing information.

2.0 Solution Definition

Cloud Ready for Linux on System z provides the functions needed to enable the deployment of an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IAAS) Cloud environment on Linux on System z. It uses System z as both the manage-from platform and the manage-to-environment.

The Cloud Ready for Linux on System z software solution is installed in a z/VM LPAR on System z; the software components run on Linux guests within that environment. The manage-from and manage-to environments run within the same z/VM LPAR. Services are provided to enable the products and provide an initial base education on their functions and integration.

The Cloud Ready for Linux on System z solution supports Linux virtual images. The virtual images are supplied by the client, and can be of any desired configuration pattern (e.g. Linux only or Linux with select middleware). The solution creates new virtual machine instances via cloning these pre-defined Linux virtual images. Newly created Linux instances customized from the pre-defined images can be recaptured as virtual images and used to clone additional instances.


Cloud Ready for Linux on System z provides functions that are used by the various roles in a Cloud Service environment: Service Creators, Cloud Service Consumers, and Cloud Service Providers. Several interfaces are provided to support these roles:

An administrative interface, which allows the Cloud Server Creator to define the target z/VM LPAR as a cloud provisioning platform, import Linux virtual images into a repository, execute the virtual machine lifecycle process (create, deploy, retire) as needed, and provide authentication and access controls for administrative tasks.

A self-service interface, which allows Cloud Service consumers to view the available Linux virtual images, request instances of the images to be created, monitor the status of the instances, and retire the instances from use.

A monitoring interface, used by the Cloud Service Provider, to see the ongoing performance and availability of the deployed instances and the z/VM LPAR they run within.

An automation interface, used by the Cloud Service Provider, to automate the state of the instances in a coordinated manner.

A storage administration interface, used by the Cloud Service Provider, to administer the backup and recovery of storage artifacts within the virtual instances.

3.0 Solution Value

Cloud Ready for Linux on System z provides numerous areas of business value.

It provides an infrastructure to create and deploy standards in a virtualized and mixed environment for business services. The workloads within this infrastructure provide image management of the operating system, applications, and release management. This allows a reduction in cost in comparison to the traditional way of dedicated hardware or software when delivering these services.

Costs are contained as there is a common service delivery model for deployment of these services.

Finally, the standards management includes a plug-n-play service management infrastructure, using an automated method to validate these services prior to deployment. Once deployed, there is the integration of incident management for service delivery.


4.0 Solution Architecture

The following picture shows the solution components and how they are positioned in the delivered infrastructure:

The Cloud Ready for Linux on System z solution provides services for the following software components, which are installed on Linux on System z and are enabled for use:

Component Role IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager

Captures virtual images from created Linux base images and deploys them as instances based on user requirements and administration standards. A Tivoli Provisioning Manager server is provided.

IBM Tivoli Monitoring and OMEGAMON XE for z/VM and Linux

Provides performance and availability monitoring of the deployed images and the z/VM LPAR. An IBM Tivoli Monitoring server integrated with the Tivoli Enterprise Portal in a single server, along with the Linux monitoring agent for deployment into the desired Linux instances, is provided. The OMEGAMON XE for z/VM and Linux agent, which runs on a Linux guest, is also provided.

IBM Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms

Allows automation polices to be created to start and stop the deployed instances in a coordinated fashion, and to monitor instances for exceptions and provide automated recovery/bypass/notification functions.


Component Role IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Provides automated management and tracking of service requests related to provisioning and managing the deployed instances.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Provide automated backup and recovery of storage used by applications running within the deployed instances.

5.0 Cloud Reference Architecture and NIST Cloud Computing Contexts

The solution addresses the following aspects of IBMs Common Cloud Reference Architecture (the details of the architecture can be found at https://collaboration.opengroup.org/cloudcomputing/documents.php?gpid=601&action=show&dcat=&gdid=23840 )

Infrastructure

The System z platform provides the processor, memory, storage, and network resources used by the Cloud Ready for Linux on System z solution. The Cloud Ready solution runs within a logical partition (LPAR) on System z. Through the LPAR the hardware resources of System z are made accessible in a virtualized manner.

The Cloud Ready for Linux on System z solution runs on the System z platform. The solution provides both the manage from and manage to environments on z/VM and Linux on System z.

Common Cloud Management Platform

The Cloud Ready for Linux on System z components provides business and operational support services to support a Linux on System z Cloud environment. The software products that are part of the solution are exploited by the Cloud Services provided by the solution:

Tivoli Provisioning Manager provides service automation management functions for image lifecycle management of Linux on System z virtual servers. It contains a process automation engine to manage service requests, a repository for defined images, and functions to apply configuration, change, incident, problem, and service level management to the virtual server resources.

IBM Tivoli Monitoring and OMEGAMON XE for z/VM and Linux provide monitoring, capacity, and performance management for virtual servers deployed by the solution. The information it collects can also be integrated with related business services such as automation, metering, and billing for the usage of the environment.


IBM SmartCloud Control Desk provides an integrated platform for performing efficient management of all operational and IT asset classes and their incident, problem, change, release, and SLA management processes. Users can make requests related to these operational processes and the tracking, approval, and execution of the request is managed by the product. Various administrator roles are defined for review/approval of requests, and other products can be integrated to carry out a request (e.g. integration with Tivoli Provisioning Manager to fulfill a provisioning request) and notify the request of the results.

IBM Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms provides platform and virtualization management of the deployed instances by automating the startup, shutdown, and event management of the deployed virtual instances in a coordinated fashion. Once Linux guest instances are created, policies can be defined in the product to initiate, execute and coordinate the automated starting, stopping, restarting and failing over of the virtual instances, individual application components with the instances, or entire composite applications based on their desired status ad well as detected incidents.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager provides service management for storage resources used by the deployed instances. It can manage the backup and recovery, archiving, and data reduction of the storage used by applications that have been installed in the virtual instances.

Cloud Services

Cloud Ready for Linux on System z provides the Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) service using z/VM as the virtualization platform. The solution provides functions to create, deploy, and manage Linux on System z virtual instances. The client can determine the types of Linux virtual images to be deployed as instances. Cloud Ready for Linux on System z does not dictate the content of the virtual images and allows the client to define the content of the virtual images. With this customization, Cloud Ready for Linux on System z can be extended to support other Cloud Services (Platform as a Service, Software as a Service, Business Process as a Service) based on virtual image contents and instance detailed configuration activities.

Cloud Service Creator

The Cloud Service Creator can use Cloud Ready for Linux on System z to: Define the target z/VM virtualization environment for deployed instances. Import predefined Linux on System z virtual machines as virtual images.


Make the virtual images available to the Cloud Service Consumer via a service catalog.

Provide authorization and authentication for Cloud Service Consumers to access the operational and business support services provided by the solution products.

Administer the virtualization platform for provisioning, monitoring, request tracking, automation, and storage management via the provided products.

Cloud Service Consumer

The Cloud Service Consumer can use Cloud Ready for Linux on System z to: Access a service catalog of defined Linux on System z virtual images. Request creation of new instances, or deletion of existing instances that

are no longer needed. Customize their instances as needed. Use the solution products to monitor, automate, and manage the storage

of the deployed instances.

Security, Resiliency, Performance, Consumability

Cloud Ready for Linux on System z provides the following security, reliability, performance, and consumability characteristics:

Access to the solution environment and provided functions can be secured to a fine level of detail. Security polices can be defined in all solutions products for user authentication and role authorizations.

The solution itself, running on Linux on System z virtual machines, receives the resilience characteristics of System z. All System z functions that provide monitoring, availability and continuity management can be applied to the solution environment.

The self-service interface provides rapid consumability of the service by Cloud Service Consumers. The product user interfaces and the training provided as part of the solution allow rapid administration and operation of the solution.

Cloud Ready for Linux on System z also addresses the essential characteristics for Cloud Computing defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The essential characteristics details can be found at http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf :

On-demand self service


The self-service interface provided by the solution allows the Cloud Server Consumer to invoke provisioning functions for virtual instances as needed and automatically, without requiring human interaction.

Broad network access

The solution functions are accessible over any desired client network configuration.

Resource pooling

The solution pools the System z resources that are virtualized by Linux on System z IFL processors, memory, servers, storage, and network so that they are dynamically allocated and deallocated based on Cloud Service Consumer Requests. The Consumer does not need to know the specifics regarding the configuration of any of the resources; these are provided from the pooled resources as part of the virtual image definition.

Rapid elasticity

The Cloud Ready on Linux z infrastructure (System z hardware and Linux on System z virtualization platform) allows non-disruptive expansion of the solution managed environment from a hardware and virtualization perspective. Resources can be added to the existing pools to provide rapid elasticity for expansion of the managed environment, e.g. an increase of additional deployed instances, without impacting the Cloud Service Consumer. The Cloud Service Consumer views an unlimited set of resources (only limited from an administration policy perspective).

Measured service

The solution provides monitoring to show the usage of the virtualized resources by deployed instances, as well as the overall utilization of the virtualization platform. This monitoring can be extended for capacity planning and reporting purposes, and can be integrated with metering and usage functions.

6.0 Solution Functions

The tasks Cloud Ready for Linux on System z enables include:


1. Discovering z/VM virtualization platforms that will be used for the cloud environment

With the access credentials for the z/VM LPAR (the LPAR must be enabled with the SMAPI interface and DIRMAINT), Tivoli Provisioning Manager can discover the z/VM platform and store the relevant information (e.g. platform memory, storage, and network configuration) in its repository. Once stored, Tivoli Provisioning Manager can use the platform as a source for Linux virtual images and to deploy new instances of Linux guest virtual machines.

2. Building an inventory of deployable images

A Linux guest machine is built and customized with the desired software (operating system and any additional middleware/application software layers). Tivoli Provisioning Manager can then capture the guest configuration information and store it as a virtual image in its repository. This virtual image can then be made available in the service catalog for Cloud Service Consumers.

3. Requesting and creating virtual instances

The Cloud Service Consumer access the Self-Service Interface provided in the solution to see the available virtual images in the service catalog. An image can be selected and an instance requested. The request will be sent to Tivoli Provisioning Manager, which creates the instance on the target z/VM platform. The new instance will be started, customized with a unique hostname and IP address, and the Cloud Service Consumer will be notified of its availability via the self service interface.

Deployed instances whose configuration has been modified by Cloud Service Consumers can also be captured and stored in the repository for additional flexibility.

When a virtual instance is no longer needed, the Cloud Service Consumer that owns the instance can request, via the self service interface, that it be deleted. Tivoli Provisioning Manager deletes the instance from the z/VM platform so that its resources are now returned to the available pool for new instances.

4. Monitoring virtual instances

The self-service interface provides the Cloud Service Consumer with the status of the instances they have deployed. They can start and stop the instances as desired.


Performance monitoring of the instances is done via the IBM Tivoli Monitoring server. It contains a Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server and a Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server. Monitoring of an instance can be implemented in 2 ways:

o The source virtual image can have the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Linux operating system agent installed. When an instance is created, the agent is then activated and connects to the IBM Tivoli Monitoring server.

o After an instance is created, the agent can be installed and customized to connect to the IBM Tivoli Monitoring server. This can be done manually or automatically using a custom workflow designed for that purpose.

5. Automating operational processes

Administrative requests related to operational processes to manage the environment can be performed using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk. The product can be used to define the catalog of requests users can submit and the routing/approval flow of the requests among the appropriate administrators. Automation can be integrated into the workflow to invoke actions in external products, capture the results, and use the results with the request flow.

6. Automating virtual instances

Startup, shutdown, and recovery of virtual instances can be performed using IBM Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms (SAMP), which is implemented as part of the solution. Policies can be defined in SAMP to control the order of instance startup based on dependencies (e.g. start a database server instance before the instances that connect to it). Recovery actions in case of a detected problem can also be implemented in the policy.

7. Virtual instance storage administration

Tivoli Storage Manager is used to manage the storage of virtual instances. As middleware and applications are deployed on them, Tivoli Storage Manager can be used by both Cloud Service Providers and Cloud Service Consumers for such tasks as data backup/recovery, data reduction, space management, and archiving and retrieval. Storage monitoring and reporting features are also included.

7.0 Solution Requirements, Delivery, and Implementation

The following prerequisites are needed for a Cloud Ready for Linux on System z engagement:


An available z/VM (version 5.4 or greater) LPAR for supporting the manage-from and manage-to environments.

The z/VM Systems Management API (SMAPI) and Directory Maintenance Facility (DIRMAINT) functions installed in z/VM. These must be enabled (if not already enabled they will be as part of the Tivoli Provisioning Manager customization activities).

Linux for System z for the manage-to environment servers either SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5, 6.1, or 6.2.

Product licenses (either existing or ordered in conjunction with Cloud Ready for Linux on System z) for the products named above.

A set of Linux on System z images to be used as the source for creating new Linux instances.

The services provided in the solution will perform the following activities:

Validate the configuration of SMAPI and DIRMAINT on the target z/VM LPAR and make modifications as necessary.

Install the software solution on the z/VM LPAR, and verify that the solution servers are active and that the required network connectivity is available between the servers and the target z/VM environment.

Provide introductory education on the usage of Tivoli Provisioning Manager to provision Linux instances.

Provide documentation on the setup and design of the environment that has been created, as a reference point for any future custom additions or enhancements.

8.0 Extensibility

The Cloud Ready for Linux on System z solution allows other products and functions to be integrated into its administrative environment and extend the scope and capabilities of both cloud service management and managed cloud environments. Implementing extensions will require additional products, licensing, and or/services.

Some examples of the ways a Cloud Ready for Linux on System implementation can be extended are as follows:

In addition to z/VM, Tivoli Provisioning Manager supports the IBM POWER, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), Hyper-V, VMware and Solaris


Zones virtualization platforms. Environments that contain any of these platforms can be incorporated into the Cloud Ready for Linux on System z so that a single point of cloud management can be established, using System z as the manage-from environment for the enterprise.

If additional middleware and applications are part of the deployed instance, IBM Tivoli Monitoring agents, application specific agents, or custom agents can be incorporated into the IBM Tivoli Monitoring function of Cloud Ready for Linux on System z.

IBM SmartCloud Cost Management can be added to assign costs (metering) to various z/VM system resources and generate reports on the usage of those resources by Linux guests for billing purposes.

System Automation for Multiplatforms has a set of automation policies stored in the IBM Integrated Service Management at URL https://www.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/ismlibrary/search#rc=TivoliSystemAutomation:Tivoli%20System%20Automation . These automation policies are available as samples to enhance the capabilities of SAMP that control the Linux instances of Cloud Ready for Linux on System z.

RACF Security Server for z/VM can be added for an additional level of security for the Cloud environment. RACF can add security for the z/VM virtualized resources that create the Cloud infrastructure to provide a finer level of security control for both z/VM and the deploy Linux instances.

cloud ready solution technical whitepaper 2013 1001

Documents