The document discusses Dell's 'Crowbar', an automation tool designed for fast and flexible cloud deployment using OpenStack. It highlights Dell's extensive cloud experience and emphasizes the need for continuous operational focus due to the dynamic nature of cloud environments. The presentation also covers the architectural components, operational practices, and potential applications beyond OpenStack.

1. Automate and accelerate
cloud deployments with
Dell Crowbar
OpenStack in Action 2!
Paris, May 31st 2012
Taco Scargo, EMEA Enterprise Technologist

2. Proven Cloud Experience
• Dell powers 20 of the 25 largest clouds
• Processes 13 billion security events each day
• Managing over 6,000,000 SaaS based users
• Managing more than 4 billion diagnostic imaging
objects in cloud storage
• Over 1 billion connections to the Dell’s own Cloud
infrastructure each day
• And last but not least: founding member of
OpenStack

3. Value creation
Just as IT is not a commodity, cloud is
not a destination. Cloud is a journey,
placing IT squarely in the center of the
enterprise as both facilitator and
enabler of value-creation.
Michael Dell, Chairman & CEO
3 Dell Confidential

4. The cloud is never
at rest.
The cloud is
always ready,
never finished.

5. How do you manage a cloud that
`won’t stay still?
Cloud Operator Cloud User
Problem Solution
Challenge Challenge
Code is constantly Deployment time > Pace of innovation Continuous
changing code delivery rate is fast deployment
Resources are Match output with
At scale, no system Automated
constantly consumption
is steady state deployment
changing demand
Too many Centralized
Complexity is Require dynamic
components to configuration
expensive integration
easily track management

6. Clouds require an Operational Focus
Clouds demand significant
operational and process controls
SW
Operational decisions drive
OPS
hardware and software decisions
HW
We are finding ways to productize
operations into best practices

7. Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution
“Crowbar”
CloudOps
SW
SW Software
OPS
OPS
Reference HW
Architecture Services &
Consulting

8. How DevOps is Different
Images vs. Layers

9. What is DevOps?
Is an emerging set of principles, methods and practices for communication,
collaboration and integration between application/software engineering and
IT Operations that DRIVE AUTOMATION
Staff
Commodity
Hardware
Packaged Operations
Software Scripts & Tools
IT’S ALL SOFTWARE!
Crowbar

10. Images vs. Layers: Overview
Images: Single Unit Layers: Stacked Pieces
Configuration Integrations
Configuration
Application Foo
Integrations + Application Bar
Applications +
Utilities + Utilities
Operating System
Operating System

11. Images vs. Layers: Lifecycle
Images: Replacement Layers: Upgrade
Config Config Config
I I
Foo Foo
Config
Config
I+A+U+ I+A+U+ I+A+U+
Bar v1 Bar v2
O/S O/S O/S
U U
OS OS
Config Bar v2
I+A+U+
O/S

12. CloudOps for OpenStack
There are lot of pieces, but they share many elements!
I I I I I I
Crowbar Dash Nova Nova Nova
Config
Config
Config
Config
Config
Config
Nagios
Chef Board Cntrl DB API
U U U U U U
OS OS OS OS OS OS
I I I I I I
Nova Nova Nova Nova Nova Nova
Config
Config
Config
Config
Config
Config
Node Node Node Node Node Node
U U U U U U
OS OS OS OS OS OS

13. CloudOps for OpenStack
Plus interconnections are highly complex and dynamic
I I I I I I
Crowbar Dash Nova Nova Nova
Config
Config
Config
Config
Config
Config
Nagios
Chef Board Cntrl DB API
U U U U U U
OS OS OS OS OS OS
I I I I I I
Nova Nova Nova Nova Nova Nova
Config
Config
Config
Config
Config
Config
Node Node Node Node Node Node
U U U U U U
OS OS OS OS OS OS

14. What is Crowbar?
Mission: “A Zero Touch Cloud Installer”
Servers in boxes to full function cloud in under 2 hours
Fast & Flexible
Bare metal install including BIOS & RAID config
Users can choose how their system is configured (“barclamps”)
DevOps Embracing
Ongoing Operations Model (DevOps for Clouds)
Leverages & Wraps Opscode Chef
Open
Not specific to OpenStack – Dell using for other Apps
Not restricted to Dell hardware
Apache 2 licensed

15. Crowbar Builds Up Clouds
APIs, User Access,
& Ecosystem
Partners
Ops Management
Dell “Crowbar”
Cloud
Infrastructure
Core Components &
Operating Systems
Physical Resources

16. 1) Hardware Configuration
APIs, User Access,
& Ecosystem
Partners
Ops Management
Dell “Crowbar”
Cloud
Infrastructure
Core Components &
Operating Systems
Physical Resources

17. 2) OS and Ops Infrastructure
APIs, User Access,
& Ecosystem
Partners
Ops Management
Dell “Crowbar”
Cloud
Infrastructure
Core Components &
Operating Systems *
Physical Resources
* Suse pending, based on open source activity

18. 3) Cloud Platform Integration
APIs, User Access,
& Ecosystem
Partners
Ops Management
Dell “Crowbar”
Cloud
Infrastructure
Core Components &
Operating Systems *
Physical Resources

19. 4) Cloud App Management
APIs, User Access,
& Ecosystem
Partners
Ops Management
Dell “Crowbar”
Cloud
Infrastructure
Core Components &
Operating Systems
Physical Resources

20. How does Crowbar work?
Orchestration
State Machine
Apps
Ops Management
Apps
Dell “Crowbar”
Crowbar Magic Happens!
Run List Network Network
Config Config
Chef
Server
Operating System
Config.
Hardware Config
(uses “Sledgehammer”)
DHCP
Server

21. Crowbar = State Machine

22. Modular Design: Barclamps
What Configuration You want to Deploy
Nagios Ganglia Dashboard
APIs, User Access, &
Ecosystem Partners
enStratus Horizon
Ops Management
Dell “Crowbar”
Nova Swift Glance
Cloud Infrastructure
& Dell IP Extensions
Ceph Force10 Keystone
Crowbar DNS Logging
Core Components &
Operating Systems
Deployer NTP Quantum
Provisioner
BIOS IPMI
Physical Resources
Network RAID
* Crowbar has potential to service other programs beyond OpenStack

23. What is a barclamp?
Barclamp
Crowbar API O/S App Components
Chef Recipes
& Partial UI Packages & Scripts
Ops Management
Dell “Crowbar”
• Crowbar API & Partial UI
• Adds states and transitions to Orchestration
• Customizes UI specific to barclamp
• Visual extensions to nodes/networks/utils
• Chef Recipes
• DevOps description of application
• Enforced repeatable configuration
• O/S App Packages
• Operating system dependencies (Debs & RPMs)
• Components & Scripts
• Ad hoc configuration not covered by Chef

24. What is a barclamp?
Barclamp
Crowbar API O/S App Components
Chef Recipes
& Partial UI Packages & Scripts
Ops Management
Dell “Crowbar”
• Interact as service layers
• Have dependencies and pre-requisites
• Can operate on multiple operating systems
• Have independent version streams
• Leverage/Reuse Chef Cookbooks
Barclamp
Barclamp

25. Networking in Crowbar IP
Network Barclamp Allocations
DHCP
Other
Chef Client Barclamps
IPMI Request
VLAN VLAN
Conduit “Conduits”
1g1
eth0
VLAN VLAN
Conduit
Interface &
1g2
eth1 Conduits
Teamed Teamed
Conduit Normalize
1g3
eth# Networks
Between
not Nodes.
mgm’d
Server

26. Networking in Crowbar
IP
Network Barclamp Allocations
DHCP
Chef Client Crowbar
IPMI Discovers
VLAN VLAN Switches
eth0 and Ports
VLAN VLAN
eth1
Crowbar
Teamed Teamed Does NOT
eth# Configure
The Switch!
not O/S Only
mgm’d
Server

27. Dashboard
View system information and status

28. Barclamps and Proposals
Choose what to deploy

29. Edit Proposals
Configure and Select Servers

30. Monitoring
View performance metrics and health
Nagios® and Ganglia are installed by default
and are configured to correctly monitor the
services installed by crowbar

31. Supporting Services
A self contained cloud requires some supporting
services. Crowbar also includes:
DNS: Can be forwarded to an upstream server
NTP: Can be synced to an upstream time server
Logging: Can be sent to a centralized logging server

32. Questions?
More info:
• http://Dell.com/OpenStack - White Papers & More!
• http://github.com/dellcloudedge/crowbar - Source code and instructions
• http://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/crowbar - Discussions and
questions
• Contact me at Taco_Scargo@dell.com

33. How many watt does it take to
run a 48-node OpenStack cloud?

34. just 750 watt!

35. Introducing Dell “Copper”
48 ARM-based quad-core servers in the
3U PowerEdge C5000 chassis,
aimed at the microserver market
Each ARM server node includes:
1 SATA hard drive or flash drive
1 DIMM slot for up to 8GB RAM
1 GbE input per server into a non-
blocking L2 switch per sled

36. ARM Server Market Status

37. ARM Server Market Status
Product ARM Support Status
Ubuntu Available Now - http://www.ubuntu.com/download/arm
Fedora In Dev - Fedora-ARM Project
LAMP Stack Open Source Available Now – continued optimization
Hadoop Open Source Available Now – continued optimization
OpenStack Public demos May 2012
Oracle Java Available Now – continued optimization,
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/embedded/overview/embedded-faq-159987.html#faq4
KVM Open Source Expected w/Cortex A15

38. Availability
• Seed Program
• Continued delivery of Dell "Copper" ARM servers to select customers WW
• Includes DCS Classic and non-Classic customers
• Expected use: Test and development with web front-end and Hadoop workloads. No general
availability at this time.
• Timeframe: Systems have already begun shipping, and customers have started testing
• Ecosystem Enablement:
• Seed units will in-progress for key ecosystem partners, including Canonical, Cloudera and others
• Remote accessible clusters for developer use include:
• Dell Solution Centers: Centers planned worldwide, we will deploy multiple clusters over time
• Texas Advanced Computing Center (UT): Austin-based cluster as part of their support of the
development community

39. Questions?
More info:
• http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/campaigns/project-copper.aspx
• Contact me at Taco_Scargo@dell.com