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Building private clouds on IBM Power systems
1. Building Private Clouds on
IBM Power Systems
Bob Minns
IBM Power Systems Team
IBM SWG Competitive Project Office
512-286-7592
bobminns@us.ibm.com
Last update: April 21, 2010
2. Table of Contents
Table of Contents.......................................................................................................................................... 2
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Requirements for a Private Cloud................................................................................................................. 5
Building Blocks for a Private Cloud ............................................................................................................... 7
Tivoli Service Automation Manager (TSAM)............................................................................................. 7
VIO Server ................................................................................................................................................. 7
IBM Tivoli Monitoring ............................................................................................................................... 7
IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager .............................................................................................. 7
IBM Power Systems for Private Clouds......................................................................................................... 8
Virtualization............................................................................................................................................. 8
Stability ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Support...................................................................................................................................................... 8
Scalability .................................................................................................................................................. 8
Using the Private Cloud................................................................................................................................. 9
Self-Service................................................................................................................................................ 9
Request a New Server............................................................................................................................. 10
Monitoring .............................................................................................................................................. 11
Flat Rate Charging ................................................................................................................................... 12
Initial deployment of Private Clouds........................................................................................................... 15
References .................................................................................................................................................. 16
Whitepapers............................................................................................................................................ 16
Product Information ............................................................................................................................... 16
Building Private Clouds on IBM Power Systems Page 2 of 17
3. Executive Summary
Private Cloud solutions enable IT organizations to respond to new and changing business requirements
while maintaining control and maximizing the security. Using IBM Tivoli Service Management software
and Power Systems, customers can implement a complete private cloud environment.
Tivoli Service Automation Manager (TSAM) is a key software element to creating and managing a private
cloud environment. The automation provides a “set and forget” process for users of the private cloud.
No one is waiting for the software to be copied to the disk and configured. Non-IT users can easily
request new virtual servers in the private cloud with the software stacks that they need, with no
assistance from the IT staff and no knowledge of the environment. The “out of the box” integration
between Tivoli Service Automation Manager (TSAM), IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM) and Tivoli Usage and
Accounting Manager (TUAM) products provides a complete end to end “private cloud” solution. The ITM
agent for the virtual server can be installed and configured as part of the server request. This gives the
operations staff the instant visibility of any problems with the health of the virtual servers within the
private cloud. The ITM agents for the VIO Server and CEC are configured with the VIO Server to provide
visibility of the VIO Server and the underlying hardware platform. The complete environment is being
monitored and managed as virtual servers are added to the private cloud.
Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager (TUAM) provides the functionality for supporting pay-as-you-go or
subscription-based charges for the private cloud users. TUAM provides an easy way for users to view
their charges and correlate these charges to the resources that they are using within the private cloud.
IBM Power Systems provide the industrial strength virtualization, stability, support and scalability to
fully support a private cloud environment.
Building Private Clouds on IBM Power Systems Page 3 of 17
4. Introduction
This paper is intended for customers planning to build private cloud solutions with IBM Power Systems
and Tivoli Service Management software. For some time, public cloud offerings have promoted the
paradigm of cloud computing and its perceived lower costs to the business. Moreover, cloud computing
promises attributes such as flat rate charging, request driven provisioning and real-time deployment
allowing customers to respond to new and changing business requirements in a timely manner.
What is usually ignored is the fact that it is possible to create a private cloud with all of these same
attributes within the existing IT organization at a lower cost1. A private cloud can be more aligned with
the needs of the business and a private cloud provides increased security because it is managed within
an internal, secure environment. Private clouds still give direct control to the end users for quickly
requesting a fully-functioning solution stack on a new server and the added benefit to the customer of
having full control over the private cloud implementation.
1
Whitepaper - Building a Dynamic Infrastructure with IBM Power Systems: A Closer Look at Private Cloud TCO
Building Private Clouds on IBM Power Systems Page 4 of 17
5. Requirements for a Private Cloud
The success of a private cloud implementation within an IT organization is dependent on providing a
service to the internal business users at a competitive cost, compared to the public alternatives. In
order to do so, a private cloud implementation leverages the following factors to reduce IT costs –
Virtualization, Automation and Standardization.
Automate
Virtualize Standardize
Figure 1: Reducing IT Costs Using a Private Cloud
Virtualization allows multiple workloads to run on a single physical system, increasing the utilization of
the physical hardware. This in turn reduces the number of physical systems required to run these
workloads with savings in lower power, cooling and floor space costs as well as reduced software
licenses. Multiple workloads can be consolidated on to fewer, larger physical systems. Due to the nature
of consolidation through virtualization one thing is intuitive: the larger the servers, the more workloads
it can be support and the more system resources can be shared between the workloads to improve
physical system utilization levels.
Internal labor costs average 41% of the total IT expenses2. To significantly reduce overall costs, every
hour of labor must have as large an impact as possible. Automation helps eliminate repetitive tasks,
provides consistent results and improves the service to the end users. There is a larger investment in the
setup of the automation but the payback is provided in each subsequent use of the automated process.
2
AMR Research: 2009 Overall Operating Expense Budget – Overall Averages
http://www.amrresearch.com/Content/View.aspx?CompURI=tcm:7-49849
Building Private Clouds on IBM Power Systems Page 5 of 17
6. Creating a limited number of standard software stacks reduces the number of differences between
environments and reduces the labor required to create, support and maintain these software stacks.
With fewer variations, there are fewer problems to resolve. Therefore, private cloud users expect
servers with “golden” or “pre-tested” software stacks so they are using a software stack that has been
created and tested elsewhere not a brand new combination of software with unknown problems.
The following example shows just the time improvement by using virtualization, automation and
standardization to deploy a complete software stack. The manual install time assumes all the software is
staged ready for installation and the systems administrator is waiting for each step to complete before
initiating the next step. In reality, a systems administrator will kick off an installation step and then
return later to initiate the next stage of the installation. In contrast, it takes approximately 40 minutes to
deploy a complete software stack (AIX V6, WAS V6, JEE application and the ITM agent) to a new virtual
server using TSAM (Tivoli Service Automation Manager) in our private cloud solution. In reality, no one is
waiting for the TSAM installation to complete. The private cloud user takes a few minutes to request a
new server (a set and forget installation) via the portal and then later receives an email with the system
password and related information once the new server is accessible via the network. It is completely
hands-off once the request is submitted.
250
200
Total Deployment Time
150
120
(minutes)
100
67%
reduction
50
25 40
0
Manual Install Automated
Install
Submit a request then check
later for an email
No real waiting
Figure 2: Relative Deployment Times
Building Private Clouds on IBM Power Systems Page 6 of 17
7. Building Blocks for a Private Cloud
Customers can easily build their own private cloud environment using IBM Power Systems and Tivoli
service management software.
Tivoli Service Automation Manager (TSAM)
TSAM provides the foundation for creating a private cloud within any enterprise. TSAM is the packaging
of two mature Tivoli products – Tivoli Service Request Manager (TSRM) and Tivoli Provisioning Manager
(TPM). TSRM provides the front-end while TPM provides the automated provisioning on the back-end.
Additional workflows and integration are provided for managing private clouds as part of the TSAM
product.
VIO Server
The Virtual I/O Server (part of the PowerVM virtualization support for IBM Power Systems) allows the
network and I/O to be virtualized for each virtual server. This allows the bandwidth of the physical
network adapters and the fiber channel adapters to be shared by the virtual servers in the private cloud.
The VIO Server will be running the ITM agent for the VIO Server for monitoring the health of the VIO
Server as well as the ITM CEC agent for monitoring the underlying hardware platform. These two agents
are configured with the initial setup of VIO Server before the private cloud users start requesting
services.
IBM Tivoli Monitoring
The operating system ITM agent can be installed and configured as part of the virtual server request.
Operations staff can monitor the health of the virtual servers, the VIO Server and the host platform
using the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server (TEPS) interface. The user is responsible for the installation of
the Monitoring Agent by selecting the checkbox when requesting a new virtual server. The installation of
the operating system ITM agent is a separate step which is performed after restoring the system image.
TSAM will then configure the operating system ITM agent to communicate with the correct Tivoli
Enterprise Monitoring Server (TEMS) as part of this process.
IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager
TSAM can be configured to provide daily accounting files for the Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager
(TUAM). TSAM provides 3 subscription based metrics – Server Hours, Memory Hours (in MBs) and CPU
Hours for pay-as-you-go chargeback. The TUAM Reporting Server can be accessed by the end user to
display these metrics for specific months, specific dates, projects and virtual servers to track their usage
of the private cloud.
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8. IBM Power Systems for Private Clouds
IBM Power Systems are an ideal platform for creating a private cloud. IBM Power Systems provide the
necessary system attributes to support a private cloud environment - industrial strength virtualization,
stability, support and scalability.
Virtualization
The PowerVM virtualization is built-in to every system with the same capabilities across the entire
product line. The virtualization is always on for any IBM Power System environment. As a customer, you
can focus on the applications you need for your business rather than having multiple vendors trying to
resolve integration issues with the virtualization technology.
Stability
The private cloud can be used for lots of small applications. Individually, these applications may not be
“mission critical” but as the number of applications increases and the size of the private cloud grows,
you will need a robust and stable environment. Customers have enjoyed the reliability, availability and
serviceability characteristics of IBM Power Systems for large “mission critical” applications and these
same characteristics are now required for private clouds. The stability of IBM Power Systems has been
highlighted in a number of third party customer surveys3.
Support
The complete software stack from the hardware to the IBM middleware is developed and supported by
IBM. The hardware, firmware, virtualization support and operating system are tested together.
Customers can run middleware and key applications from other vendors with the underlying operating
system, virtualization and hardware, fully supported by IBM. The single vendor approach is valuable
because there will always be environment-specific issues that need to be resolved, and with a single
vendor providing support for your private cloud environment, any problems will be resolved quicker.
Scalability
Some applications in the development or the testing phase may not need a lot of system resources to
get started and it is easy to stand up a complete environment using a private cloud. Over time, the
number of users may suddenly increase due to demand or the time of year. For growth and scalability, it
is reassuring that the system resources for a Power Systems virtual server can grow from a 1/10 CPU to
the entire system (possibly 256 CPUs with the newly announced high-end POWER7-based systems), if
required. These system resources can be added dynamically without interrupting the users or the
workload.
3
ITIC: ITIC 2009 Global Server Hardware & Server OS Reliability Survey; July 2009
http://itic-corp.com/blog/2009/07/itic-2009-global-server-hardware-server-os-reliability-survey-results
Building Private Clouds on IBM Power Systems Page 8 of 17
9. Using the Private Cloud
Tivoli
Enterprise
Portal
Server
Operations
Tivoli
Usage and
Reporting Accounting
Server Manager
Server Tivoli
Enterprise
Monitoring
Server
3. Monitoring
Accounting
Data
4. Flat Rate
Charging
ITM
1. Self Service Agent
2. Request A New Server VIO
Self Service Automated
Server
Portal Provisioning
End User PowerVM Hypervisor
Tivoli Service Automation Manager IBM Power Systems
Private Cloud
(Multiple Systems)
System Administrator
Figure 3: Using the Private Cloud
Self-Service
TSAM V7.2 provides an easy to use Web 2.0 interface for non-IT users to request virtual servers. The
different components of the interface are the frequent requests (create a project, add a server to an
existing project, remove a server and cancel a project), the status of submitted requests and the status
of the user’s projects.
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10. Figure 4: Self Service Portal
Request a New Server
This is the panel for requesting a new server for an existing project (SOF Web Testing in this example).
The end date can be specified (in this case, it is indefinite which could be changed at a later date). There
are two standard software stacks for installation – SOF Investment and SOF Mortgage. These software
stacks include the operating system (AIX V6.1), application server (WAS V6.1), and a JEE application. The
user can also install and configure the ITM agent as part of the deployment of the virtual server by
selecting the checkbox “Monitoring Agent to be installed”. Multiple servers with the same software
stack and settings can be requested in a single request. The system resource settings for CPU, memory
and storage are the recommended settings that have been setup by the cloud administrator. The user
can still adjust these settings using the controls before submitting the request. In this case, we have a
small private cloud environment and TSAM is showing that 2 virtual servers are available with this
configuration and requested dates.
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11. Figure 5: Request a New Server
Monitoring
It is easy to determine what servers are being used for which projects just by selecting the individual
projects. The panel shows the virtual servers that are being used for the SOF Web Testing project –
sofpw1 and sofpw2. The bright green button shows that the ITM agent is installed and configured,
providing the statistics (for Memory, CPU and Disk) to the right of the Server Name. A virtual server can
be selected and the icons shown above the servers can be used for backing up the server, restoring a
server backup, removing a server, starting a server, stopping a server, restarting a server and resetting
the server password,
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12. Figure 6: Monitoring Servers in a Project
Flat Rate Charging
TUAM provides 4 levels for the Accounting Structure. The accounting structure can apply across the
entire IT organization not just the “private cloud” environment. The accounting structure will vary
slightly from customer to customer. For this example, we are highlighting the capabilities of subscription
based chargeback for the private cloud using the integration between TSAM and TUAM. Chargeback is
typically to a financial entity (a department for our purposes) within the enterprise for each accounting
period (month). The four levels here are Chargeback Department, Requestor, Deployment Instance (by
TSAM Project) and the Virtual Server Name (Hostname).
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13. Figure 7: Accounting Structure for Chargeback
In this example, the private cloud user can access the Reporting Server for TUAM to check the
accumulated private cloud charges for his entire department for the month of February. It is possible to
also view the breakdown of charges for the lower levels.
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14. This invoice shows the monthly charges for the department (dept99) for our sample company. It shows
the flat rates for the 3 TSAM metrics – TSAM Server Hours, TSAM Memory (in MBs) Hours and TSAM
CPU Hours. The charges for the month are the resource usage multiplied by the flat rates. With the
TUAM reporting Server, it is possible to drill down within the invoice to show the breakdown of resource
usage by virtual server hostname. This helps resolve any disagreement between the charges for the
month and the resources used. The rates used are for example only. TUAM can also be used for
determining the real cost of the computing resources in the private cloud to ensure that the IT
Department is close to breaking even while providing realistic flat rates to the private cloud users.
Figure 8: Invoice for Private Cloud Charges
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15. Initial deployment of Private Clouds
As with any new technology, confidence is gained by introducing on a small scale and expanding its use
as more experience and skills are acquired. The resources in a private cloud can be automatically
provisioned as well as de-provisioned. This lends the best usage of private clouds to smaller, less critical
application environments that need computing resources for short or fixed periods of time. The added
benefit on the back-end of the project is that the computing resources can just as quickly be released,
maximizing the reuse of the available computing resources for other projects. An ideal environment for
introducing private clouds is development or test environments that need resources for short periods of
time to test new levels of software before full deployment in a production, mission critical or quality
assurance (QA) environment.
Building Private Clouds on IBM Power Systems Page 15 of 17
16. References
Whitepapers
Building a Dynamic Infrastructure with IBM Power Systems: A closer Look at private Cloud TCO
ftp://submit.boulder.ibm.com/sales/ssi/sa/wh/n/pow03043usen/POW03043USEN.PDF
Product Information
Tivoli Service Automation Manager – Product Website
http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/service-auto-mgr/
IBM Tivoli Monitoring – Product Website
http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/monitor/
IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager – Product Website
http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/usage-accounting/
IBM Power Systems – Product Website
http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/
Building Private Clouds on IBM Power Systems Page 16 of 17
