Parallels-IBM_SaaS-Appliance

IBM PureFlex System solution for Parallels MSP Reference architecture
April 2014
Mike Perks and Andy Tonkin (IBM)
Pablo Salanova (Parallels)
© Copyright IBM Corporation, 2014

IBM PureFlex System solution for Parallels MSP
Reference architecture
Table of contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................1
Business problem and business value.....................................................................................1
Business problem....................................................................................................................................1
Business value.........................................................................................................................................1
Requirements..............................................................................................................................2
Functional requirements..........................................................................................................................2
Nonfunctional requirements.....................................................................................................................3
Architectural overview................................................................................................................3
Component model.......................................................................................................................5
Operational model.......................................................................................................................7
IBM PureFlex System Components.........................................................................................................7
Parallels appliance.................................................................................................................................10
Deployment considerations.....................................................................................................13
Systems management...........................................................................................................................13
Compute nodes......................................................................................................................................16
Networking.............................................................................................................................................16
Storage integration.................................................................................................................................16
Infrastructure sizing................................................................................................................................16
Detailed example of hardware sizing.....................................................................................................18
Scaling the solution................................................................................................................................20
Appendix A: Bill of materials...................................................................................................21
Appendix B: Resources............................................................................................................23
Trademarks and special notices..............................................................................................24

Introduction
This document describes the reference architecture for the managed service provider (MSP) focused infrastructure as a service (IaaS) appliance from Parallels (henceforth referred to as “Parallels appliance” in this document). The IBM and Parallels teams worked together on the architectural vision and joint engineering effort to create this reference architecture. This document is intended to provide the planning, design considerations, and best practices for implementing MSP-focused IaaS appliance on IBM products.
The architecture described herein has been validated by both IBM and Parallels on IBM® PureFlex® System hardware located at the IBM Innovation Center in Dallas, Texas.
The intended audience of this document is IT professionals, technical architects, sales engineers, and consultants who assist in planning, designing, and implementing the MSP-focused IaaS solution on IBM PureFlex System.
Business problem and business value
This document shows how MSPs are able to meet their customers’ needs for cloud-based IaaS solutions. The focus of this architecture is on the medium-sized MSP looking to deliver automated services to reduce management costs and speed the time to solutions based on the Parallels Business Automation Standard (PBAS) product set. For MSPs and telcos that require IaaS offerings, this document is a good starting point. The full Parallels automation product which is also validated on IBM System x® and PureFlex System hardware offers full software as a service (SaaS) and IaaS automation for broader and more complex scenarios that are not addressed in this document.
Business problem
Today, MSPs and cloud service providers (CSPs) are seeing their businesses move rapidly to the cloud and have to make the choice between losing customers to over the top services from Google, Microsoft®, and Amazon or proactively increasing the value they deliver to their customers with leading cloud solutions. As this trend accelerates, MSPs might face increasing competitive pressures as customers disaggregate the services that MSPs deliver with the now broadly available over the top offerings.
Business value
The Parallels MSP solution, powered by Parallels Business Automation Standard and Parallels Cloud Server enables the automated delivery of IaaS from a PureFlex System based appliance. The basis for this solution is well proven across hundreds of major hosting service providers, using Parallels technologies and making Parallels Business Automation Standard as one of the most broadly deployed and utilized solution in the cloud space today.
Using the joint solution of IBM PureFlex System hardware with the Parallels IaaS appliance, MSPs can easily:

Deploy all of the needed components to provide and go to market with a full IaaS offering.

Easily and seamlessly expand capacity and number of services offered at any time.

Manage and automate a rich set of features available for sale through an intuitive user interface.

Automate account management, invoicing, and automatic payments.

Do all of this in a short duration.
Together, IBM and Parallels enable MSPs to manage this business transformation without technical and business friction by delivering everything MSPs need to amplify their presence in the cloud marketplace,
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reduce the cost of retaining customers, quickly deploy and promote proven revenue-generating services, and effectively differentiating from competitors. The solution combines the innovative Parallels Business Automation Standard and Parallels Cloud Server virtualization platforms with a groundbreaking array of cloud software, managed cloud offerings, and network infrastructure from IBM.
Requirements
This section describes the typical functional and non-functional requirements for an IaaS MSP solution.
Functional requirements
The solution is based on Parallels Business Automation Standard. The focus of the solution is to be able to quickly sell IaaS (virtual servers), automating as much of the process as possible and providing all the features needed for MSPs to deploy and run an IaaS business.
Requirement theme
Description
Infrastructure services
The solution includes all of the required components to provide infrastructure services in any flavor of operating system and configuration [Microsoft Windows®, Linux® or Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)). The solution is easily extensible in capacity and functionality.
Go-to-market
The solution an online store for the MSP to automate selling of infrastructure or other services.
The online store can completely customized to provide any type of experience or user interface (UI) required by the MSP.
Automated billing
The solution provides the ability for the MSP to automatically charge customers’ credit cards for services consumed.
Automated invoicing
The solution provides automated invoicing for all customer services rendered.
Ease of account management
The solution provides facilities for manual and automated account and customer management, including:

Automated account suspension for non-payment

Manual ability to upgrade/downgrade services

Facilities for providing technical support to users

Features for running promotions and marketing of services
Customer self-service
The solution provides users with a full control panel for accessing, managing, and configuring the services they are consuming.
Resource centric services
The solution provides a very granular level of how services can be constructed and sold. This includes the ability for the MSP to sell prepackaged plans with preset resources or sell individual resources with priced rates and the users decide how much they want to consume.
Table 1: Functional requirements for MSP IaaS Solution
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Nonfunctional requirements
Requirement theme
Description
MSP size and technical capability
Ensure solution can be used by a large range of MSPs from the very small to the very large:

Deliver provisioning and billing automation for smaller hosters

Preintegrated for rapid deployment

Scalable to 20,000 customer accounts

Easy to install and manage

Cost-efficient option
Automatic high availability of customer environments
The solution provides the ability for customer environments to automatically fail over to other nodes if a particular physical node goes down. In this case, the solution will automatically bring the affected virtual environments up on another, healthy physical node.
Scalability
The solution provides all the necessary facilities to easily grow the needed infrastructure as the business needs grow. While the appliance is used to create the initial configuration of hardware and software, it can later be used to add more physical nodes to the system and seamlessly add them to provide more capacity.
Platform
RHEL 6, 64 bit Linux
Customization of core features
Provide standardized functionality with a moderate level of customization.
Table 2: Non-functional requirements for MSP IaaS Solution
The following sections of the document describe the solution architecture that meets the business needs, and the functional and non-functional requirements described in this document.
Architectural overview
The Parallels MSP IaaS solution is based on PBAS, which is an industry-leading billing and hosting automation solution for small and medium web-hosting businesses and MSPs. It helps businesses to maximize revenues; offer a full range of hosting services, including email hosting, shared hosting, virtual private servers with hypervisor-based virtual machines (VMs), dedicated servers, domain registration and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates services. It enables service providers to build their reseller channels and manage affiliates.
PBAS manages all stages of the customer lifecycle. It receives orders from integrated online storefront, provisions services, bills customers for services, collects their payments, and provides them with a web- based control panel that allows them update their services on their own. PBAS is integrated with large number of payment gateways, domain registrars, help desks, service delivery platforms, and other third- party systems for easy and fast extensibility.
Figure 1 outlines the main parts of the Parallels IaaS solution and shows five workflows.
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1.
Online store – The MSP will be able to quickly create an online store to sell their IaaS services. The online store can be completely customized to the MSPs specifications.
2.
Provisioning – The solution includes all the necessary components and logic to automatically provision infrastructure services in the form of preset or configurable virtual servers.
3.
Service management – The user will have complete ability and autonomy to manage all the purchased services through a web-based control panel.
4.
Virtual server access – Users can access their virtual servers directly.
5.
Automated billing/Invoicing – The solution can automatically charge and invoice for any services or resources consumed.
Figure 1: Architectural overview of Parallels MSP IaaS solution
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Component model
A fully deployed Parallels MSP IaaS solution includes the following components:

Pre-deployed PBAS instance for management of the solution.

Parallels virtualization software for running end-user virtual environments (Parallels Cloud Server)

Logic to deploy Parallels Cloud Server on compute nodes inside the IBM Flex System® Chassis in order to use these nodes for providing infrastructure services to users.

Logic for automatically provisioning other nodes within the chassis to serve as virtualization nodes where end-user virtual servers will be hosted.

Logic for registering and enabling provisioned nodes into the PBAS system and prepare them for selling IaaS.
Figure 2 shows the business automation components that are contained in PBAS.
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Major component Description
Monitoring ca
sell IaaS services to users is running smoothly and is not overtaxed on resources. All of the ne
entire lifecycle of providing IaaS services to users. This includes initial provisioning of customer virtual environments, resizing of environments, deprovisioning, and so on. The solution includes a com
services and resources consumed. It also includes the ability to automatically charge customer credit cards on an auto-renew basis. The solution includes a complete set of tools for managing all of the s
provided, including:  Setup and

Setup and modification of service resource

Ability to sell and bundle IaaS resources

Ability to manage and modify existing acc
i
ndividually or in bulk ution includes an online s
online. The online store includes:  Automated payment han

Automatic customer account cr

Automated provisioning of ordered service

Ability to customize the online store to exact
b
randing he platform include
enhanced functionality such as:  Domain registrar plug-i
s
olution  Payment

Fraud screening for detecting and preventing fraudulent credit
c
ard transactions  SSL certificate plug
a
uthorities  Affiliate prog
t
he MSPs IaaS service provided through this solution
Table 3: Com ons
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Operational model
The Parallels MSP IaaS solution is deployed using the IBM PureFlex System. It provides a complete, flexible cloud infrastructure system that is ideally suited for Parallels cloud solutions. IBM PureFlex integrates and optimizes all compute, storage, and networking resources which allows a MSP to deliver an IaaS solution in hours instead of weeks or months. Building, deploying, and managing hardware can be costly and time consuming, but IBM PureFlex System greatly simplifies this process across the entire hardware lifecycle, giving MSPs lower costs and faster time to value. Also, open choice gives you the ability to configure your PureFlex System with a wide variety of elements from IBM and IBM Business Partners, integrating them into an optimized configuration that is simple to acquire and deploy. Choices in critical areas such as architecture, storage, operating systems, hypervisors, and networking allow systems to be optimized and tuned to the enterprise. Compared to typical rack mount server hardware, IBM PureFlex System provides:

Up to 90% reduction in set up labor through pre-integrated hardware

Up to 80% reduction in the cost of the installation and provisioning

Up to 54% more virtual machines per compute node

Up to 80% reduction in operating expense through system-wide integration, management, and security

Reduced downtime due to security issues by up to 50%
IBM PureFlex System components
IBM PureFlex System is an IBM enterprise-class platform specifically created to meet the demands of a virtualized data center, and help clients establish a highly secure private cloud environment. For clients who want to custom-tune their systems, IBM Flex System provides the elements of a PureFlex System, which can be configured and tuned similar to blade products. The features of PureFlex System and Flex System are:

Greatest choice for clients in processor type (x86 and IBM POWER® processors), and OS platform, all in the same chassis, managed from a single point of control.

The IBM Flex System Manager™ is the management console for systems that works with the management tools from companies such as IBM Tivoli®, CA Technologies, or BMC to deliver new management functionality across all resources.

The Flex System networking delivers 50% latency improvement through node-to-node (east-west) traffic rather than routing everything through the top-of-rack switch (north- south).
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Figure 3: IBM Flex System Enterprise Chassis and IBM Flex System Compute Nodes
For more information, visit the IBM PureFlex System and IBM Flex System website at: ibm.com/systems/pureflex/overview.html
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node
The IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node (refer to Figure 4) is a high-performance Intel® Xeon® processor-based server that offers outstanding performance for virtualization with new levels of processor performance and memory capacity, and flexible configuration options for a broad range of workloads. The Flex System x240 Compute Node is ideal for virtualization, with maximum memory support (24 DIMMs and up to 768 GB of memory capacity) and 10 GbE Integrated Virtual Fabric for high networking bandwidth. The Flex System x240 Compute Node also supports IBM Flex System Flash for up to eight 1.8-inch solid-state drives (SSDs) for maximum local storage.
Figure 4: IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node
IBM Flex System Manager
The IBM Flex System Manager™ is a high-performance, scalable system management appliance that is included with IBM PureFlex System and provides a single point of visibility and control across all the compute, storage, network, and virtualization functions. The Flex System Manager can manage all the hardware infrastructure up the level of the kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) hypervisor, in conjunction with and complimenting the capabilities of the Parallels Virtual Automation management console. As an example, the Flex System Manager provides built-in capability for an MSP to define security and maintenance / upgrade policies, monitor for compliance, and flag exceptions across the entire hardware
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infrastructure, saving considerable time and cost. Here is a summary of the capabilities of Flex System Manager.

Single point of control: Management of physical and virtual compute, storage, and networking resources from a single management console.

Smart provisioning: Simple and repeatable hardware configuration and bare metal provisioning for server nodes, and five-click creation and zoning of storage volumes.

Upward integration: Integrate hardware management functions with VMware vCenter or Microsoft System Center.

Mobile management: Monitor your infrastructure from anywhere using iOS, Android, and Blackberry mobile devices.

Increased scalability: Manage up to 16 IBM Flex System virtualized chassis, 224 compute nodes, and a total of 5000 end points from a single Flex System Manager.
Figure 5: IBM Flex System Manager
IBM Storwize V7000
The IBM Storwize V7000 virtualized storage system is designed to consolidate workloads into a single storage system for simplicity of management, reduced cost, highly scalable capacity, performance, and high availability. It offers improved efficiency and flexibility through built-in flash storage optimization, thin provisioning and non-disruptive migration from existing storage. The benefits of the IBM Storwize V7000 storage include:

Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10 disk arrays

Flash storage for applications that demand high speed and quick access to data

Scale up to two-hundred forty 2.5-inch disk drives per Storwize V7000 system using nine expansion units (20U)

Clustering of up to four Storwize V7000 systems together for a total of up to 960 drives (80U)

A potential three times performance improvement by moving as little as five percent of data to flash storage using the IBM System Storage® Easy Tier® feature.

Storing up to five times more active primary data in the same physical disk space using IBM Real-time Compression™ technology

Near-continuous availability of applications through dynamic migration
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
Easy-to-use data management designed with a graphical user interface (GUI) and point- and-click system management capabilities

Metro Mirror and Global Mirror for replicating data synchronously or asynchronously between systems for backup efficiency

Host attachment through storage area network (SAN)-attached 8 Gbps Fibre Channel, 1 Gbps iSCSI and optional 10 Gbps iSCSI / FCoE
Figure 6: IBM Storwize V7000 (2.5 inch drive model with 24 drives)
For more information, refer to ibm.com/systems/storage/disk/storwize_v7000/overview.html. Note that the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified disk system is not recommended for VDI workloads.
Parallels appliance
The purpose of the Parallels MSP IaaS Solution on PureFlex System is to make it as easy, fast, and automated as possible for an MSP to order IBM hardware, set up the necessary software, and go to market with an IaaS offering. The Parallels MSP IaaS solution is provided as a Open Virtualization Archive (OVA) file. The OVA file contains the Parallels appliance which is installed by the Flex System Manager as a KVM virtual machine. The Parallels appliance has been designed to automatically deploy the needed components into as many other physical nodes as required; the MSP only needs to specify a small number of configuration parameters.
The Parallels appliance deployment is straightforward and its physical footprint is minimal. There is only one way of deploying the solution, although there are some considerations that need to be taken into account. These are outlined in the following sections. Figure 7 outlines the physical layout of the appliance.
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Figure 7: Physical layout of solution
The internal layout of the solution is automatically deployed and managed by the appliance. The physical parts of the solution are:

The Parallels appliance which contains all of the logic and platform components. The Parallels appliance is deployed from a standard OVA file using Flex System Manager and runs inside the appliance management node as virtual machine under KVM.

Physical Flex System Compute Nodes that provide the virtualization capability to run customer virtual servers. After the Parallels appliance is deployed, the MSP is able to specify which nodes in the Flex System chassis must be used to provide infrastructure services as part of the overall system. The Parallels appliance can then install, register, and activate all these components.
The Parallels appliance will be installed in the context of the MSP’s data center. Although the Parallels appliance can run in a self-contained fashion, there are considerations to be taken into account for capacity, networking, and security:

Capacity – node sizing is dependent on the types of virtual servers and workloads that will be sold. The nodes need to be balanced with respect to processor, RAM, and storage performance (covered in detail in later sections).

Networking into the solution
-
Users will access their control panel through the PBAS management node, which runs inside the Parallels appliance. There must be a network path into this appliance from the outside.
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-
Network capacity planning is needed to understand the bandwidth requirements of the end-user virtual servers.

Security
-
An individual MSP should decide on and implement the firewall and access policies in the Parallels solution. The Parallels solution has documented preconfigured security settings. It is recommended that the MSP reviews these settings and make any appropriate changes.
-
Ideally, the network for the virtual servers is isolated from the data center’s internal network. The MSP should decide on the subnet, virtual local area network (VLAN) and level of isolation.
-
The Flex System Manager can help with monitoring and enforcing security policies for the infrastructure.
After the solution is deployed, it can run independently of any other IT components on the MSP’s network. Other than the amount of network traffic generated from customer services and control panel access, the solution might have no impact on other services running on the network.
Figure 7 also specifies the four types of traffic flows generated by users of the system:

Line 1 – Network traffic for users accessing the MSP’s online store (if used). The online store is hosted inside the Parallels IaaS appliance. Traffic to this component is likely to be low.

Line 2 – Network traffic for users accessing the service management capabilities through the web-based control panel. This component is hosted inside the Parallels IaaS appliance. Traffic to this component is likely to be low.

Line 3 - Network traffic generated by users logging on to their virtual servers and any traffic generated by applications and secondary users of those virtual servers.
-
The amount of traffic is very difficult to predict and depends heavily on the applications, workloads, and types of customers who use these services.
-
Each node will host multiple virtual servers, and therefore, the network should be sized accordingly.
-
PBAS provides the ability to limit network bandwidth per virtual environment.
-
PBAS provides the ability to limit monthly network usage and to charge for overages.

Line 4 – Network traffic generated by the system for automatic billing and invoice emailing. This traffic will be minimal. IBM PureFlex System solution for Parallels MSP
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Deployment considerations
Beyond the considerations outlined in the operational model, the MSP must also decide on certain go-to- market activities. The following activities specifically require technical and product knowledge.

The main considerations for deploying the solution are for sizing the physical infrastructure and networking. This is covered in detail in the “Infrastructure sizing” section below.

The type of hosting plans that the MSP wants to offer includes:
-
OS types for virtual servers
-
Resource configurations and available upsells

For each hosting plan, a certain amount of configuration is required.
-
For selling hypervisor based VMs, the MSP must create a VM image as outlined in the PBAS documentation. This image will be the starting point that will get provisioned when a new customer signs up for the VM service.
-
VM images can be used by multiple hosting plans; it is not necessary to create one for each plan the MSP wants to sell.
-
For selling container-based virtual environments, the MSP must set up the required OS templates as defined in the PBAS documentation.
-
After the hosting plans and the required images and OS templates have been set up, the MSP is ready to sell IaaS.
The solution comes prepackaged to include high availability of customer virtual servers.
Systems management
The appliance bundles the appropriate Parallels management tools to manage and maintain the solution after initial deployment. The main administrative interfaces are through the PBAS control panel and the Parallels Virtual Automation console. Figure 8 shows the Parallels Virtual Automation console with seven servers under Management (in the left pane).
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Figure 8: Parallels Virtual Automation console
The MSP internal system administrators can use the Parallels Virtual Automation console for management of the appliance components, physical nodes that are hosting virtual servers, and customer virtual servers. The main activities for maintaining the Parallels software components of the system are:

Backup and recovery – This can be done manually or scheduled through the Parallels Virtual Automation console:
-
The core components of the appliance can be backed up, including the PBAS management node, Domain Name System (DNS) servers, and so on.
-
Customer virtual environments can be backed up periodically with the same method. Customers can also be given the ability to run their own backups and recoveries through their control panel.
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Figure 9: Backup and recovery

Monitoring – Parallels Virtual Automation includes a rudimentary monitoring system to track resource usage across all virtual environments.
-
This can be used to monitor core components of the solution including the PBAS management node and DNS servers.
-
It can also be used to monitor servers where customer services are running.
Figure 10: Monitoring

Hardware management and monitoring of the PureFlex System itself (chassis, compute nodes, storage, and networking) can be done through the Flex System Manager interface (refer to the “Appendix B: Resources” section for more details).
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Compute nodes
This solution requires:

One appliance management node (that runs using KVM)
-
The appliance’s necessary resource allocation might vary depending on the expected load on the system and the size of the MSP’s IaaS business. Refer to the “Infrastructure sizing” section for specific sizing guidance.
-
Minimum requirements for the appliance’s resource allocations are:

Four processor cores, 2 GHz or more

6 GB RAM

40 GB Storage space

One or more Flex System compute nodes (runs the users’ virtual environments)
-
The sizing of the Flex System compute node is strictly dependent on workloads. Refer to the “Infrastructure sizing” section for specific szing guidance.
-
Only x86_64 nodes are supported.
-
Recommend using 10% to 20% extra nodes for failover. If a compute node fails, then users can be moved to other nodes that have spare capacity..
Networking
The deployment of the application assumes that all nodes inside the Flex System chassis are wired into an internal switch and can communicate with each other. In order to have communication between all the nodes and components of the solution, an internal network is set up on the 192.168.201.x/24 band. There also exists the possibility of IP conflicts if the MSP uses this subnet in their data center, although this subnet was chosen because it would be a rare band within a data center.
The internal network will also run a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service for bare metal provisioning purposes. This service can be turned off after all the nodes are provisioned and configured. To guard against conflicts, the MSP should be aware of this fact and make sure that they are not running other DHCP services on the same network segment.
Refer to the “Parallels appliance” section for an overview of where the majority of network traffic will be generated and how to plan for it.
Storage integration
The storage configuration is an important consideration because the nodes where customer virtual servers run will require a balanced combination of resources to provide consistent and reasonably performing services. The shared storage can be connected using Fibre Channel (FC) or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). While both FC and FcoE can be used, many MSP are most comfortable with the established technology of FC.
Infrastructure sizing
Sizing an infrastructure depends on many variables, including the type of offering, customer and workload that will use the infrastructure. The most important dependency is the type of workload, which is customer specific, so each deployment will have to go through a sizing exercise. The physical nodes where
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customer services (virtual servers) will run will have to be sized in a way that balances processor, RAM and storage performance.
Overprovisioning considerations
Overprovisioning of physical resources can be used to provide higher levels of density and hardware utilization. The decision to overprovision and how much to overprovision is typically a business decision based on the level of service the MSP wants to offer as well as the cost structure of the offering. The decision should be strictly guided and bounded by technical and staff considerations, as it does introduce a level of risk into the infrastructure. The MSP has to decide the level of overprovisioning they will use based on:

The comfort level in running a virtualized infrastructure

The ability and technical capacity to monitor and adjust a virtualized infrastructure dynamically as the need arises

The guaranteed level of service they want to offer to customers
Overcommitting resources require the MSP to have strict monitoring processes to overlook the infrastructure as it goes into production. It also requires experienced staff to operate and deal with unexpected resource peaks. Overcommitting is best done as a continuous balancing of server resources to match demand. Any of the three major resources can be overcommitted (processor, RAM and I/O). With the Parallels IaaS solution, overcommitting of resources can be done in a gradual manner as the MSP becomes more comfortable with the customers’ workloads and the system’s response to it. The solution also allows the MSP to dynamically balance the load on an infrastructure by live migrating end user environments between nodes without any downtime.
Processor and RAM considerations
Processor and RAM sizing should be done based on the type of the required offering and guarantee level. The MSP will have to decide what kind of performance characteristics to offer in their service and what level of overprovisioning they are comfortable with. Processor is typically the most overprovisioned resource. The Parallels IaaS solution enables the MSP to easily tweak the levels of overprovisioning of hardware dynamically and without service interruption.
For example, a MSP wants to sell 1000 MHz, one core and 1 Gb RAM container based virtual servers. The MSP is comfortable with overprovisioning to a 1.5 factor. This means that the MSP has calculated that not all virtual servers will be active/consuming all of their resources at the same time. Therefore, it is safe to put 50% more limits on the virtual servers than the HW can physically support.
For RAM, each virtual server requires 1 GB (for 200 virtual servers – 200 GB). Assuming an extra 10% memory for the hypervisor, 200 virtual servers require an additional 20 GB or a total of 220 GB RAM. Then adding an overprovisioning factor of 1.5, the total memory needed is 220/1.5 or about 147 GB RAM.
A similar calculation can be done to size the processor requirement.
Storage considerations
The storage sizing depends on the outcome of the processor and RAM sizing. These three resources should be balanced to provide the optimal performance for the intended workload. The storage sizing is very dependent on the OS being offered, as different OSs have varying ranges of I/O consumption during idle and active periods:

On average, Windows VMs idle at 5 to 20 input/output operations per second (IOPS)

On average, Linux VMs idle at 5 to 10 IOPS
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
On average, Linux containers idle at 0 to 2 IOPS
I/O capacity (bandwidth and IOPS) is immensely dependent on the workload inside the virtual environments. This is the main driver in determining the required capacity of the storage system.
In general terms, the number of virtual servers and OS mix determines the lower bound (idling) of the storage system sizing and an extra 10% should be added for the hypervisor. For determining the upper bounds of the storage system capacity and performance, the entire expected workload I/O load for all expected virtual servers should be added to this base (idling) capacity. I/O can also be overprovisioned with the Parallels IaaS solution.
Hosting providers today range from IOPS guarantees of 10 to hundreds of IOPS for high end, big data hosting plans.
The following extends the example from the processor and RAM section and add a rough storage sizing for the same server. If the MSP has the same target of 200 virtual servers:

Two IOPS maximum idling for Linux virtual servers – 400 IOPS lower bound

IOPS guarantee of 10 per virtual server (low-end service) – 2,000 IOPS

IOPS guarantee of 100 per virtual server (high-end service) – 20,000 IOPS
I/O bandwidth can also be calculated in this way, although random, small IOPS (4k) are more typical in virtualization workloads.
In this case, the performance range of the storage system varies quite a bit depending on what level of service the MSP wants to offer. Parallels can help with sizing complex solutions.
The IBM Disk Magic utility can be used to size a Storwize V7000 storage solution based on the required IOPS and storage capacity. The utility also provides help with sizing Flash drives to use with the Storwize V7000 Easy Tier facility for caching of heavily used read and write data. The Disk Magic tool is used by IBM technical sales or an IBM Business Partner who can help with ordering the hardware.
In general, storage for the Parallels solution tends to be capacity bound. Therefore, it might also be useful to optionally incorporate the IBM Storwize compression to reduce the number of drives. The Comprestimator utility is used to estimate the amount of compression based on sampling of real I/O requests. Compression/decompression adds an extra compute load to the V7000 which should be balanced against the available IOPS and achievable compression ratio.
Detailed example of hardware sizing
The following example for sizing user services is for illustrative purposes only and is greatly simplified. It should only be used as a starting point to guide sizing calculations.
Services offered
The MSP is sizing a PureFlex system for offering Linux virtual servers based on container virtualization. The offered virtual servers for users will have the following specifications:

2 cores - 2 GHz each

2 GB RAM

100 GB Storage
Assumptions
Based on the type of virtual servers offered and the typical customer profile the MSP expects, the following assumptions are made by the MSP.
18


All the virtual servers will have the same specifications.

All the workloads are of medium intensity and include database-driven websites, web services, or SaaS applications. All processor usage is low and there are no heavy databases or heavy computation (HPC).
Overprovisioning
In this example, the MSP has decided to enter the mid-market of IaaS offerings and has included the following overprovisioning assumptions in their calculations:

MSP will only guarantee 12.5 IOPS or 12.5 MBps in I/O

MSP is comfortable with overcommitting:
-
RAM to 50%
-
Processor to 300%
-
I/O to 100%
Resource sizing
The sizing of resources is derived from the assumptions and the decisions made in the previous sections.
Per virtual server, the sizing is as follows:

Processor: 2 cores * 2 GHz / 4 Overcommit * 1.1 Overhead = 1.1 GHz units per virtual server

RAM: 2 GB RAM / 1.5 Overcommit * 1.1 overhead = 1.47 GB RAM per virtual server

I/O: 12.5 IOPS guaranteed per container is the minimum in this example
If, for example, the MSP wanted to offer a service that can match local storage IOPS (100 IOPS), then this would be considered as a mid- to high-tier offering.
100 IOPS / 2 Overcommit * 1.1 Overhead = Approximately 55 IOPS per virtual server

Disk space: 100 GB usable per container / 50% overprovision = 50 GB usable per virtual server
Total sizing for 50 virtual servers
Multiplying the numbers in the previous section by 50 for 50 virtual servers gives:

Processors: 55 GHz units = 20 cores at 2.8 GHz – Processor is the bounding resource in this example

RAM: 73.5 GB

I/O: 2750 IOPS (688 IOPS minimum for guaranteed service)

Disk space: 2.5TB
19

Scaling the solution
The solution has been designed to grow along with the needs of the MSP and there are two main considerations for scaling the solution.

Core components of the solution (PBAS management node, DNS, and so on)

The user services on customer virtual servers
Initial deployment of the solution can be as small as one virtualization node – the minimum deployment is for the Parallels appliance to deploy on the appliance management node and an additional Flex System compute node for hosting virtual servers. This can support a small load of users, that is, approximately around 1000 customer accounts.
As the MSP’s IaaS business grows, the capacity of solution can be easily expanded. The MSP can deploy more PureFlex System nodes to host customer virtual servers. The method to achieve this is the same as the initial deployment of servers. The appliance automatically configures all new nodes to be included in the management tools and sellable infrastructure.
In order to increase capacity to support more users, the MSP can perform the following steps:
1.
Increase the resource limits for solution components. From within the Parallels Virtual Automation console, the customer is able to increase the RAM, processor, and storage allocated to each component.
2.
Increase the resources assigned to the KVM VM where the Parallels appliance runs. This can be done in concert with the previous resource alignment.
3.
Migrate solution components out of the Parallels appliance to dedicated hardware. Migration can be done live and therefore, there will be no downtime.
After the PBAS limit of 20,000 customer accounts is approached, the MSP will need to deploy another instance of the Parallels appliance or move to a higher capacity solution such as Parallels Automation.
20

Appendix A: Bill of materials
This section provides a sample configuration for approximately 500 users (10 compute nodes) as discussed in the “Detailed example of hardware sizing” section in page 18. Two compute nodes are added to provide extra capacity in case of compute node failure. The IBM Storwize V7000 system is connected to the Flex System chassis using Fibre Channel. This configuration is for illustrative purposes only.
Product
Description
Qty
Chassis
7893-92X
IBM Flex System Enterprise Chassis 1:7893 Model 92X
1
9038
Base ITE Fans (4X)
1
9039
Base Chassis Management Element
1
3592
Chassis Management Element for Redundancy
1
9059
Base 2500W Power Module Indicator
2
3590
Redundant 2500W Power Module
4
7805
Additional (2X) ITE Fans for Chassis
2
ESW7
IBM Flex System EN4093R 10Gb Virtual Fabric Scalable Switch
2
3596
IBM Flex System Fabric EN4093/E4093R 10Gb Scalable Switch (Upgrade 1)
2
ESW5
IBM Flex System FC5022 24-port 16Gb SAN Scalable Switch
2
ETS2
Non-Transparent Switch Mode Indicator
1
5371
Brocade 16 Gb SFP+ Transceiver Module
8
3286
8 Gb SFP+ Short Wave Optic Transceiver
4
EB28
SFP+ Transceiver
4
EB29
1000Base-T SFP RJ45 Transceiver
4
EB2B
1m (3.3-ft) IBM Passive QSFP+ To QSFP+ Cable
1
1111
CAT5E Ethernet Cable, 3M BLUE
4
ECB2
1.5M CAT5 Ethernet Cable (Blue)
1
4558
Power Cord (2.5 M), To PDU/UPS, (100-240V/16A)
6
A2RR
IBM Flex System Management Serial Access Cable
2
EFM1
IBM Fabric Manager
1
Rack
7953-94X
IBM PureFlex System 42U Rack:7953-94X 2.0M FLEX RACK
1
6492
4.3m (14-Ft) 1PH/48-60A 200-240V Power Cord
2
7189
Power Distribution Unit (Worldwide) - 1 EIA Unit, Universal, UTG0247 Connector
2
EC02
Rack Rear Door
1
EC03
Rack Side Cover
1
EU21
Rack Front Door (Tri-plex, Blue)
1
4651
Rack Indicator, Rack 1
2
21

Product
Description
Qty
Flex System Manager
7955-01M
IBM Flex System Manager:7955 Model 01M
1
1771
IBM 200 GB 1.8-inch SATA Solid State Drive
2
3767
1TB 7.2K RPM 2.5 inch SATA Disk Drive
1
EM09
8GB (2x4GB RDIMMs) DDR3 1333 MHz System Memory
4
Application Management Node
8737-15X
IBM Flex System x240:8737 Model 15X
1
A4P5
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node v2 - embedded 10Gb Virtual Fabric
1
A4PB
Intel Xeon Processor E5-2620 v2 6C 2.1GHz 15MB 1600MHz 80W
1
A3QH
8GB (1x8GB, 1Rx4, 1.35V) PC3L-12800 CL11 ECC DDR3 1600MHz LP RDIMM
4
A1BL
IBM Flex System Compute Node 2.5in SAS 2.0 Backplane
1
A2XC
IBM 300GB 10K 6Gbps SAS 2.5" SFF G2HS HDD
2
A1BP
IBM Flex System FC5022 2-port 16Gb FC Adapter
1
Compute Nodes
8737-15X
IBM Flex System x240:8737 Model 15X
12
A4P5
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node v2 - embedded 10Gb Virtual Fabric
12
A4PH
Intel Xeon Processor E5-2680 v2 10C 2.8GHz 25MB Cache 1866MHZ 115W
12
A4Q4
Addl Intel Xeon Processor E5-2680 v2 10C 2.8GHz 25MB 1866MHz 115W
12
A3QJ
8GB (1x8GB, 2Rx8, 1.5V) PC3-14900 CL13 ECC DDR3 1866MHz LP RDIMM
192
A1BL
IBM Flex System Compute Node 2.5in SAS 2.0 Backplane
12
A282
IBM 900GB 10K 6Gbps SAS 2.5in SFF HS HDD
24
A1BP
IBM Flex System FC5022 2-port 16Gb FC Adapter
12
SAN Storage
2076-124
IBM Storwize V7000 Disk Control Enclosure
1
3514
400 GB 2.5-inch SSD (for Easy Tier)
2
3549
900GB 6Gb SAS 10K 2.5-inch SFF HDD
22
5600
PureFlex Fiber Cable
4
EFDA
IBM PureFlex System Express Indicator
1
2076-224
IBM Storwize V7000 Disk Expansion Enclosure
1
3514
400 GB 2.5-inch SSD (for Easy Tier)
2
3549
900GB 6Gb SAS 10K 2.5-inch SFF HDD
22
5401
1 m 6 Gb/s external mini SAS
2
EFDA
IBM PureFlex System Express Indicator
1
22

Appendix B: Resources
 PBAS website http://www.parallels.com/products/pba-standard/
 PBAS documentation http://www.parallels.com/products/pba-standard/resources/
 PBAS provider’s guide (for MSP) http://download.pa.parallels.com/pbas/doc/PBAS_PG.pdf
 IBM Flex System Manager reference ibm.com/redbooks/abstracts/tips0862.html
 Comprestimator utility ibm.com/support/customercare/sas/f/comprestimator
23

Trademarks and special notices
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2014.
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in every country.
IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at "Copyright and trademark information" at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Intel, Intel Inside (logos), MMX, and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
Information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind.
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance characteristics may vary by customer.
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products, published announcement material, or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of such products by IBM. Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly available information, including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages. IBM has not tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, capability, or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the supplier of those products.
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only. Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the full text of the specific Statement of Direction.
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities. Such information is not intended as a definitive statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance, function or delivery schedules with respect to any future products. Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements. The information is presented here to communicate IBM's current investment and development activities as a good faith effort to help with our customers' future planning.
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here.
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes. Changes may be incorporated in production models.
24

25
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites. The materials at those websites are not part of the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk.

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