Infra project report1

NationalCollege of Ireland
Project Submission Sheet – 2013/2014
School of Computing
Student Name: Gaurav Lakhani AND Jitendra Kumar Sharma
Student ID: x14111284 and x01315057
Programme: M.sc cloud computing Year: 2014
Module: INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
Lecturer: VIKAS SAHNI
Submission Due Date: 30-nov-2014
Project Title: HYBRID CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT REPORT
Word Count: 2,486 words
I hereby certify that the information contained in this (my submission) is information
pertaining to research I conducted for this project. All information other than my own
contribution will be fully referenced and listed in the relevant bibliography section at the
rear of the project.
ALL internet material must be referenced in the bibliography section. Students are
encouraged to use the Harvard Referencing Standard supplied by the Library. To use other
author's written or electronic work is illegal (plagiarism) and may result in disciplinary
action. Students may be required to undergo a viva (oral examination) if there is suspicion
about the validity of their submitted work.
Signature: Gaurav Lakhani
Date: 30-nov-2014

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placed into the assignment box located outside the office.
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Date:
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Hybrid Cloud between VMware and Amazon Web Services
+
Module: Infrastructure Management
Team: Jitendra Kumar Sharma (x01315057)
Gaurav Lakhani(x14111284)
Blog: http://configurecloud.blogspot.ie/

Contents:
1. Project Plan
2. Introduction
3. Comparison and Critical Analysis of available options
4. Architecture
5. Prerequisites for creating VMware vSphere private cloud
6. Implementation of Private cloud
7. Provisioning of Public Cloud
8. References

1. Project plan:
This Project is focused on building a hybrid cloud using two existing cloud management
tools and cloud services. Of all the possible options and choices we have proposed to connect
VMware private cloud to Amazon Web Services for provisioning and scheduling of
workloads. In this report we have tried to list down all the other available choices,
prerequisites, advantages, gaps and detailed steps to configure the private and public clouds
and provisioning of workloads between two clouds.
2. Introduction:
Amazon Web Services is a business unit within Amazon.com specializing in providing
cloud services. Of all other offerings, it provides IT Infrastructure as a service through its
well known service EC2.Amazon EC2 provides a scalable computing capacity which is
much economic than building a private infrastructure. It provides a scalable infrastructure
with flexibility to tune it on demand. This AWS and EC2 will serve the purpose of Public
Cloud for our project.
VMware vSphere is a suite of software including a hypervisor ESXi, a management server
vCenter Server and client tool called vSphere client. VMware vSphere suite collectively with
all the components provides features and functionality to configure a private cloud. It
additionally provides a lot of other features for provisioning, scheduling and centralized
management of the private cloud.
3. Comparison and Critical Analysis of available options:
Hybrid Cloud is the collaboration of two or more clouds be it private, public or community.
Choosing the right platform to build or subscribe to a public cloud or the combination is
really essential so that it should be convenient to integrate, more economic and should
provide all the features and functionality to meet the changing requirements of the business.
As far as the design for a hybrid cloud is concerned, there can be multiple combinations of
private and public cloud. Some of the major contenders for building a private cloud are
Open Stack, Eucalyptus, VMware, Citrix, Cloud Stack, Microsoft HyperV, Abiquo
Private Cloud Solutions, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, CA Technologies Cloud
Solutions, Cisco Private Cloud solutions, Citrix Cloud Platform (Open Source),Cloud
Stack. As far as the public cloud is concerned, the major public cloud service providers are
CITRIX, MICROSOFT, AMAZON WEB SERVICES, VERIZON, SALESFORCE,
VMWARE, HP, IBM and many more.

Out of these private and public cloud providers, a few of the possible combinations for
configuring a hybrid cloud can be
1) OPENSTACK and AWS
2) VMWARE and AWS
3) VMWARE and MICROSOFT AZURE
4) OPENSTACK and MICROSOFT AZURE
5) VMWARE and VMWARE CLOUDAIR
6) EUCALYPTUS and MICROSOFT AZURE
7) MICROSOFT HYPER-V and WINDOWS AZURE
8) EUCALYPTUS AND AWS and many more….
But the concern is which platform should one choose for private cloud and will it be
compatible with the public cloud platform? Things to be kept in mind while choosing a
private cloud platform is whether we will be able to take advantage of it and get benefits
from the platform or not.
Talking about private cloud platforms, Open Stack is better than cloud stack and
Eucalyptus because it provides a lot more command over its elements but talking in terms of
flexibility, it is a risky option because it involves lots of configuration to start and get
running. VMware, on the other hand provides orchestration, networking and common
management to build a private cloud which ultimately leads to better scalability, flexibility
and enhanced performance. Though open stack is really enthusiastic and really good for new
users but it has “no strong power base” and not many clouds have been built using its
technology. One on side where eucalyptus sees itself complimentary to AWS and is
compatible with AWS API’s, Open stack aims to be a public cloud platform and to be a
challenger of AWS. And VMware no doubt is the confirmed leader in virtualization
providing best class service and support.
Talking about public cloud like Microsoft and AWS, AWS provides far better services and
products than Microsoft. The other cloud providers lack behind AWS in terms of auto
scaling, instant self service provisioning. AWS is a great leader in public cloud but
Microsoft Azure has an upper hand on AWS when it comes to expanding block storage
volumes. Microsoft has not much to do with auto scaling and has scalability restrictions and
also there is no provisioning of load balancing. However, AWS is the leader and best known
for its rapid infrastructure management.
Microsoft and open stack are completely secondary to AWS and VMware.

Design Chosen:
The combination of VMware and AWS is chosen due to the following features:
1) Easy incorporation of AWS to existing VMware operations: The VMware vCenter
abilities can be extended to AWS to combine implementation, organization, and
administration of hybrid domains. The migration, workloads and all the on premises
resources are smooth and uninterrupted in VMware. The management infrastructure is best
suited for building hybrid clouds.
2) Maintenance, controlling and movability of data: The enterprises as well as the
customers can combine the power of Amazon EC2 with VMware private cloud storage. The
organizations can have flexibility and easy access to the public cloud while maintaining the
mobility and performance of the data using private storage.
3) Utilizing AWS for data protection of VM’s at low cost: AWS can be easily unified with
VMware vCenter and can provide uninterrupted ongoing business, recovery from disaster.
The feature of replication and backup is also included along with these.
4) Running High Performance Workloads: The workloads will move with greater speed
and will be more reliable and moreover AWS service providers can provide low latency in a
hybrid environment and hence no interruption in the applications running on different VM’s.
5) Quick Implementation with unified products: the implementation is easy leading to
low deployment costs when compared to other complex hybrid solutions.

4. Architecture:
VMware vSphere manages large infrastructure and resource collections such as CPU, storage
and networking as a dynamic operating environment and simplify the datacenter
management. The vSphere software stack is made of three components namely
virtualization, management and interface layers.
The relationship between three layers are depicted as below-
Virtualization Layer:
This layer consists of infrastructure service and application services. The components of
infrastructure services like compute, storage and network services abstract combine and
allocate hardware resources.

Infrastructure Services are of three types:
Compute service: The capability to abstract away from underlying hardware resources. It
combines the resources across many hardware and offers them collectively to the
applications.
Storage Service: Set of services making use and management of storage more efficient.
Network Service: This is the service that enables networking in Virtual environment.
Management Layer:
vCenter Server is the centralized location for provisioning, scheduling, monitoring and
managing the virtual infrastructure.
Interface Layer:
This layer provides tools to access the vSphere datacenter through graphical vSphere client
or browser based web client.
5. Prerequisites for creating VMware vSphere private cloud:
Component Hardware Requirement Software Requirement
vSphere(ESXi)
Server 64-bit x86 CPUs
Installs on Bare metal,No software
dependency
4 GB RAM
Intel VT-x or AMD RVI support
NX/XD bit to be enabled for the CPU in the
BIOS
10 GBHarddrive
x64 multicore processors
10Gb Ethernet controllers
vCenter Server
Intel or AMD x64 processor,two logical
cores,2GHzs 64-bit operating
4 GB RAM Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 Framework
40 GB Harddrive
Microsoft Windows Installer version 4.5
(MSI 4.5
1Gbps Network speed
vSphere client/ 2GHz processor with two or more cores Windows 32-bit and 64-bit,Mac OS
vSphere web client 2 GB Harddrive Internet Explorer 8, 9 (64-bit only), and 10
Gigabit connection Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome

6. Implementation of Private Cloud:
VMware Private Cloud
VMware Private Cloud consists of one or more hypervisor (ESXi) on which virtual machines
will be created. Management Server (vCenter Server) is used to manage this Hypervisor and
a client tool (vSphere client) to access this management server. A shared storage can also be
used in case if more than one hypervisor is used. The shared storage can be used to enable
some advance features of private cloud like HA (High Availability) and Fault tolerance.
General layout of our private cloud-
We have tried to replicate a real private cloud environment in virtualized environment using
VMware Workstation. VMware workstation can be downloaded from
http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/workstation-evaluation
This VMware private cloud is configured in five stages-
1. Active Directory installation and Domain Creation
2. VMware vSphere (ESXi) installation
3. vCenter Server installation
4. vSphere Client installation
5. Accessing, Provisioning and self scheduling in private cloud

Detailed steps:
Step 1: Active Directory installation and Domain Creation
We have configured our domain on windows 2k8 R2 server. ISO image for the same can be
downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=11093
To configure the domain controller, we have installed win2k8 server on a virtual machine in
VMware workstation and renamed the machine as 'DC'. On win2k8 server's Desktop, we
have launched the Server Manager and added Domain controller and DNS roles. Steps for
the same is as given below-
Go to Server Manager>>Roles>>Right click>>Add Roles>>Active Directory Domain
Services>>Next>>Next>>Install>>Close
Once the AD is installed, we created our domain 'esx.com' by running 'dcpromo' command
on the run window. Detailed steps are as given below-

Go to windows start>>run>>type 'dcpromo'>>Next>>Next>>Create a new domain in a new
forest>>Set the FQDN of the forest root domain (We have set it as esx.com)>>set forest
functional level to 'windows server 2003'>>set domain function level to 'windows 2003
server>>select DNS Server>>Next>>set 'Directory service restore mode administrator'
password>>Next>>Finish

Step 2: VMware vSphere (ESXi) installation
We downloaded the VMware vSphere ISO image from:
https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsp
here_hypervisor_esxi/5_0
Steps to install VMware vSphere (ESXi) server:
On VMware workstation, File>>New Virtual Machine>>Typical>>Installer disk image file
(ISO): locate your ESXi ISO and Next>>Name your virtual Machine>>Choose location
to save your Virtual Machine>>Select Hard drive Size >> Next>>Customize Hardware>>
increase RAM to 4 GB>>Close>>Finish

Power on Virtual Machine>>Enter to continue>>Press F11 to accept license and
continue>>Enter>>Select Keyboard Layout>>Set Password for ESXi server>>Press
F11>>Enter to reboot.

Press F2 and enter the password to login to the ESXi Server and set the management
network, DNS settings and hostname>>Highlight 'Configure Management Network' and
press enter to setup IP address and DNS.
Once the Hypervisor was installed and configured, we installed and configured the
management server.
Step 3: vCenter Server installation
Download windows 2k8 R2 server from http://www.microsoft.com/en-
in/download/details.aspx?id=11093 and vCenter server ISO from
https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details/vc50/dHRAYnQldEBiZHBqcA==
We have Installed Windows 2008 R2 on a new virtual machine on our VMware workstation.
Once win2k8 Server is ready, connect the vCenter server ISO to the 2k8 R2 server and run
the autorun file.

From the menu>>Highlight 'vCenter Server' link and click install>>Accept license
>>Next>>Enter user details and license information>>Install Microsoft SQL server as
default database>> select 'use system account'>>Create standalone VMware vCenter server
instance>>Next>>select inventory size as small>>vCenter will install successfully and ready
to use.

Step 4: vSphere Client installation:
vSphere Client installation files are integrated in the same vCenter setup ISO file we
downloaded before. Open the same file and click 'autorun' to launch the program>>Highlight
vSphere Client and click Install>>Select Language>>OK>>Next>>Next>>Accept License
>>Next>>Enter Customer information >>Next>>Next Install>>Finish
Step 5: Accessing, Provisioning and Self Scheduling in private cloud
As we install all the required components for the private cloud, we access the hypervisor and
configured it to provision and schedule workloads.
Steps followed are as mentioned below:
Open vSphere client>>Enter IP address of the vCenter Server>>Choose 'use windows
session credentials'>>Login. It will log in to the vCenter server where we will register our
hypervisor ESXi.

Once logged in to the vCenter Server, we need to create a Data Center in it within which the
hypervisors will be added. Followed the below mentioned steps to achieve the same.
Click on the 'Datacenters' tab>>New Datacenter>>name it as Dcenter.
Once Datacenter is created, we added the hypervisor in it.
Right click 'Dcenter' on the left panel>>Add host>>in the host field, enter the IP address of
your ESXi server>>enter ESXi username and password>>Next>>Next>>highlight the
'Dcenter' to which this hypervisor will be added>>Next

Once the ESXi hypervisor was added to vCenter server, we provisioned our first virtual
machine.
Right Click the ESXi server>>Create Virtual machine>>Typical>>Name virtual
machine>>Dcenter>>highlight Dcenter>>Select network>>Next>>Thin provision>> Finish.

A new virtual machine was created with the selected operating system and this completed
our first requirement of configuring the private cloud.
Scheduling and Self Provisioning
We can also schedule the creation of VMs so that a new machine will be self provisioned
without minimal human interaction.
Steps followed are as mentioned below:
 In the navigation bar, click Home>Management>Scheduled Tasks. The current list
of scheduled tasks appears.
 In the toolbar, click New
 In the Select a Task to Schedule dialog box, select a task(Create a new virtual
machine) and click OK to open the wizard for that task
 Complete the wizard that opens for the task.
 Enter a task name and task description and click Next
 Select a Frequency and specify a start Time
A New machine will be provisioned automatically as per the specified time.

7. Public Cloud Provisioning:
As our private cloud was configured, next we provisioned the public cloud. We chose AWS
as our public cloud platform due to its API (Application Program Interface) rich features and
support for different virtualized environment. AWS management portal can be accessed from
http://aws.amazon.com/ from where we can login to our account and avail the services
provided by AWS.
Click on signing to console>>Enter your username and password
Username:****@***.com
Password:*************
Once logged in to the console, we need to setup our IAM user and a VPC (virtual private
cloud) that will be used later in our future work to integrate AWS with VMware private
cloud.
From the AWS console, click on 'Identity and Access Management'>>Create individual IAM
users>>Manage users>>Enter User name>>Create

Creating VPC:
Click 'Services' on top left of the screen>>VPC>>Start VPC wizard>>select>>Provide VPC
name and subnet values>>Create

Now the basic settings on the AWS management portal have been done and we are ready to
provision our first instance.
Creating a new instance:
Click again on 'Services>>EC2>>Launch Instance>>Chose AMI image (Red Hat)

Choose instance type (General Purpose-t2.micro)>>Next: configure instance details>>Select
Number of instances: 1
Network: Choose your VPC
Subnet: Public Subnet

Review and Launch>>Launch>>Create a New key pair>>Name the keypair>>Download
keypair>>Launch Instances
And we have our instance up and running.

Gaps identified and Challenges met during cloud setup:
1. vCenter should not be installed on the same machine on which AD is running.
2. Microsoft .net 3.5 sp1 and should be installed on the machine before installing vCenter
server.
3. Windows installer should be upgraded to MSI 4.5 before running installation.
4.Flash player should be installed before installing vSphere web client.
5. Fixed IP or Bridge mode networking should be used to avoid network inconsistency.
8. References:
1) Amazon Web Services, Inc., (2014). AWS | Hybrid Architectures. [online] Available
at: http://aws.amazon.com/enterprise/hybrid/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2014].
2) Anon, (2014). [online] Available at: http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-
50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-installation-setup-
guide.pdf [Accessed 12 Nov. 2014].
3) Anon, (2014). [online] Available
at: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_intro_vs.pdf [Accessed 10
Nov. 2014].
4) Hotlink.com, (2014). NetApp for AWS. [online] Available
at: http://www.hotlink.com/technology/netapp.html [Accessed 26 Nov. 2014].
5) Slideshare.net, (2014). Public IaaS Provider Bake-off - AWS vs Azure. [online]
Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/AmazonWebServices/public-iaa-s-provider-
bake-off-aws-vs-azure-kyle-hilgendorf-gartner-day-2?qid=a5fe7043-b231-4946-85df-
0c27a3f3ff3f&v=default&b=&from_search=1 [Accessed 26 Nov. 2014].
6) VMware Knowledge Base, (2014). VMware KB: Installing vCenter Server 5.0 best
practices (2003790). [online] Available
at:http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=dis
playKC&externalId=2003790 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2014].

Infra project report1

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