Active System Manager vLab Guide - Amazon S3 · Active System Manager vLab Guide Converged Infrastructure Management Dell Document version 1.0 Date: July 2015 . ... Overview of Solution

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Page 1 of 24 Dell confidential

Active System Manager vLab Guide

Converged Infrastructure Management

Dell confidential

Dell

Document version 1.0

Date: July 2015



Table of Contents

Demonstration Labs ..................................................................................................................... 3

1.0.1 - Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3

1.0.2 - Preparing the Demo Environment ................................................................................................ 3

1.0.3 - Preparing your agenda for the demonstration ...................................................................... 4

1.0.4 - Pre-Demo - Introducing the customer to the demo .......................................................... 4

1.0.5 - Set the Scene ........................................................................................................................................... 5

1.1 – Introduction/Customer Challenge .................................................................................................. 6

1.1.2 – Business Talking Points: .................................................................................................................... 6

1.1.3 - Technical Selling Points: .................................................................................................................... 6

1.1.4 - Technical Objections and Query Handling: ............................................................................. 6

1.1.5 - LAB 1 Basic Navigation ASM GUI .................................................................................................... 7

1.1.6 - LAB 2 Templates ...................................................................................................................................15

1.1.7 - LAB 3 Service ..........................................................................................................................................18

1.1.8 - LAB 4 Initial Configuration ............................................................................................................ 20



Demonstration Labs

1.0.1 - Introduction

Overview of Solution

Active System Manager (ASM) is Dell’s unified management and open automation solution that enables any IT administrator to provision new infrastructure and workload services in minutes. ASM simplifies and accelerates the deployment, provisioning, and lifecycle management of IT services for private cloud and converged infrastructure.

Overview of Demo

This document provides details on “How” to deliver an effective live demonstration of the ASM to customers.

In this demo you will understand the following tasks;

Logon to the ASM console

Review the Dashboard panel

Review the Getting Started panel

Define networks

Discover compute, network and storage resources

Check firmware compliance on discovered resources

Configure resources

Create templates

Deploy services

Additional Notes

This demo is based on a simulator and does not have actual hardware resources behind it. As such, any links to actual hardware interfaces will not work. Additionally, services are deployed almost immediately.

1.0.2 - Preparing the Demo Environment

It is in your best interests to ensure the demo environment you will be demonstrating is clean

and tidy before you begin. For this reason we would recommend, where possible, you log in

to your demo at least 15 minutes prior to delivery and check the following;



Familiarise yourself with the environment during this time and check any specific

features you are expecting to demo.

Most importantly, be crystal clear with yourself on what it is you plan to show. A full

demo of every feature described below (with questions) can take several hours. If you

only have a short time slot be sure to focus on the key points that address the

customer’s pain points and will drive value home to them.

Ensure that you have booked the demo for sufficient time so as not to have the demo

end before you are finished with the customer.

If there is old information in the demo environment from a previous session you wish

to clean up, log in to the web UI with username “setup” and password “setup”. This

will allow you to reset the demo to a pristine state by clicking the first button “Reset

Database and Load Demo Data”

1.0.3 - Preparing your agenda for the demonstration

You should have an understanding of the customer’s anticipated business needs and their expectations prior to scheduling a demo. You should also tailor each demo to illustrate the automation and orchestration of workload provisioning of across virtual and physical infrastructure (compute, network and storage).

Before scheduling a demo, you must decide how you will articulate the product features and

business and technical value. Work with your customer through question and answer

sessions to decide which features and capabilities you will focus on to be most effective.

The idea is not to present a “How-To” session, but to focus on the value of the product

and/or solution. Even if the customer representative is not overly technical, you can

demonstrate what the product does and how that can benefit the customer.

You should have a good understanding of the customer’s current and future infrastructure:

Datacenter

Operating Systems and hypervisor environment

Server, Network and Storage Platforms

Applications and workloads

Management Tools and processes

1.0.4 - Pre-Demo - Introducing the customer to the demo

Your introduction will be based on what you know of the customer, their infrastructure,

needs, and future plans under development. The following is a suggested set of items to

cover before you demonstrate the features and benefits of ASM:



Understand Customer’s Desired infrastructure ‘Wins’ o Ease of management o Automation and orchestration of workload provisioning o Virtual and physical infrastructure deployment o Private cloud like capabilities

Review Assessment data

o Discuss customer’s requirements o Workload provisioning processes o Demonstrate understanding of customer’s current and future business and technical

environment

ASM Overview

o Explain the key features and benefits of the ASM Solution o Give an overview of deployment options o Discuss Dell’s POV on private cloud automation and orchestration

Services – Consulting, Delivery & Technical Support

o Explain the roles of Consulting, Service Delivery/Deployment & Technical Support in successful deployments of ASM.

Pre-Demo points to cover o Ensure that you understand who you are presenting to and how the benefits of the

system will enable them to ‘win’ in their roles.

1.0.5 - Set the Scene

It can be easy to forget that the customer has no idea what it is they are looking at, so take some time emphasizing the following;

o Remember that the purpose is to demonstrate the benefits and key features, not to

provide a “How To” session

o Explain that the demo is a simulator in a remote lab, where a combination of virtual

machines and physical hardware are simulated to provide a live demonstration of the

features and capabilities that will be covered

o Set up and current configuration information

o Connectivity methods that you will be using (http://demos.dell.com)

o Introduce the management interfaces you plan to use (ASM GUI)

http://demos.dell.com/



1.1 – Introduction/Customer Challenge

This demonstration is primarily aimed at the CIO/CFO level and IT management staff; it also provides a useful quick introduction for staff that is not familiar with ASM. Duration: Estimated Duration in minutes 5-10 minutes. Provisioning any production IT infrastructure from bare-metal to fully-functional infrastructure is a complex task that typically requires a high-level technical resource operating full-time for an extended period of time. This is a technical demo (but not a technically-detailed installation) that illustrates how ASM can significantly reduce the workload on this type of technical IT resource. The demo is compelling in terms of demonstrating the productivity and management benefits of ASM.

1.1.2 – Business Talking Points:

Explain the current system configuration in terms of:

o Automation and orchestration of workload provisioning

o Virtual and physical infrastructure deployment

o Private cloud like capabilities

1.1.3 - Technical Selling Points:

Ease of use is the key point here with the ability to automate and orchestrate workload provisioning from bare-metal infrastructure via a web interface.

1.1.4 - Technical Objections and Query Handling:

Question: Doesn’t UCS do this more simply?

Answer: Cisco UCS Manager configures blades and fabric interconnects based

on templates. It does not configure switches, storage, or virtualization. For those,

additionally you would need to use 3 additional tools. A comparison of ASM with

the Cisco management stack can be found at

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/converged-

infrastructure/w/wiki/11413.asm-faster-and-more-efficient-than-cisco-solution

Gotchas:

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/converged-infrastructure/w/wiki/11413.asm-faster-and-more-efficient-than-cisco-solution

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/converged-infrastructure/w/wiki/11413.asm-faster-and-more-efficient-than-cisco-solution



ASM is not a self-service portal for end users, it is designed for use by IT users, or to be integrated into self-service portals. Dell Cloud Manager (DCM) is a self-service portal in the Dell portfolio.

VMWare and Microsoft have overlapping and similar cloud like capabilities. Neither stack configures server, networking, or storage to the level ASM does. ASM will be integrating with tools in the VMware and Microsoft stack in upcoming releases.

1.1.5 - LAB 1 Basic Navigation ASM GUI

You can, and should, give this initial demo in 5 to 10 minutes. You want the customer to think “Wow that was easy”! If you frame the discussion correctly during the demo, you will get the desired reaction. This demo will walk quickly through how to deploy a virtualization cluster with ASM templates and automation.

Once you have successfully started your scheduled demonstration within the environment

please do the following (you may need to adjust the zoom and screen size for appropriate

visibility);

On the desk top double click on the ASM Simulator icon and enter the following details when

prompted and press login:

User Name: admin

Password: admin



You will see the ASM Dashboard here:

Depending on the last state of the simulator; the ASM Dashboard may NOT display; in that

case, click on the Dashboard on the left side.

Note, the left side of the ASM is the main navigation panel we will use during the demo.

Scroll down and observe services deployed and resources discovered.

Talking Points:

Explain to the customer that the ASM Dashboard is a snapshot of the current state of the environment under ASM management.

Here you will find information on service status, hardware health, server pool utilization, and storage utilization.

Click on Templates on the left side.

You will see the Templates panel here:



Scroll down and observe templates configured.

Talking Points:

Templates are how ASM drives standardization of process. Best practices are encapsulated in templates, which can be used repeatedly.

ASM provides sample templates for a variety of workloads (additionally, the demo also provides sample Templates)

Customers can create their own templates if required.

Select View As (for tabular view) and then select VMware ESXi 5.5 iSCSI Cluster.

You will see the Demo panel here:

Select VMware ESXi 5.5 iSCSI Cluster and click on Deploy Service.



You will see the Deploy Service panel (1/3) here:

Enter ASM vLab Service in the Service Name box and click on Next.



You will see the Deploy Service panel here:

Scroll down and observe the different settings that are pre-populated from the template and used for the deployment of the service and can be overridden.

Click on Next.



You will see the Deploy Service panel here:

Click on Finish.

You will see the Confirm panel here:



Click on Yes.

You will see the ASM vLAB Service Details panel here:



Scroll down and observe the service deployed on bare-metal infrastructure and review the automation and orchestration of workload provisioning (job activity) on the bottom right here:

Talking Points:

This is all of the manual steps required to deploy the service, ASM automates all tasks after this.

This particular template will deploy a 2 node ESXi 5.5 Cluster, with 2 datastores on EqualLogic storage, and all virtualization configuration, such as vSwitches, Port Groups, Cluster, and HA/DRS.

After seeing this introductory demo, the audience should understand how ASM can deliver value through time savings, simplification of process, and standardization. It is not important to show all aspects of the product in the initial demo, but to demonstrate these values and allow for a deeper dive into the product and its capabilities.



1.1.6 - LAB 2 Templates

In lab 2, we will look deeper into the template that we just deployed. The template was pre-created with the appropriate data, and by looking into the details of that template we can see more about what is going to get deployed before it is done. Click Templates on the left hand side.

Select VMware ESXi 5.5 iSCSI Cluster and click on View Details.



You will see the VMware ESXi 5.5 iSCSI Cluster panel here:

Talking Points:

The diagram on the left shows the topology the template will deploy, including storage, compute, virtualization, VMs and applications

You can click on any item in the topology and see more information by clicking “View”

The template is ready to deploy when it is in a published state.

Observe, the template has cluster, server and storage components.

Click on View All Settings.



You will see the Template Settings panel here:

Expand each infrastructure component (via “>”).

Observe the different settings within the template.

These are some settings used by ASM to perform the following tasks when it is deployed:

Update server BIOS and firmware levels

Configure Server facing switch ports with appropriate VLANs

Provision volume on EqualLogic array with appropriate credentials

Configure Server BIOS

Configure Server RAID

Partition Server CNA

Deploy ESXi 5.5 to the two servers

Configure ESXi instances with appropriate vmNICs, vSwitches, Port Groups.

Create Data Center and Cluster in vCenter

Add ESXi hosts to cluster

Configure Data Stores on shared storage

Talking Points:



Explain to the customer that ASM templates use these settings for automation and orchestration of workload provisioning on bare-metal infrastructure

You can optionally explore such template panels and settings.

1.1.7 - LAB 3 Service

In lab 3, we will look deeper into the service that we just deployed. Service lifecycle management is a key part of ASM once deployment has been completed. Any time you deploy a template in ASM, a service is created. Whether the service is a single physical server running Windows, a group of VMs, an ESX cluster, or an application stack, a template is used to capture requirements, and when it is deployed a service is created.

Click on Services on the left side. In your demo environment, you will see multiple services have already been deployed in this environment.

You will see the Services panel here:

Select the ASM vLAB Service you deployed, and click view details.

Talking Points:

Explain to the customer that ASM deployed services are deployed with cloud like capabilities and full lifecycle management from ASM template settings with



automation and orchestration of workload provisioning on bare-metal infrastructure using the settings in the template

On the right hand side, you can see the lifecycle management capabilities in ASM.

Delete allows you to tear down the service, backing out all changes made by ASM, wiping the local disks of data on the servers, and optionally deleting the data on SAN storage as well.

Add resources allows you to scale up a service, adding more servers, storage, VMs, applications, or networks to a virtual cluster.

Delete resources allows a scale down, removing the same resources that can be added in a scale up.

Change server firmware baseline allows you to associate firmware catalogs on the ASM appliance with a particular service. This allows you to upgrade firmware on servers in a running service and the desired firmware version changes. In an ESX virtualization environment like this, ASM will even put servers in maintenance mode, perform the update, then exit maintenance mode and move to the next server in the cluster.



1.1.8 - LAB 4 Initial Configuration

In lab 4, we will talk about the initial configuration of ASM, discovering resources, and the resources page. These steps need to be completed before ASM can deploy services or configure hardware. The getting started page will automatically launch when you initially log into the ASM web console. This page supplies you with a series of wizards to do all of the tasks required to configure ASM, discover hardware, and create and configure templates. In your demo environment, these tasks have already been done, and some of them are not possible to perform in a simulator. But you can access the getting started page and see the process.

On the Dashboard panel click on Settings and then Getting Started on the left side.

You will see the ASM Getting Started panel here:

Talking Points:

Explain to the customer that the ASM there are five simple steps towards automating and orchestrating workload provisioning from bare-metal infrastructure

Explain these five steps to the customer here:



On the Getting Started panel click on Define Networks.

You will see the Networks panel here:

Talking Points:

Explain to the customer that ASM uses the networks for automating and orchestrating workload provisioning from bare-metal infrastructure

These networks are defined at ASM deployment time, including the VLAN, subnet, and optionally a range of IPs that ASM can statically assign at deployment time.

On the Networks panel click on Edit.

You will see the Edit Network panel here:



Talking Points:

Explain to the customer that ASM enables both static and dynamic IP addressing for networks

This environment has an example of common networks that are defined in an ASM deployment. These vary by environment, and you can optionally define more networks.

Go back to the Getting Started panel by closing the Edit Network panel and then click on Resources on the left side.



On the Getting Started panel click on Discover Resources.

You will see the Discover resources panel here:

In this wizard, you are able to specify the types of resources, the IP addresses of their management interfaces, and the credentials for those resources. ASM uses this information to discover and inventory those resources to make them available for deployments. Once that process is complete, you can see all discovered hardware in the resources page.

Click resources in the left hand navigation.



You will see the Resource panel here:

Scroll down and observe resources discovered.

Talking Points:

Explain to the customer that ASM discovers resources for automation and orchestration of workload provisioning on bare-metal infrastructure

Explain to the customer that ASM enables firmware updates and chassis configuration

Optionally, you can select “View Details” on any resource and find more information about that resource, or click “View Compliance Report” to see what firmware versions are currently on the resource, and what possible updates are available.

Documents

Active System Manager vLab Guide - Amazon S3 · Active System Manager vLab Guide Converged Infrastructure Management Dell Document version 1.0 Date: July 2015 . ... Overview of Solution