Novell PLATESPIN ORCHESTRATE 2.0.2 - ADMINISTRATOR REFERENCE... Service manual

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AUTHORIZED DOCUMENTATION
PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Administrator Reference
PlateSpin ® Orchestrate
2.0.2
June 17, 2009
Administrator Reference

novdocx (en) 13 May 2009
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Contents 5
Contents
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About This Guide 7
1 Basic PlateSpin Orchestrate Concepts 9
1.1 Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.1.1 The PlateSpin Orchestrate Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.1.2 The Resource Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.1.3 Entity Types and Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.1.4 Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.1.5 Constraint-Based Job Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.1.6 Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate API Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.2 Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.2.1 Resource Virtualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.2.2 Policy-Based Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.2.3 Grid Object Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.2.4 Understanding Job Semantics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.2.5 Distributed Messaging and Failover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.2.6 Web-Based User Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
A PlateSpin Orchestrate Security 27
A.1 User and Administrator Password Hashing Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
A.2 User and Agent Password Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
A.3 Password Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
A.4 TLS Encryption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
A.5 Security for Administrative Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
A.6 Plain Text Visibility of Sensitive Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
B Server Discovery and Multicasting 31
B.1 Multicast Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
B.2 Multicast Routes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
B.3 Multi-homed Hosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
B.4 Multiple Subnets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
B.5 Datagrid and Multicasting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
B.6 Datagrid Multicast Interface Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

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About This Guide 7
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About This Guide
This Administration Guide introduces the processes you can use with PlateSpin®Orchestrate 2.0
from Novell®, including the applied use of the PlateSpin Orchestrate Development Client and
various command line tools. The guide provides an introductory overview of PlateSpin Orchestrate
and explains how it administers and manages work on the resources of the data center. The guide is
organized as follows:
Chapter 1, “Basic PlateSpin Orchestrate Concepts,” on page 9
Appendix A, “PlateSpin Orchestrate Security,” on page 27
Appendix B, “Server Discovery and Multicasting,” on page 31
For reference information about the Orchestrate Server or the Orchestrate Development Client, see
the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Development Client Reference. For information about the Orchestrate
Command Line Tools, see PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Command Line Reference.
Audience
This book is intended for data center managers and IT or Operations administrators. It assumes that
users of the product have the following background:
General understanding of network operating environments and systems architecture.
Knowledge of basic UNIX* shell commands and text editors.
Feedback
We want to hear your comments and suggestions about this manual and the other documentation
included with this product. Please use the User Comments feature at the bottom of each page of the
online documentation, or go to www.novell.com/documentation/feedback.html (http://
www.novell.com/documentation/feedback.html) and enter your comments there.
Documentation Updates
For the most recent version of this Administration Guide, visit the PlateSpin Orchestrate Web site
(http://www.novell.com/documentation/pso_orchestrate20/).
Documentation Conventions
In Novell documentation, a greater-than symbol (>) is used to separate actions within a step and
items in a cross-reference path.
A trademark symbol (®, TM, etc.) denotes a Novell trademark. An asterisk (*) denotes a third-party
trademark.
When a single pathname can be written with a backslash for some platforms or a forward slash for
other platforms, the pathname is presented with a backslash. Users of platforms that require a
forward slash, such as Linux* or UNIX, should use forward slashes as required by your software.

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Basic PlateSpin Orchestrate Concepts
1
9
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1
Basic PlateSpin Orchestrate
Concepts
This section contains the followings information:
Section 1.1, “Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate Architecture,” on page 9
Section 1.2, “Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate Functionality,” on page 20
1.1 Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate
Architecture
PlateSpin Orchestrate from Novell is an advanced datacenter management solution designed to
manage all network resources. It provides the infrastructure that manages group of ten, one hundred,
or thousands of physical or virtual resources.
PlateSpin Orchestrate is equally apt at performing a number of distributed processing problems.
From high performance computing, the breaking down of work into lots of small chunks that can be
processed in parallel through distributed job scheduling. The following figure shows the product’s
high-level architecture:
Figure 1-1 PlateSpin Orchestrate Architecture

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This section contains information about the following topics:
Section 1.1.1, “The PlateSpin Orchestrate Agent,” on page 10
Section 1.1.2, “The Resource Monitor,” on page 11
Section 1.1.3, “Entity Types and Managers,” on page 11
Section 1.1.4, “Jobs,” on page 14
Section 1.1.5, “Constraint-Based Job Scheduling,” on page 17
Section 1.1.6, “Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate API Interfaces,” on page 18
1.1.1 The PlateSpin Orchestrate Agent
Agents are installed on all managed resources as part of the product deployment. The agent connects
every managed resource to its configured server and advertises to the PlateSpin Orchestrate Server
that the resource is available for tasks. This persistent and auto-reestablishing connection is
important because it provides a message bus for the distribution of work, collection of information
about the resource, per-job messaging, health checks, and resource failover control.
After resources are enabled, PlateSpin Orchestrate can discover, access, and store detailed
abstracted information—called “facts”—about every resource. Managed resources, referred to as
“nodes,” are addressable members of the Orchestrate Server “grid” (also sometimes called the
“matrix”). When integrated into the grid, nodes can be deployed, monitored, and managed by the
Orchestrate Server, as discussed in Section 1.2, “Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate
Functionality,” on page 20.
An overview of the PlateSpin Orchestrate grid architecture is illustrated in the figure below, much of
which is explained in this guide:

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Figure 1-2 PlateSpin Orchestrate Server Architecture
For additional information about job architecture, see “Job Architecture” in the PlateSpin
Orchestrate 2.0 Developer Guide and Reference.
1.1.2 The Resource Monitor
PlateSpin Orchestrate enables you to monitor your system computing resources using the built-in
Resource Monitor. To open the Resource Monitor in the Development Client, see “Monitoring
Server Resources” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate Administration Guide.
1.1.3 Entity Types and Managers
The following entities are some of key components involved in the Orchestrate Server:
“Resources” on page 12
“Users” on page 12
“Job Definitions” on page 12
“Job Instances” on page 12
“Policies” on page 12
“Facts” on page 13

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“Constraints” on page 13
“Groups” on page 14
“VM: Hosts, Images, and Instances” on page 14
“Templates” on page 14
Resources
All managed resources, which are called nodes, have an agent with a socket connection to the
Orchestrate Server. All resource use is metered, controlled, and audited by the Orchestrate Server.
Policies govern the use of resources.
PlateSpin Orchestrate allocates resources by reacting as load is increased on a resource. As soon as
we go above a threshold that was set in a policy, a new resource is allocated and consequently the
load on that resource drops to an acceptable rate.
You can also write and jobs that perform cost accounting to account for the cost of a resource up
through the job hierarchy, periodically, about every 20 seconds. For more information, see
“Auditing and Accounting Jobs” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Developer Guide and Reference.
A collection of jobs, all under the same hierarchy, can cooperate with each other so that when one
job offers to give up a resource it is reallocated to another similar priority job. Similarly, when a
higher priority job becomes overloaded and is waiting on a resource, the system “steals” a resource
from a lower priority job, thus increasing load on the low priority job and allocating it to the higher
priority job. This process satisfies the policy, which specifies that a higher priority job must
complete at the expense of a low priority job.
Users
PlateSpin Orchestrate users must authenticate to access the system. Access and use of system
resources are governed by policies.
Job Definitions
A job definition is described in the embedded enhanced Python script that you create as a job
developer. Each job instance runs a job that is defined by the Job Definition Language (JDL). Job
definitions might also contain usage policies. For more information, see “Job Class” in the
PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Developer Guide and Reference.
Job Instances
Jobs are instantiated at runtime from job definitions that inherit policies from the entire context of
the job (such as users, job definitions, resources, or groups). For more information, see “JobInfo” in
the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Developer Guide and Reference.
Policies
Policies are XML documents that contain various constraints and static fact assignments that govern
how jobs run in the PlateSpin Orchestrate environment.
Policies are used to enforce quotas, job queuing, resource restrictions, permissions, and other job
parameters. Policies can be associated with any PlateSpin Orchestrate object. For more information,
see Section 1.2.2, “Policy-Based Management,” on page 21.

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Facts
Facts represent the state of any object in the PlateSpin Orchestrate grid. They can be discovered
through a job or they can be explicitly set.
Facts control the behavior a job (or joblet) when it’s executing. Facts also detect and return
information about that job in various UIs and server functions. For example, a job description that is
set through its policy and has a specified value might do absolutely nothing except return
immediately after network latency.
There are three basic types of facts:
Static: Facts that require you to set a value. For example, in a policy, you might set a value to
be False. Static facts can be modified through policies.
Dynamic: Facts produced by the PlateSpin Orchestrate system itself. Policies cannot override
dynamic facts. They are read only and their value is determined by the PlateSpin Orchestrate
Server itself.
Computed: Facts derived from a value, like that generated from the cell of a spreadsheet.
Computed facts have some kind of logic behind them which derive their values.
For example, you might have two numeric facts that you want expressed in another fact as an
average of the two. You could compose a computed fact which averages two other facts and
express it as an average value under a certain fact name. This enables you to create facts that
represent other metrics on the system that are not necessarily available in the default set, or are
not static to anything that might impact other dynamic facts.
For more information about facts, see “Facts” in “Policy Elements” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0
Developer Guide and Reference.
Constraints
In order for the PlateSpin Orchestrate to choose resources for a job, it uses resource constraints. A
resource constraint is some Boolean logic that executes against facts in the system. Based upon this
evaluation, it will only consider resources that match the criteria that have been set up by use of
constraints.
For more detailed information, see “Working with Facts and Constraints” in the PlateSpin
Orchestrate 2.0 Developer Guide and Reference and the following JDL constraint definitions listed
in the same guide:
“AndConstraint()”
“BinaryConstraint”
“Constraint”
“ContainerConstraint”
“ContainsConstraint”
“DefinedConstraint”
“EqConstraint”
“GeConstraint”
“GtConstraint”
“LeConstraint”

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“LtConstraint”
“NeConstraint”
“NotConstraint”
“OrConstraint”
“UndefinedConstraint”
Groups
Resources, users, job definitions and virtual machines (VM) are managed in groups with group
policies that are inherited by members of the group.
VM: Hosts, Images, and Instances
A virtual machine host is a resource that is able to run guest operating systems. Attributes (facts)
associated with the VM host control its limitations and functionality within the Orchestrate Server.
A VM image is a resource image that can be cloned and/or provisioned. A VM instance represents a
running copy of a VM image.
Templates
Templates are images that are meant to be cloned (copied) prior to provisioning the new copy. For
more information, see “Creating a Template from a VM” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 VM Client
Guide and Reference.
1.1.4 Jobs
The Orchestrate Server manages all nodes by administering jobs (and the functional control of jobs
at the resource level by using joblets), which control the properties (facts) associated with every
resource. In other words, jobs are units of functionality that dispatch data center tasks to resources
on the network such as management, migration, monitoring, load balancing, etc.
PlateSpin Orchestrate provides a unique job development, debugging, and deployment environment
that expands with the demands of growing data centers.
As a job developer, your task is to develop jobs to perform a wide array of work that can be
deployed and managed by PlateSpin Orchestrate.
Jobs, which run on the Orchestrate Server, can provide functions within the PlateSpin Orchestrate
environment that might last from seconds to months. Job and joblet code exist in the same script file
and are identified by the
.jdl extension. The .jdl script contains only one job definition and zero
or more joblet definitions. A
.jdl script can have only one Job subclass. As for naming
conventions, the Job subclass name does not have to match the
.jdl filename; however, the .jdl
filename is the defined job name, so the .jdl filename must match the .job filename that contains
the
.jdl script. For example, the job files ( demoIterator.jdl and demoIterator.policy )
included in the
demoIterator example job are packaged into the archive file named
demoIterator.job , so in this case, the name of the job is demoIterator .
A job file also might have policies associated with it to define and control the job’s behavior and to
define certain constraints to restrict its execution. A
.jdl script that is accompanied by a policy file
is typically packaged in a job archive file (
.job ). Because a .job file is physically equivalent to a
Java archive file (
.jar ), you can use the JDK JAR tool to create the job archive.

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Multiple job archives can be delivered as a management pack in a service archive file (SAR)
identified with the .sar extension. Typically, a group of related files are delivered this way. For
example, the Xen30 management pack is a SAR.
As shown in the following illustration, jobs include all of the code, policy, and data elements
necessary to execute specific, predetermined tasks administered either through the PlateSpin
Orchestrate Development Client, or from the zos command line tool.
Figure 1-3 Components of a Job ( my.job , )
Because each job has specific, predefined elements, jobs can be scripted and delivered to any agent,
which ultimately can lead to automating almost any datacenter task. Jobs provide the following
functionality:
“Controlling Process Flow” on page 15
“Parallel Processing” on page 16
“Managing the Cluster Life Cycle” on page 16
“Discovery Jobs” on page 16
“System Jobs” on page 16
“Provisioning Jobs” on page 17
For more information, see “Using PlateSpin Orchestrate Jobs” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0
Developer Guide and Reference and the following JDL job class definitions in the same guide:
“Job”
“JobInfo”
Controlling Process Flow
Jobs can written to control all operations and processes of managed resources. Through jobs, the
Orchestrate Server manages resources to perform work. Automated jobs (written in JDL), are
broken down into joblets, which are distributed among multiple resources.

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Parallel Processing
By managing many small joblets, the Orchestrate Server can enhance system performance and
maximize resource use.
Managing the Cluster Life Cycle
Jobs can detect demand and monitor health of system resources, then modify clusters automatically
to maximize system performance and provide failover services.
Discovery Jobs
Some jobs provide inspection of resources to more effectively management assets. These jobs
enable all agents to periodically report basic resource facts and performance metrics. In essence,
these metrics are stored as facts consisting of a key word and typed-value pairs like the following
example:
resource.loadaverage=4.563, type=float
Jobs can poll resources and automatically trigger other jobs if resource performance values reach
certain levels.
The system job scheduler is used to run resource discovery jobs to augment resource facts as
demands change on resources. This can be done on a routine, scheduled basis or whenever new
resources are provisioned, new software is installed, bandwidth changes occur, OS patches are
deployed, or other events occur that might impact the system.
Consequently, resource facts form a capabilities database for the entire system. Jobs can be written
that apply constraints to facts in policies, thus providing very granular control of all resources as
required. All active resources are searchable and records are retained for all off-line resources.
The following
osInfo.job example shows how a job sets operating system facts for specific
resources:
resource.cpu.mhz (integer) e.g., "800" (in Mhz)
resource.cpy.vendor (string) e.g. "GenuineIntel"
resource.cpu.model (string) e.g. "Pentium III"
resource.cpu.family (string) e.g. "i686"
osInfo.job
is packaged as a single cross-platform job and includes the Python-based JDL and a
policy to set the timeout. It is run each time a new resource appears and once every 24 hours to
ensure validity of the resources. For a more detailed review of this example, see “osInfo.job” in
“Using PlateSpin Orchestrate Jobs” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Developer Guide and
Reference.
System Jobs
Jobs can be scheduled to to periodically trigger specific system resources based on specific time
constraints or events. As shown in the following figure, PlateSpin Orchestrate provides a built-in job
scheduler that enables you or system administrators to flexibly deploy and run jobs.

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Figure 1-4 The Job Scheduler
For more information, see “Resource Selection” in “Using PlateSpin Orchestrate Jobs” in the
PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Developer Guide and Reference and “The PlateSpin Orchestrate Job
Scheduler” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Development Client Reference. See also “Job
Scheduling” and “Job” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Developer Guide and Reference.
Provisioning Jobs
Jobs also drive provisioning for virtual machines and blade servers. Provisioning adapter jobs are
deployed and organized into appropriate job groups for management convenience. Provisioning
adapters are deployed as part of your VMM license.
For more information, see “Virtual Machine Management” in the “PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0
Developer Guide and Reference” and Section 1.2.1, “Resource Virtualization,” on page 20.
1.1.5 Constraint-Based Job Scheduling
The Orchestrate Server is a “broker” that can distribute jobs to every “partner” agent on the grid.
Based on assigned policies, jobs have priorities and are executed based on the following contexts:
User Constraints
User Facts
Job Constraints
Job Facts
Job Instance
Resource User Constraints
Resource Facts
Groups

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Each object in a job context contains the following elements:
Figure 1-5 Constraint-Based Resource Brokering
For more information, see “Working with Facts and Constraints” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0
Developer Guide and Reference.
1.1.6 Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate API Interfaces
There are three API interfaces available to the Orchestrate Server:
Orchestrate Server Management Interface: The PlateSpin Orchestrate Server, written
entirely in Java using the JMX (Java MBean) interface for management, leverages this API for
the PlateSpin Orchestrate Development Client. The Development Client is a robust desktop
GUI designed for administrators to apply, manage, and monitor usage-based policies on all
infrastructure resources. The Development Client also provides at-a-glance grid health and
capacity checks.
For more information, see the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 Development Client Reference.

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Figure 1-6 PlateSpin Orchestrate Development Client
Job Interface: Includes a customizable/replaceable Web application and the zosadmin
command line tool. The Web-based Server Portal built with this API provides a universal job
viewer from which job logs and progress can be monitored. The job interface is accessible via a
Java API or CLI. A subset is also available as a Web Service. The default PlateSpin Orchestrate
Server Portal leverages this API. It can be customized or alternative J2EE* application can be
written.
PlateSpin Orchestrate Monitoring System: Monitors all aspects of the data center through
an open source, Eclipse*-based interrface referred to as the PlateSpin Orchestrate VM
Client.This interface operates in conjunction with the Orchestrate Server and monitors the
following objects:
Deployed jobs that teach PlateSpin Orchestrate and provide the control logic that
PlateSpin Orchestrate runs when performing its management tasks.
Users and Groups
Virtual Machines
For more information, see the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 VM Client Guide and Reference.

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Figure 1-7 The PlateSpin Orchestrate VM Client Interface
1.2 Understanding PlateSpin Orchestrate
Functionality
Section 1.2.1, “Resource Virtualization,” on page 20
Section 1.2.2, “Policy-Based Management,” on page 21
Section 1.2.3, “Grid Object Visualization,” on page 21
Section 1.2.4, “Understanding Job Semantics,” on page 22
Section 1.2.5, “Distributed Messaging and Failover,” on page 23
Section 1.2.6, “Web-Based User Interaction,” on page 24
1.2.1 Resource Virtualization
Host machines or test targets managed by the Orchestrate Server form nodes on the grid (sometimes
referred to as the matrix). All resources are virtualized for access by maintaining a capabilities
database containing extensive information (facts) for each managed resource.
This information is automatically polled and obtained from each resource periodically or when it
first comes online. The extent of the resource information the system can gather is customizable and
highly extensible, controlled by the jobs you create and deploy.
The PlateSpin Orchestrate Virtual Machine Builder is a service of VM Management that allows you
to build a VM to precise specifications required for your data center. You designate the parameters
required: processor, memory, hard drive space, operating system, virtualization type, whether it is
based on an auto-install file, and any additional parameters. When you lauch the build job, VM
Builder sends the build request to a machine that meets the hardware requirements of the defined
VM and builds the VM there.
For more information, see “Creating a Xen VM” in the PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 VM Client Guide
and Reference.