CDC Design Considerations

This section focuses only on the Centralized Data Center (CDC) scenario. The guidance provided can be used as part of any project that falls within the basic scope definitions outlined in the Introduction to Architecture Blueprints.

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	Business Need
	Architecture Definition
	Architecture Design
	Logical Design
	Architecture Dependencies
	Availability
	Security
	Scalability
	Manageability
	Performance
	Supportability
	Consolidation
	Interoperability

Business Need

As mentioned in the "Enterprise Design" section, management architecture primarily deals with management of servers and services within the organization that are either centrally located or in branch offices. Management architecture for the centralized scenario focuses primarily on the services provided in a single site. Management can be considered a series of trade-offs between consolidation and distribution of resources, provision of generalized versus specific management solutions, and a constant need to act both proactively and reactively according to needs of the evolving environment. Users require a certain level of service, and it is up to the operational management systems and staff to deliver measurable performance and availability to meet users' needs.

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Architecture Definition

As discussed in the "Enterprise Design" section, providing higher service levels to the organization requires coordination of people, processes, and tools. This coordinated approach requires a management architecture that takes into account the generic and specific needs of the environment as well as the users. The connectivity issues usually associated with managing elements in a wide area network (WAN) do not come into play because the focus of the scenario is a single site. In this sense, the environment may be considered relatively simpler.

People

A typical centralized data center has a large infrastructure to support a large number of users, and the team that operates and supports it consists of members who specialize in specific technologies or operational roles.

Process

The management architecture in the CDC scenario uses the MOF process model. Given the large size of a typical CDC scenario, organizational processes may be more rigid and implemented more strictly than in other scenarios.

Tools

The tools defined in the architecture for managing the enterprise IT environment are considered part of the centralized data center; these tools are implemented to manage systems, applications, networks, and clients. Where applicable, these management tools may also be used to manage satellite branch offices, departments, extranets, or other branch offices.

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Architecture Design

When designing management architecture, it is important to adequately address people, processes, and tools in both the logical and physical design.

The "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint includes a table that maps the MOF SMFs to the various services that are delivered as part of the architecture as well as the operational roles in the organization that perform the SMFs. This table is also applicable to the CDC scenario. In addition, the MOF process model is used as the focal point for the management architecture design.

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Logical Design

This section provides details of the logical design that fulfills the needs of an enterprise-class organization.

Design Choice for Management Architecture

The "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint discussed a number of options to consider when implementing services that provide a management architecture. In terms of the overall design, two options were discussed. Option 1 is a model in which the management services are centralized, and option 2 is a model in which business units or service management functions are implemented independently and managed as independent operational silos; this second model is referred to as a distributed management architecture. Both of these options are applicable to a CDC scenario.

The centralized management architecture option was chosen for the CDC scenario. It is illustrated in the following figure:

Figure 5. Centralized Management Architecture Design
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This choice was made because centralization offers some of the greatest benefits for achieving economies of scale and consistency in enterprise operations. While the design choice is centralization of the management architecture, some elements of the architecture can be shared where appropriate.

Centralization of operations in the CDC scenario is achieved by designing operational services to address management needs of common scenarios in the organization. Data centers that serve centralized, branch, department, and extranet scenarios benefit from consolidation of services and resources wherever possible, which allows for consistent implementation of services and processes throughout the organization.

The Internet scenario (IDC) is one that may not be appropriate for the centralized management model. The IDC is unique among our scenarios in that it is highly independent and does not share services with the other data centers. IDC personnel maintain all management control over the data center; reasons for this include the need to maintain strict security barriers between the IDC and the other data centers, as well as realization of the fact that IDC management requirements may not be adequately addressed by management processes that apply to the rest of the organization.

How the organization chooses to manage an IDC-like scenario is not predicated by the management architecture. However, to meet the perceived demand for management services in an IDC scenario, the design of key management services may provide for complete separation of particular management components from the other enterprise scenarios.

In the CDC scenario a centralized monitoring and control service is available, with which the technologies implemented in different scenarios are integrated wherever possible. This design enables enterprise-wide monitoring, service alerts, and consistent responses to events throughout the organization.

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Architecture Dependencies

Infrastructure components such as networks and data storage facilities are required by the management architecture, and must therefore be available before a management solution can be implemented. Additionally, the CDC scenario requires the following services to be in place before management services can be deployed:

When deploying the management architecture into a CDC-like environment, many if not all of the architecture dependencies listed in the "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint are required. In addition, operational roles should be defined for operational teams and individuals working within the management environment. Guidance on defining operational roles is also provided in the "Enterprise Design" section.

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Availability

The availability requirements for management architecture are discussed in the "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint. In a management architecture, availability can be considered in terms of points of failure for monitoring, configuration, problem diagnosis, and problem resolution of managed hardware and software. There are no additional availability requirements when deploying management architecture in a CDC-like scenario.

Design Choice for Availability

Each managed element is subjected to an availability cost/benefit analysis. The options are to eliminate the single point of failure for management or to decide that the element is not sufficiently critical to merit a redundant management configuration. The possible options detailed in the "Enterprise Design" section are:

Of these four options, the Fully Redundant Services option was chosen because the CDC scenario requirements dictated that all services should be fully redundant. This choice does not prevent the design of redundant operations centers, but it solves the immediate business problem of designing mission critical and highly available management services. Detailed guidance for implementing high availability for each of the services can be found in the “Availability” section in their respective Build Guides.

Many organizations feel that the cost of implementing fully redundant management services is not worth the benefits that are realized. Every organization’s requirements in this regard are different. Implementing full redundancy throughout the architecture is much more difficult than providing no redundancy, which is one reason why full redundancy is illustrated. If the requirements of an individual organization are such that full redundancy is not cost-justified for every service element of the infrastructure, redundancy for some of the services can be removed.

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Security

Management architecture security requirements include implementing security policies of the organization with the management architecture, ensuring that the architecture does not affect the security of the environment as a whole, and taking into account the security weaknesses of the managed elements during their deployment and upgrade. These requirements are the same in the CDC scenario as they are throughout the organization, the only difference being that the single site focus of the CDC scenario provides an environment that is relatively easier to secure.

Design Choice for CDC Security Design

The security design of the management architecture in the CDC scenario needs to take into account the stringent security requirements of a corporate environment. Management tools need to be protected from security risks such as unauthorized intrusion, modification, or corruption of management data, and denial of access to the management services.

In the CDC scenario, security services incorporate the necessary security policies. These policies should be implemented for the management architecture as defined in the Security Architecture Blueprint; they include provision of authentication services to assure the identity of operations staff, bounded access to managed elements of the environment, and use of encryption to protect management data.

Note: Consideration should also be given to the processes and physical protection offered to the management architecture. For example, management consoles should be installed in a secure area accessible only to the security screened personnel.

Security Lockdowns

The security lockdown requirements for management architecture were discussed in the "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint. Tool and process-related elements of security lockdowns need to be implemented as part of the operational processes of the organization; both of these are outside the scope of this blueprint but are covered in the Operations Guides. There are no additional security lockdown requirements when deploying management architecture in a CDC scenario.

Design Choice for Security Lockdowns

In the CDC implementation, all servers and hardware devices have security lockdowns applied to them. The implementation of each of the services that collectively provide the solution is designed to accommodate this aspect of the design. For the specific accommodations that were made for other services, see the “Service Modification List” section in each of the Service Blueprints.

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Scalability

Scalability requirements for the management architecture services were discussed in the "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint, and cover the sizing of servers and clients to run management software and the provision of sufficient network bandwidth to assure flow of management data. There are no additional scalability requirements when deploying management architecture in a CDC scenario.

Design Choice for Scalability

The CDC management architecture implementation is designed to meet the requirements of a number of simultaneous users that might be expected in a large organization. The management hardware configurations used to deliver the architecture are scaled to support such a load. Detailed scaling guidance for each of the services can be found in the “Scalability” section in each of the Service Blueprints, especially the Infrastructure Management Services Blueprint, which details the configuration of the management hardware. This guidance is useful in planning for a variety of scale points. It is not feasible to test all possible combinations of scaling numbers in the test labs, therefore a number indicative of the size of a typical medium-to large-sized organization was chosen as a proof point for the guidance.

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Manageability

The management architecture itself needs to be managed as an integral part of the IT environment.

The manageability design requirements for management architecture are discussed in the "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint, and may be considered as being the same as for other mission critical elements of the infrastructure. There are no additional manageability design requirements for deploying management architecture in a CDC scenario. Manageability of the management architecture is covered in the Infrastructure Management Services Blueprint.

Role-based Administration

The CDC scenario defines specific role-based administration for its operation. The roles defined in the scenario describe best practices for delegating service management and data management roles. Operational roles are derived from the role clusters that are defined in MOF. As described in the "Architecture Definition" section in this blueprint, the role clusters are Release, Operations, Security, Support, Partner, and Infrastructure.

Design Choice for Role-based Administration

The roles defined for operation of the management architecture in the CDC implementation are listed in the "Architecture Design" section in this blueprint. These roles are used as the basis for defining system-specific roles, such as Forest Owner and DNS Owner.

System Administration

There are no specific system administration design requirements when deploying management architecture in a CDC scenario. System administration of hardware and software management tools is covered in the Infrastructure Management Services Blueprint.

Design Choice for System Administration

Centralized management of the environment was chosen for the CDC scenario because the CDC implementation is designed as the center where operations are consolidated. In order to facilitate central administration, the design includes security considerations and Emergency Management Services (EMS). Emergency Management Services provide out-of-band administrative services to manage systems when normal, in-band methods do not work. For example, if a server operating system is inoperable due to some error condition, Terminal Services and management tools like the MMC will not be accessible. In such a case, an EMS service using server management cards may be used to remotely control and restart the server.

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Performance

The performance requirements for management architecture are discussed in the "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint and should be considered in terms of contention for processor cycles and network bandwidth with the hardware elements of the IT environment. Besides scaling the IT environment as a whole to take into account its manageability, there are no additional performance requirements when deploying the management architecture in a CDC scenario.

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Supportability

The performance requirements for management architecture are discussed in the "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint, and should be considered in terms of ensuring access to the management facilities and the managed environment for operations personnel. There are no additional performance requirements when deploying management architecture in a CDC scenario.

Design Choice for Supportability

In the CDC scenario, infrastructure management services provide mechanisms that facilitate supportability of all the data center servers. These mechanisms, such as remote access, EMS, and debug tools, are covered in the Infrastructure Management Services Blueprint.

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Consolidation

The consolidation requirements for management architecture are discussed in the "Enterprise Design" section in this blueprint and cover the consolidation of management hardware and software as well as the servers, storage devices, and applications being managed. The consolidation process would likely be simpler in a CDC scenario because the single site provides for a higher level of consolidation than a more complex enterprise environment. Limited bandwidth links between sites can often lead to a need for additional servers to handle management information without flooding the links with management traffic. The consolidated view in a CDC scenario can also lead to savings in software costs when management services are licensed on a per server basis. There are no additional consolidation requirements while deploying management architecture in a CDC scenario.

Service Modification List

Implementation of the services that make up the management architecture require ports to be opened on the firewall and changes to be made in Microsoft Active Directory directory service. For details on the changes required by each of the services that make up the architecture, refer to the “Service Modification List” section in each of the Service Blueprints.

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Interoperability

The interoperability requirement for the management architecture is the need to support multiple types of infrastructure elements. Some of these elements might comply with different management standards that need to fit the delivery of a consolidated range of services, such as event monitoring, resource allocation, and access authorization. The interoperability options for management architecture design are:

Design Choice for CDC Interoperability

Best-of-breed tools were chosen to meet interoperability requirements for management architecture in the CDC scenario. This does not mean, however, that the goal of limiting the proliferation of management tools using products that are easily integrated with services throughout the scenario should be ignored completely. However, if a centralized tool cannot address the management requirements of a particular service or business unit, a more appropriate tool should be implemented.

If a best-of-breed management tool is used in the environment, careful planning should ensure that it can be integrated with the centralized management services. Best-of-breed solutions are implemented in the CDC scenario because a variety of products from different vendors are used and managed. Some of the products operate independently of each other and do not share configuration information.

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