• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Managing your private cloud: Introducing theWebSphere CloudBurst Appliance commandline interface
Dustin Amrhein, Staff Software Engineer, IBMMike Burr(burrm@us.ibm.com), Senior Software Engineer, SDI Corp.
Summary:
The IBM® WebSphere® CloudBurst™ Appliance enables you to construct, deploy, andmaintain WebSphere Application Server virtual systems in a private cloud. In order to manage theentire lifecycle of these systems in a private cloud, WebSphere CloudBurst offers multipleadministration interfaces, including a rich Web 2.0 interface for GUI-based administration activities,and a command line interface (CLI) that enables a scripted, automated administration approach. Thisarticle explains how you can leverage the WebSphere CloudBurst CLI with examples of how this CLIcan be put to work in your own WebSphere CloudBurst environment. This content is part of theIBMWebSphere Developer Technical Journal.
Date:
22 Jul 2009
Level:
Intermediate
Activity:
182 views
Comments:
0 (Add comments)Average rating (based on 0 votes)IntroductionA brief overview of the
IBM WebSphere CloudBurst Appliance
is in order before we discuss itsadministration capabilities.WebSphere CloudBurst is an appliance that enables you to create, deploy, and monitor WebSphereApplication Server virtual systems in a private cloud. It goes about accomplishing this by buildingvalue on top of 
IBM WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition
, a packaging of IBMWebSphere Application Server that is optimized for virtual environments. WebSphere ApplicationServer Hypervisor Edition is a virtual image packaged according to the Open Virutal Format (OVF)standard, and it runs on top of supported hypervisors.The virtual image contains an operating system, WebSphere Application Server binaries and profiles,and IBM HTTP Server, all pre-installed. The fact that multiple profiles come pre-installed enables theimage to take multiple personalities upon activation (when used outside of WebSphere CloudBurst).This lays the foundation for the value delivered by WebSphere CloudBurst.In addition to WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition (hereafter referred to as Hypervisor
Managing your private cloud: Introducing the WebSphere Clou...http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/techjournal/0...1 of 147/23/09 12:56 PM
 
Edition) images, WebSphere CloudBurst also ships with WebSphere Application Server configurations,called
patterns
, that have been built from components within the images. For example, a WebSphereApplication Server cluster pattern might contain the deployment manager component and two customnode components from the Hypervisor Edition image. You can copy and modify the shipped patterns,plus create custom patterns using any of the components within Hypervisor Edition. WebSphereCloudBurst automatically tunes these configurations for optimal performance based on ten years of field experience, and all patterns are stored on the appliance, enabling you to repurpose theseconfigurations as necessary.Beyond radically simplifying the process of building WebSphere Application Server configurations,WebSphere CloudBurst dispenses the patterns to a private cloud, thus creating WebSphere virtualsystems. WebSphere CloudBurst supports a "bring-your-own-cloud" model, which means you defineyour own cloud resources to the appliance. This is done by supplying a set of supported hypervisors anda pool of IP addresses that are available for use in the private cloud. Once these resources are defined,WebSphere CloudBurst is able to intelligently place the virtual systems in the private cloud byaccounting for cloud resource availability (CPU, memory and disk space) and other considerations,such as high availability characteristics.To complete the full lifecycle support of WebSphere Application Server virtual systems in a privatecloud, WebSphere CloudBurst supplies the capability to monitor and manage these systems. You have aview of all the virtual systems created by WebSphere CloudBurst, and you can easily monitor theirresource consumption. In addition, WebSphere CloudBurst tracks usage by users of the appliance. Eachuser's memory consumption, CPU usage, IP utilization, and so on, is tracked to enable chargebackwithin an enterprise.Futher, WebSphere CloudBurst enables you to apply both iFixes and service packs to the virtualsystems within the private cloud. WebSphere CloudBurst makes applying such fixes a very low-riskproposition by automatically creating a snapshot of the virtual system before the fixes are applied. If desired, you can roll back to the prior state simply by clicking a button.WebSphere CloudBurst is a complete solution for managing the entire lifecycle of virtual systems in aprivate cloud. It provides a solution to each element of the virtual system lifecycle, along the wayproviding an ease of use that brings unprecedented consumability to the administration of middlewareenvironments.Basic administration in WebSphere CloudBurstThe fact that WebSphere CloudBurst provides full control over the lifecycle of WebSphere ApplicationServer virtual systems implies robust administration capabilities. You must be able to carry out manydifferent tasks, including defining your private cloud, creating custom patterns, deploying patterns tothe cloud, and monitoring the state of the virtual systems. To help you perform these activities,WebSphere CloudBurst provides a
graphical, Web 2.0 based interface
, an
HTTP REST interface
,and a
command line interface
(CLI) based on Jython 2.2.1. The graphical interface is fine for casualusers, or for infrequent actions that require user intervention. The HTTP REST interface provides aprogramming language agnostic method for interacting with the appliance. It can also be used toinclude some WebSphere CloudBurst administrative tasks as part of rich enterprise mashups. Forfrequently performed tasks or those require little to no intervention, the CLI is the way to go.
Managing your private cloud: Introducing the WebSphere Clou...http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/techjournal/0...2 of 147/23/09 12:56 PM
 
When you sign on to the WebSphere CloudBurst console, the first panel looks similar to Figure 1.
Figure 1. WebSphere CloudBurst Administration Console
The console provides a graphical gateway from which you can perform all the necessary administrationcapabilites on the WebSphere CloudBurst Appliance. The rich interface is intuitive and inviting,especially if you are new to the appliance. In addition, the console changes based on the current user sothat a user sees only links for capabilities to which he has access. For example, if you only havepermissions for deploying patterns to the cloud, then you would not see the
Cloud
,
Appliance
, or
Catalog
links in the top toolbar.The WebSphere CloudBurst CLI gives you the capability to create a set of automated, scriptedadministrative tasks, and it provides an API that is both easy to use and powerful.The remainder of this article takes a closer look at using this CLI.Getting started with the CLIBefore you can begin working with the WebSphere CloudBurst CLI, you first need to download thetools from the WebSphere CloudBurst administration console:Log in to the console and click the
Download now!
link under the
Use command line tools
heading. A .zip file containing the command line tools will be downloaded to your machine.1.Expand the downloaded file to a directory, thus establishing the cloudburst.cli directory. This isthe root directory for the WebSphere CloudBurst CLI tooling.2.You must have an IBM Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 6 installed on your machine(SR3 or higher, if using an IBM-provided JRE). If you needto, you candownload a supported3.
Managing your private cloud: Introducing the WebSphere Clou...http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/techjournal/0...3 of 147/23/09 12:56 PM
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...