SoftLayer Fundamentals Connecting To Softlayer

SoftLayer Fundamentals
Connecting to the Cloud – SoftLayer Networking, Part 2
© 2014 IBM Corporation

Your cloud strategy is your business strategy
Pacesetters use cloud to surface insights from data. They reimagine business
models, make better decisions and serve customers in new ways to create winning
business outcomes.
Almost Nearly
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the revenue growth
2.5x
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With so much at stake, you don't want just any cloud…
Source: IBM Center for Applied Insights Under cloud cover: How leaders are accelerating competitive differentiation that surveyed
802 cloud decision makers and users, spanning 13 countries and 24 industries.
3 © 2014 IBM Corporation

Connecting to the cloud – SoftLayer Networking Part 2
Upon completion of this webinar, you should be able to:
• Understand load balancing
• Know the difference between global and local
balancing
• Order a local and a global load balancer
• Configure services in a local load balancer
• Understand the different SoftLayer firewalls
• Understand IP addresses in SoftLayer
• Using SoftLayer’s Domain Name Service
• Interfacing with SoftLayer VLANs

Balancing data with SoftLayer local load balancer
In this topic, you will learn about
• VIP options for load balancing
• Various balancing methods

Balancing data with SoftLayer local load balancer
The SoftLayer local load balancing is based on Array Networks and utilizes industry-
standard techniques. These techniques include round-robin, lowest latency, least
connections, shortest response, and IP persistence to balance traffic among two or more
servers. Local load balancing can be activated and configured in real-time, with servers
added to or removed from the balancing pool on-demand with little or no downtime.
Be aware of the following regarding local load balancing:

• Public network VLAN load balancing only.
• Local load balancing is limited to Layer 4.
• No console access; managed through the Customer Portal.

Selecting VIP options
• Common (shared) load balancing
deployment
• Only one virtual IP address provided:
 250 VIP connections per second
(with SSL option)
 500 VIP connections per second
(with SSL option)
 1,000 VIP connections per second
(with SSL option)
VIP
connections
per second
• Dedicated load balancing deployment
• Up to eight virtual IP addresses:
with SSL only
 100,000 VIP connections per
second with SSL only

Balancing methods
The local load balancer utilizes round robin, shortest response, least connections,
and consistent hash IP as methods to balance traffic among two or more servers in a
data center.
SoftLayer data center
Round
robin
Shortest Local
VIP response
load
connections Least balancer
per second connections
Consistent
hash IP

Routing to servers
SoftLayer data center
Round
robin
Shortest Local
VIP response
load
connections Least balancer
per second connections
Consistent
hash IP

Balancing data with SoftLayer global load balancer
• Examples of global load balancing
configurations
• VIP options for global load balancing
• Various balancing methods
• Citrix NetScaler load balancer

SoftLayer global load balancer
The SoftLayer global load balancer is based on F5 Networks and allows you to load
balance your websites between servers in different physical data center locations. By
using an Anycast DNS system, the global load balancer is capable of providing highly
redundant DNS resolution to clients as well as direct clients to the optimal data center site
relative to location.
Be aware of the following regarding global load balancing:

• No console access; managed through the Customer Portal.
• Anycast DNS system is capable of providing redundant DNS resolution to clients and
directing clients to data center sites relative to location.
• Global load balancing is limited to Layer 4.
• Servers are added to or removed from the balancing pool on demand.

Configuring examples
Below are two examples of how the configure the global load balancer – simple and
complex.
Example
Simple configuration A simple configuration of the global load balancer consists of two
servers in two different locations. With geography-based load
balancing, users are directed to the data center location to which
they are closest. In the event of a failure of either server, traffic is
directed to the remaining server.
Complex A complex configuration of the global load balancer consists of
configuration the global load balancer connecting to multiple local load
balancers at each physical location, with an additional fallback
location available in the event all sites fail.

Selecting VIP options
Deployment options:
• 50 VIP connections per second
VIP • 500 VIP connections per second
connections • 1,000 VIP connections per second
per second

Balancing methods
The global load balancer utilizes weight round robin, geography, round robin, and
failover as methods to balance traffic among two or more servers in one or more data
centers.
Resides in
all SoftLayer
data centers
and PoPs
Weighted
round robin
Geography Global
VIP
load
connections Round
balancer
per second robin
Failover

Routing to servers
Resides in
all SoftLayer
data centers
and PoPs
Weighted
round robin
SoftLayer data center 1

Geography Global
VIP
Load
connections Round
balancer
per second robin
SoftLayer data center 2
Failover

Using the SoftLayer Citrix NetScaler load balancer
The SoftLayer Citrix NetScaler load balancer is a web application delivery appliance. It is
designed to accelerate application performance, and ensure application availability and
protection while substantially lowering costs.
Citrix NetScaler load balancer is

• Available for deployment in both public and private networks in SoftLayer.
• Only option to load balance non-public network-facing servers and virtual instances.
• Allowed up to, and including, Layer 7.
• Includes 5 TB of public outbound bandwidth and unlimited private network bandwidth per
device.
The deployment options for Citrix NetScaler Standard and Platinum Editions are
• 10 Mbps, 200 Mbps, and 1 Gbps.
• One, two, four, eight, or 16 public IP addresses.

Using the SoftLayer Citrix NetScaler load balancer (cont.)
Standard Edition Platinum Edition

• TCP buffering • TCP buffering • Citrix Access Gateway
• TCP multiplexing • TCP multiplexing • Layer 7 DoS defenses
• SSL offload and • SSL offload and • NetScaler Application
acceleration acceleration Firewall
• Client and server TCP • Cache redirection • Layer 4 load balancing
optimizations • Client and server TCP • Layer 7 content
• L4 DoS defenses optimizations switching
• Layer 7 content filtering • Citrix AppCompress for • AppExpert rate controls
• HTTP rewrite HTTP • IPv6
• URL rewrite • Citrix AppCache • Global server load
• Citrix Access Gateway • L4 DoS defenses balancing
• Layer 4 load balancing • Layer 7 content filtering • Surge protection
• Layer 7 content • HTTP rewrite • Priority queuing
switching • URL rewrite
• AppExpert rate controls
• IPv6

Setting up firewalls in SoftLayer
• Managed firewalls
• FortiGate security appliance
• Vyatta gateway appliance

Working with SoftLayer’s managed firewall
SoftLayer’s hardware firewalls utilize the Fortinet FortiGate 300 Series firewalls. You
select from a dedicated hardware firewall or a standard hardware firewall based on your
need.
• Dedicated firewalls protect one, multiple, or all servers that share the same VLAN for
the highest assurance of uptime.
• Standard firewalls provide individual servers an additional layer of server security.
The firewalls are provisioned on demand without service interruptions.

Working with SoftLayer’s managed firewall (cont.)
Dedicated hardware firewalls Standard (shared) hardware firewall

Deployment options: Deployment options:
• 1 Gbps dedicated • 10 Mbps
• 1 Gbps dedicated with high availability • 100 Mbps
• 1 Gbps
• Protect an entire defined VLAN. • Applied to individual servers (dedicated
• Designed rules to be applied to entire server or CCI)
VLAN or to single servers in defined • Designed rules for all IPs assigned to
VLAN. designated server or for a single IP
• Managed through customer portal and address on the server
API. • Managed through Customer Portal and
• Provides firewall, anti-virus, and API
intrusion prevention. • Provides firewall and anti-virus based
security.

Using the FortiGate security appliance
The deployment options for the FortiGate security application are single deployment or
high availability.
The hardware is the same as the SoftLayer managed hardware firewall offering
(FortiGate 300 series).
There is direct access to the FortiGate's console and native management tools. The
console and tools provide complete, granular control over advanced firewall and security
features. These security features include anti-virus, intrusion detection, intrusion
prevention, and VPN capabilities (IPSec, PPTP, and L2TP).

Using the Vyatta gateway appliance
The Vyatta gateway appliance is designed to allow for advanced network routing and
configuration of a portion of or the entire account for a customer in SoftLayer.
Deployment options
CPU RAM Disk configuration Disk options
Xeon Quad Core 1230 3.2 4 GB JBOD SATA
Ghz 8 GB RAID 0 SATA 10K
Xeon Quad Core 1270 3.4 12 GB RAID 1 SCSI 10K
Ghz 16 GB RAID 5 SCSI 15K
32 GB RAID 10 SSD

Using the Vyatta gateway appliance (cont.)
Capabilities:
• IPSec VPN tunnels
• NAT
• Firewall services
• Router services
All Vyatta capabilities can be managed through either the SSH shell CLI or by connecting
to the Vyatta Network OS GUI via the SoftLayer VPN and private IP address.
Note: A customer may not have a

SoftLayer shared or dedicated firewall
service and a Vyatta network gateway
device assigned to the same VLAN.

Establishing additional IP address blocks
In this topic, you will learn about SoftLayer IP
addresses.

Understanding IP addresses in SoftLayer
Each SoftLayer server (virtual or bare metal) comes with one primary IPv4 address.
Additional IP blocks are available in quantities of one, two, four, eight, 16, or 32.
IP block type Description

Static IP block A block of IP Addresses that are routed directly to a specific IP on
the network.
Portable IP block Any IP block that can be used on multiple servers within a single
VLAN concurrently. Portable IP address are switchable within a
VLAN from server to server. There are two types of portable IP
blocks:
• Routed to VLAN is a static IP block that is routed to an entire
VLAN rather than a specific IP address. This IP block provides
the customer access to all IPs within the block.
• Secondary to VLAN is designed to be used within a virtual
environment. It requires that the network, gateway, and
broadcast IPs be bound directly to the VLAN rendering these IPs
unusable by the customer. This block is used in conjunction with
a virtual machine. (To have one usable IP address for a server
you need at least four IP addresses in a block.)

Understanding IP addresses in SoftLayer (cont.)
Global IP's provide IP flexibility by letting users shift workloads between servers (even in
different data centers). Global IPs also provide IP persistence by allowing for transitions
between servers and virtual instance’s. This is a direct competitor to Amazon Elastic IPs,
without the limitation of being defined to a specific region.
Deployment options include:

• Monthly charge per deployed IP address.
• IP destination change through the customer portal or API commands.

Using SoftLayer’s Domain Name System service
In this topic, you will learn about SoftLayer’s
Domain Name System offering.

Using Domain Name System (DNS)
A customer has four options for using a named server with their SoftLayer infrastructure:
1. Use your (the customer’s) domain name registrar name servers to manage your (the
customer’s) domain names.
2. Use SoftLayer name servers to manage your domain names.
3. Use a third party DNS service to manage your domain names.
4. Run your own name servers on your server to manage your domain names.
SoftLayer DNS services:

• Public option (SoftLayer manages the customer’s domain). Public name servers act
as authoritative name servers for domain names that reside in SoftLayer DNS
servers and are managed through Customer Portal. These servers "answer" and
"resolve" domain names to a company’s IP address for the general Internet
population.
• Private Network. Resolving name servers are located on the private network and act
as DNS resolvers for a customer’s server. The private resolvers slave from SoftLayer
public name servers so they are always up to date. This is a convenience service for
customers.

Describing a VLAN
What is a VLAN?
Virtual LAN (VLAN) is a networking concept in which network interfaces on different
routers, switches, and servers act as if they're on the same local network broadcast
domain.
How are VLANs used by SoftLayer?

SoftLayer servers are provisioned on “private VLANs” that are created per router (in a
data center) for the public and private networks. See the diagram below.
Public network Private network

DC1
VLAN VLAN
1 5
VLAN
VLAN 4 DC3
2
VLAN
3 VLAN
6
DC2

Spanning
• VLAN spanning is turned off by default.
• VLAN spanning enables a server or virtual instance connection to multiple VLANs
and data centers on the SoftLayer private network.
• IPs on the private VLANs in a customer account will be able to communicate once
spanning is enabled. There is no current discrete spanning separation.
• Five minutes to 15 minutes to activate VLAN spanning.
• Option is available to span private VLAN of two separate SoftLayer accounts.
• Cost is $25 per account.

Planning an advanced VLAN design
• A customer can
segment their
provisioned
physical and
virtual servers
onto one or more
private VLANs.
• Customer VLANs
across one or
more data centers
can be
interconnected via
the SoftLayer
private network.
• Distributed denial
of service (DDoS)
protection is
provided on the
SoftLayer public
network via Cisco
Guard devices.

Questions
?
Leading Edge
Recommended actions
Sign up for a free 1 month trial account:
http://www.softlayer.com/info/free-
Trusted
cloud/skills100
Within 60 days, register as a SoftLayer

partner with a viable SL opportunity (time
frame, workload, configuration) at: Completely Free
http://www.softlayer.com/partners/ibm-
partners
35
Attend other SoftLayer Fundamentals webinars or download
the replay and materials at your convenience
Webinar
Topic # Topic
Date
February 25 1 Changing the landscape, not the definition - SoftLayer overview
February 27 2 One size does not fit all – Defining the SoftLayer cloud architecture
March 4 3 Connecting to the cloud – SoftLayer network options, part 1
March 6 4 Connecting to the cloud – SoftLayer network options, part 2
March 11 5 Keep safe – Securing your virtual instances
March 13 6 Storing your data – Understanding SoftLayer storage options
March 18 7 Flexible and on demand – Understanding SoftLayer managed services
March 20 8 You can’t manage what you don’t monitor – SoftLayer management and
monitoring
March 25 9 Evaluating cloud providers - Leveraging SoftLayer differentiators
Please remember to download the glossary of terms

SoftLayer Fundamentals Connecting To Softlayer

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SoftLayer Fundamentals

Connecting to the Cloud – SoftLayer Networking, Part 2

© 2014 IBM Corporation

With so much at stake, you don't want just any cloud…

3 © 2014 IBM Corporation

66 © 2014 IBM Corporation

7 © 2014 IBM Corporation

Be aware of the following regarding local load balancing:

8 © 2014 IBM Corporation

9 © 2014 IBM Corporation

SoftLayer data center

10 © 2014 IBM Corporation

SoftLayer data center

11 © 2014 IBM Corporation

12 © 2014 IBM Corporation

Be aware of the following regarding global load balancing:

13 © 2014 IBM Corporation

14 © 2014 IBM Corporation

15 © 2014 IBM Corporation

16 © 2014 IBM Corporation

SoftLayer data center 1

17 © 2014 IBM Corporation

Citrix NetScaler load balancer is

18 © 2014 IBM Corporation

Standard Edition Platinum Edition

19 © 2014 IBM Corporation

20 © 2014 IBM Corporation

21 © 2014 IBM Corporation

Dedicated hardware firewalls Standard (shared) hardware firewall

22 © 2014 IBM Corporation

23 © 2014 IBM Corporation

24 © 2014 IBM Corporation

Note: A customer may not have a

25 © 2014 IBM Corporation

26 © 2014 IBM Corporation

IP block type Description

27 © 2014 IBM Corporation

Deployment options include:

28 © 2014 IBM Corporation

29 © 2014 IBM Corporation

SoftLayer DNS services:

30 © 2014 IBM Corporation

How are VLANs used by SoftLayer?

Public network Private network

31 © 2014 IBM Corporation

32 © 2014 IBM Corporation

33 © 2014 IBM Corporation

Within 60 days, register as a SoftLayer

Please remember to download the glossary of terms

© 2014 IBM Corporation

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