четверг, 14 июня 2012 г.

EXPLORING THE CLOUD USING ORCHESTRATOR


You might have read my post about setting up your own instance in Cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS). Well, recently I started a little research project that required me to use 2 machines in Cloud. One with Windows Server and another with SQL. I need them to be fast, reliable and stable, as well as a possibility to run clones of this environment easily.
EPAM Cloud has caught my attention in scope of my goals. They say I can have access to my environment anywhere, login with PMC credentials to view current status, and start or stop instances even from my iPhone. Sounds pretty awesome!
There is a so called 'Four Buttons' activity introduced in scope of managing environment under EPAM Cloud. Actually, EPAM's Cloud solution is called EPAM Cloud Orchestration Framework or Orchestrator.



So anyway, Orchestrator was designed to accommodate every single thing you need to manage the Cloud. And manage it on your own, control it, monitor and support it on the go, without any additional skills or software needed.
It's a little different from Amazon Management Console, which is reasonable. The whole ideology of EPAM cloud is there are four main actions in managing your own environment - Activate, Setup, Start and Stop.



First of all you need to Activate your project, that's what they call it. In reality, you just fill in the so called 'Onboarding Activation Form', and send it to one of Consultants or Datacenter Admins. The form is simple, there is no need to provide an example here, all that is been asked are your contacts and a name for the future Cloud of yours. In a few hours they will provide you with link to the web site and credentials for access.
You log in and what you see? Really simple user interface. I like the colors, like the design, it looks fresh. It's always good to work with good-looking software, isn't it? Well, that is the case here. Back to the point however. In your initial email, with that Activation Form, you might have also stated the configuration you want, like OS type, Shape of instance and their quantity, etc. If so you'll be able to see it running by now. But that is not interesting, right? I want to do it on my own, want to change it the way I need to. That is the whole point!



So I start setting it up. To do it, just click the Setup button and a friendly wizard will pop-up. I have to say here, that Help materials on every wizard are really comprehensive and explanatory. Basically, right now you are creating a Template of Cloud Hosting Plan, which contains the info about your instances and services, monitoring policies, login credentials and storage sizes. This Template is saved so it can be re-used again if needed and I find it very handy. Who knows what can go wrong, right? And if something does go wrong, environment can be re-launched or cloned with one click.
I'm not going to guide you through the whole process of setting up the Template, why? I will just say that every step is dedicated to single selected service that you need to configure. It's all done with clicking on checkboxes to enable/disable something. Or adding rows with predefined Network Protocols to Security Lists for example. And sure selecting amount of storage you need as well as OS type. It is all very easy and no special skills required.



However, there is something important about Templates. On Step 1 you select it to be Static, Dynamic or Custom. Static means that you will set up the environment, run it and will NOT be able to scale it. If you need it scaled you going to have to build it from scratch again. Dynamic allows for scaling, adding and removing things, so if you need that in the future, choose this option. Custom is designed to give you more flexibility when you switch the ignition and power up, like entering Load Balancing IP or choosing additional storage size for every instance.
I actually like the whole idea with wizards, it gives you the same feeling as when you are new to some software that you want to use, still it has to be configured previously and you don't really know how it's done. But the wizard is there to help you. I feel more relaxed in these, because I know I cannot break something.



When you done and saw the Successful message, you can proceed to actual run of your environment. Just as it was with Setup, it's a Run Wizard. Depending on what Template you used, you will be asked for some additional configuration or just for a Stage name. Stage can be referred to an environment with multiple instances under it, like a QA Stage or DEV Stage. Sure, no one is restricting you with names, enter anything you want.



And there you have it! Running instances. Configured, monitored and shaped just as you want them to be. You can view their network and CPU load statistics on the Monitoring Tab from Orchestrator; you can access them with single click from Management Tab with Console button or report an incident if something's malfunctioning. Really easy, very user-friendly and smooth.
Want to perform instance change, like adding additional storage or changing its Internet IP? No problem, Change wizard is there to help you. Want your colleagues to have, let's say, restricted access to this console? You name it, Users wizard here. Even logs and events can be viewed from here. Trust me, it is awesome.
In comparing to using AWS and Orchestrator I liked the later better. I mean, come on, I don't always have my laptop or a 22-inch screen computer available for solving things with running environment, and that's where Amazon can't help me, its interface barely usable from any mobile device. Orchestrator on the other hand lets me utilize everything from iPhone in my pocket, anywhere, which is really cool! Also, AWS is too big, it's costly and enforces you to read a lot of guides and documentation. I don't really want to do that, don't want to remember all of specific terminology and Service Names. And that is where EPAM Orchestrator has a better approach with wizards and list of events. At the same time it's just as elastic, flexible, reliable and scalable as Amazon.
Finally - the Stop action. If you want your instances stopped, just choose its name from the Stop wizard drop-down menu and click the button.
Like I said, easy, good-looking, stable and safe. That's all about EPAM Cloud Orchestration Framework. I had great experience using it and will continue to do so. Thank you for reading!

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