Cisco Cisco UCS Director 4.0 Information Guide
2 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
— Mike Majunke
Head of infrastructure and
platform services (consulting
unit)
ORBIT
Looking for ways to streamline management and reduce the load on consultants, ORBIT
decided to develop a self-service portal with standard workflows that allow developers to
provision virtual machines as needed. To support this new automated provisioning model,
ORBIT chose the converged FlexPod infrastructure, which is built around Cisco Unified
Computing System™ (UCS®) servers, NetApp storage systems, Cisco Nexus® switches,
and VMware.
decided to develop a self-service portal with standard workflows that allow developers to
provision virtual machines as needed. To support this new automated provisioning model,
ORBIT chose the converged FlexPod infrastructure, which is built around Cisco Unified
Computing System™ (UCS®) servers, NetApp storage systems, Cisco Nexus® switches,
and VMware.
Without a dedicated IT department, ORBIT needed the virtual environment to be as easy
to deploy and manage as possible. While the converged FlexPod environment meets
the company’s needs for flexibility and scalability in a simplified environment, unifying
management across physical, virtual, and bare-metal layers still posed a challenge. Rather
than implementing separate management software for each layer, ORBIT chose Cisco®
UCS Director as a holistic management solution. “Using Cisco UCS Director, we are
unlocking the full potential of our converged FlexPod solution to automate provisioning
and management of virtual machines for our developers,” says Majunke.
to deploy and manage as possible. While the converged FlexPod environment meets
the company’s needs for flexibility and scalability in a simplified environment, unifying
management across physical, virtual, and bare-metal layers still posed a challenge. Rather
than implementing separate management software for each layer, ORBIT chose Cisco®
UCS Director as a holistic management solution. “Using Cisco UCS Director, we are
unlocking the full potential of our converged FlexPod solution to automate provisioning
and management of virtual machines for our developers,” says Majunke.
Solution
After considering several options to host the development virtual machines, ORBIT deployed
a converged FlexPod infrastructure. Cisco UCS B200 Series Blade Servers provide
exceptional performance and density to handle virtual machines when virtualized with
VMware vSphere. Cisco Nexus 5500 Series Switches offer broad connectivity support
for both the Cisco UCS servers and the NetApp FAS3200 Series Storage Systems. The
flexibility of these components gives ORBIT the agility that it needs to scale quickly and
support a wide variety of loads in the virtual environment.
a converged FlexPod infrastructure. Cisco UCS B200 Series Blade Servers provide
exceptional performance and density to handle virtual machines when virtualized with
VMware vSphere. Cisco Nexus 5500 Series Switches offer broad connectivity support
for both the Cisco UCS servers and the NetApp FAS3200 Series Storage Systems. The
flexibility of these components gives ORBIT the agility that it needs to scale quickly and
support a wide variety of loads in the virtual environment.
By using the FlexPod solution, ORBIT can manage the environment as a single entity rather
than as many parts. “Being able to configure the entire FlexPod environment from one
interface cuts back on the time required for our IT consultants to deploy and manage our
virtual infrastructure,” says Majunke.
than as many parts. “Being able to configure the entire FlexPod environment from one
interface cuts back on the time required for our IT consultants to deploy and manage our
virtual infrastructure,” says Majunke.
Cisco UCS Director takes the FlexPod environment one step further with unified
management, automation, and orchestration across all layers. Legacy management
solutions traditionally cover only specific areas of an environment, such as provisioning
virtual machines or configuring physical components. Using Cisco UCS Director to administer
all components enables ORBIT to take advantage of the integration that makes the
converged infrastructure so beneficial. Since Cisco UCS Director works smoothly with
the FlexPod infrastructure, ORBIT could use existing clusters without needing to change
workflows or configurations.
management, automation, and orchestration across all layers. Legacy management
solutions traditionally cover only specific areas of an environment, such as provisioning
virtual machines or configuring physical components. Using Cisco UCS Director to administer
all components enables ORBIT to take advantage of the integration that makes the
converged infrastructure so beneficial. Since Cisco UCS Director works smoothly with
the FlexPod infrastructure, ORBIT could use existing clusters without needing to change
workflows or configurations.
Using the workflows and automation available in Cisco UCS Director, ORBIT built a self-
service portal that enables developers to provision virtual machines for projects. Since the
requirements for virtual machines and approvals can vary wildly depending on the type of
project and resources needed, ORBIT used Cisco UCS Director to customize workflows and
automatically provision resources depending on the type of assignment and developers’
needs. Not only does this self-provisioning process deliver consistent infrastructure
deployment, but it does so quickly and without increasing load on consultants.
service portal that enables developers to provision virtual machines for projects. Since the
requirements for virtual machines and approvals can vary wildly depending on the type of
project and resources needed, ORBIT used Cisco UCS Director to customize workflows and
automatically provision resources depending on the type of assignment and developers’
needs. Not only does this self-provisioning process deliver consistent infrastructure
deployment, but it does so quickly and without increasing load on consultants.
“Cisco UCS Director was very easy to integrate into our existing workflows,” says Majunke.
With only minimal training from Cisco, ORBIT was able to deploy the management solution
in-house with little outside help. “Whenever we had questions, Cisco was always right there
to provide technical support and help us get off the ground.”
With only minimal training from Cisco, ORBIT was able to deploy the management solution
in-house with little outside help. “Whenever we had questions, Cisco was always right there
to provide technical support and help us get off the ground.”