SevOne Data Platform Deployment on Microsoft Azure

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About

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Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft that enables organizations to build, test, deploy, and manage applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers. Integrating Microsoft Azure with the SevOne Platform offers several benefits, including the following.

  • Ability to deploy the SevOne Platform within Microsoft Azure.
  • Continuation of existing monitoring capabilities. Just as SevOne currently monitors Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), routers, switches, servers, and firewalls, it can provide the same level of monitoring for resources deployed in Microsoft Azure.
  • Monitoring data sources within Microsoft Azure can help reduce or eliminate data transport costs.

In order to properly deploy SevOne NMS / SevOne Data Insight on Microsoft Azure, it is important to understand the following concepts.

SevOne Concepts
RHEL (RedHat Enterprise Linux) The OS driving the SevOne appliance.
SevOne NMS The SevOne NMS appliance.
SevOne Data Insight The SevOne Data Insight appliance.
Azure Concepts related to SevOne
Azure Portal Cloud Platform Management - the Graphical User Interface for Azure.
AZ CLI The command line interface for Azure.
Region The Azure region for deployment. This is analogous to multiple data centers in a large geographic area.
VHD Virtual Hard Disk - the raw image from which an instance is created. VHDs are generated by SevOne and are made available to customers.

Azure Instance / Virtual Machine Types for SevOne Appliances

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Important:
While there are no hardware vendor or model restrictions, IBM SevOne strongly recommends choosing the hardware certified in RedHat Ecosystem Catalog where,
  • Type = System
  • Architecture = x86_64
  • Certified for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
For deployments, CPU must be compatible with x86-64-v2 instruction set for certain pods to start. To verify if you have the correct version for instruction set, run the following command. 

/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 --help
If the output contains x86-64-v2 (supported, searched), you have the required version.
Note: Please refer to Azure Instance Types - D-family v5 series for details on Azure Instance Types in the table below.
SevOne Model License Count VM Size vCPU Memory (GB) OS Disk (GiB) Data Disk (GiB)
vPAS5k up to 5k objects Standard_D4s_v5 4 16 600 n/a
vPAS10k up to 10k objects Standard_D8s_v5 8 32 600 n/a
vPAS20k up to 20k objects Standard_D8s_v5 8 32 600 n/a
vPAS60k up to 60k objects Standard_D16s_v5 16 64 600 1,250
vPAS100k up to 100k objects Standard_D32s_v5 32 128 600 2,000
vPAS200k up to 200k objects Standard_D48s_v5 48 192 600 4,000
vDNC100 up to 100 interfaces Standard_D4s_v5 4 16 600 400
vDNC300 up to 300 interfaces Standard_D8s_v5 8 32 600 800
vDNC1000 up to 1000 interfaces Standard_D16s_v5 16 64 600 1,500
vDNC1500 up to 1500 interfaces Standard_D16s_v5 16 64 600 3,000
Data Insight / Solutions n/a Standard_D8s_v5 8 32 600 n/a
Note: The average Input / Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) is 19,000KBs.
Important: It is very important that you follow the information in the table above. Any deviation will cause undesired results and lack of support.

SevOne Image

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Contains the following topics.

Download the VHD image(s) from IBM Passport Advantage (https://www.ibm.com/software/passportadvantage/pao_download_software.html) via Passport Advantage Online.

If the .vhd is compressed, it must be extracted before uploading to Azure.

If you are on a legacy / flexible SevOne contract and do not have access to IBM Passport Advantage but have an active Support contract, please contact IBM SevOne Support.

Once you have downloaded the package, unpack the fix / upgrade packs to obtain the required files.

Azure customers will create an Azure page blob from a VHD in the SevOne Microsoft Azure storage account. This blob will be used to create the Azure image.

Note: For details, please refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-quickstart-blobs-portal

To deploy a virtual appliance using a .vhd file on Microsoft Azure, please refer to Microsoft's documentation https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/linux/redhat-create-upload-vhd for details.

Prerequisites

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  • Azure Virtual networks must have VPN connectivity
  • SevOne product image(s) must be uploaded to your Azure storage account

Upload SevOne Image to Azure Storage Account

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Upload the SevOne product .vhd image(s) you received to a container in your Azure storage account, saving the URL to the uploaded VHD for a later step. Each SevOne image type and version only needs to be uploaded once. If the .vhd is compressed, it must be extracted before uploading.

  1. Login to the Azure portal.
  2. Navigate to Storage Accounts.
  3. Click the + Create button.
  4. Click the link under Instance Details for If you need to create a legacy storage account type, please click here.
  5. Complete the following fields.
    1. Subscription - select your subscription.
    2. Resource Group - select an existing or create a new resource group.
    3. Storage account name - for example, sevoneimages (you must specify a name that is unique across all of Microsoft Azure).
    4. Location - specify your region.
    5. Performance - Standard (for block blobs, files shares, or page blobs).
    6. Account kind - Storage (general purpose v1).
    7. Replication - Locally-redundant storage (LRS).
  6. Click Review + create.
  7. Click Create.
  8. Click Go to resource after the deployment has completed.
  9. Click + Container and complete the following fields.
    1. Name - sevone
    2. Public access level - Blob (anonymous read-access for blobs only).
  10. Upload SevOne image to the sevone container in your storage account via Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer (fastest / recommended) or Azure Portal Graphical User Interface.

Create Azure Virtual Machine Image

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Create an Azure Virtual Machine Image from the storage blob that was uploaded in the previous section. Each SevOne image type and version only needs an Azure Virtual Machine Image created once.

  1. Login to the Azure portal.
  2. Navigate to Images.
  3. Click the + Create button and complete the following fields.
    1. Subscription - select your subscription.
    2. Resource Group - select an existing or create a new resource group.
    3. Name - specify the SevOne image type and version using lowercase alphanumeric characters and dashes. For example, nms-7-2-0.
    4. OS Type - Linux
    5. VM Generation - use Gen 2 for NMS and Gen 1 for Data Insight / Solutions.
    6. Storage Blob - select the .vhd that was uploaded to your storage account in the previous section.
    7. Account Type - premium SSD.
    8. Host Caching - None
    9. Click OK.
  4. Click Review + Create button.
  5. Click Create button.
Note: For additional details, please refer to Add VM image from Azure Storage.

Azure Virtual Machine Creation

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Create the Virtual Machine (VM) from the Azure VM Image.

  1. Login to the Azure portal.
  2. Navigate to Virtual Machines.
  3. Click + Create button, select Virtual Machine, and complete the following fields on the Basics tab.
    1. Subscription - select your subscription.
    2. Resource Group - select an existing or create a new resource group.
    3. Virtual Machine Name - for example, VM1. Replace VM1 with your intended VM hostname.
    4. Image - click See All Images, click the My Images tab on the left, then select the image you created in the previous section.
    5. Size - select the correct Azure Instance Type from Azure Instance / Virtual Machine Types for SevOne Appliances table above.
    6. Authentication Type - password
    7. Username - setupuser; note that although required to complete the form, username and password credentials entered on the form will not be used on the created VM.
    8. Password - enter a complex password.
    9. Confirm Password - enter the same complex password.
    10. Public inbound ports - None
    11. Licensing - Other
  4. If your SevOne NMS model requires a data disk, as seen in Azure Instance / Virtual Machine Types for SevOne Appliances table, select the Disks tab. Skip this step if the data disk size for your SevOne NMS model is specified as n/a in the table above.
    1. Click Create and attach a new disk.
    2. Click Change size, specify the Data Disk (GiB) size for your SevOne NMS model in Azure Instance / Virtual Machine Types for SevOne Appliances table above.
    3. Click OK.
    4. Click OK again.
  5. Complete the following on the Networking tab.
    1. Virtual network - select the appropriate network.
    2. Subnet - select the appropriate subnet.
    3. Public IP - None
    4. NIC network security group - Advanced
    5. Configure network security group - select the appropriate network security group.
  6. Click Review + create, then click Create.
  7. When the deployment is complete, click Go to resource.
    Note: It will take approximately 5 or more minutes to create a Virtual Machine.
    Warning: During key generation, SSH will be unavailable. Please wait for SSH to become available after all SevOne processes have started.

You are now ready to login to your SevOne Virtual Machine in Azure.

Post-Deployment

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After the Virtual Machine is created and running, execute the following steps.

  1. Wait for SSH to become available i.e., key generation process.
  2. Connect to the Virtual Machine using SSH.
  3. Complete the initial SevOne configuration.
  4. Apply the license.
  5. Configure network settings, as needed.