Chapter 1 Sun N1 System Manager Overview

This chapter provides a summary of Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 functions and components.

Sun N1 System Manager Features

The Sun N1 System Manager is a system management tool that enables you to discover and subsequently manage racks of servers or other groupings of horizontally scaled servers using a single browser user interface. In this manual, the term manageable server is used for a server that the N1 System Manager network can access, but the N1 System Manager has not yet discovered. A managed server is a server that has been successfully discovered by the N1 System Manager and is subsequently managed by the N1 System Manager.

The Sun N1 System Manager browser interface provides an integrated command line interface. You can also run the same command line interface from a UNIX shell on the management server.

The Sun N1 System Manager system or N1 System Manager enables you to do the following tasks:

• Discover servers

• Provision operating systems

• Manage firmware and patches

• Monitor server health

• Automate server configuration and recovery

• Maximize server utilization

• Minimize user-visible hardware downtime

• Log N1 System Manager and server events

Sun N1 System Manager Components

The following figure provides a high-level overview of the hardware components of the N1 System Manager.

Figure 1–1 N1 System Manager Components

The above diagram represents one of the possible N1 System Manager configurations. For further information, see Reference Configurations in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide.

The following list describes each of the components.

• Management server and managed servers

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  Note –

  If your network is designed to use only a management network or only a provisioning network, then the N1 System Manager operates in a restricted mode when installed. N1 System Manager provides two default security roles with specific privileges assigned for the restricted mode of operation. See Managing Roles in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Discovery and Administration Guide and Restricted Mode Capabilities in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Discovery and Administration Guide.

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  • The N1 System Manager management server should be dedicated only to the N1 System Manager software, and should not be managed by any system management software such as N1 System Manager, Sun Management Center, Sun Control Station, or any other management system.

  • The management server is the Solaris or Linux based server on which the N1 System Manager software is installed and run.

    The N1 System Manager DHCP service allocates IP addresses to the managed servers during discovery for use by the provisioning network. The N1 System Manager uses the provisioning network to load operating systems and updates to the managed servers.

    For a list of the supported management servers and the qualified operating systems, see Management Server Requirements in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide.

  • For a list of the supported manageable servers and the qualified operating systems that can be provisioned, see Manageable Server Requirements in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide.

• RIS server

  The Microsoft Windows Remote Installation Services (RIS) server is required only if you are going to provision Windows to managed servers. For further information, see Setting Up a Windows Remote Installation Services Server in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide.

• The corporate network connection to the provisioning and data network switch enables corporate users to access managed servers over the data network.

  An Ethernet connection of 100 megabits per second is the minimum requirement. A 1,000 megabits (1 Gbit) connection is advised.

• The management network provides the path to and from the N1 System Manager and the managed server's management processor port. The N1 System Manager uses the management network for server discovery, managed server firmware updates, and for managed server hardware management and monitoring.

  The management network should be a private network that is accessible by the management server, and not accessible by the data network. An Ethernet connection of 100 megabits per second is the required minimum.

• The management network switch provides connectivity to a management port on each managed server, and should be a VLAN- programmable switch.

• The data and provisioning network switch provides provisioning network and data network connectivity to and from the management server and the managed servers. The provisioning and data switch should be a VLAN- programmable switch.

  The provisioning and data network requirements are as follows:

  • The provisioning network is used by the management server to configure and provision the operating and application environments on the managed servers, to monitormanaged server OS resources and hardware, and to apply OS updates to managed servers. Ethernet connections of 1 Gbit per second are the required minimum.

    Due to the use of the DHCP protocol and the bandwidth requirements for OS provisioning, the provisioning network should be isolated from the data network.

  • The data network provides the connections from the managed servers to the corporate network through the management server for the end user. The corporate DHCP service allocates IP addresses to themanaged server to provide end user access to the managed server.

    The data network should not have access to any of the N1 System Manager networks.

The following diagram illustrates a sample production environment in which the data and provisioning network are on separate VLANs, and in which multiple VLAN assignments have been used to configure the data network for end user access.

Figure 1–2 Sample Production Environment