Configuring Tenants

This section includes the following topics:

Tenant Management

The topics in this section describe how to manage tenants when is installed in Standalone mode. For information on managing tenants when is installed in Orchestrator mode, see Integrating with DCNM.

Tenant Management and Multi-Tenant Environments

provides the ability to support multi-tenant environments. A multi-tenant environment enables the division of large physical infrastructures into logical entities called organizations. As a result, you can achieve logical isolation between organizations without providing a dedicated physical infrastructure for each organization.

The administrator can assign unique resources to each tenant through the related organization in the multi-tenant environment. These resources can include policies, pools, device profiles, service devices, and so on. The administrator can use locales to assign or restrict user privileges and roles by organization if access to certain organizations needs to be restricted.

Users with the tenant-admin role can see only those objects and resources that are related to their associated tenants as defined by the locales and organizations assigned to them. They cannot see the policies or resources of other tenants. Tenant-admin users can view faults only for the resources (such as firewalls or load balancers) that they manage. They cannot see diagnostic information or configure administrative options.

Users with the admin role add a user with the tenant-admin role by associating the user with a locale and organization. For more information about creating user accounts and assigning locales and organizations, see the following topics:

The tenant-admin role has the following privileges:

  • Policy management

  • Resource configuration

  • Tenant management

provides a strict organizational hierarchy as follows:
  1. root

  2. Tenant

  3. Virtual Data Center

  4. Application

  5. Tier

The root can have multiple tenants. Each tenant can have multiple data centers. Each data center can have multiple applications, and each application can have multiple tiers.

The policies and pools created at the root level are systemwide and are available to all organizations in the system. However, any policies and pools created in an organization below the root level are available only to those resources that are below that organization in the same hierarchy.

For example, if a system has tenants named Company A and Company B, Company A cannot use any policies created in the Company B organization. Company B cannot access any policies created in the Company A organization. However, both Company A and Company B can use policies and pools in the root organization.

Name Resolution in a Multi-Tenant Environment

In a multi-tenant environment, uses the hierarchy of an organization to resolve the names of policies and resource pools. The steps that takes to resolve the names of policies and resource pools are as follows:

  1. checks the policies and pools for the specified name within an organization assigned to the device profile or security policy.

  2. If the policy or pool is found, uses that policy or pool.

  3. If the policy or pool does not contain available resources at the local level, moves up the hierarchy to the parent organization and checks for a policy with the specified name. repeats this step until the search reaches the root organization.

    Note


    The object name reference resolution takes an object name and resolves an object from an organization container to the object with the same name that is closest in the tree as it searches upward toward root. If an object with the specified name is not found, uses a corresponding default object. For example, assume that there is an SNMP policy under a data center named MySNMP and an SNMP policy in the tenant in the same tree that is also named MySNMP. In this case, the user cannot explicitly select the MySNMP policy under the tenant. If the user wants to select the SNMP policy under the tenant, they must provide a unique name for the object in the given tree.


  4. If the search reaches the root organization and an assigned policy or pool is not found, looks for a default policy or pool starting at the current level and going up the chain to the root level. If a default policy or pool is found, uses it. If a policy is not available, a fault is generated.

Configuring Tenants

Creating a Tenant

SUMMARY STEPS

    1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > Create Tenant.

    2.    In the Create Tenant dialog box, enter a name and description for the tenant, and then click OK.


DETAILED STEPS
    Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > Create Tenant.
    Step 2   In the Create Tenant dialog box, enter a name and description for the tenant, and then click OK.

    Editing a Tenant

    SUMMARY STEPS

      1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant where tenant is the tenant that you want to edit.

      2.    In the General tab, modify the description as required, and then click Save.


    DETAILED STEPS
      Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant where tenant is the tenant that you want to edit.
      Step 2   In the General tab, modify the description as required, and then click Save.

      Deleting a Tenant


      Note


      When you delete an organization (such as a tenant, virtual data center, application, or tier), all data contained under the organization is deleted, including subordinate organizations, service devices, resource pools, and policies.


      SUMMARY STEPS

        1.    Choose Tenant Management > root.

        2.    Right-click the tenant that you want to delete, and choose Delete Tenant.

        3.    When prompted, confirm the deletion.


      DETAILED STEPS
        Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root.
        Step 2   Right-click the tenant that you want to delete, and choose Delete Tenant.
        Step 3   When prompted, confirm the deletion.

        Configuring Virtual Data Centers

        Creating a Virtual Data Center

        SUMMARY STEPS

          1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant, where tenant is the location for the new virtual data center.

          2.    Click Create Virtual Data Center.

          3.    In the Create Virtual Data Center dialog box, enter a name and description for the virtual data center, and then click OK.


        DETAILED STEPS
          Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant, where tenant is the location for the new virtual data center.
          Step 2   Click Create Virtual Data Center.
          Step 3   In the Create Virtual Data Center dialog box, enter a name and description for the virtual data center, and then click OK.

          Editing a Virtual Data Center

          SUMMARY STEPS

            1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc where vdc is the virtual data center that you want to edit.

            2.    In the General tab, modify the description as required and click Save.


          DETAILED STEPS
            Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc where vdc is the virtual data center that you want to edit.
            Step 2   In the General tab, modify the description as required and click Save.

            Deleting a Virtual Data Center


            Note


            When you delete a virtual data center, all data contained under the virtual data center is deleted, including subordinate organizations, service devices, resource pools, and policies.
            SUMMARY STEPS

              1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant where tenant is the tenant with the virtual data center that you want to delete.

              2.    Right-click the virtual data center that you want to delete and choose Delete Virtual Data Center.

              3.    When prompted, confirm the deletion.


            DETAILED STEPS
              Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant where tenant is the tenant with the virtual data center that you want to delete.
              Step 2   Right-click the virtual data center that you want to delete and choose Delete Virtual Data Center.
              Step 3   When prompted, confirm the deletion.

              Configuring Applications

              Creating an Application

              SUMMARY STEPS

                1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc where vdc is the location for the new application.

                2.    Click Create Application.

                3.    In the Create Application dialog box, enter a name and description for the application, and then click OK.


              DETAILED STEPS
                Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc where vdc is the location for the new application.
                Step 2   Click Create Application.
                Step 3   In the Create Application dialog box, enter a name and description for the application, and then click OK.

                Editing an Application

                SUMMARY STEPS

                  1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc > application, where application is the application that you want to edit.

                  2.    In the General tab, modify the description as required, and then click Save.


                DETAILED STEPS
                  Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc > application, where application is the application that you want to edit.
                  Step 2   In the General tab, modify the description as required, and then click Save.

                  Deleting an Application


                  Note


                  When you delete an application, all data contained under the application is deleted, including subordinate organizations, service devices, resource pools, and policies.
                  SUMMARY STEPS

                    1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc where vdc is the virtual data center with the application that you want to delete.

                    2.    Right-click the application that you want to delete, and choose Delete Application.

                    3.    When prompted, confirm the deletion.


                  DETAILED STEPS
                    Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc where vdc is the virtual data center with the application that you want to delete.
                    Step 2   Right-click the application that you want to delete, and choose Delete Application.
                    Step 3   When prompted, confirm the deletion.

                    Configuring Tiers

                    Creating a Tier

                    SUMMARY STEPS

                      1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc > application, where application is the location for the new tier.

                      2.    Click Create Tier.

                      3.    In the Create Tier dialog box, enter a name and description for the tier, and then click OK


                    DETAILED STEPS
                      Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc > application, where application is the location for the new tier.
                      Step 2   Click Create Tier.
                      Step 3   In the Create Tier dialog box, enter a name and description for the tier, and then click OK

                      Editing a Tier

                      SUMMARY STEPS

                        1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc > application > tier where tier is the tier you want to edit.

                        2.    In the General tab, modify the description as required, and then click Save.


                      DETAILED STEPS
                        Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc > application > tier where tier is the tier you want to edit.
                        Step 2   In the General tab, modify the description as required, and then click Save.

                        Deleting a Tier


                        Note


                        When you delete a tier, all data contained under it is also deleted, including service devices, resource pools, and policies.
                        SUMMARY STEPS

                          1.    Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc > application where application contains the tier that you want to delete.

                          2.    Right-click the tier that you want to delete and choose Delete Tier.

                          3.    When prompted, confirm the deletion.


                        DETAILED STEPS
                          Step 1   Choose Tenant Management > root > tenant > vdc > application where application contains the tier that you want to delete.
                          Step 2   Right-click the tier that you want to delete and choose Delete Tier.
                          Step 3   When prompted, confirm the deletion.