Managing Rackspace Cloud Accounts

Steps to Configure Rackpace Cloud Accounts

    Step 1   In Rackspace, create a public cloud account.
    Step 2   Note down the following information about the Rackspace account:

    • Access key

    • Location

    Step 3   In Rackspace, add the desired operating system images to the account.
    Step 4   If you connect through a proxy server, configure the proxy server settings in the run.sh file in the Cisco UCS Director VM.

    See Public Cloud Accounts and Proxy Servers.

    Step 5   In Cisco UCS Director, create a virtual account for the Rackspace cloud account.

    See Adding a Rackspace Cloud Account.

    Step 6   Create a Rackspace deployment policy.

    See Creating a Rackspace Deployment Policy.

    Step 7   (Optional)If you want to set up a chargeback for end-users, define a public cloud cost model in the Cisco UCS Director chargeback module.

    For more information, see the Cisco UCS Director Administration Guide.

    Step 8   Create a virtual data center (vDC) for the Rackspace cloud account.

    For more information, see the Cisco UCS Director Administration Guide.

    Step 9   Add a catalog for each operating system image that you want to make available to end users.

    For more information, see the Cisco UCS Director Administration Guide.

    Step 10   In the End User Portal, provision a VM through a service request.

    For more information, see the Cisco UCS Director Administration Guide or the Cisco UCS Director End User Portal Guide.

    Adding a Rackspace Cloud Account

    Before You Begin

    • Create a public cloud account in Rackspace.

    • Create and upload any desired operating system images to the Rackspace account.

    • If you connect through a proxy server, configure the proxy server settings in the run.sh file.

      Step 1   Choose Administration > Virtual Accounts.
      Step 2   On the Virtual Accounts page, click Virtual Accounts.
      Step 3   Click Add.
      Step 4   On the Add Cloud Screen, choose RackSpace-Cloud from the Cloud Type drop-down list and complete the following fields:
      1. In the Cloud Name field, enter a unique name for this account.
      2. In the User ID field, enter the user ID for your Rackspace account.
      3. In the Access Key field, enter the access key provided by the Rackspace account.
      4. From the Account Location drop-down list, choose the location where the Rackspace account is located.

        You must choose the same location as the Rackspace account.

      5. Optional: In the Description field, enter a description of the public cloud.
      6. Optional: In the Contact Email field, enter an email address for the contact person.
      7. In the Location field, enter the location of the public cloud.
      8. In the Service Provider field, enter the name of the service provider responsible for the public cloud.
      Step 5   Click Add.

      Cisco UCS Director tests the connection to the Rackspace cloud. If that test is successful, it adds the Rackspace cloud account. This discovery process and inventory may take a few minutes.

      Creating a Rackspace Deployment Policy

      The Rackspace deployment policy determines the actions that are performed when a user creates a VM in the cloud through the End User Portal.

      Before You Begin

      Create a Rackspace cloud account.

        Step 1   Choose Policies > Virtual/Hypervisor Policies > Service Delivery.
        Step 2   On the Service Delivery page, click Rackspace Deployment Policy.
        Step 3   Click Add.
        Step 4   On the Add Policy screen, do the following:
        1. Enter a unique name and description for the policy.

          The policy name is used when you define the vDC.

        2. In the VM Name Template field, enter the variables that will be used to automatically create the names of VMs in the Rackspace public cloud.

          The following variables are permitted. You do not have to use all of these variables in the template. However, you muse enclose each variable as follows: ${VARIABLE}.

          • CLOUD_NAME—Cloud in which the VM is being deployed.

          • GROUP_NAME—Group to which the VM belongs.

          • CATALOG_NAME—Catalog item or entry.

          • USER—ID of the user who requests the VM.

          • SR_ID—ID of the service request.

          • COMMENTS—Comments that are left by the user who requests the VM.

          • CLOUD_TYPE—Type of public cloud, such as Rackspace or Amazon-EC2.

          • PROFILE_NAME—Name of the deployment policy.

          • LOCATION—Name of the location specified when the public cloud was created.

          • UNIQUE_ID—A random ID, designed to make the name of the VM unique.

        3. In the Flavor table, choose the flavor that will specify the size of the VM or instance in the public cloud.
        4. Click Add.

        Updating Images in a Rackspace Cloud Account

        Cisco UCS Director does not host operating system images for a Rackspace cloud account. The images must already exist in Rackspace. Then Cisco UCS Director performs an inventory collection from the Rackspace account to make them available for catalogs.

          Step 1   In Rackspace, add or update the images to the Rackspace account.
          Step 2   Log into Cisco UCS Director.
          Step 3   Choose Virtual > Compute.
          Step 4   On the Compute page, choose the cloud.
          Step 5   On the Compute page, click Polling.

          You can view the last time Cisco UCS Director performed an inventory collection for the account.

          Step 6   If you updated or added a new image to the Rackspace account after the last inventory collection, you can click Request Inventory Collection to perform one immediately.

          By default, Cisco UCS Director performs an inventory collection every fifteen minutes.

          Monitoring a Rackspace Cloud Account

            Step 1   Choose Virtual > Compute.
            Step 2   On the Compute page, choose the cloud.
            Step 3   Click one of the following to monitor the Rackspace cloud account:
            Report Name Description

            Summary

            This report allows you to monitor system inventory and lifecycle actions. It also gives you access to a wide array of tabular, graphical, and map reports that provide a view of trending data for the account.

            vDCs

            This report displays information about the vDCs associated with the account, including the group, type, lock state, and VMs.

            VM Action Requests

            This report displays information about the current status of all VM action requests, including the action requested, the user who requested it, and the status of the request.

            Events

            This report displays information about all events related to the account, including severity, time of the event, user who initiated it, type, description, instance name, and host name.

            VMs

            This report displays information about all VMs created in the account, including VM ID, instance name, IP address, image ID, monitor state, power status, group name, provisioned time, scheduled termination, if any, and the date and time of the last status update.

            Images

            This report displays information about all images available to the account, including the image ID, guest operating system, platform, architecture, image location, and root device type.

            Deleted VMs

            This report displays information about any VMs that have been deleted from the account, including VM ID, instance name, IP address, image ID, and architecture.

            Step 4   If desired, you can click the icons to customize the table columns, filter the results, or export a report of the current table contents.

            For more information, see the Cisco UCS Director Administration Guide.

            Viewing Reports about a Rackspace Cloud Account

            In addition to these reports, you can also create Cloudsense Analytics for VMs and other items, as described in the Cisco UCS Director Administration Guide.

              Step 1   Choose Virtual > Compute.
              Step 2   On the Compute page, choose the cloud.
              Step 3   In the right pane, click one of the following to view reports about the Rackspace cloud account:
              Report Name Description

              Summary

              This report allows you to monitor system inventory and lifecycle actions. It also gives you access to a wide array of tabular, graphical, and map reports that provide a view of trending data for the account.

              Top 5 Reports

              This report displays information on the top five VMs and vDCs in several categories, including memory usage, CPU usage, and disk usage.

              Map Reports

              This report provides reports as maps, including a CPU utilization map, memory utilization map, and deleted VMs map.

              More Reports

              This report provides trending and instant reports for a specified duration, including reports on VMs, CPUs, CPU usage, disk reads and writes, and network usage.

              Step 4   For some reports, you can click the icons to customize the table columns, filter the results, or export a report of the current table contents.

              For more information, see the Cisco UCS Director Administration Guide.