Automated operation and maintenance is actually a commonplace. It has been discussed for more than ten years, but there has been no qualitative improvement. The operation and maintenance work of the data center has become more and more heavy and complicated. Of course, this is closely related to the huge changes in the data center in recent years. The data center carries more and more various applications, and the operation and maintenance work has become extremely complex. Simple automatic operation and maintenance can no longer completely solve the problem of low efficiency of data center operation and maintenance. In the past, data center operation and maintenance personnel were like workers on the assembly line, doing the same work repeatedly, which was boring and error-prone. Automated operation and maintenance is to introduce some tools, and use these tools to replace operation and maintenance personnel to work. Thereby reducing labor costs and improving the operation and maintenance level of the data center.
Then automated operation and maintenance is actually introducing a batch of tools to the data center. These tools are "programmable". You only need to write a few lines of "code" for these tools, and it will automatically complete all the work for you. , and these tools are the means to achieve automated operation and maintenance. These tools can be divided into three categories: provisioning, configuration management, and monitoring, and replace human work in these three areas. Common preparation automation tools are Cobbler , Kickstart , OpenQRM , Spacewalk . In the early days, Linux administrators compiled a list of packages to do mass software installations via rpm .
Later, we used Kickstart to perform unattended Linux installations. Now, Cobbler has taken this feature to a new level: it enables parallel system construction of physical and virtual machines, and can configure DHCP and DNS . OpenQRM is an open source system management solution used to manage enterprise data center business, including virtual environment management and data center automation. It is a web -based open source cloud computing and data center management platform. Spacewalk is a system management solution for Linux and Solaris , an upstream community project derived from the Red Hat Network Satellite Project. Most of these preparatory management tools are aimed at servers and automate the management of servers. If you don’t use and experience them yourself, it’s hard to say which of these tools is good or bad. Each tool has its own suitable application. These tools are especially used on the Internet. These tools are widely used in the operation and maintenance of data centers of enterprises. These tools require operators to have high computer programming skills and require higher requirements for operation and maintenance personnel.
Configuration management tools are used to set parameters or start a service on a new server. Configuration management can be used to automate server builds. Server automation build tools can speed up deployments and enable large-scale server deployments in a short amount of time, while also making the build process easier to replicate. In the event of a critical failure, the architecture can also be rebuilt. Common configuration management tools include Chef , ControlTier , Func , and Puppet . For example , Chef is an automated server configuration management tool that can automate the configuration of managed objects. Chef consists of three components: Chef Server , Chef Workstation and Chef Node . Chef Server is the core server, maintains a set of configuration scripts, interacts with each managed node and gives configuration instructions, Chef Workstation provides an interface for us to interact with Chef Server : we create and define Cookbook on Workstation , and upload Cookbook to the Chef Server to ensure that the managed machine can access the Chef Serverto get the latest configuration instructions. Chef Node is a managed node with chef-client installed and registered, which can be a physical machine or a virtual machine or other objects. Every time Chef Node runs chef-client , it will get the latest configuration instructions from Chef Server and configure itself according to the instructions. ControlTier is a fully open source system that automates service management activities for multiple servers and multiple application layers. It can automatically configure, distribute and manage various devices in the data center.
Most of these tools are real-time and can be used to make changes and perform certain tasks. They lack information about the current state of the system, which is where monitoring tools come in. For traditional system administrators, monitoring is nothing more than alerting them through a page or an email when an error occurs. Common monitoring tools include SugarNMS , Nagios , OpenNMS , Zabbix , Zenoss Core , etc. Zhihe network management platform SugarNMS is an open source network monitoring tool, which can effectively monitor the host status of Windows , Linux and Unix , network settings such as switches and routers, printers, etc. When it is found that the monitoring equipment is running abnormally, it will automatically issue an alarm, and it can also alarm Messages are sent to operation and maintenance personnel so that they can be dealt with in a timely manner to avoid serious business impacts caused by anomalies. SugarNMS ( www.zhtelecom.com ) is an enterprise-level Java -based distributed network and system monitoring and management platform, compatible with mainstream / domestic systems and databases, providing C/S and B/S client interfaces, which can display your network The status and configuration of each terminal and server in the system can monitor the running status and communication status of each network device. Once an abnormality occurs, an abnormal alarm can be reported immediately.
The network is the most closed system in the data center, and the software that manages the network cannot be completely open source, so those free software on the network are not very easy to use, and the network management provided by the network equipment manufacturer has to be used. software to achieve a good adaptation effect. However, it is impossible for all the devices in the network to be devices of the same manufacturer, which brings greater difficulty to network management. In response to this situation, Zhihe ICT has launched the Zhihe network management platform SugarNMS , which can be applied to manage all networking equipment such as network equipment, computers, servers, smart devices, Internet of Things, industrial equipment, etc. It is suitable for national defense, telecommunications, government, finance, Transportation, energy, enterprise, industry, manufacturing and other fields. It can comprehensively monitor network devices, hosts / servers, middleware applications, and Web services. Cisco , Juniper , Foundry , Avaya , 3COM , Intel , Fore , Marconi , Motorola , Huawei, ZTE, H3C, Lenovo, Ruijie, Harbour, Maipu, Fiberhome, Tianrongxin, Sangfor and other manufacturers can support equipment .
这些工具的出现，为数据中心运维提供了极大方便，是自动化运维的具体表现。数据中心要走自动化运维的路，就需要大批地使用这些工具，通过这些工具逐渐代替运维人员的工作。运维人员通过自动化运维，将规范、常规的操作固定化，减少重复的手工操作，避免误操作。通过模板化，根据模块信息智能化分析，实现快速发单，同时串并行控制，提升模块更新效率，这就是数据中心自动化运维的时代，只有坚持走自动化运维的路，数据中心的运维效能才会有质的提升，让我们沿着数据中心自动化运维的道路坚持走下去。