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Overview of Power Virtual Server with VPC landing zone deployable architectures

Overview of Power Virtual Server with VPC landing zone deployable architectures

Provisioning Power Virtual Server with VPC landing zone by using deployable architectures provides an automated deployment method to create an isolated Power Virtual Server workspace and connect it with IBM Cloud services and public internet. Network management components like DNS, NTP, proxy servers and NFS as a Service might be installed. Comparing the provisioning through the projects UI, user interaction is minimized and ready-to-go deployment time of a Power Virtual Server workspace is reduced from days to less than 1 hour.

Automated Power Virtual Server with VPC landing zone provisioning that is described in this guide is based on IBM Cloud catalog deployable architectures. In this documentation, we describe only specifics that are related to Power Virtual Server with VPC landing zone deployable architecture.

In the following sections, the deployable architecture variants are described.

Solution Overview
Solution Overview

1. Standard variation

This deployable architecture variation deploys these resources:

Standard Variation Components
Resource Type Optional Description
Workspace for Power Virtual Server Workspace for Power Virtual Server with 2 subnets and an SSH key
Stock Images Yes Imports IBM Provided Stock Catalog Images into Workspace for Power Virtual Server
Custom Images Yes Imports up to three custom images from Cloud Object Storage into Workspace for Power Virtual Server
Standard Variation Components
Resource Type Optional Description
VPC Edge VPC: ACL, SGs, SSH Key and 4 Subnets
Intel VSI Jump box running RHEL 9.4 with floating IP attached
Intel VSI Network Services running RHEL 9.4 configured as squid proxy, NTP and DNS servers(using Ansible Galaxy collection roles IBM Power Linux for SAP). Also configured as central ansible execution node
Intel VSI,
IBM Cloud Monitoring Instance
Yes Monitoring Host Running SLES 15SP5 to collect metrics and forward it to IBM Monitoring Instance
IBM Cloud monitoring Instance displays the platform metrics and OS metrics
File storage share,
Application load balancer
Yes NFS as a Service
Application Load Balancer is deployed along with File storage share to access the share IP from Power Virtual Server
Virtual Private Endpoint Gateway A Virtual Private Endpoint Gateway to reach the Cloud Object Storage bucket
Flow Logs for VPC Flow Logs for VPC enables the collection, storage, and presentation of information about the Internet Protocol (IP) traffic going to and from network interfaces within your VPC
Client to Site VPN Server,
Secrets Manager
Yes Client to Site VPN Server provides client-to-site connectivity, which allows remote devices to securely connect to the VPC network using an OpenVPN software client.
Secrets Manager Instance is deployed along with VPN to store the VPN Certificate
Standard Variation Components
Resource Type Optional Description
Key Protect Key Protect provides key management by integrating the IBM Key Protect for IBM Cloud service. These key management services help you create, manage, and use encryption keys to protect your sensitive data
Transit Gateway Global or local Transit Gateway to interconnect VPC and Power Virtual Server workspace
Cloud Object Storage Cloud Object Storage instance, buckets and credentials are created

2. Standard Extend variation

This variation has a prerequisite. You must deploy the 'Create a new architecture Standard' variant first.

The 'Extend Power Virtual Server with VPC landing zone' variation creates an additional Power Virtual Server workspace and connects it to the existing Power Virtual Server with VPC landing zone. It builds on existing Power Virtual Server with VPC landing zone deployed as a variation 'Create a new architecture'. This is typically used for High Availability scenarios in the same regions.

This deployable architecture variation deploys these resources:

Standard Extend Variation Components
Resource Type Optional Description
Workspace for Power Virtual Server Workspace for Power Virtual Server with 2 subnets and an SSH key
Stock Images Yes Imports IBM Provided Stock Catalog Images into Workspace for Power Virtual Server
Custom Images Yes Imports up to three custom images from Cloud Object Storage into Workspace for Power Virtual Server

3. Quickstart variation

This deployable architecture variation deploys these resources:

Quickstart Variation Components
Resource Type Optional Description
Workspace for Power Virtual Server Workspace for Power Virtual Server with 2 subnets and an SSH key
Power Virtual Server Instance A Power Virtual Server instance of chosen T-shirt size or a custom t-shirt size. Refer to the table below.
Quickstart Variation Components
Resource Type Optional Description
VPC Edge VPC: ACL, SGs, SSH Key and 4 Subnets
Intel VSI Jump box running RHEL 9.4 with floating IP attached
Intel VSI Network Services running RHEL 9.4 configured as squid proxy, NTP and DNS servers(using Ansible Galaxy collection roles IBM Power Linux for SAP). Also configured as central ansible execution node
Intel VSI,
IBM Cloud Monitoring Instance
Yes Monitoring Host Running SLES 15SP5 to collect metrics and forward it to IBM Monitoring Instance
IBM Cloud monitoring Instance displays the platform metrics and OS metrics
File storage share,
Application load balancer
Yes NFS as a Service
Application Load Balancer is deployed along with File storage share to access the share IP from Power Virtual Server
Virtual Private Endpoint Gateway A Virtual Private Endpoint Gateway to reach the Cloud Object Storage bucket
Flow Logs for VPC Flow Logs for VPC enables the collection, storage, and presentation of information about the Internet Protocol (IP) traffic going to and from network interfaces within your VPC
Client to Site VPN Server,
Secrets Manager
Yes Client to Site VPN Server provides client-to-site connectivity, which allows remote devices to securely connect to the VPC network using an OpenVPN software client.
Secrets Manager Instance is deployed along with VPN to store the VPN Certificate
Quickstart Variation Components
Resource Type Optional Description
Key Protect Key Protect provides key management by integrating the IBM Key Protect for IBM Cloud service. These key management services help you create, manage, and use encryption keys to protect your sensitive data
Transit Gateway Global or local Transit Gateway to interconnect VPC and Power Virtual Server workspace
Cloud Object Storage Cloud Object Storage instance, buckets and credentials are created

You can run AIX, IBM i, and Linux images on your virtual server instances. Select the required T-shirt size and a virtual server instance with chosen T-shirt size or custom configuration is deployed. The T-shirt sizes and the configuration parameters mapping are shown in the following table:

T-shirt size and configuration mapping
XS S M L
Cores 1 4 8 15
Memory 32 128 256 512
Storage Tier-3 (GB) 100 500 1000 2000
T-shirt size and configuration mapping
XS S M L
Cores 0.25 1 2 4
Memory 8 32 64 132
Storage Tier-3 (GB) 100 500 1000 2000
T-shirt size and configuration mapping
US1
Test/Dev
Cores 4
Memory 128
Storage Tier-3 (GB) 750

4. Import variation

Create an IBM Cloud schematics workspace for your pre-existing VPC and Power Virtual Server infrastructure resources using the new Power Virtual Server (PowerVS) with VPC landing zone variation - 'Import Power Virtual Server Workspace'.

This variation helps to install the deployable architecture 'Power Virtual Server for SAP HANA' on top of a pre-existing Power Virtual Server(PowerVS) landscape. 'Power Virtual Server for SAP HANA' automation requires a schematics workspace id for installation. The 'Import' solution creates a schematics workspace by taking pre-existing VPC and Power Virtual Server infrastructure resource details as inputs. The ID of this schematics workspace will be the pre-requisite workspace id required by 'Power Virtual Server for SAP HANA' to create and configure the Power Virtual Server instances for SAP on top of the existing infrastructure.

Check the pre-requisites for this variation here.

Other Power Virtual Server related deployable architectures

In addition to the Power Virtual Server with VPC landing zone other deployable architectures and terraform based solutions might be deployed.