Classic Infrastructure environment introduction

An Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) environment consists of many components. These components are primarily compute, storage, a network from a specified region (such as the US), and a designated site location (also referred to as zone, which is a data center site).

Deployment and management

IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure offerings (such as Bare Metal Servers) are deployed through the IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure console.

Alternatively, deployments can be made and managed by using:

IBM Cloud CLI
IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure API (Softlayer API) calls that use an IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure API key
Terraform Provider for IBM Cloud that uses an IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure API key

For more information, see Managing IBM Power Virtual Servers (IAM).

Locations - Data centers

With data centers across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, you can provision cloud resources where (and when) you need them. You can choose from many regions globally, and each region has multiple data centers. Each data center is connected to the IBM Cloud global private network, making data transfers faster and more efficient anywhere in the world.

For more information about IBM Cloud availability zones, data centers, and points of presence (PoPs), see the global regions and availability zones and data centers map.

Networking

The classic infrastructure network, is robust, secure, and flexible; built upon matured networking principles combined with the latest in networking hardware.

Networking component layers overview
IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure network
Global
Region
Data center
Data center Pod
VLAN (Public and Private)
Subnet (Public and Private)

Classic Infrastructure was formerly known as Softlayer.

The IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure network provides connectivity across a global footprint of over 60 IBM Cloud data centers and 28 points of presence (PoPs). Connections are available to leading global network providers and communications service providers.

The IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure network consists of three distinct and redundant network architectures that are seamlessly integrated in the secured network-within-a-network topology (multiple isolated logical networks, for example VLANs). This configuration means if an outage occurs in a data center on the public network, the traffic is routed and traverses through other established networks. Routing the traffic across other networks and through another data center provides continued server availability.

The three distinct and redundant network architectures within the secured network-within-a-network topology are:

Public network: provides carrier grade internet connectivity to multi-home backbone carriers. On public IP, the connection is made to the IBM Cloud network PoP closest to the origin request. Traffic travels directly across the IBM Cloud data center to the data center network backbone into the correct data center, minimizing the network hops and handoffs between providers that add network latency.
Private network: provides complete control of the secured networking traffic without performance degradation if significant public network traffic occurs at the same time; the private network has three functional areas:
- Host to and from Host: network traffic in the private VLANs assigned to you. Bandwidth is free and unmetered.
- Host to and from Backend Services: network traffic to and from the private VLAN to OS update servers, NTP, DNS resolvers, network storage and more. Bandwidth is free and unmetered.
- VPN and direct connections to and from VLAN: network traffic to and from an existing internal network over direct connection or VPN that uses a distinct stand-alone network to the secure private VLAN. Bandwidth is free and unmetered.
- Data center to Data center interconnectivity: provides secure connectivity between hosts across IBM Cloud data center locations. Bandwidth is free and unmetered.
Management network: provides Out-Of-Band Management (OOBM) accessible through VPN (for example the built-in SSL VPN for administration) or direct connection (for example IBM Cloud Direct Link). Network management allows Remote Console access through the IPMI network interface for Bare Metals hosts on the private network. Bandwidth is free and unmetered.

This network-within-a-network topology design provides maximum accessibility, security, and control for your IT infrastructure. The topology provides the ease of a public network with the security of a private network by keeping systems accessible to administrators and safely off-limits to external users.

Networking VLANs

The Virtual LAN (VLAN) assigned to you on the Classic Infrastructure network, provides an enterprise-grade private network with full isolation and security. Each VLAN is either public or private, and each VLAN is assigned to a specific data center for a specific IBM Cloud Account.

The following information is a summary of Getting started with VLANs on Classic Infrastructure and About VLANs on Classic Infrastructure.

A VLAN can have multiple Subnets for you to use to segregate traffic, for example:

Public VLAN
- Public Primary Subnet (default)
- Public Secondary Portable Subnet
- Public Secondary Static Subnet
Private VLAN
- Private Primary Subnet (default)
- Private Secondary Portable Subnet

If you want to separate different types of network traffic in your landscape, use subnets in your network design to separate network traffic and use more Virtual LANs (VLANs) only when required.

Keep in mind that the additional VLANs and Subnets lead to traffic segregation, not increased performance; the increased performance is gained when additional VLANs and Subnets are associated to a host. When multiple network interfaces are used, two performance increases are possible depending on the use case:

Bonding of the network interfaces, creating a network path with the network throughput of both interfaces
Traffic segregation using two networks, then isolating high volumes of traffic to a specific network which avoids a single network becoming a bottleneck. For example, a network for storage I/O only

By default, your server has a Primary Public IP address and Primary Private IP address. If you want your server to be private, you can turn off the public interface by either:

Ordering your server as private-only
Using the console or the OS after the server is provisioned

Alternatively, the server can be attached to a public VLAN and private VLAN that is associated with a Gateway Appliance. In this arrangement, the server has a DMZ with a public network facing VLAN and private network facing VLAN.

Networking subnets

In Classic Infrastructure, the VLAN has different types of Subnets. The following information is a summary of Getting started with subnet and IPs on Classic Infrastructure and About subnets and IP on Classic Infrastructure.

Different types of subnets in Classic Infrastructure:

Public and Private Primary Subnet
- Auto-assigned when provisioning resources (for example, Bare Metal) into a Public and Private VLAN
- Primary subnets have limitations
Public and Private Secondary Portable Subnet
- Appends new subnet to Public and Private VLAN
- Provides IP addresses for assignment to any resource within a VLAN, can assign Portable IP to multiple resources as a Floating IP
- Enables connection to multiple resources from a single Portable IP
Public Secondary Static Subnet
- Appends new subnet to Public VLAN
- Provides IP addresses for assignment to one resource within a VLAN (that uses the existing Primary IP or Portable IP of the resource as the "routing endpoint")
- Enables connection to one resource by using any of the Static IPs plus the original Primary IP or Portable IP.
Public Secondary Global Subnet also known as Global IP addresses
- Appends single Internet-accessible IP from IBM Cloud private backbone to any VLAN worldwide
- Provides single IP address for assignment to one resource within any VLAN worldwide (using the existing Primary IP or Portable IP of the resource as the "routing endpoint")
- Enables connection to one resource from any data center or VLAN on IBM Cloud backbone or from Public Internet

Networking connectivity

Issues with network connectivity can cause significant delays for your project. Plan your network carefully, regardless of how you plan to use your system.

Each provisioned server has network interfaces, available at a speed of 100 Mb/s, 1 Gb/s, and 10 Gb/s.

In general, you have two interface choices:

An external interface with a Public IP
An internal interface that is provided with a Private IP; in compliance with IETF RFC 1918. You can also choose a single internal interface with a “private IP.”

Both options can be made redundant through:

On Linux®, a "bonding interface"
On Windows Server, a Windows Network Interface Card (NIC) Teaming

Depending on your use case, a Public IP might be acceptable for proof-of-concept (PoC) landscapes because the external IP might be easier to use. However, this arrangement has some implications:

A potential security risk exists even though a basic firewall is installed and preconfigured.
If you want to use a public interface, be sure to choose a sufficiently high value for Public Bandwidth when you order your server. This value determines the total amount of data that can be transferred through the interface during a one-month period. You either need to know the amount of data that is transferred at least by the order of magnitude or switch to the second option.

Access to the resources on the IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure is available with greater security:

Using the SSL Virtual Private Network (VPN), default available through the IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure console
Using the IPSec Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Using a Gateway Appliance with Firewall, Network Address Translation (NAT)
Direct Link

These connectivity options can provide you with a higher bandwidth, which help you in transferring larger amounts of data into an IBM Cloud data center.

It is advised that your networking department contact IBM Cloud Support after you determine the layout of your landscape and the connectivity that is required on the SAP application layer.

Storage

Within Classic Infrastructure, three types of storage are available:

Local Disk Storage (SSD)
Network Block Storage (LUNs only) that uses IBM Cloud Block Storage (Classic)
Network File Storage (file system installed) that uses IBM Cloud File Storage (Classic)

Local disk storage is provided with your Bare Metal Servers and available in your choice of RAID configuration (by using a dedicated RAID Controller). It is ideal for storage-intensive applications with high I/O needs, such as an OS, database, and application software. This storage is the perfect companion for SAP HANA workloads.

Bare Metals with local disk storage use disks physically inserted into the drive bays; it is not using a SmartNIC to present network block storage as if it were local disk storage.

In addition to the local storage, you might require network storage (to expand beyond the Local SSD Disk total capacity, or for redundancy and backups). These require more network consumption to access Network Block Storage and Network File Storage that are using the same physical network interfaces and the impact should be validated.

Both IBM Cloud Block Storage for Classic or IBM Cloud File Storage for Classic can serve as either backup space or as storage for extra software components that are installed on your server.

All IBM Cloud Block Storage for Classic or IBM Cloud File Storage for Classic is selected based on capacity (GB) and performance (IOPS) measurements.

IOPS are measured based on 16 KB block size with a 50/50 read/write mix. To achieve a maximum I/O throughput, it's advisable to look at the tier and custom profiles available for storage and find the optimal combination of size and IOPS.

Storage volumes differ in performance, depending on their IOPS tier (see Tiered IOPS profiles or selecting a custom size (in GB and IOPS) that is based on the size of the storage.

If you need more than the initially provisioned storage in your virtual server, you can attach extra volumes to a virtual server later. Contact IBM Cloud Support for extension options if the attached storage is insufficient for your workload.

For more information, see Getting started with Block Storage for Classic and Getting started with IBM Cloud File Storage for Classic.

Compute

Three primary types of IaaS are available within the IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure:

Bare Metal server
Classic Virtual Servers (not SAP certified)
VMware, available in two options:
- Intel Bare Metal and VMware vSphere (ESXi OS), requires manual VMware setup and configuration
- IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions Dedicated

Bare Metal and both VMware options are SAP-certified.

Classic Virtual Servers are not SAP-certified. For this type of IaaS, the IBM Cloud VPC Infrastructure environment provides Intel Virtual Servers which are SAP-certified.

For more information, see Infrastructure certified for SAP.