Information Server On Demand

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Information Server is similar to Application Server which can deliver consistent, trusted and complete information to consuming applications, business processes and portals at required time and in needed format. There are many advantage of IBM's Information Server like trust, productivity, scalability, re-usability. In this project we have achieved a method to install this Information Server on Virtual Machines on demand. The project's main goal is to reduce the time required to test the Information Server Functionality. Presently provisioning a virtual machine from the cloud and then installing Information Server and patches is not done in automated manner. Here we proposed a method to automatically achieve the above mentioned tasks so that it will be helpful to other teams for testing the Information Server functionality. The broad goal of this project is to Provision and DE-Provision virtual machines, Register and UN-Register Image templates, then after a Virtual machine is provisioned install required patches . To use all these methods we created a Web Application.

The methodology which we used here for Provisioning, DE-Provisioning Virtual machines and Register , Un-Register Image templates is REST API which is present in ISDM, JAVA and XML. The Patch Installation part is done in two methods. The first one is done using JAVA and Shell(for Linux machines)/Batch(for Windows machines) script. The second method uses JAVA and Ant script. Finally the Web Application is developed using Java Servlet Pages.

From the above mentioned methodology we are able to do the tasks automatically without any human intervention and hence able to achieve significant time consistency for testing the Information Server functionality. We are able to provision machines and install patches from the Web GUI.

The software tools used for developing my project are IBM Service Delivery Manager, IBM information Server, Eclipse IDE for developing code in JAVA and Tivoli Service Automation Manager.

LIST OF TABLES

Table No

Table Title

Page No

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No

Figure Title

Page No

Contents

Page No

Acknowledgement

i

Abstract

ii

List Of Figures

iii

List Of Tables

vi

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Introduction

1.2

Motivation

1.3

Organization of Report

Chapter 2

BACKGROUND THEORY and/or LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

2.2

Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1

3.2

Chapter 4

RESULT ANALYSIS

4.1

4.2

Chapter 5

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE

5.1

Work Conclusion

5.2

Future Scope of Work

REFERENCES

ANNEXURES (OPTIONAL)

PROJECT DETAILS

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction:

In this chapter we are going to discuss about the introduction to area of work, present day scenario of the work means how the same work is done before we started the project, motivation to do the work, objective of the work, project work schedule, targets and organization of the project report.

1.2 Introduction to area of work:

This project is mainly related to cloud computing and how we get connected to the IBM's cloud and get virtual machines, register Image templates from the cloud and then install patches patches in automated manner. Once we achieve this code is included in the Web Application which we have created.

1.3 Present day scenario with regard to work area:

Presently the machines are being provisioned and images are being registered from Tivoli Service Automation Manager. This is a software developed by IBM to get machines from cloud as and when required and this is also automated but human intervention is needed many times. And this TSAM gives only virtual machines and after we get the machine we need to install Information Server and patches required manually. To test IS performance the existing method is people take virtual machine from the cloud administrator and then install patches and then run some test cases finally validate results. The detailed information is provided in chapter 3.

1.4 Motivation:

Time required to test the functionality of information server is generally more i.e., it takes 5-6 days. This testing time includes giving a virtual machine, installing Information Server, installing patches, running test cases, validating results. Here we are mainly concentrating on the first three parts, we are not going into the details of testing. This automation is very important because we can cut down the time required to less than half. For this automation we are mainly using the REST API of IBM Service Delivery Manager which helps us in getting connected to the IBM cloud from JAVA very quickly. The Web Application which we have developed can be used across teams so that they can provision machines themselves with information server installed. This application is developed using Java Servlet Pages technology because it uses Java Programming Language and we have developed the previous code using JAVA.

1.5 Objective of work

The main Objectives of this project can be divided into six parts.

Registering Images Templates:

Software and server images are maintained in the Image Library for selection at provisioning time . Images can be used when creating projects or adding virtual servers . A cloud administrator role is needed presently to register a discovered image in the Image Library . New server image templates can be created and discovered . After image discovery, you must register discovered images in the Image Library. The Image Library is the source for software images, and it is used in provisioning virtual servers. When registration is complete, the images can be used for provisioning. Registering template Images From TSAM server is done manually now. So here we worked on it so that template registration is done automatically using REST API, JAVA, XML etc.

Provisioning machines:

Virtual machines are provisioned from TSAM server using the template images which are already registered as above. This task is also automated using Java, Rest API. The machines can be provisioned according to the users requirements i.e., the operating system, version of Information Server, Hard disk size, CPUs etc.

Cancelling machines:

Once the work is done using the virtual machine we can cancel it so that memory management is done effectively in the TSAM server or the Cloud. This task is also done similar to provisioning and is now automated. Also if we are using the machine for testing the Information Server functionality then the machine can be cancelled automatically after the testing is done.

Unregistering template Images:

Unregistering template Image is similar to registering template image . When we don't use some image template then we can unregister it. In this way the Image Library is managed and that image will no longer be available in the Image library.

Downloading Patches From Server And Installing Them:

This task is done in two ways. The first way is separate for Linux and Windows i.e., we download the patches in a Build server and then install them in our virtual machine. The downloading part is done using Java and then installing is done in bash scripting for Linux and batch scripting for Windows. Hence we again incorporated Ant Scripting so that we have only a single script for both Linux and Windows.

Designing a Web Based Application:

By this task we should be able to provision, cancel machines, register, unregister template Images, Install patches or Fix pack or Full Suite in automated manner and we should also be able to run some required work flows. This is done using JSP.

1.6 Target Specifications:

1.7 Project Work Schedule:

June : Got some introduction about my project and learnt about some software products related to my work like ISDM, TSAM, Information Server.

July: Learnt how to install Information Server on virtual machines manually and how to provision, cancel machines, register, unregister image templates manually from Service Automation Manager. Started working on Registering Template images automatically using JAVA and REST APIs.

August: Took some time for start up and by the end of august was able to bring out a working code for registering Image Template Ids and then started working of optimizing this code.

September: Worked on provisioning Virtual machines from IBM cloud using the same above technologies.

October: Worked on Canceling Virtual Machines and Unregistering Image Template Ids and explored on how to get the status whether the respective task is success or failure.

November: Studied about Patch Installation in Information server and explored on ways to achieve this task in automated manner. Took different scenarios for downloading patches i.e., the patch information may be given from a Version.xml file already present in the VM with Information server or in a simple XML or in a simple text file or we can even give the patch locations as arguments to our Java code.

December: Patch Download and Installation is done in this month for both windows and Linux machines separately in different scripts and developed a work flow so that we will be able to connect to the Virtual Machine through SSH copy required files to the VM and then run our code from the server.

January: Started developing a Web Application and spent most of the time in designing the GUI and sort out the requirements. Was able to make some screens of the Web Application and come to a conclusion about how to develop this. Worked on some host name changing scripts i.e., work flows for AIX operating system which we will be running during provisioning AIX operating system machines.

February: Again went back to Patch Download and Install piece and tried to optimize it by writing a single ANT script instead of using different scripts for Windows and Linux. Worked on some work flows for automating things after provisioning according to the team requirements.

March: Worked on Web Application and got it to working by exploring and using different technologies like JSP, Tomcat server, Jquery, XML, AJAX. Most Important part of this task is to populate the values in the Web App from an already existing XML file which will be populated every time a machine is provisioned.

April:

May:

1.8 Organization of the project report :

Chapter 1 consists of brief introduction about the project, motivation to do this project, main objectives of work, target specifications and project work schedule.

Chapter 2 includes background theory, meaning behind the title of the project, literature review and conclusion about this background theory.

Chapter 3 consists of methodology, in detail about previous existing work, the current method how we want to achieve and tools used in this project.

Chapter 4 is result analysis which includes significance of results achieved.

Chapter 5 discusses conclusion and future scope.

This chapter should include

Introduction (1 paragraph brief of what is going to be discussed in this chapter)

Introduction to the area of work (general discussion)

Brief present day scenario with regard to the work area

Motivation to do the project work

Shortcomings in the previous work / reference paper

Brief importance of the work in the present context

Uniqueness of the methodology that will be adopted

Significance of the possible end result

Objective of the work

Main work objective

Secondary objective if any

Target Specifications

Importance of the end result

Project Work schedule

Organization of the project report (chapter wise)

CHAPTER 2

BACKGROUND THEORY

2.1 Introduction:

This chapter discusses about the significance of the project title and literature review. The literature review includes the background theory of our project like IBM Service Delivery Manager, Tivoli Service Automation Manager, REST API, IBM Information Server, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, VM templates.

2.2 Introduction to Project Title:

The title of the project is "Information Server 'On Demand'". From this title we can infer that we are giving Information Server in Virtual machines on demand. When a person in team wants a machine with or without information server we can give them that machine without much manual intervention.

2.3 Literature Review:

2.3.1 IBM INFOSPHERE INFORMATION SERVER

Most of today's critical business initiatives cannot succeed without effective integration of information. Initiatives such as single view of the customer, business intelligence, supply chain management, and Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance require consistent, complete, and trustworthy information.

IBM InfoSphere Information Server is the industry's first comprehensive, unified foundation for enterprise information architectures, capable of scaling to meet any information volume requirement so that companies can deliver business results within these initiatives faster and with higher quality results. InfoSphere Information Server provides a single unified platform that enables companies to understand, cleanse, transform, and deliver trustworthy and context-rich information.

Capabilities of Information Server:

Understand the data

InfoSphere Information Server can help you automatically discover, define, and model information content and structure, and understand and analyze the meaning, relationships, and lineage of information. By automating data profiling and data-quality auditing within systems, organizations can achieve these goals:

Understand data sources and relationships

Eliminate the risk of using or proliferating bad data

Improve productivity through automation

Utilize existing IT investments

InfoSphere Information Server makes it easier for businesses to collaborate across roles. Data analysts can use analysis and reporting functionality, generating integration specifications and business rules that they can monitor over time. Subject matter experts can use Web-based tools to define, annotate, and report on fields of business data. A common metadata foundation enables different types of users to create and manage metadata by using tools that are optimized for their roles.

Cleanse the information

InfoSphere Information Server supports information quality and consistency by standardizing, validating, matching, and merging data. It can certify and enrich common data elements, use trusted data such as postal records for name and address information, and match records across or within data sources. InfoSphere Information Server allows a single record to survive from the best information across sources for each unique entity, helping you to create a single, comprehensive, and accurate view of information across source systems.

Transform the data into information

InfoSphere Information Server transforms and enriches information to ensure that it is in the proper context for new uses. Hundreds of pre built transformation functions combine, restructure, and aggregate information.

Transformation functionality is broad and flexible, to meet the requirements of varied integration scenarios. For example, InfoSphere Information Server provides in-line validation and transformation of complex data types such as US. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and high-speed joins and sorts of heterogeneous data. InfoSphere Information Server also provides high-volume, complex data transformation and movement functionality that can be used for stand-alone extract-transform-load (ETL) scenarios, or as a real-time data processing engine for applications or processes.

Deliver the information

InfoSphere Information Server provides the ability to virtualize, synchronize, or move information to the people, processes, or applications that need it. Information can be delivered by using federation or time-based or event-based processing, moved in large bulk volumes from location to location, or accessed in place when it cannot be consolidated.

InfoSphere Information Server provides direct, native access to a variety of information sources, both mainframe and distributed. It provides access to databases, files, services and packaged applications, and to content repositories and collaboration systems. Companion products allow high-speed replication, synchronization and distribution across databases, change data capture, and event-based publishing of information.

2.3.2 IBM TIVOLI SERVICE AUTOMATION MANAGER

As a result of widespread business consolidations, acquisitions and mergers, the global business environment is highly volatile. IT organizations are being called on to provide an ever-widening array of services. They must be enabled to provide access to IT services easily, to respond quickly to change requests, to decrease the time required to resolve IT issues and to continually reduce the cost of IT services.

Increasingly, IT organizations are turning to cloud computing to help meet these needs. Cloud computing enables better cost controls, improved management of the environments required by new applications, a shorter time to market for new applications and the automation of many processes that have had to be performed manually in the past.

IBM Tivoli® Service Automation Manager enables users to request, deploy, monitor and manage cloud computing services. It also provides traceable approvals and processes. Main features of this IBM Tivoli Service Automation Manager are

Lowers the cost of service delivery through automation and reduced skill requirements

Deploys IT services faster to meet the increased need for development, test, pre production and production systems

Delivers a higher degree of standardization and automation for deployment and management of cloud services while reserving skilled IT staff members’ time for other high-value tasks

Offers an integrated management capability that addresses the life cycle changes of a cloud service

Provides traceable processes and approval routings to serve as audit trails, and integrates with process governance

Tivoli Service Automation Manager provides adaptable and automated best practices for building and managing IT services. IT providers use templates to define service offerings that are avail-able to line-of-business managers. Through these templates, IT provider stake computing resources, such as virtualized operating systems and application middle ware stacks, integrated with workflow processes and standardized configurations, and make them avail-able as offerings to business operations staff members.

IBM Tivoli Service Automation Manager supports a comprehensive deployment and management process for cloud environments.

2.3.3 IBM SERVICE DELIVERY MANAGER(ISDM) & CLOUD COMPUTING

IBM Service Delivery Manager capabilities allow us to build a computing platform aligned with the cloud model. Figure 2.20 shows the major functional components of a cloud platform. IBM Service Delivery Manager is a software-only solution equivalent to the software stack that is preinstalled on IBM CloudBurst®. It is delivered as four software images that are deployed by IBM Systems Director on to the management server hardware. Each virtual image is dedicated to a specific service within the product:

TSAM appliance Self Service Portal, service catalog, and service automation. ITM appliance Monitoring of the provisioned environment. TUAM appliance Metering and accounting for cloud services. Billing integration. HTTP appliance Central web server access point (URL redirection), file repository (NFS), and mail server.

IBM Service Delivery Manager builds on the services provided by IBM Systems Director and VMControl to provide an off-the-shelf private cloud platform for infrastructure, platform, and software as service deployments. IBM Service Delivery Manager offers the following functions:

Service automation

–Orchestration of cloud operations: user portal, provisioning, virtual

machine life cycle management, multi-tenancy, and automation

– Service catalog and templates

– Trouble ticketing

Monitoring and reporting

– Physical and virtual resources

– Servers, disks, and networks

– Reporting and cost management

Accounting and charge back

– Metering and accounting for cloud services

– Integration with billing systems

Management

– Energy and power

– Physical and virtual servers, storage, and networks

IBM Service Delivery Manager has two mechanisms for working with the underlying PowerVM virtualization platform:

Through the management console, either the Hardware Management Console (HMC) or the Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)

Through IBM Systems Director and VMControl (IBM Systems Director manages the communication with the HMC.)

Fig. 2.20 Cloud computing components

IBM Service Delivery Manager, coupled with IBM Systems Director and VMControl, provides an implementation for each of these. Figure 2.21 shows the process and resources involved in the creation and publication of a cloud service. After the need for a new service has been identified, the service designers and developers build it and publish it in the service catalog. Services might have tailorable options and customers might adapt the service to their specific environment. They then make it available to their projects and teams to be deployed, on demand, to the cloud infrastructure.

Fig. 2.21 IBM Service Delivery Manager service workflow

Cloud Computing is believed to be potentially cost-efficient model for provisioning processes, applications and services while making IT management simpler and increasing business responsiveness. In a cost-benefit analysis, a properly implemented and leveraged cloud computing model will drive lower cost-of-ownership,responsive delivery of services and higher service quality. Cloud computing can enable rapid business innovation by delivering easy-to-use computing services to users "on demand," regardless of their location or the type of device they are using. The cloud-based service can be "public," "private" or a combination of the two, sometimes referred to as a "hybrid cloud."

Selecting the right use of cloud computing results in lower cost, by taking advantage of economies of scale and automated IT operations while optimizing investment in existing infrastructure. The resulting solution rapidly adjusts the volume of users as workload increases or decreases. Payment or internal charge back for the services is more flexible and typically occurs on a usage basis.

Basic difference between a "public" and "private" clouds is that public cloud services are characterised as being available to clients from a third party service provider, via the Internet. The term "public" does not always mean free, even though it can be free or fairly inexpensive to use. And in a private cloud-based service, data and processes are managed within the organization without the restrictions of network bandwidth, security exposures and legal requirements that using public cloud services across open, public networks might entail.

Technology Behind Cloud Computing :

Cloud computing, whether public, private or a combination, will typically demonstrate the following technology attributes:

Services Focussed : Cloud computing is about providing services to any authorised user, anywhere, from any device. For this reason, cloud computing must be built on a service-oriented architecture and deployed with industry best practices for service management. As Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology has stated, "SOA is to cloud computing as HTML is to the internet."

Shared, Highly scalable, networked Infrastructure : New IT infrastructure, application and business process services are made available leveraging the Internet paradigm*. This means standardized, highly efficient, shared, virtualized compute resources (servers, storage, network, data, middleware, applications and business processes) can be rapidly scaled up and down with elasticity through automated workload management in a secure way to deliver high-quality service. Some coin this "massive scalability."

Automated Service Delivery : Service Management is request–driven and strives for near-zero incremental labour costs. Cloud computing supports business processes, applications and IT infrastructure collaboratively and cohesively. It can allocate services, dynamically move and optimize workloads and data across the shared infrastructure and integrate added resources to scale with very little, if any, intervention by the cloud service provider personnel. These same resources are returned to the cloud environment and are immediately made available to others when they are no longer needed. The service management supporting the cloud service also tracks usage for purposes of billing or usage chargeback.

Enhance And Standardise User Experience

2.3.4 VIRTUALIZATION

Virtualization (or virtualisation) is the simulation of the software and/or hardware upon which other software runs. This simulated environment is called a virtual machine (VM). There are many forms of virtualization, distinguished primarily by computing architecture layer, and virtualized components may include hardware platforms, operating systems (OS), storage devices, network devices or other resources.

In 2005, virtualization software was adopted faster than anyone imagined, including the experts. There are three areas of IT where virtualization is making headroads, network virtualization, storage virtualization and server virtualization:

Fig. 2.30 Virtualization

Network virtualization is a method of combining the available resources in a network by splitting up the available bandwidth into channels, each of which is independent from the others, and each of which can be assigned (or reassigned) to a particular server or device in real time. The idea is that virtualization disguises the true complexity of the network by separating it into manageable parts, much like your partitioned hard drive makes it easier to manage your files.

Storage virtualization is the pooling of physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device that is managed from a central console. Storage virtualization is commonly used in storage area networks (SANs).

Server virtualization is the masking of server resources (including the number and identity of individual physical servers, processors, and operating systems) from server users. The intention is to spare the user from having to understand and manage complicated details of server resources while increasing resource sharing and utilisation and maintaining the capacity to expand later.

Virtualization can be viewed as part of an overall trend in enterprise IT that includes autonomic computing, a scenario in which the IT environment will be able to manage itself based on perceived activity, and utility computing, in which computer processing power is seen as a utility that clients can pay for only as needed. The usual goal of virtualization is to centralise administrative tasks while improving scalability and work loads.

VM Templates

A virtual machine template is a master copy of a virtual machine that can be used to create and provision new virtual machines. Typically, a template includes an installed guest operating system and a set of applications. We must create a Virtual machine template in order to create an automated pool that contains full of virtual machines.

This chapter should include

Introduction (1 paragraph brief of what is going to be discussed in this chapter)

Introduction to the project title (specific discussion)

Literature review

Present state / recent developments in the work area

Brief background theory

Literature Survey

Summarised outcome of the literature review

Theoretical discussions

General analysis

Mathematical derivations

Conclusions

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter should include

Introduction (1 paragraph brief of what is going to be discussed in this chapter)

Methodology

Detailed methodology

Assumptions made

Circuit layout / one-line / block diagrams

Component specifications

Justification for component selection

Tools used

Detailed specification / listing of the various components, measuring devices, software tool boxes, reference data sheets etc

Preliminary result analysis if any

Conclusions

CHAPTER 4

RESULT ANALYSIS

This chapter should include

Introduction (1 paragraph brief of what is going to be discussed in this chapter)

Result analysis

Graphical / tabular form

Explanation for the graphical / tabulated results

Significance of the result obtained

Any deviations from the expected results & its justification

Conclusions

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE OF WORK

This chapter should include

Brief summary of the work

Problem statement / objective, in brief

Work methodology adopted, in brief

Conclusions

General conclusions

Significance of the results obtained

Future scope of work.

(At least three paragraphs, one for each suggestion has to be written.)

REFERENCES

Journal / Conference Papers

[1] Name 1 and Name 2, "Paper Title", Full Journal Name, volume no, publication year, page numbers

[2] Name 1 and Name 2, "Paper Title", Proceedings of the International / National Conference on ___, Institution, Country, Date, page numbers

Reference / Hand Books

[1] Name 1, "Book Title", Publication Name, Edition, ISBN number

Web

[1] Topic 1, website name (do not include long URL’s)

ANNEXURES (optional)

Annexure to include

Product Data sheets

Design drawings

Standard diagrams

Lengthy codes / algorithms etc

PROJECT DETAILS

Student Details

Student Name

HARISHA KANDEPANENI

Register Number

110927012

Section / Roll no

Email Address

[email protected]

Phone No (M)

919885483076

Project Details

Project Title

INFORMATION SERVER 'ON DEMAND'

Project Duration

12 months

Date of reporting

4th June 2012

Organization Details

Organization Name

IBM India Private Limited

Full postal address with pin code

3rd Floor, Block 3A, Mindspace, Hi-Tech City, Madhapur, Hyderabad, AP 500081

Website address

www.ibm.com/in/en/

Supervisor Details

Supervisor Name

RITESH KUMAR GUPTA

Designation

Infosphere Architect

Full contact address with pin code

3rd Floor, Block 3A, Mindspace, Hi-Tech City, Madhapur, Hyderabad, AP 500081

Email address

[email protected]

Phone No (M)

914066957115

Internal Guide Details

Faculty Name

Mrs. Manjula C.B

Full contact address with pin code

Dept of Information and Communication TEchnology, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal – 576 104 (Karnataka State), INDIA

Email address

[email protected]

General Guidelines (Delete this page when making the report submission)

Project Report to be minimum 35 pages. Reports less than 35 pages will be rejected

Project report to be maximum 50 - 60 pages (preferred)

Paper Size: A4; Left = Right = Top = Bottom Margins = 1"

Page Numbering Position: Bottom with right justified and continuous numbering from the Introduction Chapter

Use Times New Roman Font with Normal Style, paragraph justified and 1.25 line spacing

Paragraph Heading: Times New Roman Font, Bold, Font Size 14; Paragraph Matter: Times New Roman Font, Normal, Font Size 12;

Sub-paragraphs be appropriately numbered as in 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc; Sub-paragraph Heading: Times New Roman Font, Italics, Font Size 12; Sub-paragraph Matter: Times New Roman Font, Normal, Font Size 12;

Figure captions below Figure with chapter wise numbering

Tables captions above Table with chapter wise numbering

All references must be quoted in ascending order (follow IEEE format for referencing)

Project Details page must be the last page in the project report

Only Soft bound reports will be accepted (Consult guide before binding)

Arrangement of contents

[1] Cover page (same as inner page)

[2] Inner page

[3] Dedication (Optional)

[4] Certificate

[5] Certificate on company letter head

[6] Acknowledgement

[7] Abstract

[8] List of Tables

[9] List of Figures

[10] Table of contents

[11] Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5