Management Server Overview
5
A more full-featured installation consists of a highly-available multi-node Management Server
installation and up to thousands of hosts using any of several advanced networking setups. For
information about deployment options, see Chapter 13, Choosing a Deployment Architecture.
2.3.1. Management Server Overview
The Management Server is the CloudPlatform software that manages cloud resources. By interacting
with the Management Server through its UI or API, you can configure and manage your cloud
infrastructure.
The Management Server runs on a dedicated server or VM. It controls allocation of virtual machines
to hosts and assigns storage and IP addresses to the virtual machine instances. The Management
Server runs in a Tomcat container and uses a MySQL database for persistence.
The machine where the Management Server runs must meet the system requirements described in
Section 5.3, “Minimum System Requirements”.
The Management Server:
Provides the web user interface for the administrator and a reference user interface for end users.
Provides the APIs for CloudPlatform.
Manages the assignment of guest VMs to particular hosts.
Manages the assignment of public and private IP addresses to particular accounts.
Manages the allocation of storage to guests as virtual disks.
Manages snapshots, templates, and ISO images, possibly replicating them across data centers.
Provides a single point of configuration for the cloud.
2.3.2. Cloud Infrastructure Overview
The Management Server manages one or more zones (typically, datacenters) containing host
computers where guest virtual machines will run. The cloud infrastructure is organized as follows:
Region: To increase reliability of the cloud, you can optionally group resources into multiple
geographic regions. A region consists of one or more zones.
Zone: Typically, a zone is equivalent to a single datacenter. A zone consists of one or more pods
and secondary storage.