Dell PowerEdge C1100 - Manual (Page 5)

Cloud Training in a Box: Inexpensive and Reproducible Training Environments for Cloud Solutions
5
Therefore, if Dell regional training centers prefer to have locally available lab infrastructure, Dell
either has to ship hardware around the world, or buy more servers. Also, each training center has to
have to have the skilled and available headcount, and the data-center space to set up this complex
infrastructure.
Selecting a Platform
These considerations forced Dell Global Support and Deployment to consider the possibility of
delivering these solutions using virtualization.
Is Virtualization a Possible Solution?
Two considerations persuaded Dell Global Support and Deployment that Dell can move to a virtualized
solution:
• While elements of our OpenStack and Hadoop solutions offer enhanced functionality when
deployed on PowerEdge C-series servers (such as the ability to update and configure BIOS and
firmware), the basic functionality of each solution was hardware-agnostic within certain broad
requirements. The solution can run, with compromises of some minor functionality, on virtual
machines.
• While the reference architectures for these solutions call out specific Dell PowerEdge C-series
servers, the target audience for training had already been trained on the support of those
servers. These courses were only tasked with the training of the solutions and the deployment
process for each; Support Services was not attempting to train the hardware as well.
Which Virtualization Platform?
Many virtualization platforms are currently available: VMware, HyperV, Xen, KVM, Virtual Box, and
others. Dell Global Support and Deployment chose to go with the KVM virtualization that is natively
available in recent Linux distributions for several reasons:
• The target audience is responsible for support of Linux/KVM virtualization as well, but gets less
opportunity for hands-on experience with it than they do with VMware. By using KVM
virtualization in these labs, learners gain experience in that skill set as well.
• Because the KVM tools are open source and exist in the package repositories native to each
distribution, the deployment of this infrastructure is simplified and more easily scripted.
• Because the KVM tools are present in distributions that are free of charge (for example,
CentOS) Dell Global Support and Deployment can easily document for customers how they can
set up a similar testing/training environment at a very minimal cost.
What type of Remote Access?
Choosing a method of remote access to the virtualization hosts involved the following considerations:
• Because these solutions are built on top of a Linux OS, rather than MS Windows, access through
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) is not a first choice.