Open Automation Framework™

Enhanced Network Flexibility, Availability and Manageability The Force10 Open Automation Framework brings network automation to virtual data center environments, providing a network that is more flexible, available and manageable while reducing operational expenses.

With the adoption of virtualization, data centers have become more responsive but more complex. IT managers must now manage hundreds to thousands of virtual machines and their associated storage and networks. Data center infrastructure must be more responsive, quickly adapting to changes in application requirements. Additionally, server, storage and network infrastructure can no longer be managed as separate silos, but rather as a single, dynamic environment. Open Automation addresses these challenges using industry standards and common industry technology, allowing IT managers to deploy virtualized environments using best of breed technology.

Key Benefits

• Faster network installation and configuration
• Eliminate network switch configuration errors
• Improve manageability and availability with standard configurations
• Enable improved network monitoring
• Enable customized network management
• Enable accelerated network problem identification and resolution
• Reduce operational expenses
• Easy script development
• Automated VLAN provisioning in virtual environments
• Maintain network connectivity and security policies in virtual environments
• Support for VMware vSphere 4.0 and 4.1
• Support for Citrix XenServer 5.6
• Simultaneously support multiple hypervisors
• Support for third party system management tools
• Support Advanced Web GUI access with customizable features and skins
• Community Support via the Dev Exchange portal
• Resource and scripting solutions available via the Script Store

The Open Automation Framework is comprised of a suite of inter-related network management tools that can be used together or independently. These tools provide data center managers with a complete set of capabilities required in today’s dynamic, virtual data center environments:

• Bare Metal Provisioning reduces installation time, eliminates configuration errors and enforces standard configurations by automatically configuring network switches.
• Smart Scripting improves network monitoring and management with a robust, Perl/Python scripting environment.
• Virtual Server Networking increases network flexibility by automatically provisioning VLANs when VMs are migrated.
• Programmatic Management simplifies network management by integrating with multiple third party system management tools.
• Web GUI, Portal & Script Store increases Web connectivity to platforms via the Exensible Web GUI and the user community via the Dev Exchange portal

Automated bare metal configuration reduces operational expenses, accelerates switch installation, simplifies OS upgrades and increases network availability by automatically configuring Force10 switches. This eliminates the need for a network administrator to manually configure the switch, resulting in faster installation, elimination of configuration errors and enforcement of standard configurations. Upon installation, the Force10 switch searches the network for a DHCP server. The DHCP server provides the Force10 switch with an IP address and the location of a TFTP server. The TFTP server maintains a configuration file and an approved version of FTOS, the operating system for Force10 switches. The Force10 switch automatically configures itself by loading the configuration file and FTOS.

Smart scripting increases network availability and manageability by allowing network administrators to deploy custom monitoring and management scripts on Force10 switching platforms. With this capability, network administrators can implement version control systems, automatically generate alerts, create custom logging tools and automate management of network devices. Virtually any function that can be performed through the CLI can be implemented with smart scripting. Smart scripting provides a scripting environment that supports Perl and Python, making it easy for IT administrators to quickly develop scripts without having to learn a new scripting language.

Virtual environments require network infrastructure to be dynamic in order to ensure network connectivity and security policies are maintained when VMs are migrated. Virtual server networking facilitates communications between Force10 network switches and virtual machinge management software to orchestrate automated VM/VLAN provisioning and virtual machine migration. This is a powerful capability that great simplifies the many of the tasks associated with virtualized computing environments. Our virtual server networking software supports VMware vSphere 4.0/4.1 and Citrix XenServer 5.6.

Programmatic management greatly improves network manageability by allowing Force10 network devices to be managed by third party system management tools via standard programmatic interfaces. The programmatic management environment and set of interfaces communicate directly with third-party system management tools, avoiding the need for a dedicated network management tool.

Ease and breadth of connectivity remain a paramount necessity for both equipment and development communities. The Web GUI Interface addresses Web connectivity in a general sense for Dell Force10 platforms but also offers more advanced capabilities to help simplify management tasks and customize GUI environments. The advanced Web user interface is a significant step up from traditional web-based switching platforms interfaces. Customers can simply and easily tailor management and user interfaces with either in-house or third-party tools to create custom management and GUI environments.