Tuesday, December 30, 2014

SCVMM Fabric Controller Script – Update

Some weeks ago, I wrote this blog post (http://kristiannese.blogspot.no/2014/12/scvmm-fabric-controller-script.html ) to let you know that my demo script for creating management stamps and turning SCVMM into a fabric controller is now available for download.

I’ve made some updates to the SCVMM Fabric Controller script during the Holidays – and you can download the Powershell script from TechNet Gallery:


In this update, you’ll get:

More flexibility
Error handling
3 locations – which is the level of abstraction for your host groups. Rename these to fit your environment.
Each location contain all the main function host groups, like DR, Edge, IaaS and Fabric Management
Each IaaS host group has its corresponding Cloud
Native Uplink Profile for the main location will be created
A global Logical Switch with Uplink Port profile and Virtual Port Profiles will be created with a default virtual port profile for VM Roles
Custom property for each cloud (CreateHighlyAvailableVMRoles = true) to ensure HA for VM roles deployed through Windows Azure Pack

Please note, that you have to add hosts to your host groups before you can associate logical networks with each cloud created in SCVMM, so this is considered as a post deployment task.

I’ve received some questions since the first draft was uploaded to TechNet Gallery, as well as from my colleagues who have tested the new version:

·         Is this best practice and recommendation from your side when it comes to production design for SCVMM as a fabric controller?

Yes, it is. Especially now where the script more or less create the entire design.
If you have read our whitepaper on Hybrid Cloud with NVGRE (Cloud OS) (https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Hybrid-Cloud-with-NVGRE-aa6e1e9a ), then you can see that we are following the same principals there – which helped us to democratize software-defined networking for the community.

·         I don’t think I need all the host groups, such as “DR” and “Edge”. I am only using SCVMM for managing my fabric

Although SCVMM can be seen as the primary management tool for your fabric – and not only a fabric controller when adding Azure Pack to the mix, I would like to point out that things might change in your environment. It is always a good idea to have the artifacts in place in case you will grow, scale or add more functionality as you move forward. This script will lay the foundation for you to use whatever fabric scenario you would like, and at the same time keep things structured according to access, intelligent placement and functionality. Changing a SCVMM design over time isn’t straightforward, and in many cases you will end up with a “legacy” SCVMM design that you can’t add into Windows Azure Pack for obvious reasons.



Have fun and let me know what you think.

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