Glossary

AIM

See application insight module.

AIP

See automation integration platform.

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) provides data center services from Amazon.com for developers. For more information, visit http://docs.amazonwebservices.com.

AOM

See automation object model (AOM).

application insight module, AIM

The SystemEDGE agent provides a plug-in architecture through which it can load optional application insight modules (AIMs) when it initializes. AIMs are functional extensions to the SystemEDGE agent. For example, the vCenter AIM enables SystemEDGE to manage vSphere environments through VMware vCenter Servers.

AppLogic appliance

An AppLogic appliance (virtual appliance) is a self-contained virtual object that provides a particular function inside an application.

AppLogic application

An AppLogic application is a single system object that includes everything necessary to run a specific distributed application. The application includes the application code, HTML pages, templates and scripts, databases and content, and also operating systems, middleware, file storage, load balancers, firewalls, and all configuration information needed to reconstruct and run the application on an AppLogic grid. In addition, each application carries a defined resource budget - a minimum set of hardware resources including CPU, memory, and bandwidth required to run the application, and the maximum resource quota allowed for it. Applications are assembled using self-contained software components called virtual appliances.

AppLogic assembly

An AppLogic assembly is a packaged structure of interconnected appliances that can be manufactured on demand and used in exactly the same way as one would use an appliance. The assembly support is hierarchical, allowing users to create assemblies of assemblies of assemblies and so on.

AppLogic component

An AppLogic component is an instance of an AppLogic appliance or composed of AppLogic assemblies. An AppLogic component can have multiple instances of appliances or can contain only one instance of an appliance.

AppLogic grid

An AppLogic grid is a system which runs on a server array assembled from commodity servers connected using a gigabit ethernet switch. Some (or all) of the servers are expected to have directly attached storage - inexpensive IDE/ATA/SATA hard drives which AppLogic uses to provide a distributed storage pool for applications. Grids are a collection of servers which host AppLogic applications.

AppLogic template

An AppLogic template is a model application used to provision multiple instances of the application using different resource settings and quotas for each instance.

automation integration platform (AIP)

The automation integration platform is a management platform based on Web Services and ActiveMQ.

automation object model (AOM)

An automation object model is a database that stores managed entities. It is based on a CIM schema, which is a model for describing management data. See also common information model (CIM).

autoshell

The AutoShell provides a command line and scripting environment that you can use to automate complex recurring and management tasks. AutoShell is not a programming language, but is a combination of a scripting language and a command line shell.

AutoShell is based on the standardized scripting language ECMA-Script (JavaScript). While JavaScript is mostly known as a scripting language that is used on web pages, it does not need to run in a browser. It is a standalone scripting language implementing support for object orientation, XML and regular expression processing. AutoShell uses an out-of-the-box version of the Mozilla Spidermonkey JavaScript interpreter which also provides JavaScript functionality to the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

autoshell loadable module, ALM

An autoshell loadable module (ALM) is an extension to the AutoShell core. Depending on the selected components of a CA Server Automation installation, the required ALMs are installed automatically. For example, ALMs allow you to manage platforms like LPAR, Solaris Zones, or vCenter Server through AutoShell.

blade (UCS)

Server that is attached to a Cisco UCS chassis.

CA AppLogic

CA AppLogic is a cloud computing platform for composing, running, and scaling distributed applications.

chassis (UCS)

Hardware frame that holds Cisco UCS switches and blades.

CIM

See common information model (CIM).

Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch

Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch is a Distributed Virtual Switch that can run in a VMware vSphere environment. The Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch consists of the Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) and the Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM). On each ESX or ESXi host associated with a Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch, VEM replaces the VMware vSwitch and runs as a module in the hypervisor kernel. VSM controls multiple VEMs as one logical switch and runs in a VM on an ESX or ESXi host. For further details, see the Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch documentation at http://www.cisco.com/go/1000vdocs.

CA Server Automation VM provisioning supports VMware vNetwork Distributed Switches and Cisco Nexus 1000V Switches.

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) provides data center hardware and virtualization services.

cmdlet

A cmdlet is a command that must start with the first non-white character in a line. Because of this restriction they can only be used standalone and not as part of a broader JavaScript expression. In particular, they cannot be used as an rvalue (right hand side operand of an assignment operator).

? is an example for an AutoShell cmdlet.

common information model (CIM)

A common information model (CIM) provides schemas for databases that store information about such things as systems, networks, and devices. A CIM implementation lets different management applications collect data from a variety of sources.

container (Solaris)

A Solaris Container provides complete runtime environments for applications. Resource management and Solaris Zones are parts of a container.

datacenter (VMware)

A datacenter serves as a container for your hosts, virtual machines, resource pools, or clusters. If their virtual configurations meet the requirements of specific departments, datacenters can represent organizational structures, such as geographical regions or separate business functions. You can also use datacenters to create isolated virtual environments for testing or to organize your environment.

datastore (VMware)

A datastore specifies a virtual representation of combinations of underlying physical storage resources in a datacenter. These physical storage resources can be provided by local disks on a server, by SAN disk arrays, and so on.

dvPort group (VMware)

Each VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch has one or more dvPort Groups assigned to it. dvPort Groups group multiple ports under a common configuration and provide a stable point for VMs connecting to labeled networks. A unique network label identifies each dvPort Group. The network labels are unique to the current datacenter.

A dvPort Group specifies port configuration options for each member port on a vNetwork Distributed Switch. dvPort Groups define how a connection is made to a network.

dvUplink port (VMware)

Distributed Virtual Uplinks (dvUplinks) provide a level of abstraction for the physical NICs (vmnics) on the ESX Hosts. Each physical NIC is mapped to a dvUplink. For each host associated with a VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch, each physical NIC (uplink) is assigned to the vNetwork Distributed Switch through one uplink port.

EC2

See Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

ESX/ESXi host (VMware)

An ESX or ESXi host is a physical computer that uses ESX or ESXi Server virtualization software to run virtual machines. Hosts provide the CPUs and memory resources that virtual machines use and give virtual machines access to storage and network connectivity.

fair share scheduler, FSS (Solaris)

The fair share scheduler (FSS) specifies a scheduler class that allocates CPU time based on shares. Shares define the portion of the system's CPU resources allocated to a project.

funclet

Funclets maintain the verbose command like syntax with optional clauses, stringification and so on. Funclets are often used like cmdlets, that is, standalone in a single line. They can return a value that can be processed as part of a broader expression.

global zone (Solaris)

A global zone is a zone that is contained on every Solaris system. If non-global zones exist on the system, the global zone is the default zone for the system and for systemwide administration.

lightweight process, LWP (Solaris)

Lightweight processes (LWP) belong to the Solaris 10 kernel thread model. LWPs form the execution context for a user thread by associating a user thread with a kernel thread. In the Solaris 10 kernel, kernel services and tasks run as kernel threads. When a user thread is created, the associated LWP and kernel threads are also created and linked to the user thread. Resource control allows to set bounds for LWPs.

Management Information Base (MIB)

A Management Information Base (MIB) is a data store that describes properties of a resource. MIBs are written in ASN.1, which is a language specified by a management standard and complies with OSI's structure of management information (SMI) standards for defining SNMP MIBs.

MIB objects, MIB attributes

A MIB object is an entity defined in a MIB that represents one or more resource objects or data items. MIB objects include groups, tables, and individual attributes, and they must be defined in accordance with the structure for management information (SMI).

non-global zone (Solaris)

A non-global zone provides a virtualized operating system environment in a single instance of the Solaris operating system. The Solaris Zones software partitioning technology virtualizes operating system services.

organizational unit

An organizational unit (org unit) is a group of users. Org units provide security by giving users access to objects like resource pools, system images, and templates.

processor set, pset (Solaris)

Processor sets define disjoint groups of CPUs. Each processor set can contain zero or more processors. It is a resource element in the resource pools configuration.

project (Solaris)

A project defines a container associated with a host. It is an abstraction layer that helps to organize and manage the collection of physical system resources.

Projects are collections of tasks, which are collections of processes. A new task is started in a project when a new session is opened by a login, cron, newtask, setproject or su command. Each process belongs to only one task, and each task belongs to only one project.

Projects and tasks are the basic entities which are used to identify workloads in the Solaris 10 operating system. A project is associated with a set of users and a set of groups. Users and groups can run their processes in the context of a project they are a member of, but they can be members of more than one project. The project is the basic entity against which the usage of resources can be restricted. The task is the entity to which a process is associated and the project is associated with a set of tasks.

provisioning

After discovery, provisioning can find a physical or virtual machine, add an operating system and image, and make it available for use. When you require specific machine characteristics, the product can provision a machine to meet your needs.

remote deployment

Remote deployment provides the ability to remotely deploy and configure monitoring agents to multiple systems in one operation throughout your enterprise.

resource control (Solaris)

Resource control can be set up for Solaris Zones directly by defining bounds on the consumption of specific resources for a workload. A workload is an aggregation of all processes of an application or group of applications.

Resource controls are stored in the /etc/project file or in a zone's configuration through the zonecfg command described in zonecfg(1M).

resource pool (Solaris)

A resource pool defines a configuration mechanism for partitioning system resources. A resource pool is an association between resource groups which can be partitioned.

resource pool (VMware)

A resource pool defines partitions of physical computing and memory resources of a single host or a cluster. You can partition any resource pool into smaller resource pools to divide and assign resources to specific groups or for specific purposes. You can also hierarchically organize and nest resource pools.

security group (Amazon EC2)

A security group is a term that Amazon uses to describe the IP filtering to a running instance. For more information, visit http://docs.amazonwebservices.com.

service-oriented architecture (SOA)

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a way of programming that creates small services instead of large applications for various business functions. These services provide flexibility and reusability because different departments can share common functions.

shared memory (Solaris)

Shared memory defines the total amount of memory that can be used by the processes that run in a project.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is the standard management protocol for the Internet. SNMP management applications and agents use the get request, set request, get-next request, get response, and trap PDUs to communicate with each other. MIBs, which keep track of network and system resources and applications, define the data they exchange.

snapshot

A snapshot is a record of a virtual machine at a certain point in time. Snapshots let Reservation Manager users restore VMs to their previous state without contacting an administrator. Snapshots are useful in development and testing environments. Because administrators can control whether taking snapshots is allowed, snapshots may not be available at all sites.

SNMPv3

SNMPv3 is a protocol that has the following three levels of communication:

noAuthNoPriv: Mirrors SNMPv1 and SNMPv2 in that messages are accompanied by a username, which must be consistent between sender and receiver.

AuthNoPriv: Uses a consistent username and a password.

AuthPriv: Uses a username, password, and an encryption key that encrypts the body of the message.

SOA

See service-oriented architecture.

storage tiers

See tiers.

stringification

Stringification takes a sequence of characters and turns it into a proper JavaScript literal string.

task (Solaris)

A task represents a set of work over time. Each task is associated with one project.

tiers

In Reservation Manager, storage tiers are classifications for the data stores associated with each disk. Tiers generally indicate different levels of performance of the data store on which a VM and its hard drives are created.

time-sharing scheduler, TS (Solaris)

A time-sharing scheduler (TS) specifies a scheduler class that tries to provide every process with equal access to available CPUs. It allocates CPU time on a priority basis.

trap

A trap is an unsolicited message that an SNMP agent can send to one or more managers to notify management applications of agent and resource events. SNMP traps are generic (common to all types of SNMP agents) or enterprise-specific (unique to the agent that sends it).

UCS

See Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS).

UCS Manager

Software module that manages UCS hardware (switches, chassis, and blades).

vCenter Server (VMware)

VMware vCenter Server provides the central point of control for configuring, provisioning, and managing a virtual vSphere environment. vCenter Server runs as a service on Microsoft Windows Servers and Linux Servers.

vCenter Server Agent (VMware)

The VMware vCenter Server Agent connects ESX Servers with a vCenter Server.

vCenter Server Database (VMware)

The VMware vCenter Server Database stores persistent information about the physical servers, resource pools, datacenters, and virtual machines managed by the VirtualCenter.

virtual disk (VMware)

A virtual disk defines the disk drive in a virtual guest operating system. A virtual disk is a specific file or a set of files that reside on the local host or on a remote file system. It behaves like a physical disk drive in an operating system.

virtual LAN or VLAN

See virtual local area network.

virtual local area network

A group of hosts that communicate like hosts attached to the same broadcast domain, even if they are not in the same physical location. You can group end stations on a virtual local area network (VLAN) regardless of whether they are on the same network switch. You can configure VLAN connections using software instead of physically relocating devices.

virtual machine, VM (VMware)

A virtual machine (VM) is a software-based computer that runs an operating system and applications like a physical computer. A virtual machine consumes resources dynamically on its physical host, depending on its workload. Because virtual machines are flexible computing units, their deployment comprises a wide range of environments like datacenters, clusters, cloud computing, test environments, desktops, or laptops. Their primary strength lies in datacenters, where they are used for server consolidation, workload optimization, and energy efficiency.

virtual NIC (VMware)

A virtual NIC is a virtual Ethernet adapter on a virtual machine. The guest operating system communicates with the virtual Ethernet adapter through a device driver as if the virtual Ethernet adapter was a physical Ethernet adapter. The virtual Ethernet adapter has its own MAC address, one or more IP addresses, and responds to the standard Ethernet protocol like a physical NIC.

virtual switch (VMware)

A virtual switch works like a physical switch. Each ESX Server has its own virtual switches that connect to virtual machines through port groups. These virtual switches also have uplink connections to the physical Ethernet adapters on the ESX server. Virtual machines communicate with the outside world through physical Ethernet adapters connected to virtual switch uplinks.

vNetwork Distributed Switch, vDS (VMware)

A VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch abstracts the configuration of virtual switches from the host to the datacenter level. A vNetwork Distributed Switch operates as a single virtual switch that spans across all hosts in a datacenter which are associated with that switch. vNetwork Distributed Switches consist of distributed port groups which are similarly configured to port groups on standard switches, but extend across multiple hosts. These properties allow virtual machines to maintain a consistent network configuration as they migrate among multiple hosts.

Like a vNetwork Standard Switch, each vNetwork Distributed Switch is a network hub that VMs can use. A vNetwork Distributed Switch can forward traffic internally between VMs or link to an external network by connecting to physical NICs (uplink adapters). For further details, see the vNetwork Distributed Switches documentation at http://pubs.vmware.com.

CA Server Automation VM provisioning supports VMware vNetwork Distributed Switches and Cisco Nexus 1000V Switches. You can manage Virtual Distributed Switches through the vNetwork panel, AutoShell, or CLI commands.

vNetwork Standard Switch, vSwitch (VMware)

CA Server Automation manages policies and properties of standard vSwitches which are abstracted network devices. A VMware vNetwork Standard Switch (vSwitch) operates on a single host and virtual machines on that host can be attached to the standard switch.

A vSwitch can route traffic internally between VMs and link to external networks. vSwitches combine the bandwidth of multiple network adapters and balance communications traffic among them. A vSwitch can handle physical NIC failover.

XML-RPC

Allows software that runs on different operating systems or in different environments to make procedure calls over the internet. XML-RPC uses HTTP as the transport protocol and XML for encoding.