Toni Pesonen 6.4.2009

1. Applying Veritas Provisioning Manager in Multimedia Messaging Service backup and installation processes Toni Pesonen 6.4.2009 Supervisor: Professor Jörg Ott

2. Agenda • Objectives • Approach • Background • Tests • Results • Conclusion

3. Agenda • Objectives • Approach • Background • Tests • Results • Conclusion

4. Objectives • Verify that the provisioning tool Veritas Provisioning Manager (VPM) is interoperable with Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) • Determine how VPM can improve the backup and restore processes in MMS • Determine how VPM can improve the current installation processes in MMS

5. Agenda • Objectives • Approach • Background • Tests • Results • Conclusion

6. Approach • As VPM has not been used with any MMS system before, it must be succesfully connected with a system in Ericsson’s test lab • Use VPM in the backup and restore cases in the Ericsson test lab and compare the received backup and restore times against the times with the current tools • Evaulate how VPM can be integrated in the current installation processes in MMS

7. Agenda • Objectives • Approach • Background • Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) • Provisioning • Server provisioning tools • Veritas Provisioning Manager (VPM) • Tests • Results • Conclusion

8. Multimedia Messaging Service (1/3) • MMS creates a solution for communication, where personalized multimedia content, such as images, sound, text, video and combinations of these, are allowed • Ericsson is a market leading vendor that supplied by the end of 2007 121 operators. These 121 operators contribute to over 10 million messages per day • In 2006 Ericsson got 23 new customers and in 2007 30 new customers

9. Multimedia Messaging Service (2/3) • The MMS system consists of four mandatory nodes types (servers) and six optional ones • The mostly deployed MMS system has seven nodes, which are deployed as duplicates when backing up a whole system, 14 nodes need to be backed up

10. Multimedia Messaging Service (3/3) • Current backup process at Ericsson: • Done with DAT tapes one node at a time • Backup roughly 1 h per node, restore 1,5 h per node • One tape per node manually change tape after each backup • Current installation processes: • Done at the customer premises • Duration around 25 days • Constitutes of a doing a repeatable process for the different nodes • Many manual configurations for each node

11. Provisioning • The term provisioning can itself refer to particular equipment, but mainly to a series of commands and controls for hardware and software devices • The commands and controls configure the devices to work properlyfor a specified case • In telecommunications there are different types of provisioning: server, service, user, mobile subscriber, mobile content, storage and network provisioning • This thesis focused on providing a workable server, i.e. server provisioning, which refers to the process of discovering, installing and configuring a server

12. Server provisioning tools • Software that offers automation of the server provisioning process • Offers server cloning for increasing efficiency of server provisioning and decreasing human errors • Most big software vendors offer solutions • Symantec’s Veritas Provisioning Manager • IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager • Oracle Enterprise Manager • HP Data Center Automation • Solaris Flash Archive

13. Veritas Provisioning Manager (1/2) • Server automation tool for fast and easy server provisioning, i.e. cloning a server • When a server is booted from network, the VPM server sees the DHCP DISCOVER or the Reverse ARP packet and starts managing the server • After the discovery VPM can take an image of a server, which then can be used to clone the server or return the server to a previous state • VPM can also do simultaneous saves and loads, as well as executing operations unattended

14. Veritas Provisioning Manager (2/2) • The VPM server gives commands to the assets • The snapshot save • The snapshot load – server provisioning

15. Agenda • Objectives • Approach • Background • Tests • Results • Conclusion

16. Tests • To do the tests the VPM server is first installed and then connected to a test system in the test lab at Ericsson • To determine the scope of benefits provided by VPM in the backup and installation processes a few different test are performed: • Node discovery • Node backup (snapshot save) • Node restore (snapshot load)

17. Tests • The interoperability was ensured already at an early stage, i.e. all the nodes could be discovered by the VPM server • The save and load of the images were successful • The backup was completed in a few different ways: • Uncompressed save • Compressed save • Simultaneous saves • Incremental save • The restore process was performed for the same scenarios

18. Tests – installation process • The aim was to optimize the current installation processes, which are performed at the customer premises • The installations were supposed to be performed remotely from Ericsson’s test lab, by first saving an image of a node in the test lab and then pushing this image over the network • VPM cannot, however, discover the server at a remote locations, and can consequently not push snapshot over the network • By modifiyng the current installation process VPM could provide optimization: • The VPM server would be installed on a laptop • The laptop would be setup up in Ericsson’s test lab, where the node images would be taken • The laptop would then be setup at the customer premises, where the images would be loaded from the laptop on to the nodes

19. Agenda • Objectives • Approach • Background • Tests • Results • Conclusion

20. Results – backup and restore • Backup (of the whole system) • DAT: 13 hours • Compressed: 7 hours • Uncompressed: 4 hours (more disk space required) • Simultaneous: 2 hours (increased net congestion) • Incremental: 1 hour (not full backups) • Restore (of the whole system) • DAT: 22 hours • VPM (same for all): 5,5 hours

21. Results – backup and restore

22. Results – installation process • By using a laptop as the VPM server the installation process of MMS could be performed with VPM • The images are first stored on the repository, then the images are transfered with the laptop to the customer and loaded there • The different scenarios • The images of the nodes are already on the repository of the laptop and can directly be loaded at the customer • The images need to be saved from the test lab at Ericsson and can then be loaded at the customer • The nodes first need to be installed in the test lab, then the images need to be saved and they can be loaded at the customer

23. Results – installation process • There are considerable differences in the preparations done at the office • All the different options decrease the time spent at the customer premises  decrease costs

24. Agenda • Objectives • Approach • Background • Tests • Results • Conclusion

25. Conclusion • VPM is very usable as a backup engine for an MMS system • VPM could not directly be used in the current installation processes, but with some modification to the procedure VPM would provide conisderable benefit • Before the modified procedures can be offered to customers, they need to be presented and approved by the Product Design Unit and Product Line Maintenance • Even though this thesis is very specific and detailed, it provides a good reference for how automation tools can optimize server provisioning processes

26. Questions?