This blog post was originally posted by myself on Blogger (8/26/2016).
CloudForms Intro
Red Hat CloudForms offers unified management for hybrid environments, providing a consistent experience and functionality across container based infrastructures, virtualization, private and public cloud platforms. Red Hat CloudForms enables enterprises to accelerate service delivery by providing self service, including complete operational and lifecycle management of the deployed services. It provides greater operational visibility through continuous discovery, monitoring and deep inspection of managed resources. And it ensures compliance and governance via automated policy enforcement and remediation. All the while, CloudForms is reducing operational costs, reducing or eliminating the manual processes that burden IT staff.
For more information visit http://redhat.com/cloudforms
Tags
I think tags are one of the most important features of Red Hat CloudForms. CloudForms ability to tag resources for later use in reporting, chargeback/showback and automation is critical for getting more in-depth knowledge and generating laser focused reports that provide value.
In this article I am going to touch on general guidelines I use when building a tag schema. I believe there are two rules when talking about CloudForms tags. It’s better too over tag your resources than under tag. If you can measure it; you can manage and monitor it. Just like any data structure, a well thought out schema will save you a lot of work.
Tag Schema Recommendations
Business Tags:
The most important thing about your business tag schema is they make sense to you and your companies. The examples I list below are a very rough estimation of what your business will look like and how it will operate. Think about logically grouped business resources and come up with a tag for them.
– IT Development
– IT Operations
IT Operations Tags
If you’re reading this blog post, these tags probably matter most to you. Remember, measure what matters most to you. Help the business understand your value and what you do. I know it, you hopefully know it, let them know it too.
Infrastructure
– VMWare
– Production Systems
– Development Lab
– Solid State Hard drive (SSD)
– Dell Hardware
Software
– Database
– PostgreSQL 5
– Oracle DB 11G
– Web Server
– CRM
SLA
– Diamond
– Gold
– Silver
– Bronze
Site (Geographic)
– New York Datacenter
– Hong Kong Datacenter
– Zone A – Virginia DC
– Zone B – Virginia DC
Change Tags
Imagine if IT and the business came to an agreement on service windows based on what worked for each business unit. This can happen. Maybe you want to have test deployments on production resources. Tagging change windows into your resources will help with reporting and also automation.
Patch Window
– Patch Window A (Second Tuesday of the month)
– Patch Window B (Last Sunday of the month)
– Canary Deployment Environment
SLA
A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider (either internal or external) and the end user that defines the level of service expected from the service provider.
– Diamond
– Gold
– Silver
– Bronze
Security Tags
Security tagging is something I’m still working through. I know there is value in creating a Security Role, Group and Users for Dashboard and Reporting. I’m looking at linking this into Policies and exporting log events to a SIM (Security Information Management).
– Information Assurance Security Team Check
– IA Validated
– IA Not Checked
– Service Catalog Provisioned (Provisioned Machines Certified Gold Master)
– Satellite Verified
Traveling Wizard Tech 