Cloud administrator

The cloud administrator is an IT professional responsible for the full lifecycle of the cloud environment, including initial planning, deployment, and configuration, and continued administration, operation, and maintenance. The cloud administrator uses the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console for most tasks. This topic describes the primary tasks for cloud administrators of BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management.

Before you begin, understand your current level of cloud implementation. You might need to complete various planning tasks before working with the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management solution. For more information, see BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management end-to-end.

Install BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management

After planning the cloud environment, cloud administrators install BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management to work in that environment. A simple installation interface enables cloud administrators to install on multiple computers remotely and concurrently. For detailed information about installing BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, see Installing BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management 2.0.00 - New deployments.

Create and manage service blueprints

Service blueprints enable you to design, manage, and build all of the underlying components, operations, and resource sets that define services. Cloud administrators use service blueprints to provision systems with appropriate hardware and software, and make them ready for network operation. Cloud administrators can tag blueprints to aid the automated placement of resources when a cloud end user makes a request for services. For more information about creating and managing service blueprints, see Building service blueprints.

Manage resources and resource providers

Cloud administrators make network, computer, and storage resources available to users in the cloud. The BMC Network Automation product provides network resources, and the BMC Server Automation product provides compute resources. Cloud administrators configure these providers, and then use the onboarded resources that they provide as part of services end users can request through the BMC My Cloud Services Console. The cloud administrator pools onboarded compute resources to make them available for provisioning. For more information about resource types, see Resource types. For more information about adding resources to a cloud, see Creating and managing resources.

Configure provisioning policies

Cloud administrators create policies that ensure that resources are provisioned to maintain an environment that is appropriate for the cloud tenants, cloud end users, and the type of service requested. For example, in a service provider environment, an IT organization might have service level agreements that require a Gold level of service to one tenant, and a Bronze level of service to another tenant. Policies ensure that the cloud administrator can make best use of the available resources to meet those needs. For more information about managing provisioning policies, see Creating and managing policies.

Create and manage service offerings in the service catalog

Cloud administrators establish a catalog of service offerings and options that cloud end users can request through the BMC My Cloud Services Console. Cloud administrators can also detail the cost and price of services and options. Services can be grouped in entitlement packages that can be assigned to tenants of the cloud, simplifying the process of making several services available with one task. For more information about creating and managing a service catalog, see Creating and managing requestable services.

Organizing the cloud for tenants

In a service-provider environment, cloud administrators must configure which services will be available to different tenants of the cloud. Cloud administrators must also determine which resources will be available to each tenant to support the services they can request. For more information about managing tenants, see Creating and managing tenants.

Configure user permissions and access control

Cloud administrators manage the user accounts and permissions granted to the people who use the resources of the cloud infrastructure. Individual users should not be able to see or access services or resources that they do not have permission to use. For more information about managing permissions and access control, see Creating tenant companies and users.