PaaS provisioning for Cloud Foundry

The following sections describe the process to set up and use platform as a service (PaaS) provisioning with Cloud Foundry:

Integrating with Cloud Foundry

To integrate BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management with CloudFoundry, an open source cloud computing PaaS:

1. Set up a Cloud Foundry account. (For more information, see http://www.cloudfoundry.org/.)
2. In Cloud Foundry, create organizations and spaces that you can onboard in the corresponding logical data center (LDC) in BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management.
3. Assign sufficient privileges to the Cloud Foundry users on the organizations and spaces created.

Registering providers

Registering a provider tells BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management where to obtain resources needed for provisioning. For public PaaS purposes, you must set up two providers: the overall PaaS provider and a proxy provider.

To set up the overall PaaS provider

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window, and select Providers.
2. Under Quick Links, select PaaS.
3. On the Providers page, click the Register icon . 

4. In the Register Provider dialog box, complete the following fields to create a Public PaaS provider type:

   • Provider type—Type of provider. For Cloud Foundry, select Public PAAS because this provider is the prerequisite for Cloud Foundry.
   • Name—Name for this instance of the PaaS provider.
   • Description—Useful description of the provider. Descriptions can help you distinguish provider instances and find a provider when using Search.
5. Click Submit.

To set up Cloud Foundry as the proxy PaaS provider

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window and select Providers.

2. Under Quick Links, select PaaS.
3. On the Providers page, click the Register icon .
4. In the Register Provider dialog box, select PublicPaaSCloudFoundry as the resource provider type to register.
   
   
5. Enter the following information:
   
   • Name—Name for this instance of a PaaS Cloud Foundry provider.
   • Description—Useful description of the provider. Descriptions can help you distinguish provider instances and help you find a provider by using Search.
   • Host URL—URL used to connect to the Cloud Foundry host. You can enter the default URL (https://api.run.pivotal.io), or, if Cloud Foundry is hosted on your on-premises environment, you can enter your own URL.
   • Retry Count—Number of allowable attempts to access the host.
   • Retry Interval—Interval (in seconds) between each retry.

6. Click Submit.
   

7. To add Cloud Foundry users, click the Mapping User Account button . For more information, see Managing users who can access a public PaaS provider.

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Preparing resources

To prepare the Cloud Foundry resources that are used for public PaaS provisioning, you must onboard the public PaaS logical data centers. Then, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management can use the designated resources while PaaS is provisioned. The cloud allocates resources based on tagging.

To onboard PaaS resources

To perform platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provisioning, you must first onboard PaaS resources (the public PaaS logical data centers).

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window and select Resources.

2. Under Quick Links on the left, click Network Containers.
   The system displays all resources currently onboarded. 
3. Click Onboard Logical Data Center .
   The Onboard Logical Data Centers dialog box opens.
    
4. In the Provider field, select PublicPaaS.
   The Proxy Provider field appears.
5. Select the Proxy Provider.
   The Account field appears.
6. Select the Account that can access the proxy provider.
   The available logical data centers appear in the list on the left. 
7. Under Available Logical Data Centers, select resources in the list at left and move them to the list at right.
8. Click Onboard.
   Now, you can map the tenants to the logical data center. For more information, see Mapping tenants to network containers.

For additional information, see Onboarding and offboarding PaaS resources.

Mapping tenants to the logical data center

The next step is to map tenants to a logical data center. The steps are similar to mapping tenants to a network container:

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management – Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu and select Resources.
2. Under the Quick Links > Network section, click Network Containers.
3. Select the network container to which you want to map one or more tenants.
4. Click Manage Tenant Mappings .
   The Map Tenants dialog box is displayed for the selected network container. In the Name field, the name of the network container is displayed. In the Available Tenants table, the list of onboarded tenants is displayed.
   

5. Select one or more tenants from the tenants table and click Add >.
   The selected tenant or tenants are moved to the Mapped Tenants table. You can search for a tenant by using the Search field.

   Note

   The Search field is case-sensitive.

6. Click Save. 
   The selected tenant or tenants are mapped to the network container.  

   Note

   After you map a tenant to a network container, refresh the page. Sometimes, when you modify the container later, the tenant is not saved against the network container.

Setting up service blueprints for PaaS

The Service Designer workspace offers considerable flexibility when defining a blueprint. The following sections provide a set of steps for creating a single-tier blueprint for a public PaaS service. You can use this approach or develop your own techniques for building a service blueprint.

The steps required to set up a service blueprint are often the same as the steps for setting up a compute resource. For a complete description of all the options available when setting up a service blueprint, including the procedures required to set up a multi-tier blueprint, see Creating, copying, or editing a service blueprint. 

Parameters in PaaS service blueprints

Parameters are an important part of setting up service blueprints for public PaaS provisioning with Cloud Foundry. Parameters allow for user input that overrides default behavior during the provisioning process. When setting up service blueprints for PaaS, there are multiple places where you can define parameters. A parameter placed at one level of a service blueprint can take precedence over a parameter placed at a lower level of the service blueprint.

The following parameters are installed by default:

• buildPackURL—Defines which runtime environment is required to deploy the application.
• command—Defines the command used to invoke a file within the application.
• domain—Defines the domain for the URL that is generated. A domain is a domain name such as bmc.com. In Cloud Foundry, domains are associated with organizations.
  
• envVariables—Defines environment variables for the blueprint.
  
• memory—Defines how much memory to run.

Default values are supplied, but you can change them as needed.

The parameters appear on the Parameters panel of the application you add to your service blueprint. (See step 3h in the following procedure.)

For more information, see Configuring service blueprint parameters.

Adding a Cloud Foundry PaaS resource set to a service blueprint

1. In the Service Designer workspace, click Create New > Service Blueprint.  Then, click PaaS Resource.
   A new PaaS resource set is added to the service blueprint, and the edit pane for that resource set opens. Use the remaining steps to set up the PaaS resource set.

2. Under Instance Details, provide information about the instances.
   Menus in the Instance Details section are populated according to the PaaS resources you have onboarded. 
   
   

   Field	Instruction
   Provider	Select the provider. For Cloud Foundry, select PublicPAAS.
   Proxy Provider	Select the proxy provider. For Cloud Foundry, select PublicPaaSCloudFoundry.
   Type	Select the type of resource. For Cloud Foundry, select Application Container.
   Subtype	Select the subtype of the PaaS resource, for example Java or Node.js.
   Edition	Select the edition of the PaaS resource. This field is not applicable to Cloud Foundry. Leave the default selection as is.
   Version	Select the version of the PaaS resource.
   Description	Enter the purpose of this PaaS resource.
   Memory Size (MB)	For Cloud Foundry, this field is not used. The memory size is taken from the parameters.
   IR Type	Select the installable resource type. For Cloud Foundry, select None.

   The Cloud Foundry resource set does not require parameters, so you do not need to complete the Parameters panel.

3. Add an application that will be deployed from the Cloud Foundry PaaS resource.

   1. Select an application, and place it inside the PaaS resource set as shown below.
       

   2. Select the application, and enter the basic details (Name, Description, and Tags).

   3. Click Software Packages to open the panel.

   4. Click the Add icon  to add a software package.
       

   5. From the Type list, select External Repository.

   6. Enter a Name.

   7. Enter a URL for the application (for example, /c/bmc/app.war). The URL is the path to the repository, and the path should be accessible from the Platform Manager. (It can be a local path.)

   8. Open the Parameters panel, and add, edit, and delete the necessary parameters.
       

      The default parameters are buildPackURL, command, domain, envVariables, and memory, which are described above. For more information about entering parameters, see Configuring service blueprint parameters.

4. Click the PaaS resource set (the green box) to provide basic details.
   

   Field	Instruction
   Name	Enter a name for the PaaS resource set.
   Description	Describe the purpose or nature of the PaaS resource set.
   Number of Instances	Enter the number of instances to be provisioned. The number you enter appears in the upper-right corner of the box representing a resource instance.
   Tags	Define any tags you want applied to this PaaS resource set. These tags must match the tags you specify in the logical data center. For more information about tags in service blueprints, see Managing blueprint tags.

5. Click Post-Deployment Actions, and specify any actions to run after the PaaS resource is deployed:

   1. Click Add new row .

   2. In the Action Type field, select a type of post-deployment action to run.

   3. In the Action field, enter the action you want run.

   4. After you have added all desired actions, use the Up and Down arrows to configure the sequence in which the actions are run.

6. To allow a PaaS resource set to be reused in other service blueprints, save it to the Blueprint Library:
   1. Right-click the PaaS resource set and click Convert to Reference.
   2. Enter a Name for the PaaS resource set. Because the name will be visible in the Blueprint Library, provide a name that enables cloud administrators to easily identify the PaaS resource set.
   3. Enter a Description of the PaaS resource set.
   4. Click OK.
      The server is added to the Server/PaaS Blueprints section of the Blueprint Library.
7. When you have finished defining the PaaS service blueprint, click Save and provide a name for the service blueprint. You can save a version of a blueprint and assign a tag to each version, as described in  Creating, copying, or editing a service blueprint. 

Creating definitions for the service blueprint

You might want to set up one or more definitions for a service blueprint. For each definition, you can associate one or more PaaS resource sets.

When setting up a definition for a service blueprint, you can specify properties, parameters, postdeployment actions, and sequencing for all actions. This functionality is standard to BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management and is described in Creating, copying, or editing a service blueprint. Note that the Operations option currently does not apply to PaaS service blueprints.

When you set up parameters for a definition, those parameters take precedence over any parameters of the same name defined for an instance of a PaaS resource set.

Creating service properties for the service blueprint

You can set up service properties that apply to all the definitions within a service blueprint. For service properties, you can specify parameters and tags. When you set up a parameter, that parameter takes precedence over any parameters of the same name specified for service blueprint definitions.

For a complete description of the capabilities available when creating service properties for a service blueprint, see Creating, copying, or editing a service blueprint.  

Saving and checking in a blueprint definition

When you finish defining the service blueprint, click File > Save and Check In. The service blueprint is now ready to be used in a service offering.

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Creating a service offering

Many options exist for creating a service offering. The following procedures describe one way to create a typical service offering for a PaaS service. 

For additional information, see Creating cloud services.

To create a service

Before you can create a service offering, you must first create a service.

1. From the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window, and click Service Catalog. 
2. In the Service Catalog, click Create a New Service . 
3. Enter a service name. 
4. For Type, select Technical service.
5. Enter a description of the service. 
6. Click Apply.

After you have created a service, you can create a service offering, as described in the next procedure.

To create a service offering

1. Using the service you created in the previous procedure, click Create a New Service Offering . 

2. In the General Information tab, define the options described in the following table.

   Option	Description
   Default Service Offering	Enable this option to make the selected service offering the default for the service. Unless users select a different service offering, the default service offering is used.
   Name	Enter a short, descriptive name for the service offering.
   Description	Enter a more detailed description of the service offering.
   Service Blueprint	Specify the software and hardware to associate with the service offering by selecting one of the available blueprints.
   Reference Definition	Specify how to select a version of a service blueprint. You can select a version by number, the latest version, or a version that is associated with a tag.
   Definition	Select the definition that provides deployment details. Each service blueprint can include multiple definitions.

3. Add a Base Customer Price to define the amount charged to the customer for the service offering. You can enter multiple customer prices for each service. 
4. Add a Base Deployment Cost to define the amount that it costs to provide the service offering. You can enter one deployment cost for each service. 
5. Click Apply.

After you have created a service offering, you can create a requestable offering, as described in the next procedure.

To create a requestable offering

Use this procedure to create the service offering that an end user can request.

1. From the service offering, select the drop-down list beside the Create the request definition icon  and select Create request definition.
   The Request Definition dialog box opens.

2. Under Request Definition Details, enter the following information:

   Option	Description
   Title	Enter a descriptive title for the requestable offering.
   Description	Enter a detailed description of the requestable offering. Note Only 255 characters can be shown in the Request Entry console. Any text greater than 255 character is indicated by an ellipsis (...).
   Start Date	Enter the date when this requestable offering goes online.
   Type	Select Compute. (Even when defining a service offering for PaaS provisioning, select Compute.)

3. Click Next.
4. Under Select Navigation Category, select Cloud Services.
5. Under Request Definition Packages, associate one or more entitlement packages with the requestable offering by selecting a package from the Available Packages table and clicking Add.
   
    
6. Click Finish.

After you have created a requestable offering, you can define options for it, as described in the next procedure.

Defining options for the requestable offering

You can add options to the service offering. Options are similar to parameters because they allow users to enter values that override the standard definition of a PaaS offering. However, unlike parameters, options in a service offering provide predefined values from which a user can choose. This procedure establishes the predefined values.

1. Click Options Editor .
   
2. In the Options list, click New Option .
3. In the New Option window, perform the following steps:
   1. Enter a name for the option.
      
   2. For Option Type, select Request Definition, which lets you modify the service blueprint so it can offer parameters when PaaS provisioning occurs.
   3. For Option Description, enter optional descriptive text.
   4. To upload an icon to the server and select it as the icon for the selected option, click Upload Icon (.jpeg, .png, or .gif formats).
   5. Click OK.
      The new option is listed.

4. In the Option Choices list, perform the following steps:

   1. Click New Option Choice .

   2. In the New Option Choice window, enter a name (for example, Memory Capacity) and description for the option choice.

   3. Set the Customer Price or Deployment Cost.
      

   4. In the New Option Choice window, click OK.
      The new option choice is listed.
5. Repeat step 4 to define additional option choices.
6. To change the order of the choices, select a choice, and click the move up or down button.
   Customers will see the order of choices that you have defined.
7. To make a choice the default, select the Pre-Select check box.
8. Select an option and then click Option Choice Blueprint Configuration Editor to select an option that modifies or extends the service blueprint configuration.
9. Click New Blueprint Configuration and then select Blueprint Configuration > Service Deployment Definition.
   A list of options is displayed. Only the options beginning with "PaaS" apply to PaaS provisioning. Some PaaS options apply to the overall resource (that is, the database), while others apply to the resource set instance (the database instance).
   For example, to add a memory option that extends the service blueprint, select Blueprint Configuration > Service Deployment Definition > PaaS Resource Instance > Memory Size. 
   For a description of each PaaS-related option, see Option Choices available when extending service blueprints.
    
10. In the Resource Set Identifier area, enter the Name of a PaaS resource set in the service blueprint, or select a tag that identifies the resource set.
    
11. Enter the values that extend the service blueprint.
    For example, enter a memory size option, such as 2 MB.
12. Click OK.
13. In the Option Choice Blueprint Configuration Editor, click OK.
14. Create the remaining option choices (for example, for 1 MB and 4 MB).
15. When you are finished in the Option Editor, click OK to save your changes.

Your users can now request the service.

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