Managing Logical Data Centers for the Azure Provider

This topic describes how to customize BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management to manage the Azure Logical Data Center. This topic includes the following sections:

About Logical Data Centers

A Logical Data Center is a logical construct that can be any external data-center entity. For example, in the context of an Azure Provider, a Logical Data Center is an Affinity Group. A Logical Data Center is similar to, and at the same hierarchical level as, a Network Container. Both the Logical Data Center and the Network Container belong to a Logical Hosting Environment, which acts as a separate, abstract entity that contains the data for the Logical Data Center or Network Container.

To understand how BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management objects correspond to the Microsoft Azure constructs, see the "Azure construct mappings" section in Product compatibility and limitations for the Azure provider.

You can perform the onboard, edit, offboard, and the mapping of tenant operations on a Logical Data Center on the Network Container tab (part of the Logical Hosting Environment) of the Resource Management workspace.

Before you begin

• Ensure that you have installed and enabled the Azure Provider.
• Ensure that you have at least one affinity group in the Microsoft Azure management portal.
• Ensure that you have registered the Azure Provider and defined the Azure account credentials; otherwise, a Logical Data Center search will not display results.
• Ensure that you have created and imported the tenant for which you want to onboard the Logical Data Centers. For more information, see Creating and importing tenants.

To onboard a Logical Data Center

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. On the Resource Management page, click Network Containers.
3. Click Onboard Logical Data Center .
4. In the Onboard Logical Data Centers dialog box, select the Azure Provider Name as the provider; for example, Azure.
   
   
   
   

5. Select the Azure account name to be used for onboarding the resources; for example, QuickD.
   
   
   
   In BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management 4.6.04 and later, if you created a custom provider by using Azure Resource Manager templates, the dialog box displays a Proxy Provider field.
   
   

6. In the Proxy Provider field (if available), select the name of the proxy provider that you set up for Azure.
   
   

7. From the Available Logical Data Centers list, select a Logical Data Center entry, and click Add.

   

   The name of a Logical Data Center contains Your Account Prefix:Region Name-Affinity Group Name; for example. QuickD:East Asia-JD1-VN-AG.

   
   

   In version 4.6.05 and later, if you are using Azure Resource Manager templates, you can search among regions and virtual networks. Enter part of the name in the field, and click the Search button. If you leave the field blank, all regions and virtual networks are listed. If you are not using Azure Resource Manager templates, you should select virtual networks (not regions) to avoid possible errors.

   

8. Click Onboard.
   The selected Logical Data Center is added to the Network Containers workspace.
   
   

To edit a Logical Data Center

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. On the Resource Management page, click Network Containers.
3. Select the Logical Data Center that you want to edit.
4. Click Edit .

5. In the Edit Logical Data Centers window:

   1. Define or edit the tag values.

      Tip

      For details about tagging, see Creating tag groups and tags and Tagging recommendations and examples.

      The tag details of Logical Data Centers are added.

      

      b. Select Use External IPAM to manage IPAM through a provider that works through BMC Network Automation.

      This step is recommended so that you do not rely on Azure for IPAM. For more information, see Enabling IP address management.

      c. (4.6.03 and later) Select Enable DNS Registration.

To offboard a Logical Data Center

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. On the Resource Management page, click Network Containers.
3. Select the Logical Data Center that you want to offboard, and click Offboard Logical Data Center .
4. When the confirmation dialog box is displayed, click OK.

To map a tenant with a Logical Data Center

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. On the Resource Management page, click Network Containers.
3. Select the Logical Data Center that you want to map with a tenant.
4. Click Manage Tenant Mappings .
5. Select a tenant name from the Available Tenants list.
   
   
6. Click Add.
   The selected tenant is displayed in the Mapped Tenants list.
   
   
7. Click Save.

To refresh a Logical Data Center 

NEW IN 4.6.07.001 You can refresh a logical data centre to include new subnets that have been added to the onboarded logical data centres.

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. On the Resource Management page, click Network Containers.
3. Select the Logical Data Center that you want to refresh, and click Synchronize Logical Data Center  .
   The status is displayed in the Pending Activity pane at the bottom of the page.
   

Where to go from here

Building service blueprints for an Azure service