Product compatibility and limitations for the Azure provider
The Microsoft Azure integration with BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management enables you to leverage the cloud computing services of Microsoft Azure from the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Administration Console. With an Azure Provider, you can extend an existing environment and invest in Microsoft while deploying in a public cloud.
This topic contains the following sections:
Product compatibility
This release integrates with the following products:
- BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management 4.5 and later
- Microsoft Windows Azure Service Management REST API version 2014-02-01
- Client SDK version 1.1.0
- BMC Network Automation 8.6.00 and the third party IPAM solutions supported by it.
- Alcatel-Lucent VitalQIP version 7.3
- Infoblox version 6.3.7
- Azure SDK version 1.5.1
Limitations
The limitations of the Azure Provider are as follows:
- If the provisioned Azure VM is restarted or shut down prior to executing the postdeployment software installation, the software installation fails due to the change in the IP address of the provisioned VM.
- If the RSCD 4750 port is open and you perform the add server operation on an Azure VM, the server gets added, but the RSCD 4750 port and software installation do not work.
- For a multi-tier service blueprint that has both network path and software installation operations, if the network path is enabled in 4750 port for the first VM that gets provisioned, the software installation fails for the next VM in the sequence and the entire provisioning process fails.
- In Azure, a single public IP is assigned to the cloud service, so if you want to access the VMs provisioned using a multi-tier service offering simultaneously, ensure that you have defined different network paths for each of the VMs in the service blueprint or have opened different network ports by using the postdeployment actions.
- The Load Balancer Pool is associated with a single SOI that is mapped to a single cloud service in Microsoft Azure. To add servers in a load balancer pool (create load balancer pool entry), the servers added to the Load Balancer Pool must belong to the same SOI or Azure cloud service.
- Storage accounts are created by default by the Azure Provider. If they need to be deleted, cloud administrators must delete them manually from the Azure Portal.
- Azure Provider supports installation of software as BLPackages and it does not support the custom actions (AO workflows or NSH scripts).
Azure construct mappings
The following table lists BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management objects and describes how they correspond to Microsoft Azure constructs:
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management object | Azure construct | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Logical Data Center | Region and Virtual Network | Microsoft Azure provides an affinity group feature to provide a higher degree of colocation within a data center than would otherwise be possible using random placement. Place associated cloud and storage services within an affinity group to minimize network latency. This minimization is particularly important when a cloud service makes extensive use of storage services. |
Logical Hosting Environment (LHE) | Region and Virtual Network | Microsoft Azure virtual network provides you with the capability to extend your network into Microsoft Azure and treat deployments in Windows as natural extensions to your on-premises network. |
Network Security Group/Firewall rule | Network Security Group | A firewall policy that is applied to provisioned virtual machines. A security group consists of rules that control inbound network traffic. |
Logical Network | Subnet | These IP addresses are used for the subnets (for example, gateways and so on) created in a virtual network. |
SOI | CloudService | A cloud service in Microsoft Azure is based on a service model. The service model provides definition settings for the cloud service and configuration values for those settings. |
Multiple User Account | Storage | For each region, a unique storage account is created in Microsoft Azure using the <Mutiple User Account Prefix><Unique Identifier> pattern. |
Logical Communication Path (LCP) or Network Path | Endpoint | A Microsoft Azure endpoint has a public port and a private port. Resources can connect to an endpoint by using either the TCP or the UDP protocol. The TCP protocol includes HTTP and HTTPS communication. |
Load Balancer Pool | Load-Balanced Set Name | Microsoft Azure VM endpoints allow configuration of the Azure Load Balancer to distribute a specific type of traffic between multiple virtual machines or services. A load-balanced endpoint belongs to a Load-Balanced Set Name. |
Load Balancer Pool Entry | Endpoint | A Microsoft Azure endpoint has a public port and a private port. Resources can connect to an endpoint by using either the TCP or the UDP protocol. When you configure load balancing of traffic among multiple virtual machines or services, Azure provides random distribution of the incoming traffic. Notes:
|
Availability Set | Availability Set | By adding the virtual machines to an availability set during provisioning, you can manage the availability of an application that uses multiple virtual machines. See Manage the Availability of Virtual Machines for details. |