breaking news realpresence platform, virtual...

March 2014 | Level 2

Breaking News

RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition and RealPresence Platform Director

Software Release Dates: February, 2014

Breaking News: RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition

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Disclaimer © 2014 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved.

Polycom, Inc. 6001 America Center Dr San Jose, CA 95002 USA

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Polycom, Inc. Under the law, reproducing includes translating into another language or format.

As between the parties, Polycom, Inc., retains title to and ownership of all proprietary rights with respect to the software contained within its products. The software is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provision. Therefore, you must treat the software like any other copyrighted material (e.g., a book or sound recording).

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is accurate. Polycom, Inc., is not responsible for printing or clerical errors. Information in this document is subject to change without notice.


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Contents

Module Overview ................................................................................................................... 4

Polycom RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition Overview ................................................ 5

Server Components .............................................................................................................. 6

RealPresence Platform Director ........................................................................................ 7

Platform Director Functionality .......................................................................................... 7

VMware Server Requirements .............................................................................................. 8

Software Requirements ........................................................................................................ 8

Open Virtualization Appliance (OVA) Files ........................................................................... 8

Feature Differences between Software and Hardware-based Editions .............................. 9

Thin / Restricted Shell ......................................................................................................... 10

Recommended/Full Capacity Environment ..................................................................... 12

Custom Environment ...................................................................................................... 12

Installation Process Overview ......................................................................................... 13

Lab Exercise / Demonstration: RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition Environment and

RealPresence Platform Director.......................................................................................... 14


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Module Overview

This module provides an overview of the newly released RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition and the RealPresence Platform Director product.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for students that are familiar with existing Polycom solutions and now want to learn about the RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition and the RealPresence Platform Director.

Prerequisites

Students should have attended Polycom Virtualization Essentials and RealPresence Implementation, Configuration and Troubleshooting (Level 2) training or have equivalent experience with Polycom video and infrastructure products. These topics cover some advanced features and it is recommended that students have also attended RealPresence Platform: Security and Firewall Traversal Using RealPresence Access Director RPSAT301 prior to reading this material.

It is also expected that students will have a reasonable knowledge of VMware virtualization terminology and concepts.

Product Release Date

Polycom RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition and RealPresence Platform Director were made generally available in February of 2014.

Demonstration Scenarios

A brief demonstration of the RealPresence Platform Director product has been included with this training.


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Polycom RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition Overview

Polycom RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition is designed to provide customers the ability to run the RealPresence Platform appliances as virtualized software within their datacenter infrastructure in conjunction with appliance-based infrastructure.

This new solution enables video collaboration to run on an organization’s standardized servers and VM environments to achieve huge savings in time, money, and energy while improving flexibility, efficiency, and disaster recovery.

These virtual editions offer a flexible approach to video architecture with savings in capital and operational costs. The key benefits for customers of RealPresence Platform Virtual Editions are as follows:

Increase simplicity and flexibility

Manually spin-up and spin-down video capacity based on the changing needs of the

organization: if video demands within an organization spike, for example, the

administrator can quickly add and license a new instance of an MCU within the existing

virtualized infrastructure. If the demand recedes, this MCU instance can be quickly

removed from service

No hardware lock-in (i.e. can use the preferred hardware vendor of the organization)

Increase resilience

Use of virtualization provides for improved backups, disaster recovery and business

continuity. Virtualization platforms such as VMware provide built-in capabilities to

snapshot running instances along with high availability capabilities

Reduce deployment time

Virtualized components are quick and easy to deploy which means a much faster time-

to-service in production, trial and proof-of-concept environments

Reduce total cost of ownership

Virtualization ensures IT resources are used efficiently in dynamically changing

environments

The use of virtual appliances and applications supports datacenter consolidation

efforts

Hybrid deployment (i.e. a mixture of hardware and software-based components) is

supported and allows the customer to migrate across at their own pace or continue to

use a mixture of software and hardware servers to optimize performance

Simplify management

The RealPresence Platform Director provides centralized management and monitoring

that allows IT managers to plan and optimize resources more effectively with an

embedded reporting capability


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Align with strategic IT policies

This approach provides tighter alignment to IT policies and procedures by allowing

video infrastructure to be included in an existing virtualized datacenter

Improve Manageability by consolidating management tools (i.e. use the same tools to

support, monitor and distribute video applications as are used for other virtualized

business applications)

Support green drive (i.e. use datacenter virtualization to reduce the carbon footprint of

the organization)

Server Components

The RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition is comprised of the following components:

RealPresence Collaboration Server, Virtual Edition v8.2 – enterprise-grade

video collaboration server that provides native SVC and AVC support

RealPresence DMA, Virtual Edition v6.0.2 – a network-based virtualization

application for managing and distributing calls across collaboration networks; provides

call signaling for both H.323 and SIP in a single platform and virtualizes bridging

resources for a seamless user conferencing experience

RealPresence Resource Manager, Virtual Edition v8.0.1 – allows administrators to

centrally provision monitor and manage the entire video collaboration network

RealPresence Access Director, Virtual Edition v3.0 – allows users inside or outside

the firewall to collaborate via video safely with anyone in the organization; supports

both SIP and H.323 signaling and tightly integrates with bot the DMA, Virtual Edition

and Resource Manager, Virtual Edition


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RealPresence Platform Director

Polycom RealPresence Platform Director is a software management solution that helps you easily deploy, use and monitor the virtual editions of the RealPresence Platform. Supported in VMware environments, Platform director works alongside VMware tools to support the IT staff in delivering RealPresence Platform video services.

Key benefits of Platform Director include:

Centralized management – single point to deploy, manage and monitor RealPresence

Platform virtual and appliance components

Fast deployment – quickly spawn RealPresence Platform software instances

Dashboard monitoring – quickly determine status and usage of video infrastructure

with summaries and alarm correlation

Platform Director Functionality

Functionality offered by the RealPresence Platform Director gives administration and management staff the ability to:

Create, start, stop, and delete virtual RealPresence Platform instances

Configure capacity thresholds and notifications

View real time and historical usage data of conferences and bridge resources

Add and monitor both appliance-based and virtual editions of the RealPresence

Platform components

Create a RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition software image repository to hold the

OVAs used for creation of server instances


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VMware Server Requirements

The table below gives an indication of the server resource requirements necessary for a VMware ESXi environment to support the RPPVE components. The precise requirements per VM instance depend on the RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition components and the level of performance required.

Server Hardware Requirements

Per VM Instance 4 to 16 Physical Cores 8 to 32 Virtual Cores (with optional hyper-threading enabled)

Recommended Processors are:

2.0 Ghz (Intel Xeon E5 Series or better CPU) or 2.5 Ghz (Intel Xeon 5500 Series or better CPU) or 2.9 Ghz (Intel Xeon E5 Series or better recommended for Collaboration Server)

One of the key requirements for RPPVE components is the provision of adequate computing resource in the form of physical CPU cores and clock cycles. The high compute demand by the components means that only current and previous generation CPUs will provide adequate resources. The table above shows the recommended CPUs.

Software Requirements

The following software is required to install, configure and administer the RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition:

VMware vSphere 5.0 or 5.1 client installed to access the ESXi host

vCenter Server (required for Platform Director)

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 10

Adobe Flash version 9.0.124 or newer

Open Virtualization Appliance (OVA) Files

The Virtual Edition components are distributed in the form of Open Virtualization Appliance or Application (OVA) files to reduce setup and configuration time.

The OVA file is basically an archive file (i.e. TAR) which contains multiple files from a single directory: a list of hardware requirements, one or more disk images and metadata required to securely deploy a virtual machine. Shown below is an example of the contents of the RPAD 3.0 OVA file:

The metadata is stored in the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) file. This is an open standard format used to distribute virtual machines in VMware and many other virtualization environments.


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Feature Differences between Software and Hardware-based Editions

In most respects the Virtual Editions are identical to their hardware counterparts, except for Collaboration Server. The main difference relates to the hardware interface required in order to support certain communication protocols such as ISDN, PSTN and Serial/V.35. These hardware-based interfaces (i.e. modules) are not available for either the soft or appliance-based platforms. Other capabilities of the hardware over the software-based platforms include higher capacity, UC-APL certification (i.e. support for Assured Services SIP), 802.1X and a DNS service.

There also exist some minor feature gaps in this release of the RealPresence Collaboration Server, Virtual Edition that include:

1080p30 SVC / AVC / Content

SVC Content

Selective Mixing

Multi Link Cascade

ITP Support and Layouts

TIP (1080p30)

Integrated MLA

Dial-out SVC

Another difference that applies to Virtual Edition servers is that high availability is managed using VMware rather than server clusters. For example, DMA superclusters are supported but not the local cluster.


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Thin / Restricted Shell

All the RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition components have a thin or restricted shell which

is accessible via the console. This restricted shell allows the configuration of basic networking

and DNS settings. Any configuration changes through the shell results in the RPPVE

application service being restarted to ensure it is in a stable state for operation. Any further

configuration changes can be handled by logging onto the web GUI via a browser.

Shown below is the thin shell for the RealPresence Resource Manager, Virtual Edition. A common use of the shell is to configured static IP address settings, in this case using Management network setup. The Virtual Edition servers default to using settings from DHCP but can be re-configured to meet customer requirements.


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Minimum/Lab Environment

The table below shows the virtual hardware requirement and associated capacity for each of the Polycom RealPresence Virtual Edition components in a Minimum/Lab Environment:

RPPVE Component Hardware Requirement/Capacity

Collaboration Server 8 Virtual Cores 16GB RAM 30GB Storage

5HD / 15 SVC ports

DMA 2 Virtual Cores 8GB RAM 25GB Storage

50 concurrent calls

Resource Manager 2 Virtual Cores 8GB RAM 50GB Storage

400 devices

Access Director 1 Virtual Core 4GB RAM 16GB Storage

5 simultaneous calls

Platform Director 4 Virtual Cores 8GB RAM 25GB Storage

5 Instances*

Total Resources Required 25 Virtual Cores 52GB RAM 171GB Storage

*Note: Each instance is a separate virtual machine.

This configuration is designed for customers who wish to get started with Virtual Edition components using a lab environment, proof-of-concept or trial. As shown in the Total Resources Required row, this configuration including Capture Server and Platform Director requires 25 virtual cores, 52GB memory and 171GB of disk space.


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Recommended/Full Capacity Environment

The table below shows the virtual hardware requirement and associated capacity for each of the Polycom RealPresence Virtual Edition components in a Recommended/Full Capacity Environment:

RPPVE Component Hardware Requirement/Capacity

Collaboration Server 32 Virtual Cores 16GB RAM 120GB Storage

20HD / 60 SVC ports

DMA 16 Virtual Cores 8GB RAM 100GB Storage

5,000 concurrent calls

Resource Manager 24 Virtual Cores 16GB RAM 146GB Storage

50,000 devices

Access Director 8 Virtual Cores 8GB RAM 32GB Storage

900 simultaneous calls

Platform Director 8 Virtual Cores 8GB RAM 100 GB Storage

10 Instances

Total Resources Required for a single instance of each component

104 Virtual Cores 64GB RAM 548 GB Storage

This configuration is designed for customers requiring maximum capacity from the virtualized platform. As shown in the Total Resources Required row, this configuration including Capture Server and Platform Director requires 104 virtual cores, 64 GB memory and 548 GB of disk space. The resources required to run the RPPVE components can be provided by one or more physical servers depending on the customer’s available hardware and preference.

Custom Environment

It is likely that many customers will require a custom configuration to provide a capacity which lies between the Minimum and Recommended models shown in the tables above. The documentation for each individual Virtual Edition component should provide the necessary planning information with tables showing the level of resource required for a number of different capacity scenarios.


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Installation Process Overview

Each one of the RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition components is deployed in a similar fashion following these three basic steps from within the virtualized environment:

1. Install the OVA file to create the system instance in a new virtual machine. Installation can be performed using the VMware vSphere client or Platform Director. A virtual machine instance installed using vSphere can subsequently be added to Platform Director for management purposes

2. If required, change the network configuration using the VMware console options

3. Restart the RealPresence, Virtual Edition component and access the product with the new IP address using a web browser to complete initial configuration

Shown below is a screen shot from VMware’s vSphere Client where a RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition lab environment has been installed. Notice the separate instances for each component, including the RealPresence Platform Director.


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Lab Exercise / Demonstration: RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition Environment and RealPresence Platform Director

Exercise Summary

This lab exercise demonstration will provide a brief look at an installed RealPresence Platform, Virtual Edition lab environment. First, the VMware vSphere Client will be used to examine the installed server images. Then, we will login to the RealPresence Platform Director to review the same environment.

Detailed Lab Steps

Review ESXi Server Environment

1. Open the VMware vSphere Client software and login with administrator credentials

2. Expand the ESXi host in the upper left corner by using the “+” icon

3. Record the list of ESXi servers found here:

__________________________ ___________________________

__________________________ ___________________________

__________________________ ____________________________

__________________________

4. Close the VMware vSphere Client software

Navigate RealPresence Platform Director

5. Open a web browser and navigate to the RealPresence Platform Director and login with admin credentials

6. Record the names of the four primary sections of the dashboard here:

__________________________ ___________________________

__________________________ ___________________________

7. Navigate to System > Providers and record the type of provider listed:

___________________________


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8. Navigate to System > Zones and record the name and description of the zone:

__________________________ ___________________________

9. Navigate to System > Image Repository and record the name and type of each image stored in the repository:

Image Name Image Type

__________________________ ___________________________

__________________________ ___________________________

__________________________ ___________________________

__________________________ ___________________________

10. Navigate to Service > Instances and record the name and type of each instance currently being managed by the Platform Director:

Instance Name Instance Type

__________________________ ___________________________

__________________________ ___________________________

__________________________ ___________________________

__________________________ ___________________________

11. Navigate to User Management > Users and record the name of any existing Service Groups:

___________________________

12. Navigate to Monitoring > Alarms and expand any item in the list to review the detailed description of the alarm.

13. Navigate to Home and sign out by selecting the drop-down from My Account in the upper right corner of the screen and then select the Sign Out option

End of practical exercise

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