HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition support for Azure VM provisioning

[StorageExperts]

How the HPE GreenLake hybrid cloud solution integrates with Azure, enabling deployment and management of Azure virtual machines.

By Daniel Elder, a Senior Technical Marketing Engineer and SME for HPE Private Cloud and HPE Alletra dHCI

Launched in 2023, HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition is a powerful platform that enables the deployment, management, and consumption of global hybrid cloud environments. At introduction, PCBE supported HPE Alletra dHCI as its on premise platform and Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the public cloud provider. The management capabilities of this platform have been extended to support Microsoft Azure as a public cloud provider.

In this article, I will provide an overview of how HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition integrates with Azure and enables deployment and management of Azure virtual machines. A video demonstration can be followed here: HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition, Azure account access and creating virtual machines. Documentation is also available contextually within Data Services Cloud Console under the “Articles” icon in the upper right of the interface, as well as through the HPE Support Center.

Architecture of Private Cloud Business Edition (PCBE)

PCBE is an HPE GreenLake platform-based cloud management service that allows global administration of on-premises infrastructure as well as public cloud resources. Workspaces operate at the global level. Within those workspaces, services can be assigned from the services catalog. Some examples of these services are Compute Ops Manager, Aruba Central, and Data Services Cloud Console (DSCC), which is where PCBE resides. These services run within regions such as US West, AP Northeast, or EU West. Services running in different regions can all be added and accessed within the same workspace.

Within DSCC there are a set of common services for the entire platform with each service having its own dedicated microservices. These all interact through a set of standardized REST APIs. PCBE has services that handle the management of the on-premises infrastructure as well as services for the management of public cloud infrastructure. Here is an architectural overview of PCBE.

Configuring access to a Microsoft Azure account

For PCBE to access the Azure account, the Azure tenant must include a Service Principle that enables access to an Azure subscription, where the VMs will be deployed and managed. If there is not already an application registered with a contributor role assigned to a valid subscription, refer to the Microsoft Azure documentation: Quickstart: Register an application with the Microsoft identity platform.

From the application, you will need the following information to connect that tenant with PCBE:

• Tenant ID
• Client ID
• Secret value

Once you have the tenant ID, client ID, and secret value, the Azure account can be added to PCBE.

1. Within PCBE, navigate to the hamburger menu, Administrator, then select Cloud Accounts.
   
2. Click the plus sign (+) to register a new account and select Microsoft Azure as the cloud provider.
   
   
3. Enter the copied Tenant ID in the “Public Cloud Account ID” field.
4. Click the dropdown for “Client Secret” and select “+ Create New."
   
   Note: Alternately, the secret could be added through Secrets service in DSCC. Once the secret is added there, it would be available to select in this dropdown.
   
   
5. On the Create Secret screen, enter a display name, the copied Tenant ID, Client ID, and secret value, then click save. The secret will now be available to select in the “Client Secret” dropdown.
   
   
6. Select the added secret and click “Link Public Cloud Account.”
   
   
   
7. The account will add with an “Unvalidated” status. Select the account and click “Validate.” This will go through verification that everything is configured correctly, and all appropriate permissions are assigned.
   

If it has not been done already and you intend to deploy Linux virtual machines, an SSH private key pair should be created. This is required when creating Linux virtual machines to provide access to trusted users.

At this point, the PCBE environment has been granted access to the Azure account and can be used to manage existing virtual machines and deploying new ones within the Azure account’s resource groups.

Managing Microsoft Azure virtual machines

To start managing Azure virtual machines, simply click on the hamburger menu in the upper left corner within PCBE and select “Virtual Machines,” then select the “Public Cloud VMs” tab. This provides a consolidated view of all public cloud virtual machines associated with the connected public cloud accounts. This greatly simplifies having visibility and direct management of VMs across multiple public cloud accounts.

High level information pertaining to the virtual machines are displayed here, including state, public cloud provider, account, region, and virtual machine type. This list can be narrowed down by utilizing the filters or searching by name. Additional actions to manage the VMs from this view include powering on and off, deleting the VM, or creating new VMs.

Selecting a virtual machine provides a view specific to that VM with more detailed information. In addition to the information provided on the main list, the public IP is displayed, as well as the General Information section, which contains details on virtual machine and network configuration.

Creating Microsoft Azure virtual machines

Deployment of new virtual machines is also simplified through PCBE. From the Public Cloud VMs view, click the plus sign (+) to create a new virtual machine. When prompted, select Microsoft Azure as the public cloud provider.

From here, the wizard guides you through the creation of an Azure virtual machine. At the General section, enter a name, select the Azure account to utilize, the region to deploy the VM into, the subscription and resource group with which to associate the virtual machine.

Select the image to build the virtual machine. Azure offers a selection of Microsoft Windows and Linux based images to select.

Once the image is selected, the Authentication screen will populate based on the type of image selected. If a Linux-based image was chosen, then an SSH key name and an administrator username need to be specified. If a Windows-based image was chosen, users will need to enter an administrator username and password.

Finally, select the instance type. This specifies the configuration of the virtual machine, including vCPU count and memory. Once all selections are made, review them in the Summary section, and click “Create.”

Simplify and empower your hybrid cloud with PCBE

With the addition of support for Microsoft Azure, HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition continues to extend its capabilities in a single, powerful, global platform for managing cloud infrastructures. Reduce administrative overhead and complexity by managing hybrid cloud environment infrastructure and workloads through this simple and innovative cloud management platform.

Learn more about HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition

 

Meet Storage Experts blogger Daniel Elder

Daniel is a Senior Technical Marketing Engineer and SME for HPE Private Cloud and HPE Alletra dHCI.

Storage Experts
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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