4.5. Organizing Logical Structure¶

Virtuozzo Automator allows you to organize all your registered physical servers and with virtual environments on them in the following ways:

• All of them present a logical and easily manageable structure (with as many levels as you like).

• The other Virtuozzo objects, like OS, and application templates, and virtual environment backups, are automatically filtered to conform to the current level of the object hierarchy.

• The Virtuozzo Automator security policies can be set up not on the physical server or virtual environment level, but on the level of an arbitrary group of objects, provided these objects are united into a folder.

There are two independent ways to design the structure organization. They are called Infrastructure and Logical View and presented as top-level elements in the Virtuozzo Automator left menu. You can use either one of them or, better, both at once, as their functions are different:

• Infrastructure allows you to display the physical organization of the VA infrastructure. For example, all the physical servers will take place one level lower than the datacenter, and all the virtual environments running on a certain physical server will be shown under it. You can create your own folders in the Infrastructure group, but you cannot violate the order of nesting objects. As a way to help with the visual representation of physical objects, the folders you create here can also be called Datacenters and Racks.

• Logical View allows you to group your physical servers and virtual environments in your own way independently of the physical infrastructure. For example, by grouping all the financial department activities under a common ‘FinDep’ folder, your organization will be able to manage them as a single entity by collectively managing permissions, scheduling backups, applying system updates, and more. Additionally, physical server or virtual environment may simultaneously appear in any number of folders.

The main operations related to organizing the VA infrastructure are available with the top toolbar buttons visible if you are currently located in the Infrastructure/Logical View context (i.e. not in the physical server or virtual environment context). Below are the ways to set about:

• Adding a folder. On the left menu, click the folder in which you want to create a new folder. On the top toolbar, click the Create in this Folder button and select Create Subfolder.

• Renaming a folder. On the left menu, click the folder you wish to rename. On the top toolbar, click the Manage Folder button, then click General Settings.

• Moving a folder. On the left menu, click the folder you wish to move. On the top toolbar, click the Manage Folder button, then click Move Folder.

• Deleting a folder. On the left menu, click the folder you wish to delete. On the top toolbar, click the Manage Folder button, then select Delete Folder.

• Including a physical server in a folder. Click on Infrastructure on the left menu and go to the Hardware Nodes tab. Select the physical servers you wish to include in a certain folder and click Move on top right of the Hardware Nodes table. If you are working with Logical View, the course of actions is a bit different, because any physical server can belong to any number of folders. On the left menu, click the folder where you wish to include the physical server. Then click the Add to Folder button on the top toolbar, and select Hardware Nodes.

• Including a virtual environment in a folder. In the Infrastructure section, the virtual environments always go with the physical server on which they are hosted, so you cannot include them separately in folders. In Logical View, any virtual environment can belong to any number of folders. On the left menu, click the folder where you wish to include the virtual environment. Then click the Add to Folder button on the top toolbar, and select Virtual Environments.

• Moving a physical server or a virtual environment to another folder. These actions do not essentially differ from including these objects in folders, so you should be guided by the explanations given above.

• Removing a physical server or a virtual environment from the Infrastructure section. Unregister the corresponding physical server (the Unregister button on the Hardware Nodes tab) or delete the virtual environment (the Delete button on the Virtual Environments tab).

• Removing a physical server or a virtual environment from a Logical View folder. On the left menu, click the folder from which you wish to delete a physical server/virtual environment, then go to the Hardware Nodes/Virtual Environments tab. Select the object(s) you want to remove and click Remove on top right of the table.

Using the built-in Virtuozzo Automator functionality, you can create a logical structure of your own:

• create new folders and edit them;

• change the structure hierarchy by moving folders and physical servers;

• change the hierarchy by adding physical servers and virtual environments to folders, i.e. you can group the physical and virtual environments according to your needs.