Introduction | 5
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Introduction
The Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications (DCSWA) is an optimized
private cloud solution for running virtualized web applications, databases, and
other compute nodes efficiently. The solution includes hardware, software, and
services and is highly scalable from the lab to massive data centers.
The solution is offered as a turnkey package containing software, hardware, and
core services (i.e., installation and support).
Cloud Definition
In DCSWA, a cloud is defined as a collection of interconnected pods, racks, and
nodes. A pod is a collection of up to 12 racks, with each rack containing up to
15 compute nodes to handle a variety of web applications.
Each pod has an administration/provisioning server (PS) that manages the
compute nodes. In DCSWA, the Joyent Cloud Control (CC) software
component is housed in the PS of one of the pods in the cloud. Performance and
redundancy are handled by scaling out the application to multiple nodes in the
cloud.
Joyent SmartMachine
A SmartMachine, formerly called Accelerator, is a zone running on Joyent’s
SmartOS. It is a UNIX para-virtualized virtual machine (VM) that uses
dedicated server virtualization to manage fluctuating loads by bursting onto
additional CPUs that have available resources.
In addition to SmartMachines, the solution provides the virtual Zeus Load
Balancer to enable scaling of the web application across multiple
SmartMachines. With a traditional multi-tiered web application, load balancers
can be inserted between all three tiers (web, applications, and database layers) to
provide performance and redundancy. An additional MySQL optimized
SmartMachine is provided to facilitate rapid deployment of database
components for applications. This set of SmartMachines represents the basis of
the platform as a service (PaaS) environment.