HostFactory Deployment Scenarios

This document outlines various deployment scenarios for integrating the Open Host Factory Plugin with IBM Spectrum Symphony Host Factory, covering different environments, scales, and requirements.

Deployment Architecture Overview

The plugin can be deployed in multiple configurations depending on your infrastructure requirements, scale, and operational preferences.

Basic Deployment Components

• HostFactory Plugin: Core plugin executable and shell scripts
• Configuration Files: JSON configuration files for providers and settings
• Storage Backend: Data persistence layer (JSON files or SQL database)
• Cloud Provider Access: AWS credentials and network connectivity
• Monitoring: Logging and metrics collection

Scenario 1: Single Node Development

Use Case

• Development and testing environments
• Small-scale proof of concept
• Local development workflows

Architecture

[Symphony Host Factory]  ->  [Plugin Scripts]  ->  [Plugin Core]  ->  [AWS]
                                 | 
                         [Local JSON Storage]

Configuration

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "provider": {
    "active_provider": "aws-dev",
    "providers": [
      {
        "name": "aws-dev",
        "type": "aws",
        "enabled": true,
        "config": {
          "region": "us-east-1",
          "profile": "development"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "storage": {
    "strategy": "json",
    "json_strategy": {
      "storage_type": "single_file",
      "base_path": "/opt/hostfactory-plugin/data"
    }
  }
}

Deployment Steps

1. Install plugin on Symphony master node
2. Configure AWS credentials
3. Set up local JSON storage
4. Configure HostFactory to use plugin scripts
5. Test basic functionality

Benefits

• Simple setup and configuration
• Easy debugging and development
• Minimal infrastructure requirements
• Fast iteration cycles

Limitations

• Single point of failure
• Limited scalability
• No high availability
• Local storage only

Scenario 2: Production Single Region

Use Case

• Production workloads in single AWS region
• Medium-scale deployments (100-1000 machines)
• Standard high availability requirements

Architecture

[Symphony Cluster]  ->  [Plugin on Master]  ->  [AWS Region]
                             | 
                    [RDS/DynamoDB Storage]
                             | 
                    [CloudWatch Monitoring]

Configuration

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "provider": {
    "active_provider": "aws-prod",
    "circuit_breaker": {
      "enabled": true,
      "failure_threshold": 5,
      "recovery_timeout": 300
    },
    "providers": [
      {
        "name": "aws-prod",
        "type": "aws",
        "enabled": true,
        "priority": 1,
        "config": {
          "region": "us-east-1",
          "profile": "production",
          "max_retries": 5,
          "timeout": 60,
          "handlers": {
            "types": {
              "ec2_fleet": "EC2Fleet",
              "spot_fleet": "SpotFleet",
              "asg": "ASG"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "storage": {
    "strategy": "sql",
    "sql_strategy": {
      "type": "postgresql",
      "host": "hostfactory-db.cluster-xyz.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",
      "port": 5432,
      "name": "hostfactory",
      "pool_size": 10
    }
  },
  "logging": {
    "level": "INFO",
    "file_path": "/var/log/hostfactory-plugin/app.log",
    "max_size": 100,
    "backup_count": 10
  }
}

Deployment Steps

1. Set up RDS PostgreSQL database
2. Configure IAM roles for EC2 instances
3. Install plugin on Symphony master nodes
4. Configure database connection
5. Set up CloudWatch logging
6. Configure monitoring and alerting
7. Test failover scenarios

Benefits

• Production-ready reliability
• Persistent data storage
• Comprehensive monitoring
• Automated retry and recovery

Limitations

• Single region dependency
• Master node single point of failure
• Limited disaster recovery options

Scenario 3: Multi-Region High Availability

Use Case

• Large-scale production deployments
• Disaster recovery requirements
• Global infrastructure with regional preferences
• High availability and fault tolerance

Architecture

[Symphony Cluster]  ->  [Plugin HA Setup]
                            | 
    [AWS US-East-1]  <-   ->  [AWS US-West-2]  <-   ->  [AWS EU-West-1]
            |                      |                      | 
    [Regional Storage]   [Regional Storage]   [Regional Storage]
            |                      |                      | 
    [Regional Monitoring] [Regional Monitoring] [Regional Monitoring]

Configuration

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "provider": {
    "active_provider": "aws-primary",
    "selection_policy": "PRIORITY_FAILOVER",
    "health_check_interval": 30,
    "circuit_breaker": {
      "enabled": true,
      "failure_threshold": 3,
      "recovery_timeout": 180
    },
    "providers": [
      {
        "name": "aws-primary",
        "type": "aws",
        "enabled": true,
        "priority": 1,
        "weight": 100,
        "config": {
          "region": "us-east-1",
          "profile": "production"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "aws-secondary",
        "type": "aws",
        "enabled": true,
        "priority": 2,
        "weight": 80,
        "config": {
          "region": "us-west-2",
          "profile": "production"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "aws-tertiary",
        "type": "aws",
        "enabled": true,
        "priority": 3,
        "weight": 60,
        "config": {
          "region": "eu-west-1",
          "profile": "production"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "storage": {
    "strategy": "sql",
    "sql_strategy": {
      "type": "postgresql",
      "host": "hostfactory-global.cluster-xyz.amazonaws.com",
      "port": 5432,
      "name": "hostfactory_global",
      "pool_size": 20,
      "backup_enabled": true,
      "replication": {
        "enabled": true,
        "replicas": [
          "hostfactory-replica-west.cluster-abc.us-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com",
          "hostfactory-replica-eu.cluster-def.eu-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Deployment Steps

1. Set up multi-region RDS with read replicas
2. Configure cross-region IAM roles
3. Deploy plugin on multiple Symphony nodes
4. Set up global load balancing
5. Configure cross-region monitoring
6. Implement automated failover procedures
7. Test disaster recovery scenarios

Benefits

• High availability across regions
• Automatic failover capabilities
• Disaster recovery built-in
• Global scale support

Limitations

• Complex setup and management
• Higher operational costs
• Cross-region latency considerations
• More complex troubleshooting

Scenario 4: Containerized Deployment

Use Case

• Kubernetes-based Symphony deployments
• Container orchestration environments
• Microservices architecture integration
• Cloud-native deployments

Architecture

[Symphony K8s Cluster]
         | 
[HostFactory Plugin Pod]  ->  [AWS]
         | 
[ConfigMap/Secrets]  ->  [Persistent Volume]
         | 
[Service Mesh/Ingress]

Kubernetes Configuration

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: hostfactory-plugin
  namespace: symphony
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: hostfactory-plugin
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: hostfactory-plugin
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: plugin
        image: hostfactory-plugin:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8000
        env:
        - name: CONFIG_PATH
          value: "/app/config/config.json"
        - name: AWS_REGION
          value: "us-east-1"
        volumeMounts:
        - name: config
          mountPath: /app/config
        - name: data
          mountPath: /app/data
      volumes:
      - name: config
        configMap:
          name: hostfactory-config
      - name: data
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: hostfactory-data
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: hostfactory-plugin-service
spec:
  selector:
    app: hostfactory-plugin
  ports:
  - port: 8000
    targetPort: 8000
  type: ClusterIP

Benefits

• Container orchestration benefits
• Easy scaling and updates
• Integration with cloud-native tools
• Consistent deployment across environments

Limitations

• Kubernetes complexity
• Container networking considerations
• Persistent storage challenges
• Additional operational overhead

Scenario 5: Hybrid Cloud Deployment

Use Case

• Multi-cloud strategies
• Vendor diversification
• Regulatory compliance requirements
• Cost optimization across providers

Architecture

[Symphony Host Factory]
         | 
[Plugin with Multi-Provider Support]
         | 
[AWS]  <-   ->  [Azure]  <-   ->  [On-Premises]

Configuration

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "provider": {
    "active_provider": "aws-primary",
    "selection_policy": "COST_OPTIMIZED",
    "providers": [
      {
        "name": "aws-primary",
        "type": "aws",
        "enabled": true,
        "priority": 1,
        "config": {
          "region": "us-east-1",
          "cost_threshold": 0.10
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "azure-secondary",
        "type": "azure",
        "enabled": true,
        "priority": 2,
        "config": {
          "region": "eastus",
          "cost_threshold": 0.12
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "onprem-fallback",
        "type": "vmware",
        "enabled": true,
        "priority": 3,
        "config": {
          "vcenter_host": "vcenter.company.com",
          "datacenter": "DC1"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Benefits

• Vendor diversification
• Cost optimization opportunities
• Regulatory compliance flexibility
• Risk mitigation

Limitations

• Complex management
• Multiple skill sets required
• Integration challenges
• Increased operational complexity

Deployment Best Practices

Security

• Use IAM roles instead of access keys
• Implement least privilege access
• Enable encryption at rest and in transit
• Regular security audits and updates

Monitoring

• Comprehensive logging strategy
• Real-time alerting for failures
• Performance metrics collection
• Regular health checks

Backup and Recovery

• Regular configuration backups
• Database backup strategies
• Disaster recovery procedures
• Recovery time objectives (RTO) planning

Scaling

• Horizontal scaling capabilities
• Load balancing strategies
• Auto-scaling configurations
• Performance optimization

Maintenance

• Regular updates and patches
• Configuration management
• Change control procedures
• Documentation maintenance

Troubleshooting Common Deployment Issues

Configuration Issues

• Validate JSON syntax
• Check file permissions
• Verify AWS credentials
• Test network connectivity

Performance Issues

• Monitor resource utilization
• Optimize database queries
• Tune connection pools
• Review timeout settings

Integration Issues

• Verify HostFactory configuration
• Check script permissions
• Test API endpoints
• Validate data formats

Scaling Issues

• Monitor concurrent requests
• Check resource limits
• Review provider quotas
• Optimize batch operations

Each deployment scenario should be carefully evaluated based on your specific requirements, constraints, and operational capabilities. Consider starting with simpler scenarios and gradually moving to more complex deployments as your experience and requirements grow.