FlexPod automation: Infrastructure deployment made easy

For many people, automation is the holy grail. Mechanical robots offload manufacturing tasks, robotic pharmacist dispense medical prescriptions, and self-driving cars are now commercially available.

IT leaders are on a quest to automate datacenter operation. The automation capabilities of the FlexPod® datacenter solution is a big step towards simplifying processes, reducing errors, and increasing IT efficiency. 

The FlexPod’s validated architecture lays a solid infrastructure foundation for a wide range of business applications and solutions. Continuous integration with Cisco and NetApp technologies keeps FlexPod in the forefront of innovation: through simplified management with Cisco Intersight, advanced hybrid-cloud capabilities with NetApp ONTAP®, and faster performance with end-end-to-end NVMe.  The FlexPod automation solutions can further improve IT efficiency and reduce operation errors. Infrastructure deployment and service provisioning that used to take hours can now be completed in just minutes.

Building upon the Ansible scripts for various Cisco and NetApp hardware and software components, we have developed a set of automation playbooks that greatly simplify installing and configuring FlexPod systems. Adhering to the FlexPod validated architecture, the automation playbook is thoroughly tested with standard parameter values for compute, network, storage, and virtualization resources. IT can utilize the robust and repeatable automation procedures to efficiently deploy FlexPod across datacenter locations. The automation playbooks can also be customized to meet specific Day 0/1 requirements.

Here are several FlexPod automation playbooks for reference:

• FlexPod Deployment using Ansible for Virtualized Platform – configure and install Cisco UCS servers, Nexus switches, NetApp ONTAP storage and VMware vSphere to deploy virtualized FlexPod converge infrastructure.
• FlexPod Deployment using Ansible for OpenShift Container Platform  - configure and install Cisco UCS servers, Nexus switches, and NetApp ONTAP storage to deploy bare-metal FlexPod for OCP4.

Datacenter automation is a journey, and the destination evolves along the way to align with ongoing business changes. FlexPod automation capabilities will also evolve with technology innovation and new solution design to keep pace with customers’ requirements.

Download the FlexPod CVD and Automation Playbook

• FlexPod 9.9 CVD
• FlexPod Automation Playbook

• FlexPod.com
• FlexPod Design Guides
• Cisco Intersight