1.2.2 Resource Pool

A resource pool is a collection of physical servers, VM hosts, storage, networks, images, and other resources of the same type.

Resource pools offer the following benefits.

Until now, launching or expanding business operations required the purchase of servers, storage, networks, and other resources. Furthermore, significant time and effort was spent preparing and organizing such operations. Resource Orchestrator can save you time and effort by enabling you to configure a server simply by removing the required resource from a resource pool. This allows you to effectively plan the organization and operation of your infrastructure environment.

The resource pool management function allows you to effectively and efficiently use all resources. The types of resource pools are as described in "Table 1.4 Resource Pool Types". For details, refer to "Chapter 12 Resource Pool Operations" of the "User's Guide for Infrastructure Administrators (Resource Management) CE".

By using Resource Orchestrator to first register resources to control in a resource pool, an appropriate resource can be created from the resource pool at a user's request and be used to quickly configure a server (with storage and networks). When the server is no longer required, the resource can be reused.

Multiple resource pools can be created depending on operational requirements (hardware type, security, resource management units). If the resources in a resource pool are insufficient, a new resource can be added or a resource can be moved from another resource pool to compensate.

Table 1.4 Resource Pool Types
Resource Pool Types	Overview
VM	A resource pool for storing VM hosts used when creating new servers (VM). VM hosts of different server virtualization software can be stored. In VM pools where different server virtualization software exists, an appropriate VM host can be selected and an L-Server created by specifying VM type during L-Server creation. Moving an L-Server (migration) is only possible between VM hosts belonging to the same cluster group, when two or more cluster groups are registered in the same VM pool.
Servers	A resource pool for storing the physical servers used when creating new servers.
Storage	Virtual storage resources and disk resources can be managed using Resource Orchestrator. Virtual storage resources indicate such as RAID groups controlled by storage management software, and file systems for VM guests controlled by VM management software. The resources can be managed as virtual storage resources using the same operations. A disk resource refers to a disk resource allocated to a server. When using ETERNUS storage, NetApp storage, and EMC CLARiiON LUN (Logical Unit Number) When using EMC Symmetrix DMX or EMX Symmetrix VMAX Device For VM guests Virtual Disk In Resource Orchestrator, use the following procedure to allocate a disk resource to an L-Server: Create the required size of disk resources from the virtual storage resource, and allocate them to the L-Server Allocate the disk created in advance using storage management software to the L-Server The following virtual storage resources are stored in storage pools: For VM A file system for creation of VMs and virtual disks such as VMFS (datastore) of VMware, shared volumes for clusters of Hyper-V, or storage repositories of Oracle VM For physical servers An original resource used to create LUN such as ETERNUS RAID groups or NetApp aggregates on storage units The following disk resources are stored in storage pools: For physical servers Resources for the disk to be allocated to the server, such as a LUN of ETERNUS and EMC CLARiiON, a FlexVol of NetApp, or a device of EMC Symmetrix DMX or EMC Symmetrix VMAX
Network	The following resources are stored: Network resources Network devices (Firewalls)
Address	The following resources are stored: MAC address (Media Access Control address) WWN
Image	The following resources are stored: Cloning images