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::: {.index} pair: Tour the Digital Rebar UX; Labs :::

1005 Tour the Digital Rebar UX

Overview

  • Id: 1005
  • Time: 5 Minutes
  • Enabled: Yes
  • Difficulty: introductory
  • Tags: how-to, ux
  • Concepts: ux

Objective

Learn How to Navigate the UX

Review and describe all UX area and components for managing Digital Rebar

Business ROI The RackN Portal for Digital Rebar is a comprehensive front end for Infrastructure as Code features of the platform.

Prerequisites

Required Labs:

  • 1001

How to Navigate the UX

General Layout

  1. Starting here

  2. The Nav Tree on the left handles selecting components of the system to operate on.

    There are collapsible sections for related components. These will be explore individually in the next sections of this lab.

    The bottom of the Nav Tree has general version info and helpful cut and paste buttons for support information.

    Nav Bar Elements (from top to bottom)

    • Id of currently viewed DRP Endpoint
    • Events viewer icon (megaphone icon) that opens dialog to see events
    • UX Views Role (if ux-views plugin is loaded) that selects views that alter the UX layout.
    • Database issues, visible if there are issues with the database.
    • Alerts notification bar, visible if alerts are pending.
    • Navigation links to elements.
    • General version info and support helpers at the bottom of the list

  3. The Control Bar at the very top of the page (black background) has site-wide operations

    Common elements (from left to right)

    • UX selector if not on stable (fire icon)
    • RackN icon links to RackN home page
    • Endpoint selector - a dropdown of endpoints the UX has visited.
    • Search bubble to search the ux and docs for items
    • Labs button to connect to the lab subsystem.
    • User button of the currently logged in user. Directs to the User's object in the UX.
    • Logout button

Left Navigation Sections

  1. System Section

    Controls and Support for the Digital Rebar Endpoint

    The Overview page provides live updated system level information. This page has four dynamically updated Sections:

    • Cluster Cost determined using the inventory cost calculation task.
    • Pool Activity (requires Pools to be configured) shows machine allocation in defined pools.
    • Machine Stages shows active states for all managed machines
    • Runtime Statistics (if enabled) shows a whisker distribution for work performed by Digital Rebar

    The Alerts page provides Operational alerts for the system

    The Plugins page provides Installed binary extensions to enhance Digital Rebar

    The Info & Preferences page provides System Wizard, Health Check and Configuration. This page provides key insights about the system.

    The License Manager page provides Check and update RackN Entitlements. Use this page to update expired or changed licenses.

    The Inbox page provides Communicate with RackN. Note that this is a "drop box" and not a real-time chat. Please use Slack if you want chat features.

  2. Resources Section

    Infrastructure Managed by Digital Rebar

    The Machines page provides Virtual and physical infrastructure including Servers, Storage and Switches. This is one of the most used pages in the UX and provides both comprehensive inventory and easy operational control.

    The Clusters page provides Life-cycle management for groups of machines.

    The Resource Brokers page provides Interface for requesting with machine resources through pools and external system.

    The Pools page provides Elastic groups of machines with automatic in/out provisioning operations.

    The Racks page provides Track physical machine placement and equipment manifests

    *Note: requires installation of the Racks plugin!**

  3. Services Section

    Operations performed on machines by Digital Rebar

    The Jobs page provides Logs generated during Workflow and Work Order operations

    The Work Orders page provides Requests for operations to be performed on resources running in Work Order mode

    The Triggers page provides Initiate Operations based behaviors or external events

    The Blueprints page provides Reusable templates used to create Work Orders based on IaC patterns

    The Trigger Providers page provides Interfaces for timers and external triggers

  4. Multi-Site Section

    Tools for managing distributed control plane of Digital Rebar servers

    The Endpoints page provides Remote subscribed Digital Rebar servers

    The Version Sets page provides Collections of IaC content to be assigned to managed Endpoints

  5. Networking Section

    Procides DHCP related utilities.

    Note: DHCP services are mainly used for Bare Metal provisioning use cases

    The Subnets page provides Network Interfaces enabled for DHCP

    The Leases page provides IP addresses assigned by the DHCP system

    The Reservations page provides IP addresses pre-allocated for the DHCP system

  6. Provision Section

    IaC components for provisioning automation

    The Boot Environments page provides Information needed during Network Booting different operating systems.

    Most BootEnvs support Bare Metal Provisioning and need supporting ISOs; however, several are general purpose

    • discovery is the Digital Rebar discovery environment
    • sledgehammer is the O/S for discovery when needed
    • local uses the local O/S
    • ignore tells Digital Rebar to not take action

    The Contexts page provides Containerized Agents managed by Digital Rebar. Of these, the drpcli-runner is needed to provide a reliable default. Others are loaded as needed for specialized task handling.

    The Params page provides Variables defined for Digital Rebar automation. Digital Rebar does NOT require operators pre-define Params before using them; however, best IaC practice is to define and document all used parameters.

    The Profiles page provides Allows grouping and nesting of Params. The global Profile is a special profile that is always included in every param expansion.

    The Raid page provides Definition for RAID systems

  7. Control Section

    IaC Automation control flow components

    The Pipelines page provides Combination of configuration and workflow chains for end-to-end processes

    The Workflows page provides Multi-step automation process for machine configuration

    The Stages page provides Subcomponent of a Workflow enabling reusable components and parameters

    The Tasks page provides Operational unit of work for Stages and Work Orders

    The Templates page provides Reusable module used by other IaC components to keep code DRY

  8. IaC Artifacts Section

    Atomic components stored and managed by Digital Rebar

    The Catalog page provides Inventory, install, download, upgrade and remove Content Bundles. This view also can sequence and perform Digital Rebar upgrades including of the Endpoint.

    The Contents page provides Graphical navigation of all installed content grouped by Content Bunndle. This view can help find and understand how IaC components are bundled together.

    The Boot ISOs page provides Installation Media used for Network Booting with BootEnvs.

    Note: ISOs are mainly used for Bare Metal provisioning use cases

    The Files page provides DRPCLI and general purpose file storage needed for IaC automation

  9. Endpoint Admin Section

    Endpoint Operational Controls

    The Logs page provides Digital Rebar operational history

    The Users page provides Authorized Operators of Digital Rebar

    The Roles page provides Enables groups of users to be given specific permissions

    The Tenants page provides Groups of Users with resource restricted access

    Note: the following items require installation of theUX Viewsplugin!

    The UX Views page provides Role configuration for specialized UX overrides and behaviors

    The UX Config page provides User configuration for UX overrides and behaviors

    Note: the following item requires installation of the LDAP plugin!

    The Identity Providers page provides External authentication (SAML, Active Directory, etc)