Chapter 3. Managing physical-infrastructure providers

3.1. Adding a physical-infrastructure provider

Lenovo XClarity Administrator virtual appliances are connected to CloudForms by adding physical-infrastructure providers. Physical-infrastructure providers enable you to manage and interact with devices that are managed by Lenovo XClarity Administrator.

Note: You must be logged in to CloudForms as a user with permission to add providers. The default user is admin, password smartvm.

Complete the following steps for each Lenovo XClarity Administrator instance that you want to connect to CloudForms.

To connect to a specific Lenovo XClarity Administrator instance:

  1. Navigate to Compute > Physical Infrastructure > Providers.
  2. Click Configuration, then click Add a New Infrastructure Provider.
  3. Enter a Name for the provider (for example, Physical Infrastructure Manager).
  4. From the Type list, select "Lenovo XClarity".
  5. Accept the default Zone.

  6. In the credentials area, provide the following:

    1. Enter the hostname, IPv4 address, or IPv6 address of the Lenovo XClarity Administrator instance.
    2. Enter “443” for the API port.
    3. Enter the username and password used to log in to the Lenovo XClarity Administrator instance.
  7. Click Validate to confirm that you can connect to the Lenovo XClarity Administrator instance.
  8. Click Add.

To discover and then connect to a range of Lenovo XClarity Administrator instances:

  1. Discover Lenovo XClarity Administrator instances:

    1. Navigate to Compute > Physical Infrastructure > Providers.
    2. Click Configuration, then click Discover Physical Infrastructure Providers.
    3. From the Type list, select “Lenovo XClarity Administrator.”
    4. Enter the IP address range starting with From Address and ending with To Address.
    5. Enter the port.
    6. Click Start to begin the discovery process.

  2. Update credentials for each discovered physical-infrastructure provider (Lenovo XClarity Administrator instance):

    1. Navigate to Compute > Physical Infrastructure > Providers.
    2. Select the providers to be edited.
    3. Click the Configuration button in the menu.
    4. Click Edit selected infrastructure providers.
    5. Enter the username and password used to log in to the Lenovo XClarity Administrator instance.
    6. Click Validate to confirm that you can connect to the Lenovo XClarity Administrator instance.
    7. Click Save. A flash message is displayed, confirming your changes were performed successfully.

After adding the physical-infrastructure providers, you can view all available providers by navigating to Compute > Physical Infrastructure > Providers as shown below.

providers

3.2. Refreshing physical-infrastructure providers

CloudForms regularly polls the physical-infrastructure providers to retrieve the latest data, including managed devices, relationships, and power states. You can manually retrieve the latest data by completing the following steps.

  1. Navigate to Compute > Physical Infrastructure > Providers.
  2. Select a physical-infrastructure provider to be refreshed.
  3. Click Configuration, then click Refresh Relationships and Power States.
  4. Click OK.

3.3. Removing a physical-infrastructure provider

You can delete a physical-infrastructure provider by completing the following steps.

  1. Navigate to Compute > Physical Infrastructure > Providers.
  2. Select the physical-infrastructure provider to be removed.
  3. Click Configuration, then click Remove Infrastructure Providers from Inventory.
  4. Click OK.

3.4. Editing a physical-infrastructure provider

You can modify system settings for a physical-infrastructure provider by completing the following steps.

  1. Navigate to Compute > Physical Infrastructure > Providers.
  2. Select the physical-infrastructure provider to be modified.
  3. Click the Configuration button in the menu.
  4. Click Edit selected infrastructure providers.
  5. Make the required changes, and revalidate credentials if necessary.
  6. Click Save. A flash message is displayed, confirming your changes were performed successfully.