Overview of Avaya Aura® System

Platform

Release 6.3
Issue 5
June 2015
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 Contents

Chapter 1: What’s new in this release.................................................................................... 5

Chapter 2: System Platform overview.................................................................................... 6
System Platform overview........................................................................................................ 6
Installation of System Platform................................................................................................. 7
Virtual machines...................................................................................................................... 8
Solution templates................................................................................................................... 9
Networking............................................................................................................................. 9
High Availability..................................................................................................................... 10
Remote serviceability............................................................................................................. 10

4 Overview of Avaya Aura® System Platform June 2015

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Chapter 1: What’s new in this release

Release 6.3.7
System Platform 6.3.7 includes the following new features:
• Support for the new, Avaya S8300E server.
Release 6.3.4
System Platform 6.3.4 includes the following new features:
• 6.3.4 updates allow System Manager to be able to upgrade System Platform remotely.
• Support for Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 19, and Firefox 18.
Release 6.3.1
System Platform 6.3.1 includes the following new features:
• Support for new servers, HP ProLiant DL360p G8 and Dell™ PowerEdge™ R620.
• SHA2 instead of MD5 for login password hashes. Users must change their existing passwords
for SHA2 hashes to take effect. MD5 hashes are retained until users change their passwords. If
the 6.3.1 patch is removed, previous users and passwords are restored, and any new users
that were created in 6.3.1 are removed.
• Ability to generate and install SSH certificate keys.
• Enhancement of cust account to be fully read-only and have no access to the command line.
The cust account cannot access SSH or other remote access commands from the command
line.
• Support for larger size Services VM 3.0 for the new servers. Earlier servers do not support the
larger Services VM.
You must upgrade the Services VM to version 3.0 if you require it. It is not included with
System Platform 6.3.1. See Implementing and Administering Services-VM on Avaya Aura®
System Platform at http://support.avaya.com for the upgrade procedure. Services VM 3.0
includes support for small and medium configurations and for Avaya Diagnostic Server 1.0. For
more information on Avaya Diagnostic Server, see the documentation at http://
support.avaya.com.
• Support for Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 19, and Firefox 18.

June 2015 Overview of Avaya Aura® System Platform 5

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Chapter 2: System Platform overview

System Platform overview

Avaya Aura® System Platform technology delivers simplified deployment of Unified Communications
and Contact Center applications. This framework leverages virtualization technology, predefined
templates, common installation, licensing, and support infrastructure.
System Platform:
• is a software platform running CentOS plus Xen open source hypervisor for virtual machine
monitoring and management
• hosts one or more Avaya products, each running on its own virtual server (virtual machine), all
running on a single physical server platform
• provides a set of utilities commonly required for Avaya products, including installation, upgrade,
backup/restore, licensing server, hardware monitoring and alarming, and remote access
The following figure shows an abstraction of the System Platform virtualized environment:

Avaya deploys System Platform through a virtual appliance model. The model includes:
• An Avaya-defined common server platform

6 Overview of Avaya Aura® System Platform June 2015

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 Installation of System Platform

• An Operating System (O/S) for allocating and managing server hardware resources (CPU,
memory, disk storage, and network interfaces) among virtual machine instances running on the
server platform
• System Platform
• An Avaya solution template containing a bundled suite of pre-integrated Avaya software
applications
• A Secure Access Gateway, supporting a Secure Access Link (SAL) for remote diagnosis by
Avaya or an Avaya Partner.
Advantages of System Platform
Advantages of System Platform include:
• Consolidation of servers
• Simpler maintenance
• Faster disaster recovery
• Easy installation of any Avaya Aura® solution template (bundled applications suite) on a single
server platform
• Simpler and faster deployment of applications and solutions
• Efficient licensing of applications and solutions
• Security
• Portability of applications
• Reduction of operating costs
• Avaya common look-and-feel Web Console (Web Graphical User Interface) for server, virtual
machine, application, and overall solution management.
• Remote access and automated alarm reporting for Network Management Systems monitored
by Avaya Services and Avaya Partners personnel
• High Availability option for failover using active and standby servers
• Coordinated backup and restore
• Coordinated software upgrades

Installation of System Platform

Avaya provides an installation wizard program for System Platform software on Avaya-defined
common server platforms.
After System Platform installation, you install Avaya Aura® solution templates on the same server.
Template installation significantly streamlines solution deployment across your organization.
Installation wizard software installs a solution template in less time than if you installed multiple
applications individually. The installation process is simple and requires only personnel with basic
software installation skills. System Platform also supports remote installation of Avaya Aura®
solution templates.

June 2015 Overview of Avaya Aura® System Platform 7

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System Platform overview

Virtual machines
System Platform interacts with the following virtual machines:
• System domain (dom0) virtual machine
• Console domain (cdom) virtual machine
• Services domain (services_vm) virtual machine
• Template virtual machines
System domain virtual machine
In addition to exporting virtualized instances of CPU, memory, network and block devices, the
system exposes a control interface to manage how these resources are shared between the running
domains. Access to the control interface is restricted to one specially-privileged virtual machine,
known as domain 0 or System Domain.
Console domain virtual machine
The Console Domain virtual machine is a part of System Platform and contains many platform
elements, including the System Platform Web Console.
The Console Domain is capable of deploying and running the following plug-ins:
• Virtual Appliance (VA) plug-ins, which interact with virtual appliances for operations such as
backing up and restoring data, providing sanity heartbeats, and getting version information
• Preinstallation plug-ins, which accept parameters that are configured by the user at the time of
installation
• Post-installation plug-ins
• Backup plug-in
• Restore plug-in
• Patch plug-ins, which install or uninstall patches in the system
In the System Platform Web Console, the Console Domain displays as cdom.
In its virtual machine command line, the Console Domain displays as udom.
Services domain virtual machine
The Services virtual machine (Services_vm) hosts embedded SAL operations for remote monitoring
and diagnosis.
Template virtual machines
During template installation, System Platform creates one or more template virtual machines, where
each virtual machine provides an independent virtual server environment for one Avaya Aura®
applications. All of the applications running on the various template virtual machines together deploy
an Avaya Aura® solution.

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 Solution templates

Solution templates
A solution template is a set of one or more Avaya applications that are preintegrated for easy
installation on System Platform. Installation personnel must download these templates from the
Product Licensing and Delivery System (PLDS) at http://plds.avaya.com. PLDS allows Avaya
customers, Avaya Partners, and associates to manage software licensing and to download software
for various Avaya products.
System Platform provides an installation wizard for the template. The installation wizard enables you
to configure template-specific parameters, including network and server details, or to upload a
preconfigured Electronic Preinstallation Worksheet (EPW) created in a stand-alone version of the
installation wizard.
Note:
You must install System Platform before installing solution template software on a single server.
Some solutions offer a server with System Platform and an Avaya Aura® solution template
preinstalled.

Networking
System Platform uses software bridging to support networking for virtual machines. Software
bridging works like a network switch inside the system. During installation, System Platform creates
two software bridges: avpublic and avprivate.
The avpublic bridge connects to a physical interface and serves as the default connection to your
LAN. Most virtual machines have a virtual interface on the avpublic bridge to connect to your
network. You can reach avpublic IP addresses by using PING over your network.
The avprivate bridge does not connect to any physical interface, but instead provides internal
communication among the virtual machine instances running on a single server hardware platform.
You cannot reach avprivate IP addresses by using PING over your network.
Some templates require additional connections to your network. In some cases, System Platform
creates another software bridge for this purpose. This bridge contains the name specified by the
template, and the name is visible during template installation or in the Network Configuration page.
If a virtual machine has high or real time traffic requirements, it can be assigned a dedicated
network interface card (NIC) in the template file. This means that the virtual machine is assigned
another physical NIC on the system and does not use avpublic. For example, in the Solution for
Midsize Enterprise, Application Enablement Services uses eth3. See related solution template
documentation for more information.
If a virtual machine in the installed template requires a dedicated NIC, it must have a separate cable
connection to your network. Both the avpublic interface and the dedicated NIC must be connected to
the network for those machines to communicate in the same way as if they were separate physical
machines. For example, in the Solution for Midsize Enterprise, the Console Domain is on the
avpublic bridge and Application Enablement Services has a dedicated NIC (eth 3). In this case you
must connect eth0 and eth3 to the network before attempting to ping the Application Enablement
Services virtual machine from the Console Domain.

June 2015 Overview of Avaya Aura® System Platform 9

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System Platform overview

High Availability
System Platform applications can have High Availability through a redundant hardware and software
setup. The primary node continuously updates the secondary node with any changes in system
configuration or runtime data. When the primary server fails, the secondary server uses that data to
restore all functionality to the system. For more information, see the System Platform High
Availability introduction in your solution template documentation.
Note:
System Platform High Availability is available only with supporting solution templates. (Some
templates implement a different, solution-specific, High Availability configuration independent of
System Platform High Availability.)

Remote serviceability
Avaya or Avaya Partner support personnel can access and service System Platform from a remote
location so that a site service call becomes unnecessary.
System Platform uses Secure Access Link (SAL), which is an Avaya serviceability solution for
support and remote management. SAL provides remote access and alarm reporting capabilities for
Avaya and Avaya Partners.
SAL uses your existing Internet connectivity to facilitate remote support. All communication
outbound from your environment uses encapsulated Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS).
This is just one of many security features used by SAL to support secure remote access.
Avaya Partners without a SAL Concentrator must provide their own IP-based connectivity (for
example, B2B VPN connection) to deliver remote services.
Important:
The SAL Gateway in the Services Virtual Machine or on a stand-alone server supports System
Platform and Avaya Aura® solution templates. Avaya Partners and customers must register
SAL, the solution template, and System Platform with Avaya during installation, and must
configure SAL for remote support. Avaya support will be delayed or not possible if SAL is
improperly implemented or inoperative. System Platform and SAL do not support modem
connections.

10 Overview of Avaya Aura® System Platform June 2015

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Index
H
High Availability ................................................................... 10

I
installation
System Platform ............................................................. 7

L
legal notices .............................................................................

N
networking ............................................................................. 9
notices, legal ............................................................................

O
overview
System Platform ............................................................. 6

S
SAL
about .............................................................................10
solution templates ..................................................................9
System Platform
about installation .............................................................7
High Availability ............................................................ 10
networking ...................................................................... 9
overview ......................................................................... 6
remote serviceability .....................................................10
solution templates ...........................................................9
virtual machines ..............................................................8
what’s new ......................................................................5

T
templates ............................................................................... 9

V
virtual machines .....................................................................8

June 2015 Overview of Avaya Aura® System Platform 11

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