Enterprise Distributed Application Service (EDAS) allows you to deploy applications in hybrid cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS) clusters and provides complete solutions for scale-out, networking, and centralized management in these clusters. You can connect Alibaba Cloud ECS instances, servers from data centers, and servers from other cloud service providers by using Express Connect circuits, and add the instances and servers to hybrid cloud ECS clusters in EDAS. This way, you can deploy applications in these clusters and use application management capabilities that are provided by EDAS.

Prerequisites

EDAS Professional Edition or Platinum Edition is used. For more information, see Editions and Pricing.

Background information

Your application system may have the following requirements and problems:

  • The traffic on Alibaba Cloud has a specific degree of volatility and you may face traffic spikes in special scenarios. You can predict the traffic volumes in these periods. However, the prediction result may not be accurate. The time for scale-outs and the number of ECS instances are difficult to determine. You must purchase ECS instances in advance.
  • Some core business systems have high security requirements and you want to deploy relevant applications in your data center. However, you cannot centrally manage applications that are deployed in different environments because Alibaba Cloud ECS instances, servers from data centers, and servers from other cloud service providers cannot communicate with each other.
  • Based on your business needs and availability requirements, you want to deploy your applications in a hybrid cloud environment. However, you cannot centrally manage these applications. Manual processing is required and misoperations may occur.

Hybrid cloud clusters can meet these requirements and solve these problems.

The following figure shows the architecture of a hybrid cloud ECS cluster.

Application deployment architecture in a hybrid cloud cluster
  • A hybrid cloud cluster contains Alibaba Cloud ECS instances, servers from data centers, and servers from other cloud service providers.
  • Alibaba Cloud ECS instances, servers from data centers, and servers from other CSPs are connected by using Express Connect circuits.
  • Applications can be deployed in hybrid cloud ECS clusters.

In the hybrid cloud environment, EDAS is used in the following scenarios:

  • Manage applications in data centers by using EDAS on Alibaba Cloud: After you connect your data center to a virtual private cloud (VPC) of Alibaba Cloud by using an Express Connect circuit, you can manage the applications in your data center by using EDAS on Alibaba Cloud.
  • Deploy and manage servers from other cloud service providers: EDAS allows you to deploy applications to servers from cloud service providers other than Alibaba Cloud and manage these servers in a centralized manner.

This topic describes how to manage servers from data centers by using EDAS on Alibaba Cloud. To manage servers from other cloud service providers, you need only to connect the servers to a VPC of Alibaba Cloud in EDAS by using Express Connect circuits. Then, you can manage these servers in the same way as you manage servers from the data centers that are connected to Alibaba Cloud.

Preparations

  • Create an IPv4 VPC.
  • Activate Express Connect. For more information, see Express Connect.
  • Apply for a dedicated connection over Express Connect to connect your data center to a VPC of Alibaba Cloud. For more information, see Create a dedicated connection over an Express Connect circuit.

  • Make sure the servers in your data center meet the following requirements:

    • Operating system: CentOS 7.
    • Form: physical or virtual machines. Docker containers are not supported.
    • Hardware: no special requirements for CPU and memory.

Step 1: Create a hybrid cloud cluster

  1. Log on to the EDAS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Resource Management > ECS Clusters.
  3. On the ECS Cluster page, select the region in which you want to create a cluster from the Region drop-down list in the top navigation bar, and select the microservice namespace in which you want to create a cluster from the Microservice Namespace drop-down list in the upper part. Then, click Create Cluster.
    You can select a microservice namespace on this page or in the Create Cluster dialog box.Microservice Namespace
    • If environment isolation is required, select the microservice namespace that you create.Microservice Namespace
    • If environment isolation is not required, select Default from the Microservice Namespace drop-down list.
  4. In the Create Cluster dialog box, set the cluster parameters and click Create.
    Create a cluster
    Parameter Description
    Cluster Name The name of the cluster. The name can be up to 64 characters in length and can contain letters, digits, underscores (_), and periods (.).
    Cluster Select Non-Alibaba Cloud.
    Cluster Type This parameter can be set only to ECS, and you cannot change the value.
    Cluster Network Type If you set the Cluster parameter to Non-Alibaba Cloud, you can set this parameter only to VPC.
    VPC Network After you select VPC, you must select a created VPC.
    Microservice Namespaces The microservice namespace to which the cluster belongs.Microservice Namespace By default, the microservice namespace selected on the ECS Clusters page is displayed.Microservice Namespace If no microservice namespace is selected, Default is displayed in the Microservice Namespaces drop-down list.Microservice Namespace Set this parameter as needed.
    Resource Groups The resource group to which the cluster belongs. The resource group is created by the current Alibaba Cloud account in the Resource Management console. This group is not an EDAS resource group. If no resource groups are available, click Create Resource Group to go to the Resource Management console and create a resource group. For more information, see Create a resource group.
    After a cluster is created, Created appears on the top of the page, and the cluster appears in the cluster list.
    Note The created cluster is only an empty cluster. You must add ECS instances and servers from your data center to the cluster.

Step 2: Add instances to the hybrid cloud cluster

You must add ECS instances, servers from your data center, and servers from other cloud service providers to the newly created empty hybrid cloud cluster.

  1. On the ECS Cluster page, click the ID of the newly created cluster.
  2. On the Cluster Details page, click Add Existing ECS in the upper-right corner of the ECS Instance section.
  3. In the Add ECS Instance dialog box, copy the command that is used to install EDAS Agent.
    Note To add instances to a hybrid cloud cluster, you must manually install EDAS Agent on the instances by using the command-line interface (CLI).
  4. Log on to your ECS instance or a server in your data center as the root user, and paste and run the command that is used to install EDAS Agent.

    Then, the ECS instance or server is added to the cluster.

Step 3: Enable required ports

To ensure that related capabilities provided by EDAS are available for your applications in the hybrid cloud cluster, you must enable the following ports for the instances after you add them to the cluster:

  • 8182: this port that is used to capture basic monitoring and trace monitoring logs.
  • 12200 to 12300: the ports that are used to complete remote procedure calls (RPCs).
  • 65000 to 65535: the web ports.

The methods of enabling ports vary based on the instance types in the cluster.

  • ECS instances: For more information about how to enable the ports, see Add security group rules.
  • Servers from data centers or other cloud service providers: For more information about how to enable the ports, see the corresponding solutions.

Verify the result

  1. Return to the ECS Cluster page. In the cluster list, view the values of Cluster Type, Cluster Status, and Instances of the newly created cluster.
    • If the value of Cluster Type is ECS Clusters (Non-Alibaba Cloud) and the value of Cluster Status is Normal, the cluster is created.
    • If the value of Instances is the same as the number of added instances, the instances are added.
  2. Click the ID of the cluster that you want to view. The Cluster Details page appears. In the ECS Instance section, view the Instance ID/Name and Health Check parameters of the added instances.
    If the value of Health Check of an instance is Running, the status of the instance is normal.

What to do next

After a hybrid cloud ECS cluster is created, you can deploy applications in the cluster. The method of deploying applications in a hybrid cloud ECS cluster is the same as that in an ECS cluster. For more information, see Overview.