Updated October 3, 2019
This Service Guide (“SG”) sets forth a description of the CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Services offered by CenturyLink (or the “Services”), including technical details. This SG is subject to and incorporated into the Agreement, CenturyLink TS Service Exhibit and Hosting Service Schedule between the parties. The specific details of the Service ordered by Customer will be set forth on the relevant Service Order. For avoidance of doubt, any references in the Agreement, Schedule, or Service Orders to SSG, shall mean SG.
CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation is a hosted private cloud service that provides a managed infrastructure for Customer’s use. The infrastructure includes use of the physical servers, space and power for the servers, virtualization Software system licenses, network connectivity to layer 2 switches, use of integrated storage services, management and monitoring of the servers and underlying infrastructure hardware virtualization Software packages system, and use of VMware’s vCloud Director (vCD) interface for automated instance provisioning. CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation is based on CenturyLink’s Hybrid Cloud management strategy. For clarity, CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation uses VMware’s Cloud Foundation Architecture, including Software-Defined Networking and VSAN Storage for a completely integrated Hyper-converged Cloud Infrastructure.
vCD allows the Customer to configure the environment enabled by CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation.
The primary capabilities of CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation are:
Optional Add-on Services:
Note: The Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) applicable to this Service is the “Managed Hosting Services” SLA Attachment.
A CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Node is a dedicated, physical server as well as licensing, monitoring and management of the VMware Cloud Foundation Software Bundle, including vSphere Enterprise Plus, Software-Defined Data Center Manager, NSX Enterprise, VSAN Advanced and VCenter. CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Nodes are built upon the HP ProLiant rack mount servers. Traditional server Nodes are available in various configurations.
CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Host options are the HPE DL-Gen10 or the Dell PowerEdge R640 with the Intel Scalable Xeon Platinum/Gold/Silver Series CPU Configuration Options. Note that a Minimum of 4 Nodes is required per Stack.
Standard Options | Custom Option | ||
Small Configuration | Medium Configuration | Large Configuration | Custom Configuration |
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Please note: RAM can be configured in 128 GB Increments. Usable storage can be configured in 2.5 TB or 5 TB increments with a 5 TB minimum.
Each Node is connected to dual homed 10 GigE switches with 4 10 GigE Ports. Two 10 GigE Ports are for VSAN traffic only and two 10 GigE Ports are for Customer traffic and VMware management. There is also a single GigE port connected for Integrated Lights Out (ILO) remote management. CenturyLink and its vendors do not have access to any information or traffic transmitted via the Service.
All storage provided with CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation is SSD Local Disks that are configured with VMware VSAN as part of the standard service offering. The default VSAN configuration is RAID-1 with Dedupe and Compression Enabled. Additional VSAN Storage can be added to a CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Node through a change order process, which means a Service Order signed by the Customer. Additional storage must adhere to vendor requirements, including that all VSAN storage has to be symmetrical across all Nodes. For example, if Customer wants to add 2.5 TB of useable storage to one Node, CenturyLink will require that Customer also purchases the same amount of storage to all Nodes in the stack.
Adding RAM to CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Nodes can be done through change order process requiring a new Service Order to be signed. Consistent with storage requirements above, and per vendor requirements, the additional RAM ordered and installed needs to be same amount for each of the Nodes in the Stack. For example, if Customer wants to increase a Node by 128 GB of RAM, CenturyLink will require that Customer increase the RAM on all Nodes in the stack.
Customer has the ability to install any type of Guest Operating Systems (OS) or Virtual Appliance as long as it supports being installed on a VMware Hypervisor Platform and the version of Vsphere implemented. Customer is solely responsible for ensuring that any Guest OS or virtual appliance is and remains compatible with the CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure provided and maintained by CenturyLink.
Guest OS licenses may be provided by the Customer or CenturyLink can provide licenses for Window Server or RHEL for a fee.
CenturyLink is responsible for maintaining and supporting all standard installed VMware software and connectivity to the CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Nodes as listed here:
TABLE 1 - CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Node - VMware Software Included as per CPU Socket Licensing
VMware® Software Package | Version currently used |
VSphere Enterprise Plus | ESXi 6.7 U1 |
VCenter Standard | 6.7 U1 |
Software Defined Data Center | 3.5 |
NSX Enterprise | 6.4.4 |
VSAN Advanced | 6.7 |
vCloud Director | 9.7 |
vCloud Director Extender | 1.1 |
vCD is the interface presented to the Customer. From the vCD login it is Customer’s responsibility to build out their networks, routers and security devices such as Server Load Balancers, Firewalls and VPNs and setting security policies on each device. In addition the vCD environment is where a Customer will create a Catalog of images, Templates, import open virtual formats (OVFs) and manage Snapshots. All interactions to the backend VCenter, NSX, VSAN, Vsphere and vCD Extender software applications are done through the vCD interface and not directly with the individual VMware software packages.
CenturyLink maintains and monitors all components of the CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Service - physical servers, including the repair and replacement of defective or failed hardware and the installation of firmware updates, as needed. Hardware upgrades, such as increasing RAM or increasing Storage, can be performed by CenturyLink for an additional fee. CenturyLink may subcontract any hardware support to the manufacturer or equivalent vendor in order to expedite repairs.
CenturyLink also monitors and maintains all of the VMware Software that is installed as part of the standard Service.
The following diagram identifies the Services and the optional Add-On Services that are available.
CenturyLink will update CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation Nodes with all VMware recommended security patches, updates or hot-fixes and will address the overall integrity and performance of servers. Security threats are evaluated, verified and tested before a patch is recommended to customers. Sometimes a reboot is necessary when a patch is distributed and installed, which CenturyLink will conduct during scheduled maintenance hours or in coordination with the Customer.
Customers must approve patches or updates prior to them being applied to their environment; however, CenturyLink is not responsible for any failure in the service, including SLAs if a Customer does not approve the installation of necessary patches or updates.
Please note that VMware Software Upgrades are not included as part of the standard Service but can be quoted and implemented for an additional fee.
Customer Responsibilities: Customer acknowledges and agrees that its failure to perform its obligations herein may result in CenturyLink’s inability to perform the Services and CenturyLink shall not be liable for any failure to perform, including any SLAs in the event of Customer’s failure. CenturyLink shall not be liable for any failure to perform in the event Customer does not fulfill Customer’s responsibilities and requirements as detailed herein and in the event of Customer’s errors or omissions in setting up the environment. In addition, CenturyLink is not responsible for any loss or corruption of Customer Data or information. CenturyLink’s obligations related to Customer Data are exclusively governed by the Security and Compliance section of the applicable Agreement.
Catalog: A Catalog is a container for vApp Templates and media files in an organization. Organization administrators and Catalog authors can create Catalogs in an organization. Catalog contents can be shared with other users in the organization and can also be published to all organizations in the vCloud Director installation.
Cloud Foundation Architecture: VMware Cloud Foundation™ is VMware’s new unified Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) platform for private and public clouds. Cloud Foundation brings together VMware vSphere® (compute), vSAN™ (storage), and NSX® (network) virtualization into a natively integrated stack through automation and lifecycle management capabilities of the new VMware SDDC Manager™.
Hybrid Cloud: Hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment which uses a mix of on-premises, private cloud and third-party, public cloud services with orchestration between the two platforms.
Hyper-converged: A type of infrastructure system with a software-centric architecture that tightly integrates compute, storage, networking and virtualization resources and other technologies into a single high performance group of physical servers.
NODE: The term Node means the physical server where the virtualization software resides and is synonymous in the industry with the term Host.
NSX: A virtual networking and security software product family created from VMware's vCloud Networking and Security (vCNS) and Nicira Network Virtualization Platform (NVP) intellectual property.
Snapshot: A snapshot preserves the state and data of a virtual machine at a specific point in time. The state includes the virtual machine’s power state (for example, powered-on, powered-off, suspended).The data includes all of the files that make up the virtual machine. This includes disks, memory, and other devices, such as virtual network interface cards.
Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC): A data center facility where the elements of the infrastructure are virtualized and delivered as a service and where the provisioning and operation is abstracted from the hardware and fully implemented through software.
Software-Defined Networking (SDN): Software-defined networking is an umbrella term encompassing several kinds of network technology aimed at making the network as agile and flexible as the virtualized server and storage infrastructure of the modern data center.
Solid-State Drive (SSD): A solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently.
Template: A Template (also called a golden image) is a perfect, model copy of a virtual machine (VM) from which an administrator can clone, convert or deploy more virtual machines.
vApp: Stands for Virtual Application and consists of one or more virtual machines that communicate over a network and use resources and services in a deployed environment. A vApp can contain multiple virtual machines.
vCloud Director Extender: VMware Inc.’s vCD Extender runs on vCD and is used for self- service migration of virtual workloads.
vCloud Director (vCD): VMware Inc.'s cloud computing management tool. It manages Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) architectures by monitoring and controlling various cloud-computing components, such as security, virtual machine (VM) provisioning, billing and self-service access.
vLAN: A virtual LAN (vLAN) is any broadcast domain that is partitioned and isolated in a computer network at the data link layer (OSI layer 2).
VSAN: VMware Inc.’s Virtual Storage Area Network, which is a software-defined storage offering from VMware that enables enterprises to pool their storage capabilities and to instantly and automatically provision virtual machine storage via simple policies that are driven by the virtual machine. CenturyLink is not responsible for unauthorized access if Customer does not take its own steps to maintain security, including encryption.
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