Example Architectural Decision Competition by VMware Press & Josh Odgers

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Welcome to the Example Architectural Decision Competition!

VMware Press is conjunction with JoshOdgers.com (CloudXC) wish to announced this competition to find the most innovative and creative virtualization related architectural decisions to real world problems.

All submissions will be posted in this special section of JoshOdgers.com (CloudXC) with the goal to encourage everyone to share their experiences for the benefit of the Virtualization community.

All suitable example architectural decisions submitted to this competition will remain featured on this blog following the competition with credit being given to the author.

The competition will initially run for the next six (6) weeks and depending on the popularity of the competition it may be extended.

The Winner will be announced Fortnightly and will receive a printed copy of the VMware Press title of their choice.

The runner up will receive a voucher for a VMware Press eBook.

You can see the range of books VMware Press offer here.

If any other vendors wish to contribute prizes to this competition please add a comment to this page or contact me via Twitter (@josh_odgers).

The format of all example architectural decisions submissions must be as follows. Any submission without details for the following categories will be ineligible.

Problem Statement

Describe the problem statement or goal of the situation the design decision relates too

Assumptions

1. Assumption 1
2. Assumption 2
3. Assumption 3

Constraints

1. Constraint 1
2. Constraint 2
3. Constraint 3

Motivation

1. Motivation 1
2. Motivation 2

Architectural Decision

Details of Architectural Decision

Alternatives

1. Alternative 1
2.  Alternative 2
3.  Alternative 3

Justification

1. Justification 1
2. Justification 2
3. Justification 3
4. Justification 4
5. Justification 5

Implications

1. Implication 1
2. Implication 2

Example Architectural Decisions can be submitted via the following form.

Note: Limit of 3 submissions per person, per fortnight.

Winners will be announced on this blog and via Twitter on the following dates

October 17th
October 31st
November 14th

Good Luck!

COMPETITION ENDED.

Example Architectural Decision Competition – Submissions

All suitable Example architectural decision submissions will be posted here, please vote for your favourite decision by leaving a comment on this page with the example decision number.

SUBMISSIONS FOR ROUND 1 (Closed!)

1. TSM backup configuration for PureFlex environment?

2. Use of RDMs in Standard IaaS Clusters

3. Scalable network architecture for VXLAN

4. vCloud Allocation Pool Usable Memory

5. New vSphere 5.x environment

6. Improve Performance for BCAs on Cisco UCS

7. (More Coming Soon)

WINNER ROUND ONE: Use of RDMs in Standard IaaS Clusters by Chris Jones @cpjones44

This design decision works around some fairly strict constraints, such as no >2TB LUNs, no IP based storage & the inability for monitoring solution to be customized.

While the decision is ultimately fairly straight forward, the decision documents the issue well and justifies the decision and discusses in depth the implications of the decision.

This is an example of a fairly obvious decision (considering the constraints) but shows even where a decision may be obvious, or the only option, that understanding the implications is important. Documenting even obvious decisions is also important so in the event of movement within the team, the solution can be understood by people not involved in the original design process.

RUNNER UP ROUND ONE: TSM backup configuration for PureFlex environment? By Ash Simpson @Yipikaye1

Not unlike Chris Jones’ decision, Ash’s submission works within the constraints of an existing environment, where hardware and software has already been purchased. This is a common issue, where Hardware / Software is purchased before a detailed design phase. This is a huge problem in the industry and I encourage you all to ensure this trend does not continue. Without a detailed design phase, it is not possible to confirm what hardware/software is required, as such hardware/software should only be purchased after the design to completed.

Again this decision is fairly obvious given the constraints, but the decision explains the benefits of this method of configuration and discusses the implications which is important.

The constraints did not list anything preventing purchasing of a different backup solution, although this is somewhat implied by the assumptions.

Congratulations to Chris Jones @cpjones44 & Ash Simpson @Yipikaye1!

Thank you to everyone who submitted design decisions, and I encourage you all to submit new decisions for Round 2 and am looking forward to new competition participants.

SUBMISSIONS FOR ROUND 2 (Closing 31st October 2013)

1. (More Coming Soon)

2. (More Coming Soon)

3. (More Coming Soon)