SUPER SIZE ME

Todd O’Connell IT Manager School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences University of Queensland

UQ - School of Medicine 2 x Restructures 2 x Restructures 1 x Review 1 x Review 3 Divisions 3 Divisions 7+ disciplines in a division 7+ disciplines in a division 7 sites (metro and rural Qld) 7 sites (metro and rural Qld)

Scope Pre-Consolidated Environment 56 Servers (NT, 2000, 2003) 9 Domains 4 servers (MS Exchange 5.5, 2003, MWAC) 4 Server Rooms in 3 buildings over two sites 6 MS SQL (v7 and 2000) 800+ Users 10 IT staff Local DNS, DHCP, WINS, AD, IIS, FTP

How to Super Size Purchase what ever when ever Purchase what ever when ever Always get the biggest Always get the biggest Always purchase the cheapest Always purchase the cheapest Keep equipment as long as you can Keep equipment as long as you can Don’t worry about capacity Don’t worry about capacity Find a work around and never upgrade Find a work around and never upgrade Don’t document anything Don’t document anything Never have anyone responsible for any one particular thing Never have anyone responsible for any one particular thing

A change in thinking

If we were reducing our physical infrastructure could virtualisation help? If we were reducing our physical infrastructure could virtualisation help? Contraction and expansion of physical infrastructure following consolidation. Contraction and expansion of physical infrastructure following consolidation.

Consolidation & Virtualisation Consolidating before virtualising: pros and cons. Effort required to consolidate and aggregate servers/services Effort required to consolidate and aggregate servers/services Re-organise job roles and responsibilities Re-organise job roles and responsibilities Skilled staff Skilled staff

Virtualisation Pros Less physical boxes Less physical boxes Less data centre space Less data centre space Less power/air-conditioning? Less power/air-conditioning? Faster provisioning of servers when virtualised. Hours vs days/weeks Faster provisioning of servers when virtualised. Hours vs days/weeks Separates dependence on older hardware Separates dependence on older hardware Production and development environments. (ITIL considerations) Production and development environments. (ITIL considerations)

Virtualisation Cons Explaining it Explaining it Less physical boxes Less physical boxes Capacity planning Capacity planning Redundancy/DR considerations Redundancy/DR considerations

Virtualisation Progress 2 server rooms two sites 2 server rooms two sites 18 physical servers 18 physical servers 11 virtual servers (Windows, Linux) 11 virtual servers (Windows, Linux) Phase 1 of virtualisation complete Phase 1 of virtualisation complete Phase 2 to be complete in 2007 Phase 2 to be complete in 2007

Our Experience Does less really mean less? Does less really mean less? Yes physically, but you still need to watch virtual server sprawl. Yes physically, but you still need to watch virtual server sprawl.