Deployment of a Virtualized Server Grid Dr. Ray Nazzario Senior Analyst Programmer Baylor University Bob Hartland Director of Security, IT Servers and Networking Systems Baylor University Tommy Roberson Manager of Server Operations Baylor University

Baylor University Waco, Texas Chartered in 1845 Largest Baptist University in the World 14,000 Students 2,225 Full Time Employees Approx. 800 Faculty 276 Servers (90 Virtual)

Organization Chart Information Technology and Dean of Libraries Vice President Pattie Orr Associate Vice President for Information Technology Becky King Client Services Security, IT Servers and Networking Systems Bob Hartland Data Networking IT / Physical Security Tommy Roberson Dr. Ray Nazzario Servers Voice Networking Information Systems and Services Internet Services Libraries Organization Chart

Presentation Overview Why? Our Challenges with Server Management Implementation Results Challenges Conclusion

It’s not only about cost

Why? Our Challenges with Server Management

Server Management Challenges Hardware Acquisition Costs While hardware costs have fallen, more and more applications are demanding dedicated servers. Utilities Power Costs Power for servers has doubled from 2000-2005 (InfoWorld, 2/19/2007) Increase mainly due to need for more small to midrange servers Cooling Costs – cooling proportional to power

Server Management Challenges continued Datacenter Space Personnel Time Disaster Recovery

Implementation

Implementation Scheduled a virtualization assessment Platform choices: Showed that the 125 servers in our datacenter were at 4% avg. utilization. Platform choices: VMWare Hyper-V Xen. Implemented Vmware Virtual Infrastructure on 8 SAN-attached Dell 2950’s Configured Vmotion to address availability concerns Hardware issues have yet to cause downtime Configured DRS to provide best performance

Implementation Continued To date we have 90 VM’s running on the 8 physical servers Running around 50% capacity Current high end VM applications are: Exchange front ends SCT Web access Printing Currently at 11:1 ratio Expect to reach at least 18:1 ratio

Results

Results Hardware Acquisition Costs Virtual Grid Traditional Servers Approximate Savings so far: $265,000. Some from our Replacement Roadmap Some of the 90 servers would not have been purchased due to budget issues, but are now online as VM’s due to the lower costs. Virtual Grid Traditional Servers Server Cost $90,000 (8 Servers) $450,000 (90 Servers) Software $50,000 Not Applicable Storage $45,000 None Total Cost $185,000 Approximate Savings $265,000

Results continued Utilities Space Savings Power Savings Cooling Savings Space Savings 90 servers = four full size racks in the datacenter 8 servers = less then one rack 90 Servers 90 VM’s Savings KW*H 243,000 20,500 222,500

Results continued Personnel time Disaster Recovery Faster provisioning = better service! Better uptime Fast Reboot Easier remote administration with console access Snapshots and clones can be huge time-savers Disaster Recovery Backing up VM files to offsite locations (in progress)

Challenges

Challenges Charge-back models Failure concerns User Perceptions If not careful a failure could bring down dozens of VM’s User Perceptions Older Systems Allows you to keep old operating systems around longer Not Suitable for All Applications

Conclusion

Conclusions The benefits of virtualization are not only about costs Improved Service Better uptime Faster deployment Personnel Time Savings Cost Savings

Questions

Contact Information Dr. Ray Nazzario Senior Analyst Programmer Ray_Nazzario@baylor.edu Tommy Roberson Manager of Server Operations Tommy_Roberson@baylor.edu Bob Hartland Director of Security, IT Servers, and Networks Bob_Hartland@baylor.edu