1. Intellectual Property Statement Copyright Timothy Antonowicz, 2006. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

2. Server Consolidation: Real People Saving Real Money Timothy Antonowicz Systems Administrator Bowdoin College

3. Background Bowdoin College IT environment Expanding Technology Requirements New Resource Needs

4. Spring 2004 Service Demands Datacenter Resources Projected Growth

5. Service Demands Test and Validation Infrastructure  No standard test and validation environment  No development arena Ease of Management  Increasing demands, Static staffing Higher Availability  Fault tolerance, Quicker response

6. Datacenter Resources Space and Resources  Floor and Rack Space Limited  Power/UPS/AC Taxed  KVM Capacity Stretched Replace/Retire Old Servers  Service costs exceeding replacement

7. Projected Growth New Financial System  MSSql/IIS based Application  Terminal Services for Mac users  HA/FT design requirement Extensive List of Projects/Servers  Projected 6-8 new servers

8. Problem Statement We need to find a solution to our space and resource problem.  Address Hardware and Physical limitations  Support our diverse systems environment  Provide best use of staff resources  Consolidate to better utilize server resources

9. Hardware Requirements High Density, Rack Mount Console-KVM-Cabling UPS-Power-AC Redundancy-FT-HA Industry Standard

10. Hardware: HP Blades High Density  40 servers in 36U Rack ILO for KVM and media Integrated Power Enclosure  Redundant AC feeds and power supplies Integrated Switches  no direct cabling  Redundant network paths

11. Software Requirements Flexibility  Multiple OS support Management  Ease of Use  Rapid deployment Backup and Recovery Industry Standard

12. Software: VMWare ESX Server “Bare Metal Install”  Licensed per server, not per VM  Each VM assigned the same virtual hardware  VMs portable between different ESX servers Image and Deploy servers in minimal time Multiple Drive States  Use of “REDO” for changes VM is comprised of 2 files for backup

13. Task List Build ESX infrastructure on HP Blades Create Testing infrastructure Migrate/Retire older servers Build new Financial System Build for future growth Change the mindset of IT at Bowdoin

14. Task: Put ESX onto HP Blades Build knowledgebase for both products  Install ESX on older DL380s  Install Windows and Linux on Blades Bring together both technologies Integrate into Bowdoin’s infrastructure  Mount common NFS share  ISO and binary storage  Backups, both physical and virtual

15. Task: Create Testing Infrastructure Build virtual servers as “sandboxes”  Programmers and developers  Application support and upgrades  Standardization of platforms  Backup and recovery  Self-service option

16. Task: Migrate or retire old servers Replace older hardware with virtual  Application upgrades on VMs  P2V migration for static servers “Plan for Virtual, move to Physical”  New upgrades or migrations are done to virtual servers first. If more resources are needed, it is moved to a blade at that time.

17. Task: Financial System Buildout MSSQL-IIS Application base  Mac users will need access  Must be Highly Available at all phases  Fault Tolerant  Proven patches and updates  Flexible, able to scale as needed

18. Financial System Solution 16 servers, both physical and virtual  3 Blades, in an Activex3 SQL cluster  2 VMs: NLB IIS cluster for Web access  2 VMs: NLB TermSvc cluster for Mac users  1 VM: Application Management server  4 VMs: Staging servers: Sql, IIS, App, TS  4 VMs: Testing servers: Sql, IIS, App, TS

19. Task: Build for future growth Create Server Images  Gold Win2k3 and Linux servers  Scale ESX servers for growth VM resource allocation  Scale servers at a common base  Increase disk, memory, CPU as needed  “Added resources make happy customers”

20. Task: Change the mindset of IT “Plan for Virtual, move to Physical”  Projects begin with virtual servers  Charge/spec for “Server Resources” Prove patches and upgrades in VM  Beat up on a Clone Spread the wealth  separate file, web, and databases for security

21. Bowdoin Systems Today 46 X86-based servers 15 HP BL20 Blades 9 ESX servers on 8 Blades +1 Dell tower 118 X86-based hosts 66 of them are VMs, or 56% virtualized

22. Savings Cost of each Blade: $6,250.00  Includes Disk, Memory, Dual Proc, etc. Number of additional servers:  66 virtual-9 ESX servers=57 Cost to provide physical Servers 57 x $6,250= $356,250.00 ** Bowdoin did not purchase servers in FY05-06

23. Conclusion Server Consolidation is here and now Consolidation can be done by anyone with a little time, resources and determination The benefits can be dramatic Your boss will be happy

24. Questions? HP Blades VMWare Bowdoin College Red Sox starting rotation

25. Thank you for attending Tim Antonowicz Systems Administrator Bowdoin College 1-207-725-3723 tantonow@bowdoin.edu