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Page 1: Blackboard Learning System - Resilient Architecture

8/9/2019 Blackboard Learning System - Resilient Architecture

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Blackboard Learning System - Resilient

Architecture

Szymon Machajewski Apr 22, 2009 | Comments (0)

Please review the visual aid first:

 Architecture Brief  

Standard resilient architecture: 

Benefits: This architecture leverages hardware and system design which has been  proven to

work on GRCC

campus. It also follows closely the recommendation from Blackboard in their 

hardware sizing documents

to use hardware systems for both application servers and the database. Blackboard

suggests powerful

database servers: “We recommend 16GB to 32GB of memory per system” (BB Dell

hardware sizing doc).

The IBM 3650 has 48GB of RAM to allow for future growth and no hardware update

for 1-3 years.

In order for   Oracle to use any amount of memory above 4G for SGA operation a

64bit system is required.

The failover approach to the database business continuity represents a balancebetween simplicity of the

database operations and the need for running a database in two locations. In case

of a failure in location

 A, the database can be started in locat ion B within 15 minutes. The production

database system would

run at 100% of capacity in location B in case of location A failure.

The hardware used in this solution is generic and can be re-deployed to other 

network services or

applications.

The complexity of application maintenance and their design is identical to

implementation in virtualized

environment. The hardware maintenance of stand-along systems impacts one

system at a time and isless visible to the application overall. Mirrored hard drives and reliable, mature Intel

hardware lends itself

well to low effort operations.

This architecture can be deployed speedily and will provide resilient approach for 

the next 1-3 years

without modifications. The costs of keeping this architecture under warranty can be

gradual.

Considerations: 

1U or 2U servers (U stands for unit of height in a rack furniture) can take up more

physical space and

consume more electricity than virtualization technology. Maintenance of the

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Solutions Logby Szymon Machajewski 

Documentation of processes and solutions relevant toBlackbaord, PeopleSoft, Oracle, RedHat Linux, MySQLand higher education.

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Comment on this article

hardware in stand-alone

servers may require more effort, especially on servers which are out of warranty.

Running the database in non-clustered environment requires human intervention in

case of a serious

failure in location A.

Resilient architecture with virtualization: 

Benefits: 

Using hardware blades provides considerable gains in physical and environmental

properties of the datacenter. More servers can be installed in smaller spaces with blades. There are

considerable energy use

gains when implementing blade servers which share certain hardware resources.

Conceivably, when

there is fewer hardware pieces the hardware maintenance may be decreased. If 

most of the stand-alone

hardware can be replaced with blade servers, this would standardize the data center 

operations.

Considerations: 

Existing hardware cannot be leveraged.

Blade servers come in chassis or groups which cannot be easily split to a third

location. Also thehardware may not be as flexible in re-deployment as stand-alone servers.

When the blade servers come out of warranty the replacement costs will not be

gradual or staged.

Solution summary:

The standard resilient architecture leverages existing hardware for the application

servers and allows for

gradual replacement of the IBM x346 family of servers. It requires a duplicate 64bit

database server to

provide business failover and continuity plan. The architecture is a standard

Blackboard architecture with

proven performance, support structures, and troubleshooting methods.

The virtualization architecture allows more compact and efficient physical server 

properties as well asmore environment friendly operations. The hardware choices may be limiting for re-

deployment to other

applications in comparison with more generic stand-alone server hardware. Costs of 

keeping blades

under warranty cannot be staged. RAC implementation helps to standardize and

share Oracle resources

across other then Blackboard databases.

Prepared by Szymon Machajewski, Senior Blackboard Solutions Engineer

References:

Blackboard Inc, Blackboard_Dell_Hardware_Sizing_Guide, downloaded from

behind.blackboard.com on

 Apr 8, 2008.

Blackboard Inc, Blackboard_Sun_Hardware_Sizing_Guide, downloaded from

behind.blackboard.com on

 Apr 8, 2008.

Oracle Corp, Oracle RAC Best Practices on Linux, White Paper, downloaded from

oracle.com on Apr 8,

2008

Blade Network Technologies, 10GbE iSCSI Performance with Blade servers,

downloaded form

media.netapp.com on Apr 8, 2008.

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