the 30,000’ view of research storage infrastructure dick deason assistant director systems...
TRANSCRIPT
The 30,000’ View of Research Storage Infrastructure
Dick DeasonAssistant Director
Systems Administration
Why am I here today?
Much of your valued research data is sitting on local drives exposed to potential loses due to lack of Disaster Recovery options.
The ICBR is pumping out large quantities of raw image data that require some level of preservation to extend usefulness in the event new algorithms are developed. In addition, many of you have local lab instrumentation that have similar data retention requirements
Generation of final data sets from raw ICBR Gene Sequencing Data and other research venues such as BLAST results will require more storage and better protection than currently afforded. Offsite protection should be considered to ensure survivability and later accessibility.
Access to your research data is critical.
UF Health Science Center (HSC) is the country’s only academic health center with six health-related colleges located on a single, contiguous campus. The colleges teach the full continuum of higher education from undergraduates to professional students to advanced post-doctoral students, enrolling over 6,000 students each year.
The HSC is a leader in interdisciplinary research, generating 65% of UF’s total research awards ($422M). Included are McKnight Brain Institute, UF Genetics Institute, UF Shands Cancer Center, and the Institute on Aging.
Total HSC employees is over 5000. Our Systems Team managing commodity services for the HSC is currently staffed with 5 FTE.
We support every HSC mission to include Administration, Education, Research and Clinical activities all who have varied sources of funding.
Who are we?
Two Secure Data Centers (Gainesville and Tallahassee)49 Physical Hosts / 32 Virtualized Hosts140 Mile geographical separationTwo Tivoli Storage Manager instancesConnected via High Speed Florida Lamda Rail
Hardware – HP and IBMStorage – Two Xiotech Mag3D3000sOS - Windows 2003 and Redhat EnterpriseVirtualization – Virtual Infrastructure 3.0.2 (2 three node clusters)DR – IBM 3584 LTO Libraries, Tivoli and CommVault
Commodity Services – Clustered Storage, Print, Exchange 2k3/2k7, SQL2005, Oracle 9i/10i, IIS, Apache, Cisco VoIP, and Virtualization Hosting.
What do we do?
Storage Topology (GNV)
Cisco Director Class Fabric (9513)
FY2007
11541
10710
HSC Gainesville Data Center
FY2005FY2008
RESEARCH
Redundant AC / Redundant Ethernet 1GB / Redundant 208v Power Emergency PWR upgrade May 2008
Monitored Card key Access for physical security28 Racks of Equipment
Provides Fiber Channel path / host-storage zoning
IBM 3584 LTO3/4 Libraries
Storage Topology (TLH)
Brocade Fabric
HSC Tallahassee Data CenterRedundant AC / Redundant Ethernet 1GB / Redundant 208v Power
Northwest Regional Data Center1Gb Data path across Florida Lambda Rail Research Network
Provides Fiber Channel path / host-storage zoning
IBM 3584 LTO3/4 Libraries
TLH SAN
FY2009
Storage and HSM Data Flow
Research Host(s)
Fiber Channel Disk Storage (GNV)
LTO4 Tape Storage (GNV)
LTO4 Tape Storage (TLH)
ICBR Gene Sequencing
Based on retention qualities
LTO4 Tape Storage (GNV)
For offsite data security
Storage Capacities by unit
Xiotech SAN
10710
Xiotech SAN
11541
Xiotech SAN
Research
IBM 3584 GNV
IBM 3584 TLH
XIOTECHMAGNITUDE
3000s(10710)
Capacity 68TB
FileCommodity
StorageEmail
Databases
XIOTECHMAGNITUDE
3000s(11541)
Capacity 84.8TB
Virtualization Hosting
Exchange 2007MS SQL2005Transactional
Data
XIOTECHMAGNITUDE
4000e(TBD)
Capacity 156TB
VA ResearchHSC Research
UFGIUFSCC
UFBI
IBM3584 LTO3/4 LIB
Capacity 408TB-816TB
Commodity DRVA Research
HSC ResearchUFGI
UFSCCUFBI
IBM3584 LTO3/4 LIB
Capacity 408TB-816TB
Commodity DRVA Research
HSC ResearchUFGI
UFSCCUFBI
Who has paid for this?
VPHA ongoing support for RESEARCH MISSION Infrastructure (FY2007-FY2013)
Annual Contribution One Time Startup
Costs
Mag3D400s Infrastructure $ 25,066.00 NONE
Manpower (.25) $ 21,250.00
Maintenance Support Contract $ 3,816.00
ICON Management Licensing NC
Cisco Fiber Channel Network $ 32,678.28 $ 11,530.00
Manpower (0.10) $ 8,500.00
SunTrust lease $ 18,936.95
Maintenance Support Contract $ 5,241.33
TSM DR/Archive Services $ 64,304.00 $ 4,844.00
Manpower (0.40) $ 34,000.00
SunTrust lease(s) $ 23,485.00
Maintenance Support Contract $ 4,844.00
TLH NWRDC Floorspace/Contract $ 1,975.00
UFGI-Stats (SAS) / COP-Research (SAS) $ 4,250.00 NONE
Manpower (0.05) $ 4,250.00
GNV DataCenter NC
TOTALS $ 126,298.28 $ 16,374.00
**5 YEAR Commitment** $ 631,491.39 $ 16,374.00
Existing Request to Research Office
Funding Request to Sponsored Research (FY2008-FY2013)
Annual Contribution One Time Startup
Costs
Mag3D400s Infrastructure $ 32,485.95 $ 25,984.00
Cisco Fiber Channel Network $ 4,879.72
TSM DR/Archive Services $ 15,901.77 $ 2,990.40
TOTALS $ 53,267.44 $ 28,974.40
**5 YEAR Commitment** $ 266,337.21 $ 28,974.40
UFGI Contribution for Storage (FY2008)
Annual Contribution One Time Startup
Costs
Mag3D400s Infrastructure $ - $ 45,000.00
Storage Bay/Disks/Licensing $ -
TOTALS $ 45,000.00
**5 YEAR Commitment** $ - $ 45,000.00
This will allow Primary Researchers throughout HSC to add Storage Costs related to their specific research requirements incrementally, and as required.
Why a SAN and HSM Solution?
Because of our varied missions and funding sources, we were continually ask to provide services that had no boundary definitions in place. SAN and HSM (Hierarchical Storage management) Architectures allowed sustained as well as unplanned growth.
We needed to align costs of services to mission groups, and budget long term consistent funding to ensure consistent service. SAN and HSM Architectures allowed storage to be commoditized.
Information Technology roles in Health Care and Research Missions had grown to more than just “convenience.” Information Technology was now an infrastructure necessity and required strong continuity of services.
Where we were before Xiotech and IBM
In 1999, we were a small IT shop with four systems administrators, six physical hosts, and only 80Gb of Direct Attached Storage for File/Email.
Every service was affected by lack of flexibility in storage. We simply provisioned new hosts to get new storage.
We supported about 550 users mainly administrative and educational missions. We couldn’t facilitate extensive research or clinic operations because we couldn’t react to the tempo of their operations.
We were under constant pressure to accommodate growing needs, react quicker to storage requirements, and to accomplish more than we had physical resources to handle.
Budget did not match service requirements at all.
How Storage Vendors catalyzed our successes
Xiotech and IBM storage has allowed us to adapt quickly to changing conditions, physically and logically while maintaining sound fiscal management.
Xiotech and IBM storage has allowed us to gain precision in our infrastructure costs and align them tightly with budget/service requirements.
Xiotech and IBM has allowed us to grow into an enterprise organization supporting commodity services 24/7/365 across all Health Care Missions because of our consistent and easily managed storage architecture.
Leveraging SAN/HSM Storage for the Future
Purchase 3th Magnitude unit to host Secure VA Research Data and valued Computational Biology Data.
Expand IBM TSM and HSM solutions to migrate aged data to cheaper media.
Finalize FISMA and ISO 27001 Data Center and Storage Certification for hosting of VA restricted Data and valued Computational Biology Data.
Initiate eDiscovery processes to determine Archiving and Retention qualities across the Enterprise.
