virtualizing the banner infrastructure morey roof information services department new mexico tech...
TRANSCRIPT
Virtualizing the Banner Infrastructure
Morey Roof
Information Services Department
New Mexico Tech
What we started with
Banner forms on a Dell PowerEdge 2650 running Windows Server 2003
Banner Student Self Service on a Dell PowerEdge 2650 running Windows Server 2003
Brio finance report server on a Dell PowerEdge 2650 running Windows Server 2000
banweb7.nmt.edu banforms7.nmt.edu brioserve.nmt.edu
What we moved to
A single Dell PowerEdge 6850 running VMWare ESX Server.
This server also runs an additional 16 Virtual Machines in addition to the Banner middle tier system.
vserve1.nmt.edu
How did we do it
The physical machines were imported into VMWare using VMWare converter
What went wrong
The Windows HAL was configured for a SMP machine, which the source computers were, but the virtual machines were configured with a single virtual processor. This inconsistency created poor performance for the VMWare ESX scheduler.
Once this was corrected by changing the Windows HAL all performance problems were resolved.
Did our users notice
None of users noticed that we had moved three physical machines onto a single virtual machine.
Some of the users reported that banner seemed to be a bit faster than it was before the move.
What did we gain
Flexability Simplified management Easier disaster recovery Better options for High Availability Easier backups
What did we lose
Currently, if we suffer a failure on vserve1 all of the banner infrastructure goes down at the same time.
To recover we have to startup the backup machines.
Is that it?
No, this is only the beginning.
The road ahead
Currently, what New Mexico Tech has is only the first part of our greater virtualization plan.
Two important business needs will be addressed by VMWare. These needs are business continuity and disaster recovery.
Business continuity goals
Offer uninterrupted service to our users in the following conditions: Physical server maintenance is required Physical server failure
Business continuity
VMWare has a function called vMotion. This feature allows for the migration of machines from one physical server to another while they are running.
Business continuity cont…
In release of VMWare Infrastructure 3.5 a new feature called continuous data protection will be offered.
Hardware requirements for business continuity
Redundant shared storage to the VMWare servers: SAN storage that can also tolerate complete
failure of an array and still provide storage services.
VMWare servers must have enough free capacity to handle the additional workload for the failed server.
Disaster recovery goals
In the event of a catastrophic event that we can start to meet core New Mexico Tech business functions within about a week. Earthquake Flood Fire
Disaster recovery
VMWare provides the ability to allow a remote site to be setup for a much smaller cost: One physical machine can be used A shorter recovery time can be accomplished Virtual Machines are easy to replicate
Hardware requirements for disaster recovery
A physical machine that can handle the banner workload for core business functions
Storage that is replicated from the main storage pool that holds all of the Virtual Machines: Nightly copies of the Virtual Machines SAN remote replication
san-node3san-node2
How it all fits together
vserve1.nmt.edu vserve2.nmt.edu
san-node1
Internet
Internet
vserve3.nmt.edu
Network
Network
Questions?