VIRTUALISATION I TECHNOLOGY
depending on the demand, and should be easy to manage even after the expansion. The topic performance played an important role, as well. After all, letting more than 5,000 users with their various I/O requirements for day-to-day operations continue to access without interruption the more than 1,000 virtual servers already in operation and the applications run on them, had to be ensured, as well.
Dieter Defner, Windows Server Team Leader, OFD Koblenz, explains:“We understood relatively early on that our existing IT environment offered an insufficient prospect in terms of growth. That is why we decided to switch entirely to a virtual server and storage environment, as well as setting up a tiered storage model. When selecting the primary storage, it was quickly beyond all questions that Nexsan’s solutions were first class. As they are ideally suited for deployment in conjunction with the DataCore SANsymphony server virtualization software and, based on the cost for the I/O performance, offer a better price- performance ratio than other products in this class.”
Highly scalable, space-saving SASBeast systems For the latest storage concept, which was developed by the server team of ZDFin Koblenz in close cooperation with its long-time IT service partner, a main focus was to implement a SAN infrastructure based on state-of-the-art technology and was thus forward-looking. Aimed at optimizing processes and improving procedures, and, ultimately at achieving increased efficiency in the various sectors. High performance and reliability therefore carried significant weight during development of the concept for the IT environment as well as during selection of the appropriate SAN solutions. The same was true for cost efficiency – starting with the initial investment, up to the subsequent expenses for maintaining continuous operations thereafter. Here, the planned adoption of the central ‘s basic concept by the attached tax and field offices – server and storage virtualization, combined with redundant storage – offered synergies due to similar functionalities and a resulting uniform working methods.
During replacement of the existing SAN and the transition to a tiered storage model, the persons in charge at OFD Koblenz chose to introduce DataCore’s storage virtualization software SANsymphony. This provided the basis for dividing the physical storage into virtual units independent of the underlying technologies, and to combine that storage into a pool that could be centrally maintained. Besides the highest degree of flexibility for selecting future SAN components, the option to mirror written data synchronously between the downtime-redundant DataCore servers in two computer rooms impressed the persons in charge.
During the initial phase of the eight-month-long project, the application was first implemented, and the class B and C storage systems were connected directly to the server nodes. Concurrently, the class A storage under consideration, which was reserved only for applications with large I/O requirements, was evaluated. This meant necessarily that preferentially
During replacement of the existing SAN and the transition to a tiered storage model, the persons in charge at OFD Koblenz chose to introduce DataCore’s storage virtualization software SANsymphony. This provided the basis for dividing the physical storage into virtual units independent of the underlying technologies, and to combine that storage into a pool that could be centrally maintained
extremely high-performance systems with a great I/O performance were examined more closely. In addition, a high hard drive density was one of the criteria used, since all SAN components had to fit into the two data centers in a very tight space. Finally, characteristics such as expansion options based on demand while continuing the same simple management played a crucial role in the decisions. It quickly became apparent that the Nexsan SASBeast fulfilled all specifications outstandingly.
“The 24,000 input/output operations per second (I0PS) measured during test runs entirely delivered on the promised performance values,” explained Dieter Deffner, who, as the team leader for Windows servers at OFD Koblenz, was responsible for the project. “That alone is already a success, because it is in many cases questionable whether the values specified by manufacturers measure up to reality. In terms of the price- performance ratio, as well, the Nexsan SASBeast is significantly better situated than other systems we considered. The cost relative to I/O performance is significantly lower than that for other comparable products.”
Today, a completely redundant SAN environment has been installed at OFD’s Koblenz location. Approximately 750 virtual machines, managed with VMware vSphere 4.1, are used in two server farms, each of which is composed of about 30 physical servers. 463 of these virtual machines are connected via Fibre Channel to the racks of multiple fast Nexsan SASBeast systems, each such rack has a hard drive capacity of 180 terabytes gross (85 terabytes net) and is available for saving the data created by the most important production applications with large I/O requirements. These applications are mainly EOSS software run on Linux and Windows terminal servers, as well as Oracle databases and the web-based ticket system. The remaining virtual machines are divided between class B and class C
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