TECHNOLOGY I VIRTUALISATION
storage, both of which are connected directly to the DataCore servers. The interface between the server farms and Nexsan primary storage on the one hand and the DataCore servers on the other hand is provided by Brocade switches that support a transfer rate of 8 Gbit/s. The infrastructure also includes the 54 physical servers, which are located in the 27 tax offices and are networked in a star shape with the main location in Koblenz, while serving as smaller virtualization instances.
“Nexsan was awarded our contract for one reason in particular: currently hardly any other storage system offered on the market works as well together with storage virtualization solutions. With regard to expandability, while at the same time requiring little space and maintaining the already easy administration, SASBeast also proved to be very suitable,” Dieter Deffner justified the decision in favor of Nexsan.
High-performance storage infrastructure Changing the entire server environment because of the upcoming migration to EOSS in retrospect proved to be highly successful for OFD in Koblenz. Based on the well-thought- out concept, internal IT staff, along with its service partner, implemented the new infrastructure very quickly and could already show the desired additional storage capacity before the deadline had been reached. In particular, the simplicity that generally distinguishes Nexsan systems – from purchase through hardware setup and low-maintenance implementation of future capacity expansions up to management – elicited enthusiasm. But the harmonious interaction with the DataCore server virtualization software, which ensures effective use of the storage provided by the Nexsan SASBeast array is also a significant benefit in the view of the persons in charge.
“During the evaluation phase it became already clear that the systems offered by Nexsan fulfilled our expectations – especially the desired combination with DataCore SANsymphony,” Deffner said. “All functionality offered by the software could be leveraged in its entirety with a relatively low investment.”
The OFD Koblenz IT team was particularly surprised by the fact that 42 hard drives could be accommodated in only four rack units. This allowed for generating a large capacity in the smallest possible space. The rack is still not completely filled, despite the continuous expansion occurring since late 2009; there is still room for two additional Nexsan SASBeast systems. By comparison: In a similarly configured installation environment, another manufacturer’s solutions deployed there do not provide the same amount of hard drive space, but their footprint is three times as large.
“Even though it sounds unusual, we now use significantly more fast class A than class B or C servers,” Dieter Deffner
also explained. “This is simply due to the fact that the Nexsan systems work so well. Thus we now run all virtualized central Unifa dialog terminal and tax office application servers on a primary storage to allow the thin clients used in the tax offices access to the EOSS application. This approach still differentiates us from all other finance administrations in Germany.”
The major advantages from which the intermediate authority has profited since launching the Nexsan systems include: £ Scalability: OFD Koblenz can expand the existing system quickly, easily and cost-effectively with additional fast storage and thus react flexibly to increasing capacity requirements of I/O-intensive applications.
£ High performance: The redundant system architecture, including the dual RAID controllers that operate independently from each other, combined with active/active- failover functions, ensure high performance, reliability and availability.
£ High density: Up to 42 drives can be integrated in only four rack units.
£ Ease of maintenance: Because of the redundant storage architecture and server virtualization, maintenance work can be performed at any time.
£ Can be combined with storage virtualization solutions: Creation of user-defined volumes allows the solution to be tailored to the requirements of the most varied applications and thereby ensure the best use of available storage space to the fullest extent.
“The Nexsan SASBeast systems fulfill, particularly in combination with the DataCore software, our fundamental criteria. The hardware is designed simply, and is therefore easier to manage and administer. It provides us the fast, but at the same time practically maintenance-free, storage needed for our purposes. I, for one, don’t know of any other product that could compete in this respect,” Dieter Deffner stated.
Even though it sounds unusual, we now use significantly more fast class A than class B or C servers,” Dieter Deffner also explained
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