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Small Shop, Big Ideas VMs as Swiss Army Knife

Learn about how a small shop like American Geological Institute upgraded their legacy systems using virtualization technology, overcoming challenges and realizing benefits.

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Small Shop, Big Ideas VMs as Swiss Army Knife

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  1. Small Shop, Big IdeasVMs as Swiss Army Knife Christopher Keane American Geological Institute 15 July 2010

  2. AGI’s Basic Overview • 65 Employees • 50 onsite • 15 remote – US, Canada, Russia, China, etc. • No formal IT budget (ever) • IT deployment historically episodic • No dedicated IT staff – 1.5 FTE • Core revenues highly dependent on legacy systems

  3. Inherited Spagehetti Multiplatform/Multimission Mix • Platforms • NT4 • Server 2000 • Novell • Fedora • Missions • Critical production system (GeoRef Bibliographic Database) • Vestiges of iMIS • Contract web services (DoD, NSF, JOI) • Webservers • Email servers • Fileserver

  4. Core Challenges • Stabilize legacy systems • Facilitate modernization • Provide sandbox testing environments • Position for special case offsite interactions • Demand to move from IMAP to Exchange 2007 • Server room HVAC insufficient, old building limited options • Offsite options not viable • IT budget was exactly $0.00 • All expenses directly discussed and evaluated by the Exec Dir.

  5. Legacy SystemsRocks from the Sky • GeoRef • NT4-based, utilizing AREV (netbios services with DOS clients) • Downtime measured in $10K+ per day • Position for migration/codeployment of Windows-based client and server • iMIS – the remains • NT4 + SQLServer 6.0a(!) version • Botched and abandoned install – but custom frontends built inhouse • Hit hard limits on data storage running on an 8-year old Pentium Pro server

  6. Webserver Issues • Traditionally in-housed most webserving • Contracts with US Army, NSF, etc for access to restricted parts of GeoRef. SLA’s in place • Downtime allowances required co-deployment • Webservers a mix of old linux installs and old NT4 installs • The growth in # of webservers inhibited by heat issues

  7. Virtualization as the Enabler • Needed co-deployment with minimum increase in heat • Needed sandbox options to test migration paths • Needed wide backward compatibility with legacy Oss • Need to provide client access to legacy production system to remote (China, Russia, South Africa) workers. • Not punching a hole in that firewall! • Remote Desktop environments within the perimeter

  8. VM Offerings Evaluated three VM platforms • All platforms would meet our needs, but always with tradeoffs • Xen • Preferred platform (I’m a unix/linux person) • Issues with legacy OS support at the time • Command line interface a problem with broader staff support • VMWare • Rapid deployment and ability to run on both Windows or Linux servers • GUI improved staff support • Workstation version ideal for sandbox testing • KVM • Similar issues to Xen • Not as mature as Xen at the time

  9. End Solution • Deployed ‘free’ version of VMWare Server 2 on a single dedicated 2x Xeon server with 48GB RAM (Linux) • Utilized 1 workstation license to prep and test sandboxes on standalone machines • Utilized VMWare’s migration tool to live image the legacy NT4 systems • Expanded capacity after the VM was installed • Rebuilt the linux systems using current distributions and redeployed software/application stack • Sandboxed new Windows Server installs • Migrated GeoRef/AREV production system • iMIS was not migratable with hard dependencies on SQLServer 6.0a

  10. End Solution Cont. • Additional VM server installed for remote client case • Enable thin client access to legacy systems from workers in hostile environments • Enabled ‘safe’ work for local employees who harvest data in hostile environments (China, Vietnam, Korea, etc.) • Quick and easy replacement of virgin VM images for clients • Now evaluating VMWare View

  11. Realized Benefits • Reduced 14 physical servers to 1 • Realized a 32% drop in total building power demand • Legacy systems substantially easier to manage • Migrated some system in a co-deployment environment without additional hardware and functionally no downtime • Individual VMs appear much more resilient to unexpected “issues” • Risks…. • Load management in the free environment is more art than science • Host failures impact more systems (but only 2 in 2.5 years)

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