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Server Consolidation and Virtualization. Joanne M. Kossuth, Vice President for Operations and CIO, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Definitions: Consolidation. Implies combining workloads from separate machines/applications into a smaller number
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Server Consolidation and Virtualization Joanne M. Kossuth, Vice President for Operations and CIO, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Definitions: Consolidation • Implies combining workloads from separate machines/applications into a smaller number • Combine heterogeneous workloads from multiple servers into a single larger server • Multiple workloads may be combined under a single OS, reducing OS images. • Multiple applications such as email or databases can be combined into a single system • Centralized, physical, operational
Definitions: Virtualization Virtualization tools include: Partitions Virtual machines Resource management software All enable multiple workloads to run simultaneously on larger servers
Approach • Alternate approach to growing the data center • Implications: • Real estate • Use less space • Potential cost savings • Requires fewer resources for renovations • Allows for reclamation of space for other institutional needs
Implications, Cont. • Energy usage • Improves efficiency • Uses less electricity • Requires less cooling equipment • “Greener” approach
Implications, Cont. • Flexibility and agility • Increases responsiveness to customers • Allows for increased development and test opportunities • Simplification • Standards • Images • Support • Hardware utilization • Increased utilization • Better metrics
Implications, Cont. • Costs • Reduced TCO • Reduced support • Licensing? • Disaster recovery/business continuity • Increased opportunity • Improved reliability and uptime • Reduced recovery time • Others?
Questions to Ask • Licensing • Life time costs • Compatibility • Shared storage requirements • Network hardware requirements (GB?) • Support • Internal • External
Planning the Project • Understand your goals • Assess the existing environment • Work with vendor partners on potential designs • Evaluations and assessment of vendor solutions • Staff training • Make sure to work with YOUR potential configurations and software
Planning II • Deployment plan • Ongoing evaluation and support • Don’t forget about backup planning • Multiple front ends, one backend storage array? • Standards • Implications for user experiences • Planning for change and next gen
Olin College Experience • Goals • Increase development and testing environments • Reduce the total number of servers supported • Improve agility • Reallocate costs • Streamline operations
Your Experiences • Share your experiences • Positive • Negative • Lessons learned?
Other Opportunities • Network virtualization • Storage virtualization • Desk top virtualization