Copyright 2004 Northrop Grumman Corporation. Consolidation & Virtualization Michael Elkins Director Infrastructure Services Sept 8, 2008

Copyright 2004 Northrop Grumman Corporation


Consolidation & VirtualizationMichael Elkins

DirectorInfrastructure Services

Sept 8, 2008


Agenda

Introductions Session Objective

Consolidation Virtualization Change Drivers

Presentation from Panel Members Question and Answers


Panel

Moderator – Michael Elkins

Panel Members

Gail A. Bohan – Director of IT, City of FairfaxVirtualization and Consolidation in Local Government

Kevin Cronin – Senior Technical Architect, Virginia Department of TaxationConsolidation and Virtualization activities within Taxation

Sharon P. Pitt – Executive Director, division of Instructional Technology – George Mason UniversityVirtual Computing Lab of George Mason University


Session Objectives

Discuss benefits, tools and cost-saving strategies for effective consolidation and virtualization

Provide examples of successful efforts in consolidation and virtualization


Consolidation

All government and commercial entities have made consolidation a strategic objective Reducing assets Reducing processes Simplify infrastructure

Improve return on investments already made and ensure continued innovation

Spend wisely to build rather than maintain


Virtualization

Virtualization reduces hardware and power consumption in labs and datacenters Platforms System resources Applications Desktops

Simplified management of heterogeneous systems


Consolidation & Virtualization Drivers

Historical growth of applications

Management of resources

Meeting customer needs

Flexible allocation of resources

Rising cost

Poor ROI

Reduced efficiency

Poor manageability


Presentations

Sharon P. PittExecutive Director

Division of Instructional Technology

George Mason University


Consolidation and Virtualization:Consolidation and Virtualization: The Virtual Computing Lab at George Mason UniversityThe Virtual Computing Lab at George Mason University

Sharon P. PittSharon P. PittExecutive DirectorExecutive Director

Division of Instructional TechnologyDivision of Instructional Technology

George Mason UniversityGeorge Mason University


Session Goals

What’s a virtual computing lab (VCL)? BRIEF demo of a virtual computer lab The business case for a VCL Benefits of virtualization and

consolidation

Consolidation and VirtualizationConsolidation and Virtualization::The Virtual Computing Lab at George Mason UniversityThe Virtual Computing Lab at George Mason University


BRIEF demo of a virtual computing lab



About…. George Mason University Public research/doctoral institution Founded in 1972 Enrollment: 30,332 168 degree programs Ranked #1 for Up-and-Coming National

Universities by U.S. News and World Report 2009



What’s a virtual computing lab?

Online, reservation-based access Platform agnostic Remote and direct access to Blade server(s) Online access to existing computer labs



Public Internet

Public Internet

Web interfaceWeb interface

Management node NManagement node 1

Management node 2

Campus Computer Lab

Blade Server

Image Library

Statewide Education Network


DatabaseDatabase

Image Library

Blade Server


Brief history of VCL in higher education



Public Internet

Public Internet

Web interfaceWeb interface

Management node NManagement node 1

Management node 2

Campus Computer Lab

Blade Server

Image Library



DatabaseDatabase

Image Library

Blade Server


Why are educators interested?

Student access to professional software Extend research Inventive solutions for instructional challenges Customized environments for classroom use Support learning at a distance



Potential VCL Networks

VCL Host

Local College

Local University K-12 Participants

Educational Partners


What are the benefits?

Improved software management Reduce the need to add facilities Extend life of current labs Higher ROI for each dollar invested Greener Leveraging the partnership Promote statewide best practices



Challenges

Tracking Internet use Security The culture of software license negotiation Innovation vs. status quo Excitement Governance across a consortium


Gail A. Bohan

Director of Information Technology

City of Fairfax, Va


Virtual Technologies

Virtual technologies have been around for quite a long time with little fanfare – some examples:

Virtual private network VPN

Virtual local area network VLAN Virtual technologies allow us to take full

advantage of computing resources by dividing the resource into multiple parts and sharing the basics


What is Server Virtualization?

Definition : “a method of running multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single physical computer” (http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878 Aug 24,2008)

Ideal for applications that require less server power and fewer users

Allows consolidation of servers


Virtualization in Virginia Localities

A nonscientific survey done of Va localities shows that most of us are at least investigating virtualization

Reasons for considering virtualization: backup and recovery, domain controllers, file servers, print servers


Localities by Users SupportedSmall (200-395) Medium (400 – 895) Large(900+)

City of Bedford Albemarle Co City of Chesapeake

Town of Blacksburg City of Danville Chesterfield Co

Campbell Co City of Newport News City of Hampton

City of Fairfax Spotsylvania Co Loudoun Co

Franklin Co Stafford Co City of Lynchburg

City of Manassas City of Staunton Roanoke Co

City of Suffolk City of Virginia Beach

27



Virtualization in Va Localities

Applications Real estate appraisal Fire investigations Help desk software GIS Email SharePoint McAfee

Applications MS SQL database

server Lotus Notes Blackberry Enterprise Linux Apache Faster Documentum


Recent National Statistics*

* From CIO Insight Research, Emerging Technologies 2008


Virtual Products

Operating systems in use: VMware ESX used by 90% MS Virtual Server SuSE Xen; Parallels Virtuozzo


Benefits

• Improved disaster recovery

• Time saving when deploying servers

• Reduced time when replacing physical servers with virtual servers

• Easier and faster to set up test systems

• Server consolidation

• Lower power and cooling consumption

• Reduced hardware and maintenance costs


Cautions

Storage management more complex Not compatible with all applications Watch out for licensing issues Revise backup procedures Higher level of trouble shooting required Difficult to contain virtual spread Do not neglect staff training


Presentations

Kevin Cronin Senior Technical Architect

Virginia Department of Taxation


VA TAX Business Case …

Expand to support 2008 Individual filing season processing

Additional servers needed for application upgrade Capacity on demand for peak season HVAC and power issues with leased facility Potential building move


VA TAX Business Case Continued

Consolidation of agency data center to Commonwealth Enterprise Service Center

Server hardware refresh Remote worker pilot program Expansion of agency disaster recovery


VA TAX Legacy Infrastructure

35 Image Capture Application Servers Mix of HP DL380s and older

5 Electronic Filing Servers HP DL380s and workstations

40 Physical Legacy Servers Spread across 4 x 42U racks


VA TAX New Requirements for 2008

9 new servers required to support 2008 individual filing season

11 new servers required for upgrade to imaging capture system

30 virtual workstations required to support remote worker pilot

20 new servers and 30 new workstations


VA TAX Engages VITA and NG

TAX develops a Virtualization and Consolidation technical proposal

Proposal explains business opportunity and proposed solution

VITA and NG agree to the proposal NG Virtualization Team sizes environment Agree to increase scope to both Agency data

centers


Implementation

Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversions primarily took place off hours

Significant late night work from both NG Virtualization Team and TAX staff

Applications and Development staff needed to verify P2V before online production day

Completed Image processing well before Individual filing season

“Virtually” flawless implementation


VA TAX Virtual Host InfrastructureData Center Processing Primary

Hosts 1 x HP C Class Enclosure

7 x BL 685 full height blades

4 x dual core processors

32 GB of memory

3 x DL585

4 x dual core processors

64 GB of memory

Physical Space 10U (18”) 12U (21”)

Physical Servers Replaced

60 71

42U Racks Emptied

4 6


VA TAX Goes Green in the Process

Category Legacy Infrastructure

Virtual Infrastructure

UPS Power Requirements

55 KVA 6 KVA

Heat Output per hour

180,000 BTUs 16,000 BTUs

Cooling Requirement

15 tons 1.3 tons


VA TAX Lessons Learned

Not all servers are good virtualization candidates Don’t virtualize your primary and secondary

DNS servers! Virtual servers have limitations on virtual

disk they can address Be prepared to go back to the physical server

Don’t assume the P2V worked, test everything


Questions

Q & A


Contact Info: GMU

John Savage - Director, Advanced Academic [email protected]

Sharon P. Pitt – Executive Director, DoIT [email protected]

Department of Taxation Kevin Cronin – Senior Technical Architect

[email protected]

City of Fairfax Gail A. Bohan – Director of IT, City of Fairfax

[email protected]

Northrop Grumman Michael Elkins – Director Infrastructure Services

[email protected]

Documents

Copyright 2004 Northrop Grumman Corporation. Consolidation & Virtualization Michael Elkins Director Infrastructure Services Sept 8, 2008