Carnival Cruise Lines slashes server footprint by around 60 percent, preserving scarce shipboard resources
• Consolidation• Dell Systems Management• Green Computing• Power & Cooling• Services• Storage• Virtualization
“ We do everything possible to ensure that our guests enjoy their vacations. By providing a highly reliable server environment, our virtual machines support that mission.” John Staker, Senior Information Systems Manager, Carnival Dream
Customer Profile
Company: CarnivalCruiseLines
Industry: Travel,HospitalityandTourism
Country: UnitedStates
Employees: 43,000
Web: www.carnival.com
Business NeedEachCarnivalCruiseLinesshipoperatesasaself-sufficientenvironmentinwhichpowerandfloorspacearelimited,makingITefficiencyacriticalrequirement.Severalyearsago,theITinfrastructureonCarnivalshipswasconsumingtoomuchpowerandoccupyingtoolargeafootprint.ThecompanyengagedDellConsultingServicestoevaluateitsoptions.
SolutionCarnivalbeganvirtualizingshipboardserversusingVMware®vSphere™runningonDell™PowerEdge™serverswithIntel®Xeon®processorsandDellEqualLogic™storagearrays.TheimplementationhasbeensosuccessfulatboostingefficiencythatCarnivalalsoadoptedDellPowerEdgeandDellEqualLogicequipmentinitsshoresidedatacenterandremoteofficeoperations.Now,CarnivalismovingitscriticalOracledatawarehousefromaSolarisandFibreChannelplatformtoRedHatLinuxrunningonDellPowerEdgeserversandEqualLogiciSCSISANs.
Benefits
• Approximately 60% reduction in physical footprint of servers on ships
• Approximately 7,000 hours/year reclaimed for shipboard IS managers
• 100% availability for shipboard virtual servers over past 6 months
• Shoreside management possible for storage arrays on ships at sea
• 4-hour recovery time objective (RTO) for virtual machines through SAN-based replication
• 38% performance improvement for Oracle data warehouse in proof-of-concept
• Hundreds of thousands of dollars saved by selecting iSCSI SAN
“Ourshipscarryasmanyas4,500guestsatatime,sopaper-and-pencilmanagementdoesn’tcutit,”saysDougEney,vicepresident,informationsystemsengineeringforCarnival.“Whenguestscomeonboard,weneedtohavetheircabinpreparedthewaytheywantit.Whentheyarriveatdinner,thewinetheyrequestedneedstobeontheirtable.Andwhentheydisembarkatadestination,theirshoresideactivitiesneedtobeexactlyastheirreservationsspecify.Allthelogisticsthatmakeavacationgosmoothlyneedtobetransparenttoourguests.Makingthathappenrequiresexcellent,reliabletechnology.”
Destination: efficient and effective IT
EveryshipintheCarnivalCruiseLinesfleetisitsownfloatingisland,whichposesuniquechallengesforIT.“Acruiseshipiscompletelyself-contained,”saysEney.“Itcarriesitsownwaterandgeneratesitsownelectricity.Thephysicalfootprintofhardwaredevicesisahugeissueonaship.Reliabilityisalsocrucial.Ifsomethingbreaksontheship,ithastobefixedontheship;hardwarevendorsaren’tgoingtosendnewpartsbyhelicopter.Oursystemsmustbebothhighlyavailableandhighlyefficient.”
Afewyearsago,eachshipintheCarnivallinerequiredbetween13and22physicalservers,withdirect-attachedstorage,torunthevariousapplicationsthatsupportoperations.“Wehadoneserverforeachjob,sothosesystemsweretakingupalotoffloorspace,”saysRodneyOrange,supervisorofWintelserverengineering.“Weneededtoreducethephysical,powerandcoolingfootprintofeachship’sITinfrastructure.”
60% smaller server footprint
CarnivalengagedDellConsultingServicestohelpevaluateitsutilization
ofshipboardserversanddeterminehowitcouldusevirtualizationtomeetitsconsolidationgoals.Its22shipsrotatethroughdrydocksothateachgetsacompleteoverhauleveryfewyearsorso.Startingwiththeshipsthatwereondrydockatthetime,CarnivalbeganimplementingVMwarevSphereservervirtualizationandDellEqualLogicvirtualstoragesolutions.Thefirstshipssawtheirserverfootprintconsolidatedto22virtualmachineshostedonthreeDellPowerEdgeR900serverssupportedbytwoEqualLogicPS5000XVSANs.Morerecently,shipshavebegunreceivingDellPowerEdge
Customers of Carnival Cruise Lines want to get away from it all. Whether they choose to dance into the wee hours, play miniature golf with the kids or just read a great book by the pool, most are looking for a vacation from the complexities of everyday life. Paradoxically, the company’s fun and carefree cruises rely on a cutting-edge and highly efficient IT infrastructure to run smoothly.
“ We initially selected the PowerEdge R900 servers because of their chipset.” Rodney Orange, Supervisor of Wintel Server Engineering, Carnival Cruise Lines
Technology at Work
Services
Dell™ConsultingServices
Hardware
DellEqualLogic™PS6010XV,PS6010XVS,PS6000XV,PS6000EandPS5000XVstoragearrays
DellLatitude™laptopswithIntel®Core™2Duoprocessors
DellOptiPlex™desktopcomputerswithIntelprocessors
DellPowerEdge™R710,R900and2950serverswithIntelXeon®processors
DellStudioOne19all-in-onedesktopcomputerswithIntelCore™2Duoprocessors
Software
DellEqualLogicSANHeadQuarters
Oracle®10gdatabases
RedHatLinux
VMware®vSphere™
WindowsServer®2008and2003
R710serverswithEqualLogicPS6000XVorPS6000ESANs.
“WeinitiallyselectedthePowerEdgeR900serversbecauseoftheirchipset,”saysOrange.“Butwe’vefoundthatalthoughthePowerEdgeR710servershaveasmallerfootprint,theycanholdasmanyvirtualmachinesastheR900servers,ifnotmore.”Fifteenofthecompany’sshipsnowrunavirtualenvironment;theentirefleetwillbeupgradedbytheendof2011.
Ontheupgradedships,efficienciesabound.Now,thecriticalapplicationsandservicesfortheship,includingMicrosoftExchange,runonthevirtualized,consolidatedDellplatform.“Nowthatwe’vegonevirtual,we’resavingfloorspace,savingpowerandgettingbetterairflow,whichkeepstheserverscooler,”saysJohnStaker,seniorinformationsystemsmanageronthenewshipCarnivalDream.“We’vereducedthephysicalfootprintofourserversby60percent.”
“Acrossourfleet,thecombinationofVMwarerunningonefficientDellserverswithEqualLogicstoragearraysisprovingtobeagreensolution,whilealsogreatlyreducingthecostofrunningourships’criticalapplications,”saysEney.
Simplified management saving 7,000 IT hours per year
ITstaffarealsosavingtimetheypreviouslyspentonsystemadministration.DrivenbyacombinationofstorageautomationandintelligenceoftheEqualLogicSANsandadvancedvStorageAPIintegrationwithVMwarevSphere,Carnival’svirtualizationsolutionisabletoextendefficiencyacrosstheentireITinfrastructure.
“Managementofourserversisgreatlysimplified,”saysStaker.“Wenolongerhavetospendtimegoingthroughlogsforeachserver.VMwarevCenterenablesustosee,inoneplace,everythingthat’shappening.Plus,ifavirtualserverisrunningslowly,wecanaddanotherprocessor,doubletheRAM,addmorediskspace—dowhateverweneedtodo—withoutphysicallyopeningupthebox.Eachshipboardinformationsystems(IS)managerissaving5to10hoursaweek,soacrossthe15shipsthathavegonevirtual,wemaybesavingasmuchas7,000hoursayear.”
Moreover,ITstaffeffectivenesshasincreased.ISmanagersmovebetweenshipsasfrequentlyaseverysixmonths.Previously,wheneachshiphaddifferenthardware,anISmanagerwouldrequiretimetogetuptospeedafteratransfer.Inthevirtualenvironment,managementofvirtualmachines,aswellasserverandstoragehardware,isverysimilarbetweenships.“WhenIcomeintoanewsituation,Icanfocusonwhatneedstobedonewithouthavingtoreinventthewheeleverytime,”saysStaker.“It’sfantastic.”
CarnivalusesEqualLogicSANHeadQuarterssoftwaretomonitorperformanceoftheshipboardstoragearraysfromadatacenterinMiami.“Wehaveroughly60EqualLogicSANs,mostofwhichareinmotionatanygiventime,”saysJohnAshmore,managerofsystemsengineering.“ButEqualLogicSANHQenablesustolookatallourstorageplatformsfromonecentralizedlocation.”
Fromtheshoresidedatacenter,theITstaffmonitorsalertsandstorageutilization.Whennecessary,theyalsoplancapacityincreasesfortheSANs.“OnethingweparticularlylikeaboutDellEqualLogicstorageisitsabilitytoscaleincrementally,”saysAshmore.“WecanaddbothstoragecapacityandcontrollercapacitytogenerateadditionalI/Owithasingleunit.”
High-availability data centers at sea
ThevirtualizedserverandstorageplatformalsohelpsCarnivaldeliverhighavailabilityandredundancyforitsisolatedfloatingdatacenters.UsingvSphere’svComputeandvStoragefeaturesbackedupbyaniSCSISAN,Carnivalcanachievehighlyreliableproductionenvironments.Inaddition,withEqualLogicauto-replication,theSANshavealocalrecoveryoptionbuiltin.
“We’realsotakingadvantageofthesoftwarefeaturesthatareincludedatnoextracostwiththeDellEqualLogicplatform,includingsnapshottingandreplicationfordisasterrecovery,”saysAshmore.“MostofourshipshaveathirdEqualLogicarray,keptinaseparateroom,towhichtheprimarySANsreplicatedata.Ifavirtualserverweretofail,wecouldrecoveritfromthereplicatedVMwarevirtualmachineswithinafour-hourwindoworless.”
“ Across our fleet, the combination of VMware running on efficient Dell servers with EqualLogic storage arrays is proving to be a green solution, while also greatly reducing the cost of running our ships’ critical applications.” Doug Eney, Vice President, Information Systems Engineering, Carnival Cruise Lines
Sofar,theDell-basedvirtualinfrastructurehasbeenextremelyreliable.“Thestoragearrayshavebeenrock-solid,”Stakersays.“Ifserversononeofourshipswentdown,thatwouldimpactthewholeguestexperience.ButtheEqualLogicarraysjustrun.OnCarnivalDream,we’vehad100percentavailabilityofourserverssincetheirlaunchsixmonthsago.We’veneverhadanyproblemswiththem.AtCarnivalCruiseLines,wedoeverythingpossibletoensurethatourguestsenjoytheirvacation.Byprovidingahighlyreliableserverenvironment,ourvirtualmachinesonDellserversandEqualLogicstoragesupportthatmission.”
38% performance improvement for data warehouse
NowCarnivalisplanningtomoveitsshoresideOracle10gdatawarehouseontoasimilarplatformofDellPowerEdgeserversandDellEqualLogicstoragearrays.“Ourdatawarehouseisveryimportanttous,”saysGarthLyn,Supervisor,UNIXandStorageEngineeringwithCarnival.“Weusebusinessintelligencesoftwaretocrunchinformationinourdatawarehouse,analyzingwhat’shappeningonourcruises,howguestsarespendingtheirtimeandwhat’sgoingoninthetravelindustry.Thishelpsuseffectivelypriceourcruises,soitgivesusadistinctcompetitiveadvantage.”
ThedatawarehousehasbeenrunningonalegacySunSolaris-basedsystemsupportedbyEMCSymmetrixstorage,buttheserverhardwareisend-of-lifeandthediskarraycannotsupportCarnival’sprojectedshort-termgrowth.DellConsultingServicesperformedasix-weekproof-of-conceptusingPowerEdgeR710serversrunningRedHatLinuxwithDellEqualLogicstorage.
First,Dellconsultantstesteda10-gigabitiSCSIEqualLogicPS6010XVSAN.Performancewasapproximately19percentbetterthanthatofCarnival’scurrentproductiondatawarehouse.ThenDellrepeatedthetestsusingaDellEqualLogicPS6010XVShybridarray,whichincludesbothsolid-statedrivesandspinningdisks.Thehybridarrayproducedanadditional16percentperformancegain,foratotal38percentperformanceimprovementoverthecurrentenvironment.
“TheDellconsultantshelpedusrealizetheadvantageoftheEqualLogicPS6010XVSSAN,whichisthatithostshotdataonthesolid-statedriveswhilepushingcolddata,theleast-useddata,totheslowerspinningdisks,”explainsLyn.“Thisensuresthatthemostfrequentlyuseddataisservedupfast,butwedon’thavetomanagethemovementofdatabetweenthetwotypesofstorage.Andthehybridsolutionismuchlessexpensivethanapuresolid-statediskwouldbe.Theproof-of-conceptshowedusthattheDellsolutioncansaveus60to80percentcomparedwiththehigh-endenterprisestorageoptionswewereconsidering,and40to60percentcomparedwithourmidrangeenterpriseoptions.”
Theproof-of-conceptsoldCarnivalonthebenefitsofmovingtoiSCSIeveninadatacenterthatalreadyhadFibreChannelconnectivity.“WealreadyhadFibreChannelinourdatacenter,butthecostofexpandingtheplatformtoincreaseourstoragecapacitydroveustouseiSCSI,”saysAshmore.“What’sgreatabouttheDellEqualLogicPS6010seriesisthatwith10-gigabitEthernetasastandard,weactuallyhavefastertransportoveraniSCSInetworkthanoverourFibreChannel.”Betteryet,Eneyadds:“Overthenextfiveyears,thisdatawarehousemigrationwillsave
ushundredsofthousandsofdollarsthatwewouldotherwisebespendingonstoragehardwareandstoragemanagementsoftware.”
Dell throughout the enterprise
Intwodatacenters,anofficeinLondonandshipyardsinItaly,CarnivalrunsavirtualizationplatformusingMicrosoftHyper-VrunningonDellPowerEdge2950serversandtheefficientDellEqualLogicPS5000seriesSANs.TheseofficesrequireMicrosoftExchangeandSQLServer,buttheircomputingrequirementsaremorelimitedthanthoseofthecompany’sdatacenter.“TheEqualLogicSANsfitverywellinourremoteoffices,”saysEney.“Insteadofadatacenter,wehaveasmallwiringclosetintheselocations.TheDellandEqualLogicplatformenablesustofittheneededstorageandserversinacompactspace.”
CarnivalalsousesDellclientsolutionsthroughoutitscorporateenvironment,includingDellLatitudelaptopsandDellOptiPlexdesktopcomputersforemployeesandDellStudioOne19all-in-onedesktopcomputersforpassengeruseinCarnivalDream’sFunHub,comprisedofaship-specificintranetandthecruiseindustry’sfirstshipboardsocialnetwork.
Dell: a true partner
“WehaveatruepartnershipwithDell,”Eneyconcludes.“Manyvendorshavewalkedinhereandsaidthey’reourpartner,butthenwe’vehadaproblemwhenthepresalesperiodwasoverandthepartnershipwentoutthewindow.Delldeliverscost-effectiveandreliablesolutions,andwheneverwe’vebroughtupissueswiththeDellteam,they’vedeterminedtherootcauseandworkedwithusonthesolution.Theyalwaysshowacommitmenttoactuallybeingourpartner.”
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