IST now deploys production level applications in a VMware ESX virtual environment for both IST-funded and department-funded applications. Where suitable, departments will no longer be required to fund individual server purchases, and will realize savings from a virtual environment.
What To Virtualize
A recent technology update from Dell provided insight into their examination of applications for virtualization. The overall premise is to virtualize by default, but ask questions to find applications and requirements that are not candidates. The Dell decision tree is a good starting point for our similar considerations.Eligibility for IST Servers
As a starting point, IST suggests this approach is applicable to all academic support and ancillary departments on campus. Faculty departments are also invited to contact IST about potential virtualization or to consult their faculty computing organization. Research units are not currently included in the IST implementation.Funding the Service
Very few physical servers are funded from IST infrastructure budgets. Most are funded from IST project efforts or directly by the department that requests the project. Since a shared server approach requires infrastructure funding to acquire and maintain the service, IST will implement a charge-out model to recover some of the cost of the service. That charge-out model will utilize funding from both IST project efforts and by requesting direct department funding.New production level Dell servers purchased in 2008 averaged about $6,000 per server depending on configuration. Servers are now purchased with five years of maintenance coverage, the intended server life cycle. The target is to realize a 50% saving over five years for server virtualization. Therefore, the starting point for charge-out is $600 per year.
Virtual Server Characteristics
IST will provision a production level virtual server with the following characteristics:
| Resource | Amount |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows Server 2003 x32, Windows Server 2003 x64 or Windows Server 2008R2 |
| Memory | 3GB standard for Win2003, 4GB for Win2008R2, expandable to 8GB |
| OS storage | 40GB for Win2003, 60GB for Win2008R2 |
| Application storage | Up to 100GB of application storage |
Also offered is the ability to convert an existing physical server system to a virtual system (P2V solution). This has been done to address failing hardware, small system drives and to migrate production systems off older hardware. An existing server system can be assessed for VM suitability by having the vSphere client passively monitor the physical system for a 24-48 hour period and provide a report conversion suitability. One scenario that makes a physical system not a good VM candidate is if the application is extremely CPU or memory intensive.
Other servers and systems that are not good VM candidates are those that require extra or custom hardware installed, use a USB license key, serial devices or any external device or component.
| Resource | Amount |
|---|---|
| Operating system | RedHat Enterprise Linux Version 5 |
| Memory | |
| OS storage | |
| Application storage |
Last updated by Martin Timmerman on Jul 7, 2011 at 10:48
Keywords: (none)
