Virtual Horizons
Dave Pattern, Library Systems Manager
University of Huddersfield
d.c.pattern@hud.ac.uk

Preamble
• Presentation available at:
– www.slideshare.net/daveyp/
• Please remix and reuse this presentation
– creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
• Have you remembered to switch your
phone on?
– please feel free take photos, record audio,
blog, tweet (@daveyp), etc

Background
• Horizon 7.3.4 (UK)
• Sun Fire V240
• Solaris 8
• Sybase database held on Storage Area
Network (SAN)

Jan 2009
• Planned Easter upgrade to SAN would end
support for Solaris 8 connectivity


Plan #1
• Prep replacement server with Solaris 10
• Install Horizon
• Copy database(?)
• Ooops… epic fail!
– IT Policy now mandates that (unless there is a
strong technical reason) all new and
replacement servers should be virtual

Plan #2
• Prep new virtual server with Solaris 10
• Install Horizon
• Copy database(?)
• Ooops… epic fail!
– Current VMware setup only supports x86
version of Solaris
– Sybase not available for x86 Solaris platform

Plan #3
• Prep new virtual server with Windows
Server 2003
• Install Horizon
• Migrate database

What went right?
• Downtime during data migration was low
• Faster server and increased redundancy


What went wrong?
• At 4am prompt on the following Saturday
morning, Horizon fell over dead


What went wrong?
• The only scheduled task at 4am was for
“upstat” (update statistics)
• Disabled “upstat” scheduled task whilst
SirsiDynix Support investigated
• A few days later, Horizon died a death at
4am again…
• …maybe going virtual wasn’t such a good
idea, after all!!!

So, what really happened?
• VMware server configured to take daily
“snapshot” at 4am
• Reconfigured “snapshot” to exclude
Sybase data partition
• Touch wood, it hasn’t happened again

What else has gone wrong?
• Nothing! Niente! Gdzie tam! пусте!


What next?
• The HIP server will need replacing soon,
so we’d like to virtualise that too

Any questions?
www.slideshare.net/daveyp/
www.daveyp.com/blog/