Future Proofing Your Server And Systems Infrastructure

Future Proofing Your Server and Systems Infrastructure … or, how can I just make my current datacenter last longer?

Future Proofing Your Server and Systems Infrastructure …or, how can I just make my current datacenter last longer?
Presented by Dave Payne
[email_address]
www.davepayne.com

Abstract
This session provides best practices on reducing server costs by deploying new energy efficient hardware, consolidating, virtualizing and provisioning your new data center.

Abstract
Planning for datacenter 2.0, capacity planning and impact analysis
Scale up, scale out or both? What server setup will work best for you?
What's the impact of ultra dense computing on my datacenter facilities?
What about storage? How can I ultra-densify my storage along with my servers?
What impact does the ubiquitously looming cloud have on my datacenter plans?

What I Assume You (The Audience) Knows
You’re neck deep in IT management, administration or data center operations of some sort.
You understand what makes up a data center.
Servers, storage and racks don’t conjure up images of a busy restaurant.
You get virtualization.

How can I turn this albatross around my neck into a white dove?
Economy is tanking Cuts costs at all expense! I need my apps running now more than ever More power More storage More servers Too hot in here $ $ $ $

By The End Of The Session, You’ll Know The Following:
A pragmatic approach to cutting data center costs today
Options for selecting your next server platform
Advances in storage solutions that will benefit you
Some advice on when to consider floating to the cloud

Optimize Data Centers With Virtualization
Start with an application down approach

Envision the Model
x86 Virtualization is becoming ubiquitous
It’s green and green (if implemented right)
What is the right model to use today?
Storage is the step-child of virtualization
Can it be tamed?
What is the best way to consider storage approaches?
Sometimes it makes sense to punt
This is when we look to the cloud
Consider when the cloud vs. in house hosting makes sense

Scale Up vs. Scale Out
(Disclaimer: I am agnostic here. I don’t need religious warfare)
Advantages Disadvantages Scale Up
Automatic inbox resource management
Fewer ESX Server images to manage
VMotion not strictly required
Lower software costs (VMware)
Lower infrastructure costs (Ethernet/SAN switches)
Fewer cables and connections
Higher hardware costs (servers)
High Availability impact in case of failure of a node
Against the norm
Scale Out
Lower hardware costs (servers)
Low high availability impact in case of failure of a node
More CPUs supported "per rack“
Business as usual
Manual across-boxes resource management
VMotion mandatory for reasonable management
Many hypervisor (ESX) images to maintain
Higher software costs (VMware)
Higher infrastructure costs (Ethernet/SAN switches)

How About Scale Up & Out? SCOUPT
42U Rack with BL680G5
Configuration:
4 BladeCenter (10U each = 40U), 8 BL680 per BC
4x6 2.4GHz CPU per BL680, 128 GB RAM
Capacity:
1,843 GHz CPU (128 CPU Sockets, 768 CPU Cores)
4 TB RAM
32 instances of hypervisor
$1,500,000

How about Scale Up & Out? SCOUPT
42U Rack with IBM x3950
Configuration:
10 Nodes (4U each = 40U), 2 Nodes per server
4x6 2.66Ghz CPU per Node, 128 GB RAM
Capacity:
638 GHz CPU (40 CPU Sockets, 240 CPU Cores)
1.2 TB RAM
5 instances of hypervisor
$? (estimating $800-$1M (CPU $120K, RAM $320K, Chassis $200K, other)

Data Center Impact From Ultra-dense Servers
Typical data center cost
$500-1000/sqaure foot
1.5 KW/rack
Ultra-dense data center cost
$2000-3000/square foot
3 KW/rack
Same square feet, more power, more cooling
Current data center may not support full density
Study your footprint and disperse load
Cost avoidance still possible without build out

What About Storage?
Server consolidation requires centralized storage
SAN is up to 10x cost of DAS
Early on SAN requirement excluded SMB
New SAN enhancements are friendlier
IP Storage
Thin Provisioning
Deduplication

Thin is the New Black
Look at thin provisioning to:
Size for the future but allocate for the present
“ Just in time” model
Cost avoidance
Delays purchases of disk
Reduce facilities hit
Not a panacea – disk will eventually be consumed
Traditional Storage Thin Provisioned Storage

VI: An Opportunity for Deduplication
Each VM stores the same data repeatedly:
OS software, patches, software drivers, application data
VI3 Server Data Store A . VMDK .VMDK . VMDK . VMDK Traditional Enterprise RAID Arrays RAID Layer . VMDK .VMDK .VMDK . VMDK 20TB 20TB

Shrink VI Storage Footprint Deduplicated Array Duplicate Data Is Eliminated VI Server Data Store A .VMDK .VMDK .VMDK .VMDK
Deduplication removes the redundant blocks
All copies still appear intact to the VI server
. VMDK 20TB 5TB

Where to look for dedupe opportunities
Network Based
WAN
Riverbed Steelhead
Inline Storage Area Network
Riverbed Atlas
Array based
Ex. NetApp De-duplication
Virtual Infrastructure based
Ex. VMware clone disks
Client OS based
Ex. FastScale

Get Your Head in the Cloud
Cloud computing
Universally available elastic resource of compute power
Real cloud players (among many)
GoGrid
Amazon EC2/S3
Google App Engine
Salesforce.com
Rackspace Mosso
Can we trust the faceless cloud?

When To Go Up..
External customer facing apps
Seasonal spikes
Disaster failover
Turnkey standalone apps (like CRM)

When To Stay Grounded…
Plenty of issues to consider with clouds
Dynamic movement is a ways off
Reliability of the provider
Cloud performance
Lack of standards -- server/storage
Federated authentication

For More Information
Uptime Institute
Cost Model: Dollars per kW plus Dollars per Square Foot of Computer Floor
Xcedex.com/XF – Xcedex X_Factor Planning Suite
vmware.com/VMUG – Local VMware User Group
IBM x3950
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/hardware/enterprise/x3950m2/specs.html
HP BL680G5
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12773_na/12773_na.html
.

Questions?

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Future Proofing Your Server And Systems Infrastructure

by Dave Payne on Dec 11, 2009

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Future Proofing Your Server And Systems Infrastructure — Presentation Transcript