Enterprise Data Center Blueprint for

Replication and Recovery

A Partner Solution for the Microsoft Systems Architecture Enterprise Data Center

Version 1.5

Introduction to the Partner-Led Enterprise Data Center Blueprint

Abstract

This document provides an introduction to the Enterprise Data Center (EDC) Blueprint, a partner-led solution for the Microsoft® Systems Architecture (MSA) EDC and introduces basic terminology and definitions.

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© Copyright 2003. Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., CommVault, Dell Computer Corporation, EMC Corporation, Emulex Corporation, KVS, Microsoft, NetIQ, and Nortel Networks. All rights reserved. This publication is a collaborative work that includes copyright-protected content provided by Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., CommVault, Dell Computer Corporation, EMC Corporation, Emulex Corporation, KVS, Microsoft, NetIQ, and Nortel Networks (�Contributors�). The Contributors grant permission to retrieve, store, display, and print this material in its entirety provided that the content remains entirely unaltered, including all copyright notice and trademark attributions. The information in this publication is believed to be accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED �AS IS.� CONTRIBUTORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. Trademark Information Brocade and SilkWorm are registered trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. CommVault and CommVault Systems are registered trademarks and Galaxy is a trademark of CommVault Systems. Dell™, OpenManage, PowerEdge, and PowerVault are trademarks of Dell. EMC2, EMC, Symmetrix, AutoIS, CLARiiON, CLARalert, DG, E-Infostructure, HighRoad, Navisphere, PowerPath, ResourcePak, VisualSAN, WideSky, and The EMC Effect are registered trademarks and EMC Automated Networked Storage, EMC ControlCenter, EMC Developers Program, EMC Enterprise Storage, EMC Enterprise Storage Network, EMCLink, EMC OnCourse, EMC Proven, Access Logix, ATAtude, Automated Resource Manager, AVALONidm, C-Clip, CacheStorm, Celerra, Celerra Replicator, Centera, CentraStar, CLARevent, Connectrix, CopyCross, CopyPoint, CrosStor, Direct Matrix, Direct Matrix Architecture, EDM, E-Lab, Enginuity, FarPoint, FLARE, GeoSpan, InfoMover, MirrorView, OnAlert, OpenScale, PowerVolume, RepliCare, SafeLine, SAN Manager, SDMS, SnapSure, SnapView, SnapView/IP, SRDF, StorageScope, SymmAPI, SymmEnabler, Symmetrix DMX, TimeFinder, Universal Data Tone, and where information lives are trademarks of EMC Corporation. EMULEX is a registered trademark of Emulex Corporation. NetIQ XMP is a trademark of NetIQ Corporation. Nortel Networks, Alteon, BayStack, Contivity, OPTera, Optivity, Passport and Preside are trademarks of Nortel Networks. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Active Directory, ActiveX, JScript, NetMeeting, Outlook, SQL Server, and Visual Basic are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

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CONTENTS Executive Summary .........................................................................................1

Architecture Reference Models ................................................................................1 Partner-Led Enterprise Data Center Blueprint ............................................................1 The EMC Designed and Tested Architecture ..................................................................... 2 Scope......................................................................................................................... 2

The Reference Architecture and the Prescriptive Architectures .....................................3 EDC Blueprint Goals.........................................................................................3

Scalability ............................................................................................................4 Scaling Up or Scaling Out.............................................................................................. 4

Availability ...........................................................................................................4 Removing Single Points of Failure .................................................................................. 4 Availability in the Systems Design.................................................................................. 5

Security ...............................................................................................................5 Manageability .......................................................................................................5 Monitoring and Alerting................................................................................................. 6 Backup and Restore ..................................................................................................... 6 Remote Administration ................................................................................................. 6

Supportability .......................................................................................................6 Performance.........................................................................................................7

MSA EDC Blueprint Design ...............................................................................8 Logical Architecture ...............................................................................................8 Infrastructure Tier........................................................................................................ 8 Intranet Web Tier ........................................................................................................ 8 Data and Management Tier ........................................................................................... 9 Security Through Compartmentalization ......................................................................... 9

Physical Architecture ........................................................................................... 10 Services Infrastructure......................................................................................... 11

Benefits of Partner-led MSA Designs .............................................................11 MSA Value Proposition ......................................................................................... 12 Enterprise Data Center ............................................................................................... 12 Internet Data Center .................................................................................................. 12

Total Cost of Ownership ....................................................................................... 13 Reducing Total Cost of Ownership Through Consolidation .......................................... 13 Elements of Consolidation ........................................................................................... 15

Service Provisioning ............................................................................................ 17 Interoperability .............................................................................................18

A Strategy of Investment Protection ...................................................................... 18 Document Outlines ........................................................................................18

Reference Architecture Kit .................................................................................... 19 Overview .................................................................................................................. 19 Reference Architecture Guide ...................................................................................... 19

Prescriptive Architecture Kit .................................................................................. 19 Prescriptive Architecture Guide .................................................................................... 19 Build Guide ............................................................................................................... 19 Testing Guide ............................................................................................................ 20 Solution Operations Guide........................................................................................... 20

Support and Services Kit ...................................................................................... 20 Summary .......................................................................................................20

Introduction to the EDC Blueprint 1 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Architecture Reference Models

Architecture reference models are repeatable, predictable forms that promote reduced developmental effort and costs, and increased reliability and consistency with mature, well-understood configurations. An architecture reference increases consistency and methodology and is inherently more supportable than an ad hoc architecture.

The demand for expert knowledge workers is greatly reduced by architecture reference models that repeat previously deployed instantiations. Repeatable environments leverage administrative experience and provide more rapid problem resolution. Experiential corporate knowledge is extended by each implementation of the architecture reference.

Partner-Led Enterprise Data Center Blueprint

The Enterprise Data Center (EDC) Blueprint is a partner-led solution for the MSA EDC, a model-based information technology systems architecture. The EDC Blueprint partners and their contribution are detailed in Table 1:

EDC Blueprint Partner

Service Contribution Technology Area

Brocade Storage Services Storage Area Network (SAN) Switches

CommVault Backup Services Backup Software Dell Server Hardware, Storage Services,

Management Services, and Remote Management

Servers and SAN

EMC Storage Service, Backup Services, and Local and Remote Data Replication

Storage and SAN

Emulex Storage Networking Fibre Channel HBAs Microsoft Windows, Exchange, and SQL Operating system and application

software KVS Exchange Archiving Document and E-mail Archiving NetIQ Management Services Management Software Nortel Networks Network Devices, Firewall Services Network Switches, Internal Firewall

Table 1. EDC Blueprint Partners

The partner-led EDC Blueprint is based on a Microsoft-recommended set of targeted, validated blueprints that validates the core infrastructure for a production environment. These blueprints effectively establish a new level of agility for deploying solutions from both Microsoft and MSA technology partner companies.

The scope of MSA core infrastructure includes:

• Scalable configurations designed as interchangeable hardware and software components.

• Validation for interoperability, performance, and scalability.

• Tools and scripts to automate deployment processes.

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• Documentation for solution designs and prescriptive guidance.

• Support for Microsoft Solution Offerings.

• Microsoft Windows® servers, networking hardware components, and storage subsystems.

The EDC Blueprint contains a core MSA architecture that can be reliably scaled to meet the needs and requirements of several unique solution sets.

The EMC Designed and Tested Architecture

The configurations recommended in MSA guidance are those initially developed, implemented, and tested with Microsoft technology partners and Microsoft technologies in MS labs. Based on this, EMC has worked with the EDC Blueprint partners to design an architecture that has been tested in its own labs and qualified by Microsoft.

While the EDC Blueprint describes configurations tested with specific vendor products as prescriptive, it is assumed that key customers already have implemented legacy infrastructures and standards. Therefore, guidance is provided for the seamless integration of MSA into existing customer network environments that are based on previous versions of the Windows operating system.

Scope

MSA contains a linear progression of bounded solution scopes that define how solution sets apply within the areas of an enterprise. To understand this linear progression of bounded infrastructure scopes, it is important to understand that infrastructure scopes are based on the hardware and operating system architectures on which enterprise servers and infrastructure services converge. MSA elements and components are demonstrated as a single continuum across all of the MSA infrastructure scopes.

The EDC Blueprint Reference Architecture Guide explains the network, server, and storage architectures relevant to each of the respective scopes.

A description of the infrastructure scopes that currently compose the MSA follows. Designed to frame the context for solution discussions, these definitions are not meant to be exhaustive or to include all systemic variables or solution scenarios, especially with respect to server utilization. All infrastructure scopes should specify requirements for scalability, availability, security, manageability, performance, supportability, and geographical distribution. The MSA infrastructure contains the following:

• Enterprise Data Center (EDC) configuration

• Internet Data Center (IDC) configuration

In addition, all MSA solutions must provide business value by achieving goals as efficiently as possible. Wherever possible, without compromising the design goals described above, components used are chosen for cost effectiveness with respect to total cost of ownership (TCO).

Enterprise Data Center

The partner-led EDC Blueprint scope provides guidance for designing and building advanced technical infrastructure environments to support the kind of next-generation solutions needed by enterprise organizations.

The EDC Blueprint is a repeatable infrastructure that incorporates the core Microsoft Enterprise Servers, including Microsoft SQL Server� 2000 and Microsoft Exchange 2000

Introduction to the EDC Blueprint 3 3

Server. It has been laboratory-tested and validated to provide lower cost of ownership and high-quality service, and can support multiple interconnected sites. The MSA EDC and the partner-led EDC Blueprint are designed to serve the internal communications and data exchange requirements of entire organizations; examples include the employee self-serve functions of human resources, employee purchasing, and corporate records management. Systems that support these functions operate inside the corporate firewall, require extensive storage, can be involved in mission-critical applications, and have significant performance requirements.

Internet Data Center

The MSA IDC scope covers reference architecture that allows customers to build scalable, reliable, secure, and manageable environments by using a recommended set of tools, technologies, and processes. By following the recommendations in the MSA IDC documentation, organizations can quickly and efficiently build Internet applications suitable for their long-term Internet business needs.

The partner-led IDC architectures are documented in the Internet Blueprint and the Internet Blueprint Plus sets of prescriptive guides, and provide hardware and software configuration recommendations required to build the infrastructure in a production environment. This architecture, based on the MSA IDC, using hardware from different vendors, was tested and validated by MS in the EMC lab to ensure that the required performance, scaling, availability, manageability, and security goals were met.

Items considered outside the scope of the partner-led MSA IDC documentation include specific guidance or details in the following areas:

• Applications design and development

• Message queuing

• Extended scalability and performance data

The Reference Architecture and the Prescriptive Architectures

MSA content can be described as reference or prescriptive. Reference content provides generic guidance about what hardware and software is required to build a core production architecture. An MSA prescription is core information that includes sets of recommended configurations and rules for creating an MSA infrastructure. This prescription combines reference guidance and vendor-specific guidance for network, server, and storage architecture.

EDC BLUEPRINT GOALS

EMC and partners created the EDC Blueprint, based on the MS-created MSA EDC, to achieve the goals of scalability, availability, security, manageability, performance, supportability, and geographic distribution. The EDC Blueprint accomplishes this at the lowest possible TCO. The EDC Blueprint addresses all goals through the infrastructure, web, data, and management tiers.

These design goals aim to demonstrate that with the help of EMC and the MSA partners, Microsoft applications can be highly available with a strategy to deliver to customers supportable, preconfigured, pre-tested platforms, consisting of building blocks that enable the deployment of state-of-the-art technologies.

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Scalability

Scaling is the ability of a system to handle increasing demands at an acceptable performance level. For each component in the architecture, different dimensions need to scale. For network media, bandwidth needs to scale. For the Cluster service, the growth area is server platform and numbers of cluster nodes. For Web servers, processing power needs to scale. For storage, disk capacity, and disk I/O, access speeds are the growth areas.

Scaling Up or Scaling Out

To scale a system effectively, the nature of the increasing demand needs to be identified and the impact on the various components understood. Once the limiting component is identified as a bottleneck, the choice can be made to either scale up (increase the capacity of the individual component) or scale out (to increase the number of identical components.)

All EDC Blueprint network architecture components scale up and/or out.

Scaling up increases a component�s capacity (vertical scaling) by deploying additional resources, such as processors and memory on existing servers. This strategy requires planning to ensure sufficient capacity in the existing equipment. In addition, this strategy usually requires downtime for system upgrades. For example, a Microsoft BizTalk 2000 server can scale up by increasing processor size (such as the Pentium III and the Xeon derivatives with large level 2 caches), using symmetric multiple-processing servers.

Scaling out (horizontal scaling) increases the number of components, thereby increasing the aggregate capacity of those components. Cloning and partitioning, along with functionally specialized services, enable these systems to have an exceptional degree of scalability by growing each service independently. For example, network bandwidth can be scaled out by partitioning different types of traffic to different virtual local area networks (VLANs).

Availability

Components of the architecture must provide redundancy or functional specialization to contain systemic faults. Availability is largely dependent on enterprise-level information technology (IT) discipline, including change controls, rigorous testing, and quick upgrade and fallback mechanisms

The key to availability is isolating service functionality from failures of individual components. This separation can be achieved by removing the dependency, in space and time, of the service from any individual architectural component. Thus, the overall approach for availability is to plan with failures in mind.

Higher availability for solutions can be achieved when an infrastructure or application architecture addresses issues related to:

• Solution design with no dependence on any one component.

• Services designed to minimize the impact of component failures.

• Utilization of resilient components where quick recovery is achievable.

Removing Single Points of Failure

Because the EDC Blueprint is based on MSA, there is no dependency on any one piece of hardware performing a specific function or providing access to a specific piece of

Introduction to the EDC Blueprint 5 5

information. Thus, redundant components and routing mechanisms are included to ensure that network requests are serviced by reliable, redundant components.

Availability in the Systems Design

A highly available infrastructure begins with a network design that ensures that systemic failures do not interrupt or impact overall network availability. Highly available designs eliminate single points of failure by providing redundant network devices and network paths, along with routing that responds quickly and bypasses the failed component. Network services such as domain controllers, DNS servers, WINS servers, and DHCP servers are made highly available and scalable through redundancy.

Making back-end systems highly available is more challenging, primarily because of the data or system state maintained. Back-end systems are made highly available by using failover clustering for each partition. Failover clustering assumes that an application can resume on another computer that has been given access to the failed system�s disk subsystem. Partition failover occurs when the primary node that supports requests to the partition fails and requests to the partition automatically switch to a secondary node. The secondary node must have access to the same data storage as the failed node, and this data storage should also be replicated.

A data store replica can increase the availability of data through accessibility at a remote geographic location.

Security

Managing risk by providing adequate protection for the confidentiality, privacy, and integrity of information is essential to enterprise success. The key to a successful security implementation is to follow a defense-in-depth strategy that defines multiple layers of security and does not rely on any one area to completely secure the infrastructure.

The EDC Blueprint network architecture uses an end-to-end security model that protects data and the infrastructure from malicious attack or theft.

Manageability

The EDC Blueprint architecture is easily reconfigured, providing ongoing health monitoring and failure detection capabilities and remote administration. In addition, the architecture conforms to change management methodologies (such as the Microsoft Operations Framework) so that resources can evolve in a controlled manner as requirements change.

Management and operations broadly refer to the infrastructure, technologies, and processes needed to maintain the health of an enterprise data center and related services. The goals of an overall management system must include the following key elements:

• Monitoring and alerting. Keeps track of key events occurring in the system.

• Change management. Allows network resources to evolve in a controlled manner as requirements change.

• Remote administration. Allows network resources to be managed from remote locations.

• Capacity planning. Facilitates the identification of bottlenecks in the network.

• Supportability. Contributes to fault isolation, swift root problem analysis, and responsive problem resolution.

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• Backup and restore. Provides a complete backup solution for critical data

Monitoring and Alerting

Without a monitoring and alerting mechanism, it is impossible to maintain the availability of the environment. Any failure must be brought to the immediate attention of the systems administrator so that failures can be rectified. If corrective measures are not accomplished, network infrastructure can slowly decay until network performance degrades and services are unavailable.

Monitoring and alerting is vital to a successful security strategy. In an MSA data center, there is a high level of auditing on important areas of the system. The monitoring and alerting process is designed to generate alerts when unusual audit events are discovered.

Finally, scalability can benefit from the monitoring and alerting infrastructure. Defining alerts based on system usage makes it possible to employ proactive scaling of the environment to prevent users from being impacted. For example, an alert may be triggered when processor utilization on a server in a Windows cluster is consistently above a preset limit. This alert may be an indication that more clustered servers or more powerful hardware for servers in a Windows cluster is warranted. Consequently, monitoring and alerting can be used to support capacity planning.

Backup and Restore

Another important consideration for management of any solution is the system backup/restore process, which includes both the disaster recovery process, and the business continuity plans. While MSA addresses essential backup/restore strategies, the disaster recovery and business continuity plan are implementation-specific. MSA partners provide prescriptions for implementing enterprise backup solutions to protect the configuration of the environment.

Remote Administration

The supportability of an enterprise network infrastructure is dramatically improved when necessary administrative tasks can be performed remotely while the enterprise network architecture remains secure. It is unnecessary for network administrators to make costly visits to the location of the network resource to resolve issues related to MSA services. In combination with the monitoring and alerting infrastructure, the remote access technologies used within the MSA allow support personnel to deal with almost any situation that might arise without requiring physical access to the network.

Supportability

This partner-led Enterprise Data Center architecture provides a support package for solution-focused support, described in the following section. The support package for this solution offering is provided with EMC as the Single Point of Contact (SPOC). EMC has formalized cooperative agreements with over 50 major service providers and takes ownership of problems affecting this partner-led solution offering.

Support highlights include:

• One level of all-inclusive premium service

• Support 24x7x365

• Multiple established EMC-Partner alliances for quick problem resolution

Introduction to the EDC Blueprint 7 7

Partners must be members of the MSA for Windows Authorized Partner Program. Partners and third-party components suppliers must have agreed to the terms outlined in the Term sheet for the program. This program requires that all partners have a defined escalation interaction between the other partners in the program.

Figure 1. Incident Reporting Model

The benefits of this include:

• The burden of problem isolation is reduced for the customer.

• EMC functions as a SPOC for integrated support for the EDC Blueprint.

• Partner support involvement is transparent to the customer.

• Customer has persistent contact with intimate knowledge of the solution.

• Support can have captured source code.

MSA support includes:

• Definition of escalation paths

• Support offerings and resources

• Contracted support levels

• Components of support offerings

• Prescriptive services

• Relationship and Service Level Management

• Advisory services

• Resolution services

• Information services

Performance

EDC Blueprint components were based on the MSA Reference Architecture Kit guidelines and were selected to achieve business operational goals, to ensure that service-level commitments are met, and to reduce the TCO for the solution.

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The resulting configuration was instantiated, benchmarked, and scenario-tested in the EMC labs. The results of these activities are provided in the partner-led EDC Blueprint Testing Guide.

MSA EDC BLUEPRINT DESIGN

The MSA design encompasses a complex series of service-based designs. This section outlines the EDC Blueprint from both a logical and physical viewpoint.

Logical Architecture

The following subsection captures the concepts and essential strategic elements of the logical architectural components of the MSA.

Infrastructure Tier

The infrastructure tier groups the entire network services that the infrastructure supports and, as with all of the tiers defined in the MSA, establishes a security zone independent from the other network tiers. This approach increases security and manages the flow of data between application components. Housed within the infrastructure tier are component servers, staging servers, BIND-compatible forest root DNS servers, Active Directory® directory service-integrated DNS servers, legacy Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 domain controllers, WINS servers, and DHCP servers.

Intranet Web Tier

The intranet Web tier provides a secure, high-performance, scalable, and manageable environment for front-end systems. The intranet Web tier contains the servers that provide core intranet Web services such as HTTP/HTTPS, LDAP, and FTP to Internet Web clients and systems.

Load balancing provides high availability and scalability for the intranet Web servers. Requests from the intranet are distributed across two load balancing clusters using Round Robin DNS (RRDNS), which allows for the intranet Web tier to be easily scaled by adding additional clusters.

A set of redundant internal firewalls uses filtering rules to provide demarcation between the Web servers in a perimeter network and the intranet Web servers in the Web tier. These firewalls isolate the intranet Web segments from the perimeter network to increase security and manage the flow of data between application components. The traffic allowed to and from the intranet Web servers supports data retrieval, system management, content staging for the intranet Web servers, and Active Directory services.

Introduction to the EDC Blueprint 9 9

Data and Management Tier

The data and management tier provides application servers in a Windows cluster, management servers, and storage for application and file data as far removed from the intranet clients as possible. The data store is made highly available through clustering to provide redundancy at the data layer and failover capability for application services running on the cluster. The data for both application databases and the intranet Web content is stored on storage area network (SAN)-attached RAID disk arrays for further protection.

A SAN provides a high-speed backup-and-restore network for servers. The backup servers can back up data over the fiber network directly to a tape device that is connected through the SAN.

The data and management tier houses network-attached storage (NAS) as a SAN component. Intranet clients can connect to NAS over TCP/IP and utilize file services offered by the NAS. The NAS can exploit the SAN-based backup tape library.

Management servers located in the data and management tier perform monitoring and troubleshooting. Agents are installed on all servers and are configured to forward requests and information to a management server implemented in the data and management tier. The management server implementation also hosts the terminal service for remote management of the environment.

Security Through Compartmentalization

Compartmentalization is established as a function of Windows domains, server roles (domain controllers versus domain member servers), and Active Directory organizational units. The scope of compartmentalization includes, but is not limited by, the following specific criteria:

• Physical security

• Human security

• Security policy

• Change management

• Configuration administration

• Security roles

• Auditing and Inventory

The zones identified by the logical architecture define and clarify security application for each logical perimeter. The internal network security zones exposed by the logical architecture are organized by characterizing each perimeter. Systems are grouped into the infrastructure, Web, data and management, or corporate tiers based on system security requirements.

Each system is examined for security requirements by ranking security criteria. In general, this process begins by examining each system for physical security, implementation, audit and maintenance, logon security, Windows operating system security, file system security, and finally, user security.

The foundation for instantiating logical architecture tiers is accomplished by devising a methodology, and then auditing and maintaining established processes to ensure the

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continuity of internal network security. The remaining security criteria are network logon security, operating system security, file system security, and user security.

By using Active Directory, the architecture defines server roles and applies permissions and security lockdown in a centralized, consistent manner. The installation enables the use of Active Directory and Group Policy to accomplish single-seat administration of security.

A proper security model is crucial within an enterprise network since security and policy determine exactly what users are allowed to do with the network. It is imperative to achieve the correct level and types of security necessary to meet the organization and business needs.

Physical Architecture

Figure 2 illustrates the concepts and essential strategic elements of the MSA�s physical components.

StorageNAS, SANs,Switches� Servers

RunningWindows �

NetworkingRouters,

Switches,Firewalls�

Management,Security, Directory�

Software

Enterprise InternetDepartmental

Figure 2. MSA Overview

The key architectural elements depicted as components of the MSA reference include services infrastructure, and network, server, and storage architectures. These components are the building blocks of the MSA reference on which solution sets can be designed, deployed, and managed. Each specific instantiation of the MSA reference is a collection of these strategic elements, implemented and configured as prescribed.

Introduction to the EDC Blueprint 11 11

The Windows 2000 network kernel/services architecture consists of multiple layers. These layers provide device and protocol independence for network applications. The following are key components in the Windows 2000 network architecture:

• Network applications (typically running in User mode)

• Network redirectors and servers

• Network protocols

• Network interface drivers

Network implementation and design have an impact on every protocol used on a network. Good network implementation provides full connectivity, keeps network utilization at tolerable levels, and balances network traffic between clients and servers. In the MSA reference model, network design includes core network connectivity devices such as routers and switches, but does not include prescriptive guidance for vendor selection.

Server implementation in MSA reference is viewed from a logical perspective. The MSA reference identifies the relationship between network services and network utilization. MSA service design provides guidance for the number of servers, guidance on server scaling guidance through the number of processors and respective speed, and memory requirements associated with functional roles for servers. The scope of this reference does not include prescriptive guidance for vendor selection or specific server types or models.

Storage architecture reference models consider network requirements for local versus network-attached storage, SAN guidance, and storage technologies such as SCSI or IDE, as well as implementations such as RAID.

The Windows 2000 architecture reference provides guidance for server product utilization, implementation, and deployment.

Services Infrastructure

The services infrastructure consists of services that are consistent across all solution sets. Services infrastructure identifies and defines core components that provide a repeatable reference platform that is general enough to be used as a basis for multiple solution sets.

Services that are components of the operating system are within the services infrastructure because these basic components allow a group of services to run effectively and efficiently. Operating system services such as Windows clustering and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) COM+ technology are systems architecture reference components that contribute to prescriptive solution functionality.

The set of services infrastructure components (such as name services) is included in MSA (with adjustments for new versions of the operating system, new versions of components, and new components), but the application of these components (such as domain architecture) changes depending on solution requirements.

BENEFITS OF PARTNER-LED MSA DESIGNS

A key step in understanding any change in business is to understand the benefits of that change. This section explains the benefits of a partner-led MSA design.

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MSA Value Proposition

Large business sites are models of dynamic change: such businesses usually start small and grow exponentially with demand. From an IT perspective, business grows both in the number of unique users supported, which can grow extremely quickly, and in the complexity and integration of user services offered.

The business plans for many enterprise startups project a 10-100x-scalability projection. Successful business enterprises manage this growth and change by incrementally increasing the number of servers that provide logical services to corporate clients. The response to increased growth can be achieved by several methods and depends largely on the functional and operational requirements of the business.

Creating multiple instances of servers can expand some IT services, such as file and print services. Other services grow by partitioning workload among servers and integrating with existing computer systems as in a distributed computing environment. Still other services grow in response to external environmental requirements such as those found in federal and state regulation.

In all cases, business growth can be more successfully accommodated and managed when the underlying network, server, and storage architectures are uniformly and consistently applied. Many organizations extend this model to include single source software.

The MSA provides guidance for hardware and software configurations required to build an infrastructure in a production environment. The EDC Blueprint is an instantiation of the MSA EDC architecture that has been tested and validated using hardware and software from the EDC Blueprint partners to ensure that the required goals are met in the following areas: performance, scaling, availability, manageability, security, supportability, and network distribution.

MSA consists of building blocks. Each building block is characterized by a related cost and benefit. Like all business decisions, MSA requires justification at some predetermined costs of capital.

Enterprise Data Center

The EDC Blueprint promises that very large network installations delivering existing network infrastructure and application services to internal corporate customers can achieve higher levels of security and availability, greater performance, and reduced cost of ownership when deployed and managed to achieve these critical objectives.

Increased value for the EDC can be achieved by measuring a customer�s legacy Windows operating system implementation against the EDC. The EDC provides a basis to perform a gap analysis by comparing the EDC with a customer�s current IT configuration. The resulting gap analysis can identify opportunities for achieving lower cost of ownership, higher availability, and improved performance.

Internet Data Center

The partner-led MSA IDC delivers business value by achieving these goals as efficiently as possible. Wherever possible, without compromising the above design goals, devices used in the Internet Data Center architecture are chosen for cost effectiveness and simplicity. The use of such devices provides the benefit of redundancy without requiring fully redundant equipment. For example, the network switches are configured in such a way as to have all the network traffic balanced across them but still provide for failover of network traffic.

Introduction to the EDC Blueprint 13 13

Total Cost of Ownership

In most enterprises, business units depend on IT for critical business processes, and IT is increasingly integrated into business processes. Additionally, manual business processes may no longer be practical as a response to mission-critical service outages. The difference largely results from the inability of manual processes to scale to the larger volumes of mission-critical business application services.

The costs associated with business information and application service outages can result in millions of dollars of lost revenue and employee productivity. In addition, service outages can produce far-reaching damage to the enterprise�s reputation and financial performance, as well as incurrence of other expenses such as overtime costs, litigation, or equipment rentals.

Microsoft and the MSA partners recognize that enterprise customers are demanding a response to requirements for higher availability and business continuity strategies for critical business processes. The architectures are designed to deliver solutions uniformly and contiguously without interruption.

Reducing Total Cost of Ownership Through Consolidation

The impacts and costs associated with application service outages are rising as a result of the extension of today�s business applications outside the enterprise to customers, suppliers, and business partners. Reliability and higher availability cannot be acquired out of the box. Higher availability must be built into the business information and application architectures and preserved by implementing effective processes. Any application downtime, resulting in degraded ability or inability to service internal and external customers, has a corresponding impact on revenue.

Reliability and scalability must be built into the network, server, and storage infrastructures on which services are provided. MSA is the systems architecture that ensures service can be delivered as demanded by the enterprise.

The partner-led MSA EDC Blueprint reduces TCO by:

• Providing tactics for application and data consolidation.

• Delivering a strategy that leverages existing customer investments in hardware and software.

• Supplying a means to take advantage of the extensibility of newer technologies.

• Presenting a tactical response to short product life cycles.

• Reducing data backup and restore times.

• Minimizing the occurrence of costly service outages.

• Supporting a systemic response to the exponential growth in demand for storage.

• Decreasing interoperability and data integrity issues.

• Increasing managerial control over administrative and support costs.

• Exploiting the efficiencies offered by economies of scale for server platforms and data storage utilities.

Including SAN facilities in the architecture makes it more efficient owing to consolidation. The EDC Blueprint SAN architecture is the product of a collaborative effort by EDC Blueprint partners EMC, Brocade, and Emulex. The resulting architecture represents a SAN

14 EDC Blueprint

design that meets all of the EDC Blueprint goals by using two SANs: a central site SAN and a data bunker SAN.

Four types of consolidation can be exploited to increase efficiency and reduce TCO:

• Logical consolidation reduces the number of points of control in the environment to a single administrative stream. The result is higher availability of systems and applications, fewer errors in the system, and fewer administrative resources are required. With logical consolidation, while the servers remain dispersed, local operations are reduced or eliminated, and management functions (for example, backup, restore, recovery, maintenance, and user support) are performed remotely. A major benefit of logical consolidation is a reduction in operational headcount, or more efficient use of the skills already on hand. Chief information officers and IT managers face a chronic shortage of skills needed to handle the disparate requirements of network environments. Using fewer people and a consistent set of products and processes can help reduce both the dilution of skills across the organization and the opportunity for errors. This approach leads to reduced cost and better service to users. Logical consolidation may or may not involve varying degrees of automation, but it is definitely a requirement for automating the management environment.

• Physical consolidation involves uniting components of the environment in one place. This unification leads to greater consolidation of skills by eliminating the need to replicate skill sets across different locations. When systems are in a central location, networking becomes much easier and more efficient, power costs are reduced, backup can be performed more efficiently, and security can be increased. Employing a combination of logical and physical consolidation can reduce costs even further.

• Workload consolidation occurs when the organization reduces the number and variety of components in the environment. This type of consolidation involves reducing not only the number of servers, but also elements such as tapes, disks, network devices and connections, software, operating systems, and peripherals, as well as the number of processes and procedures. Planning the consolidation efforts under these terms and conditions allows companies to take a rational approach to implementation. With fewer hardware and software standards to manage, departments can more easily move systems, applications, and peripherals. Network performance is enhanced even further, as are security and availability. Common operating system environments allow more applications to share the same server, taking advantage of faster processors. Workload consolidation can be organized by application type, operating system type, or by line of business.

• Transparent consolidation involves pulling together a number of centers across a campus or network, and implementing SANs to create a single set of resources. In the future, organizations will move toward this type of consolidation. These environments will be highly automated, and growth will be driven by the availability of high-speed, low-cost data networks. The customer will not know or care where the resources are being housed or delivered�all that matters is that resources arrive at the customer�s demand. Modern business models need technology to be flexible to meet the constantly changing demands. Transparent consolidation allows companies to run the business to always meet customers� needs. Such companies can be considered zero latency enterprises because business and data processes are executed in near real time.

Introduction to the EDC Blueprint 15 15

Elements of Consolidation

Although consolidation is often discussed in terms of servers and storage, all elements of the environment are candidates for consolidation. Each area should be considered when planning consolidation in terms of the desired benefit, the state of the current environment, and the applicability of available solutions. In addition to servers and storage, companies must also consider software and service consolidation.

Servers

Consolidating at the most basic level involves viewing the environment differently. Individual systems or locations are no longer isolated entities dedicated to a particular function, but elements in a network-based infrastructure that, potentially, serves the entire organization. The systems exist, not for technology�s own sake, but to support the applications that drive the organization�s business (for example, Microsoft SQL Server supports particular informational needs).

Server characteristics must be considered with this function in mind. Consolidating at the server level is a matter of degree. Server consolidation can involve simply collocating servers, replacing multiple servers with a smaller number of large machines, or even consolidating multiple applications on the same server.

MSA includes generous estimates in the capacity required for a consolidated environment, since so many variables are difficult to predict. In addition, all consolidating platforms must support future requirements. Systems that offer good scalability via Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) and clusters (such as those operating on the Windows 2000 platform) are well suited to the consolidated environment.

IT managers must ensure that the streamlined hardware environment can support user application demands in terms of performance, availability, and headroom for new and existing applications. As a result, performance and scalability are important considerations in choosing a consolidation platform.

IT managers must be able to provide�and, in some cases, guarantee�a specified level of service. These availability demands encompass both hardware and applications. Users expect applications to be available during the required service hours, which may be from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., or on a 24 x 7 basis, depending on the business. Also, the application must perform as expected, with a specified response time.

The system�s basic reliability is certainly a consideration. Failures in disk, CPU, and memory, must be minimized to achieve high levels of availability. IT managers must also be able to allocate system resources to handle changing business conditions and shifting workload requirements, without rendering the system unavailable.

As part of consolidating, it is recommended that enterprise customers move toward deploying clusters of servers to boost availability, performance, and scalability, and to simplify systems management.

There are four different types of clusters:

• High-availability clustering allows the workload of a failed system to transfer to another node within the cluster (failover).

• Administrative clustering involves clustering systems to simplify administration. Resources are allocated and managed across the cluster, but each application still runs on one node. Administrative clustering includes redundant resources for restarting applications.

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• Application clustering provides for management of a specific application across a cluster through tight integration with the appropriate application interface�for example, SAP/R3.

• Scalability clustering is designed to increase the capacity and growth potential of a system. A specific workload is spread across multiple nodes with the use of system functions, usually using a parallel database. The clustering categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, nodes in a cluster can be used for high availability and for administrative convenience.

To help applications spread or run across servers, a hardware feature called partitioning is gaining acceptance within all ranks of the server industry. Hardware partitioning is a feature common to mainframes that has progressed down to smaller systems. Hardware partitioning benefits a consolidated environment in many ways. Hardware partitioning allows administrators to partition one large multiprocessor system to act like several smaller systems, supporting different workloads, applications, or operating system versions. Failures in one partition are isolated from the others, increasing reliability. Administrators have greater flexibility to configure the system to support changing workload demands, or to support service level agreements with different customers. Static partitioning requires a partition reboot to reconfigure the partitions, while dynamic partitioning allows readjustment of the partitions while the partitions are running.

Storage

As servers have proliferated, so has server-dependent storage. (Server-dependent storage serves only the single attached server.) Many organizations want to consolidate islands of data storage for improved management and capacity utilization. Like servers, storage can be consolidated in different ways.

For example, organizations can manage distributed storage with common sets of practices and automated tools, or co-locate storage, while maintaining server dependence. In addition, MSA recommends that enterprise customers move toward consolidated enterprise storage, an environment where a single storage system can serve multiple types of platforms and operating systems.

For many organizations, the return on investment from storage consolidation is tremendous. By centrally managing distributed storage, companies can maintain low-cost storage and highly efficient use of administrative resources. While enterprise storage can cost twice as much as server-dependent storage to deploy, the total cost of storage is lower with enterprise storage, due to improved management efficiency. In both cases, management becomes much more efficient, and the labor costs associated with storage management can be reduced significantly.

Organizations see improvements in asset tracking, capacity planning, and performance monitoring and tuning when storage is managed centrally. Consolidated management of storage can significantly improve the backup and recovery process, reducing the time needed to complete backups and, thus, improve the availability of the system. Managing storage centrally also increases the reliability and completeness of backup procedures.

Software

Although server and storage requirements often drive an organization�s overall consolidation plans, streamlining the software environment is a natural result. Consolidation can be as simple as adopting a consistent software environment across the enterprise, whether distributed or local. However, even greater efficiency can be gained from examining the products installed and looking for ways to eliminate redundancy and

Introduction to the EDC Blueprint 17 17

reduce the overall number of products in use. The savings in license fees, asset management, maintenance and upgrades, and administration costs can be significant.

System management is another area that deserves attention. Reducing the number of hardware platforms can lead to the use of fewer operating systems and software products. Over the years, point products have proliferated in the IT environment. IT managers look not only for ways to reduce the total number of products, but also for the opportunity to create a single administrative stream to improve the administrative effectiveness.

Networks have grown in complexity for many of the same reasons. Consolidation involves reducing network complexity by involving fewer elements. Fewer devices, protocols, and network technologies translate into lower maintenance and administration costs with improved performance and reliability.

Service

A successful consolidation strategy depends on effective services as much as on the products involved. Companies looking to consolidate seek a vendor that can provide a comprehensive set of services and products and will be a partner through project implementation and beyond.

Service Provisioning

Partners deliver guidance through MSA for instantiating large-scale Microsoft network implementations that are inherently more flexible than current customer implementations of Microsoft technologies. Additionally, partners provide the means for service provisioning to address limitations of network servers and locally-attached storage technologies.

The Microsoft provision proposition is based on the following:

• Decisive support boundaries that reduce support and administrative burden.

• Network architecture that provides superior fault isolation and root cause analysis to shorten the time for return to service.

• Sufficient network infrastructure for an MSA implementation to operate independent of the legacy network.

• A pre-tested, pre-configured solution platform that reduces customer development, as well as test and implementation costs.

• Software upgrades applied with limited impact on the enterprise network.

• Greatly increased ability to make non-disruptive changes in IT resource allocation.

• Implementation of technology to support server and data consolidation with fewer resources to administer, fewer system components to fail, and less network bandwidth consumed.

• Windows domain architectures that result in reduced demand for domain controllers and improve network serviceability.

• Enhanced network security, system policy, and network management that significantly reduce demands for reactive support.

• Established benchmarking and server performance baselines that provide the basis for responding to system bottleneck detection and analysis. Adherence to these guidelines can extend life cycles for hardware resources.

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INTEROPERABILITY

A Strategy of Investment Protection

Most organizations understand that Web-based and Windows-based solutions are often easier to learn and quicker to implement than comparable host-based applications. However, an estimated 70 percent of all corporate data is stored on host systems, such as IBM mainframe and AS/400 computers, while Web- and Windows-based applications are commonly used for everyday productivity and line-of-business solutions.

To save time and maximize capital investments in host technology, organizations must either migrate all of the host-based resources to the Windows platforms (which can be expensive and time-consuming), or integrate these host-based resources with more efficient Windows-based and Web-based solutions. Clearly, an integration option is a conservative strategic investment.

Integrating host-based data and applications with Web-based and Windows-based applications offers significant benefits, including:

• Preserving the investment in currently deployed host and Windows technology while taking advantage of new architectures and products being offered for the Windows platform.

• Allowing rapid deployment of custom, high-performance solutions using a variety of Windows-based development tools.

• Leveraging a large pool of qualified developers who do not need to know or learn host programming.

• Reducing hardware expenses and lowering administrative costs through server and data consolidation, thereby reducing TCO.

DOCUMENT OUTLINES

The EDC Blueprint is described in a complete documentation set that includes the following:

• Reference Architecture Kit (available at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/)

• Overview

• Reference Architecture Guide

• Prescriptive Architecture Kit (available at http://www.emc.com/msa )

• Prescriptive Architecture Guide

• Build Guide

• Solutions Operation Guide

• Testing Guide

• Support and Services Kit

• Services Guide

• Support Guide

Each is described in a section below.

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Reference Architecture Kit

This set of guides provides the design decisions and targeted technical information required to understand the overall MSA solution.

Overview

The Overview provides an executive summary of the architecture, its components and objectives, the guide outlines, the scope of the project, the intended audience for the guides, acknowledgements, and the document conventions that the guides use.

Reference Architecture Guide

The Reference Architecture Guide provides the detailed design methodologies and considerations that need to be taken into account when designing an MSA data center solution.

Prescriptive Architecture Kit

This set of guides focuses on providing the practical procedures and steps required to create, test, and operate the MSA solution.

Prescriptive Architecture Guide

The Enterprise Data Center Blueprint for Replication and Recovery Prescriptive Architecture Guide provides the specific design details of the partner-led implementation of the MSA EDC. Each chapter provides the methodologies and considerations that need to be taken into account when designing each of the EDC Blueprint services that utilize the features of one of the EDC Blueprint partner products. This guide provides details of these partner products and the reasoning behind the design choices that were made for each component.

This guide is primarily intended for consultants, systems architects, and IT professionals who are responsible for the planning stages of application or infrastructure development and deployment across multiple projects.

Build Guide

The Enterprise Data Center Blueprint for Replication and Recovery Build Guide clarifies the sequence of events and procedures for data center setup, including detailed steps for constructing implementations. The Build Guide provides systems implementers with comprehensive information for building and installing a data center. The intended audience includes MSA partners, systems integrators, systems analysts, systems engineers, operations personnel, IT architects, planners, and consultants who provide planning and deployment services.

The Build Guide contains task and conceptual content for deploying an instance of an MSA configuration. It includes installation, basic configuration, and security configuration guidance for routers, switches, servers, the SAN, the Windows 2000 Server operating system, Active Directory, Network and Server Load Balancing, IIS, Microsoft ISA and Hardware Firewall Server, Windows clustering, SQL Server, Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), and more.

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Testing Guide

The Enterprise Data Center Blueprint for Replication and Recovery Testing Guide contains test results from EMC test labs. The guide assists users by providing real-world scenarios that have been carefully reproduced in controlled environments.

Solution Operations Guide

The Enterprise Data Center Blueprint for Replication and Recovery Solution Operations Guide provides information about routine maintenance of an EDC Blueprint environment in production. Each chapter focuses on a specific component, and includes information about its functions, the tools used to manage it, verification and audit of the component�s configuration, optimization procedures, and monitoring, probing, and alerting capabilities. Best practice and troubleshooting guidance is also provided, including problem detection procedures and common troubleshooting scenarios.

This guide is intended to complement existing materials, and it references documentation that is already available to EMC and Microsoft customers.

The Solution Operations Guide is intended for use by customer operations management and staff, systems analysts, and systems engineers responsible for operating and maintaining an MSA production environment.

Support and Services Kit

The Enterprise Data Center Service and Support Kit is comprised of two guides that provide guidance on the service and support provided in the EDC Blueprint.

The kit contains the following guides:

• The Enterprise Data Center Blueprint for Replication and Recovery Services Guide defines the pre-sales, envisioning, planning, building, deploying, and operating of a standardized Enterprise Data Center Blueprint infrastructure in a reliable, consistent manner, and within a known cost that meets the business requirements of the organization.

• The Enterprise Data Center Blueprint for Replication and Recovery Support Guide defines how the Enterprise Data Center Blueprint will be supported as a solution by EMC and partner support organizations.

SUMMARY

This document provided an introduction to EDC Blueprint, a partner-led MSA design. The MSA includes the current offerings of the Internet Data Center (IDC) and Enterprise Data Center (EDC). These targeted, validated blueprints demonstrate the Microsoft core infrastructure in production environments. These blueprints have been created to establish a new level of agility for deploying Microsoft and partner solutions.