Future Proofing Your Future Proofing Your Server and Systems Server and Systems

InfrastructureInfrastructure…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

• d@davepayne.com

• 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 storageMore 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

TraditionalStorage

Thin ProvisionedStorage

VI: An Opportunity for DeduplicationEach 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

Deduplicated Array

Duplicate Data Is Eliminated

VI Server

Data Store A

.VMDK .VMDK .VMDK .VMDK

Shrink VI Storage FootprintDeduplication 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?